A Break in the Clouds

A few miles north, just off the Columbia River, is the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. It’s several acres reserved as a bird sanctuary. There are two entrances. The north entrance is for hiking and the south entrance takes you around a thirty minute driving loop. With a brief break in the clouds and just a couple of hours before piano lessons, I decided to go out and take the driving loop. When you’re alone, it presents some challenges. Since you aren’t allowed to get out of your vehicle on the loop, all of these pictures were taken from the window of my car. There weren’t many birds out, but the sky and the leaves were beautiful.When you drive in, you drop down a hill to the river,and drive over a railroad bridge.Not long after I started my drive, a blue heron flew almost over the hood of the car. Since I wasn’t expecting such a shot, I wasn’t prepared to get it. After I went about halfway around the loop, there he was, sitting in the marsh. You may have to double click on the picture to see him.Canadian geese are every where up here in the spring and in the fall. This was just a small flock I came across.My favorite picture from my drive was of clouds and especially this one with the reflection in the water.It's taken years for me to be able to appreciate the different shades of blue and gray in the sky and the reflections of light in this area, but I've learned that there's beauty everywhere--even on a gray day--if you just look for it.

A Balmy November Night

Dave has always wanted to take pictures of the crystal towers at the Convention Center at night. A warm, breezy rainless Friday night opened the opportunity to finally go out and give it a try. With dark, rainy weather settling in for the winter, you just have to take the attitude that if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em. I guess we'll be trying our hands at a lot of low light pictures.We got down there and found there were a lot more things in the area to take pictures of than just the crystal towers.The MAX lines run past the Convention Center and down to the Rose Garden. It was kind of fun to try taking pictures of moving trains in the dark.
We went downtown to take some pictures of signs, but the place was hoppin’ and there was NO PLACE to park, so we drove over to the east bank of the Willamette River to take pictures of the Portland skyline instead.We finished just in time, because as we were leaving, it started to rain—imagine that.

Is Rip City Back?

So in a weak moment last spring, after we went to a couple of Blazer games, we decided it was time to become NBA season ticket holders.The Portland Trail Blazers are one of the youngest teams in the NBA, full of energy, and fun to watch.The whole town is just abuzz with this young team and their potential.
We’re up in the cheap seats, of course, but every game is like a party, so it really doesn’t matter.
ESPN covered the home opener on Halloween Night, which only added to the party atmosphere.


It’s just a short walk from Dave’s office, so his parking pass comes in handy.If it’s too cold or rainy, we can just hop on the max with hundreds of our closest friends and ride back up to the Lloyd Center stop.Check ESPN on Friday to see the heart-stopping buzzer beater we saw tonight. The place was rockin'. What a way to spend rainy winter nights!!!

Up the Canyon and Back in Time

For the last ten falls, I’ve yearned for the colorful autumn leaves of northern Utah. I’ve missed the spectacular beauty of bright yellow leaves illuminated by sunlight against a blue sky and the blazing reds in Sardine Canyon. Spending more time looking through the lens of a camera this year, I find myself looking for beauty and framing shots everywhere I go.The lack of an early October wind storm has kept the leaves on the trees and cool sunny days have allowed the colors of fall to continue to line the streets and paint the hillsides with the warmth and beauty of my favorite season of the year.Last Saturday, we drove about twenty minutes north on I-5 to Woodland, Washington. If you drive east along the Lewis River for about nine miles, you come to the turn off for the Cedar Creek Grist Mill. You drive down the hill and across the covered bridge to the mill. It was built in 1876, predating Washington statehood, and is now owned by the state, but leased by the members of the community for one dollar a year. They’ve restored the mill and mill grain every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Every year, they have a cider fundraiser. They bring in four tons of apples and make fresh apple cider and sell it by the half gallon. They have a blue grass band playing on the deck behind the mill. It’s like stepping back into a simpler time.
After we left the grist mill, we discovered that the road out takes you past one of Dave’s favorite fishing holes. Brad will recognize it. They call it the Meat Hole. Dave hasn’t caught anything there yet, but I’m not sure why. We stopped for just a minute to take some pictures and saw at least a half dozen big fish jump. If you look closely you can see the ripples in the water.The nice weather has continued this week, so I’ve tried to take the opportunity to grab a few more pictures before it all fades away.The forecasts show storms waiting offshore and I’m afraid the wind may be coming to blow away a lot of our fall color. It’s supposed to start raining tonight and continue through at least the next seven days.

Another Sunny Fall Day

The storm that was supposed to arrive last weekend stayed offshore until Sunday, so we got ANOTHER nice Saturday. The tide swing was too big for productive crabbing, so we decided to go to Tillamook and then drive up the coast. Our original plan was to take pictures of lighthouses. All I have to say is, boy, did we get distracted.
When we started crabbing a couple of years ago, we went to Tillamook a lot because we could be on the water in two hours flat. We soon found that there were more crab to be had going to Alsea Bay in Waldport and that Tillamook was the place to go salmon fishing. I counted 75 boats on this small stretch of the Tillamook River.
I always thought the drive would be pretty on Highway 6 in the fall because there were so many leafy green trees in the canyon. Unfortunately, the narrow canyon only has a couple of places you can stop along the way and of course, the most breathtaking views were inaccessible, but I did get my fill of fall color that I missed last weekend in Hood River.
After we got through the canyon, we stopped by a favorite fishing spot and before I could get my camera out, I saw two fish jump right beside the post on the right side of this picture.
We drove out to Cape Meares to see the lighthouse. You generally can’t see it because it’s so foggy that it isn't visible until you reach the end of the path. On Saturday, you could see for miles.
After the lighthouse, it was time for lunch or at least a snack. As my kids are reading this, they know exactly where we were headed—next stop, the Tillamook Cheese Factory. How predictable are we?
The lines for ice cream were really long, so we had to settle for the traditional snack.
We headed north to Garibaldi, but as we drove up Highway 101, we had to stop and take pictures at Ghost Hole, another favorite fishing spot on Tillamook Bay. I counted another 75 boats, but we’ve been out there when there were more than twice that number. This is such a popular place to fish that the state has put in a floating rest room.
While we were taking pictures, we watched someone land a BIG Chinook salmon. Unfortunately, we were facing the sun and the glare on the water made for lighting problems that couldn’t be corrected quickly enough to get a good picture, but you can see how big that fish is.
We finally got to Garibaldi and stopped at the Tillamook Bay Boathouse to pick up some canned salmon to send inland to Brad and Mel. Sorry guys, they didn’t have any yet—maybe next time. While I was there, I stopped at the crab cooker and got this picture.
We’ve taken friends crabbing at Tillamook Bay in off months a couple of times and only come away with a couple of crab. We’ve brought them over here to have them cooked. When we’ve come back to pick them up, we’ve mysteriously had twice as many as we dropped off. The only explanation that we’ve ever gotten is that the Crab Fairy came.

Another treat in Garibaldi is the open air train. On Saturdays in the summer, you can ride the train along the bay, north to Rockaway Beach, and back. On the Fourth of July, that’s how everyone in Garibaldi gets to and from Rockaway to watch the fireworks display over the ocean. How’s that for mass transit?
Up the rode from Garibaldi, you can turn off and watch fishermen at the jetty and by the Coast Guard Tower where Tillamook Bay flows into the Pacific. Each fall, some big fish are pulled out of here. The first thing I saw was pelicans. They say pelicans come inland 24 hours before a storm. Based on the soaking we got in Vancouver on Monday, there was a good-sized storm on the coast on Sunday.
North of Rockaway Beach is the little town of Wheeler which sits on the Nehalem River. They have a boat ramp for fishermen and rent kayaks at the marina. We’ve heard that the crabbing is good there too, but we’ve never tried. What I love is the view to the north.
We continued our drive up the coast with a stop at Manzanita, just a pretty beach between Wheeler and Cannon Beach.
We had been talking about the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse that Dave had found on the map Friday night. We’ve never seen it before, but we weren’t surprised since it sits offshore. There are no signs along the highway that indicate any viewpoints where you can see it. However, it was so clear on Saturday that we came around a curve not far from Manzanita and there it was in the distance. We stopped several times to take pictures, but 1.2 miles offshore proved to be too much of an obstacle even with a long lens.
We got to Cannon Beach about 4:30 and decided to stop at Mo’s for chowder. While Dave was paying, I took a walk out to the beach to take a few pictures. No stop in Cannon Beach is complete without a picture of Haystack Rock.
I walked further down the boardwalk, stopped to frame my picture, and there was our elusive lighthouse in the distance between two large rocks. I don’t know if we’ll ever see it again, but now we know where to look.
Our plan was to continue north to Illwaco and hike out to the Cape Disappointment and North Head lighthouses, but the trails close at five. We’ll have to save that part of the trip for another day.

A Fall Day Trip

With my undying love for the colors of fall, I knew this post had the potential to be just leaves, leaves, and more leaves, so I made this week's day trip with the determination to find beauty to share in places other than trees.
Our fall weather pattern held and we received our allotted sunny weekend. We usually mark this weekend on our calendar as the last one before the clouds and rain return to stay and the Saturday to drive up the gorge to see the last of the fall leaves before the winds blow them all away. We like to take the old scenic highway to Crown Point and past the waterfalls. If you stop and take pictures along the way, it can take all morning, but the views are spectacular.
There’s a turnout before you get to Crown Point with a view of the gorge that includes Vista House, the original rest area at Crown Point. Vista House was originally built in 1918 and then restored in 2006.

Crown Point always conjures up images of vintage cars parked at Vista House to take in the view of the gorge in the 1920s when this was the main highway.
After leaving Vista House, the road drops down into the trees among the waterfalls that line the south side of the road.
There were hundreds of people at Multonomah Falls and so we drove on and stopped at Horsetail Falls.

Family and friends will remember this as a place we used to picnic when our kids were little.After Horsetail Falls, we got on the interstate and headed east to Hood River. To my disappointment, the leaves were just barely beginning to turn, so it was a good thing I had other things in mind to see.

We’d had snow in the mountains earlier in the week and the south side of Mt. Adams was pristine white against a clear blue sky along our entire drive.
No trip to Hood River would be complete without a stop at the Apple Valley Store for pie.

The smell from the outside BBQ was too much to resist. (I only wish that I could add a smell gadget to our blog.) There is no describing the aroma that wafted from the back of the old store.
We enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches, homemade cole slaw, apple cider baked beans, and homemade lemonade.

It’s absolutely forbidden to leave without pie, though we did pass on the ice cream. Since they were out of apple, we had to branch out and try something new. We can now highly recommend the blueberry and the vanilla pear.
Time was beginning to run short, but we couldn’t pass up a stop at Rasmussen’s Pumpkin Patch. Apparently, neither could the rest of Oregon. We found ourselves in a short line to get into the parking lot. I was so disappointed that their pumpkin patch was nearly depleted, that we went for a drive to Sauvie Island for a fall pumpkin fix. We found lots of people there too, but a lot more pumpkins.

We intend to continue our search for the warm colors of fall as long as they're out there. We're due for clouds and rain next weekend and the forecast is already beginning to confirm it. I can't say for sure where you'll find us next Saturday, only that we'll continue our search for beautiful things to share with family and friends.