Thursday, May 14, 2009
Straying from the Beaten Path or Visiting Relatives in Oregon
Not only did we not take a computer on the recent short trip--but I did not take a journal to write in. I did not know how much I would miss journaling. Now we will hope I can remember enough to write. The theme of this trip was "straying from the beaten path". (The beaten path being I5). Because of tides and times we left on the 1:oo and what with a few errands here and there, we only made it as far as just south of Olympia-- Millersylvania State Park. It was pouring rain.
The next day we decided (since the weather was so rotten) to do some exploring on the back roads. We found a site of an old fort, and the first house north of the Columbia (a Washington historic park). We crossed the bridge from Longview into Oregon and headed down highway 30 and over Cornelius Pass--ending up at Champoeg State Park (one of our favorite places) just south of Portland. Not much distance for a day of driving.
It was still raining. We got on the interstate and headed straight to Eugene. Went to visit our friends Ed and Kitty, did some shopping at Valley River, and met Kit and Marilyn for dinner. We spent the night out at Richardson County Park out on Fern Ridge--home of many hours of sailing in our past.
Thursday we spent most of the morning (and a lot of our money) at our new favorite grocery store--PC Market of Choice. Then we headed to Sweet Home via a side trip out Thurston Road to see what was happening with the new Thurston Elem. School. And another side trip to find a lunch spot at a BLM park that turned out to be closed.
Two nights in Sweet Home out at River Bend County Park. The weather finally turned wonderful. We took my mom out for a picnic dinner at our campsite on Friday eve. Saturday Laura (my sister) and Steve came down and we had a picnic lunch at Wiley Creek (where mom lives). We left mid afternoon and drove over the mountains to Milli's (Kit's sister) in Powell Butte--between Redmond and Prineville. The weather continued to be fine (since we had left our sunscreen at home) so we spent most of Mother's Day working in Milli's yard and helping with tasks. (She is busy taking care of Leonard). Monday we took a side trip into Prineville on a mission to Les Schwab, and stopped to visit my Aunt Marian and Cousin Kay. Headed home later in the afternoon. Took some more back roads north to The Dalles and across to Washington. Had a fine little late afternoon wine tasting stop at Maryhill. Yakima seemed a long way .. but luckily we found a little known State Park in just the right spot.
Our final day we had a bit of weather--heavy wind, snow flurries, sleet, rain, sun--over Snoqualmie Pass and on some more back roads to Monroe and then back on the old I5. Got home Tuesday night on the 7:45 ferry. And that's enough of that. I will post some photos in a separate entry.
# posted by Carol Harma @ 3:01 PM 
