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NO, Tyrel! This is a money deposit box..NOT a trash can! |
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After a late start--and drying out (the dew is very heavy on the coast)--we spent the whole morning at Ft. Clatsop (also known as Lewis and Clark National Park). We investigated the forthouse, saw a video, looked at the displays and in general, enjoyed a warm, wind-free day. After lunch----at Uniontown Fish Market----we spent most of the afternoon touring the Columbia Maritime Museum. That's worth seeing and I'd never been there before. The picture is of Joey and Tyrel 'operating' a large vessel. We toured the "Columbia Lightship" which was the world's first ship custom-designed to serve as a "lightship". It had no engines but was towed and then anchored off the mouth of the Columbia River to mark the entrance. We followed this up with a visit to the Astoria Column and then a couple of hours at the beach at Ft. Stevens. Today (Saturday), we will go back to Ft. Stevens then into Astoria to ride the waterfront trolley. There's another museum or two we have not seen, and best of all (how could we have been so lucky in our dates) we have TWO local festivals---the Scandinavian midsummer festival (we can polka 'till we drop, according to the signs around town) but my personal 'must do today'.....visit the 27th annual Garlic Festival.
Here's the blurb from Astoria's Chamber of Commerce: 27th Annual "Garlic" Festival. Food, Arts, Crafts, Music, and Family Fun. Come help us celebrate our 27th year! The Garlic Festival is held the third weekend in June and has proven to be a tasty event. There are always scores of goodies to tempt your palate as well as a variety of gift items. This a fun event for the entire family with live music, a wide variety of vendors, and an abundance of great food to eat. Take this opportunity to take home your year's supply of impossible to find condiments and spices. Don't miss the Garlic peeling contest. Rembember, it is chic to reek (of garlic that is!). Come join us for a unique weekend. How can it get any better than this? As for Sunday, we'll leave as soon as we can break camp. I don't expect to return to Days Creek until late afternoon. Students will call as we have a more accurate arrival time. There will be one or two more blog postings, so check back. | |
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 Hi, everyone! Well, we returned safely to Oregon yesterday around 6:00 PM. We drove over the White Pass between Mt. Ranier & Mt. St. Helens. The waterfall is near the top of the pass and it's pretty tall. We tried to get to Mt. St. Helens' Windy Ridge Observatory but found...20 miles in...the road was blocked by snow. On our way down some hot-shot jet pilot must have buzzed the mountainside as we never saw the plane but it sounded like it was right on top of us--like the jet flyovers we have on the 4th of July in Riddle. Well, most of us thought the volcano whose flanks we were on was erupting! That, plus the rough and twisty road had Mrs. Augsburger's nerves stretched as far as she cares to have them tested! While we might have tried the other route into Mt. St. Helens (from I-5) it would have put us into Astoria around 9:00 PM so we opted to leave the mountain for another time. In a short while we're off to see the Astoria Column, Ft. Clatsop and Ft. Stevens, museums, beaches, etc. I have a few pictures of camp and one telling photo of Kris at last night's dinner, drinking something from a paper bag labeled..."water". |
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Ummm...a fierce struggle, but Tyrel whipped his camping mattress! |
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Hello, faithful readers! Since leaving Cody WYO on Monday afternoon, we have not had a wi-fi connection. To bring you up to date, we spent 3 hours on Monday AM at the world-class Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The students agree there's too much to take in, even over two different days! Everyone learned quite a lot. My favorite museum remains the Plains Indian museum followed by the Natural History museum, but I think several of our group preferred the Firearms Museum! Anyway, after the morning there, we decided to take on Cody's premier mini-golf course, where Joey posted a 51---three under par----and he had bragging rights over EVERYBODY else. Don't even ask what Kris shot, and, as for Chelsea....ummmm....she's downright dangerous with a golf club! Then we had a birthday celebration for Jenae and so we found ourselves on the road again by 3:00 PM. We camped Monday at 3 Forks Campground near Whitehall, MT and on Tuesday morning we traveled a few miles to Lewis and Clark Caverns. It's about a 2 hour tour and students seemed to enjoy it. (An aside..the 3 Forks area is named after the three forks of the Missouri---it's the headwaters of the Missouri and Lewis and Clark passed through the very spot our campground was located on!) After eating lunch in Butte, we headed west and managed to get all the way through the Bitterroot Mountains to last night's stay at Hellsgate State Park in Lewiston, ID. It was a long drive over the Lolo Pass---very historic and very pristine---through the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, down the Lochsa and Clearwater rivers, following the Lewis and Clark Discovery Corps route. While we pulled into Hellsgate just at twilight, the students are very accomplished at setting up camp and sprang into action with some putting up tents and others cooking. It was, as they say, poetry in motion---a well-oiled 'camping' machine! Anyway, considering that we retraced so much of Lewis and Clark's journey, how fitting that by tomorrow (Thursday PM) we should find ourselves at Astoria, where these early explorers wintered. Today we had a short day as we traveled from Lewiston through the Washington Palouse country, observing the evidence of a pre-historic flood of truly biblical proportions---the draining of what geologists call Lake Missoula scouring the Washington landscape and carving the Columbia River channel. But the students most enjoyed the Splash Zone water park we spent the afternoon at in Ephrata, WA. There's much I could say, but as we near the end of the trip, it has been very pleasant---I suspect a good balance of fun and discovery. Just today I heard one of the least experienced students remark that "We've sure learned how to cooperate on this trip". Music to my ears. Speaking of music, Kris and I have learned just what type of music drives Chelsea 'over the edge'....but all of the kids have learned a great deal about each other and that's one of the marvelous things about this sort of trip. About the picture....two of the boys decided to help the third one hurry along a little in breaking camp...Enjoy them, and we should be posting from Astoria tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday...leaving Astoria early Sunday morning. | |
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I think seeing a couple of bull bison joust for herd dominance rubbed off on Joey and Kris who spent a couple of hours jousting over just who was going to ride 'shotgun' today. We've been alternating between girls and guys---it was guys' turn today---anyway, ultimately they settled on some system that seemed fair to them....the core of it seemed to be if someone was in the front seat too long the person behind them would torment them by pulling the seat belt or lowering the seat or some other such thing until the seat was given up! |
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This was a fine day again and as we left Yellowstone NP we did stop to get the obligatory picture of the gang gathered around the entrance sign. We stopped at the eastern pass into the park---Sylvan Pass---to admire the sheer drop-off to the south and we saw a sign regarding potential 'live' ammunition. So we discussed the avalanche 'chutes' visible along the roadside, the twisted and torn guardrails (indicating an avalanche had occurred at that spot) and how road crews used the old howitzer we noticed at the pass to set off 'controlled' avalanches'. We've discovered that we have an interest in the many, many signs we've seen on our trip that warn us of danger. I'll post the latest ones after this blog. Arriving at Cody, Wyoming in mid-afternoon, we ate a late lunch, and set up camp at the KOA (best one we've visited so far---game room, pool, board games, internet, etc. Joey is trying to take all the other students at Monopoly as I write!). As soon as we made camp, though, we went back into Cody to visit a world-class museum---actually, five museums. We spent two hours just at the Plains Indian Museum! Tomorrow we'll visit at least two others (I favor the Natural History Museum and the Buffalo Bill museum, but Tyrel wants to visit the Firearms museum and the Buffalo Bill museum. Perhaps we'll split up as we plan to visit for three hours or so in the morning, have lunch, and then begin the westward trek home. Should camp somewhere tomorrow in Montana unless we opt to spend the entire day at the museums---and there's many other things here in Cody. We'll decide tomorrow. Until then, don't land on Boardwalk! Joey will own you! |
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