Hello!! McFly!!

Is anybody in there?!

Yes, I'm still blogging. No I haven't gotten tired of it. I have however gotten tired period. September, in the instrument repair and rental business is the month when all...well...you name it, and it will probably break loose in September. I've been working six days a week (isn't that biblical?), and have already had several 11-plus-hour-days. Plus I'm working both in the repair shop, trying to keep our stock of instruments ready to rent, and in the front, renting out those very instruments. It's been quite a month at my new job. Though I'm very tired, and a little worse for wear, I couldn't be happier with where I am. I've accomplished a lot since I've been there. I've worked hard, and have seen that hard work pay off. It feels real good.

So I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Next week, I will once again have Mondays off, and getting home a sane our of the day. Next Monday, I'm having some teeth pried out of my coconut, so I don't know if I'll be up to posting that day, but you never know. Please pray that that goes well, and hopefully you will see regular posts on this blog once again!

Despite the Name, there was None

Andrea and I went to the beach this weekend. For all those who stayed in Portland and weathered the 90+ degree temperatures, good for you. We were weathering temperatures in the 60's, so I must admit that we weren't nearly as toughened up by the end of the weekend. ;)

We camped on Sunday night at Cape Disappointment, the foggiest place on earth (107 days on average per year). We both tried out brand-new air mattresses. I must say, it may not be quite as hard core as the old therm-a-rest, but I slept a lot better, and besides, we were car camping. How hard core can that be? We even made espresso the next morning (the traditional way)!

Monday, we went up to Long Beach for the start of the International Kite Festival. Unfortunately, there was no wind, so there were no kites in the air for the entire time we were there, including mine. So we didn't stay long, cause I had to be home by the early evening, and we were planning on stopping in Woodland to see my grandparents. We did stop at the local coffee roasters and picked up a fantastic bag of coffee before leaving town.

The lack of wind was a little 'disappointing' (get it?), but it's not the destination, it's the journey. So I decided to turn this trip into a journey. We were on our way to I-5 via Highway 4 when I saw a sign for the Grays River Covered Bridge. Hmmm... (it must be stated now, that my genes kicked in at this point. My dad is not a point A to point B type of person) So as soon as I saw the sign marking the road to the bridge, I announced to Andrea that we were going to go check it out. So we did.

It was really neat! We actually had to drive over the bridge in order to get these pictures!

This is the bridge of course.















We found a nice person to take our picture.
















Remembering that I need to get more scenery shots, I turned and saw this. There are some beautiful areas to see on this part of the Columbia River.














And finally, a shot looking back through the bridge as we left. I suggest you click on it and see the full picture. Andrea took this one, and it really is a great shot.












So then we went on to Woodland and talked to both pairs of grandparents. I don't get up there often enough...



So, the next day was the opening round of what we call 'rental season' in my business. I spent over twelve hours at a local school renting out instruments to new band students. It was a good day. I wasn't nearly as tired as I expected to be at the end of such a day. In fact, I was ready for more! Is that sick or what? The pressure of rental season is mounting though, and I'm starting to get a little frustrated with myself for some lack of progress at work. If you could pray for that if you get the chance, that'd be great.

Friday, I'll be taking the Intrepid up to Woodland to try and sell it up there. Things seem to sell from my grandparents house on River Road, so I'm optimistic that I can finely have this car sold, and only have one car to worry about. Please say a quick prayer for that too.

Observation Peak

This blog entry starts with a simple test. Can you count to four?

Let's see...

One...


















Two...


















Three...

















Four...















Good job class!! If you haven't figured it out, these are the peaks you can see from Observation Peak (Mt. St. Helens, Mt Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood). If it hadn't been so hazy, you would have also seen Mt. Jefferson, and even the Three Sisters! This was a great hike. It's pretty steep, but it's well worth the effort.

I went with Andrea and her friend Kim, and of course, Kirby the Energizer Dog. Here are pictures of us...

Andrea and I in front of Mt. St. Helens. This was the first trip for my new hat.

















Here I am precariously balanced on this rock. Below me on the other side is a few hundred feet of nothing.





















Kim and Andrea in front of Mt. St. Helens.














I'm now caught up on my blog entries. Hopefully the next one will be fresh, and not a few weeks old! Ew...

Seattle 9 Boston 8

So I get a call from Andrea on a Saturday. We were planning on going up to Tacoma to see my parents the next day, so she decides to get online to see if there's a Mariners game that day. As it turns out, there was! And she calls me the day before to see if I'd like to go and if she should buy some tickets. Uh, YAH!!!

So off we went for a marathon run up to the Greater Puget Sound Region. We drove to Tacoma, and parked at the bus station and took a bus to the stadium. We watched a fantastic game! It ended with a home run by the Mariners to win the game in the 9th inning. If you happened to see the highlights of the game, you actually would have seen us, because the ball landed in the bullpen right in front of where we were seated. It couldn't have gotten more exciting. The whole stadium just erupted. I love going to see games there. I've yet to find a bad seat.


Here are Andrea and I at the ball park:

























I was on the edge of my seat in the 9th inning, so I wasn't paying attention to my camera. Fortunately, Andrea had the wherewithal to grab the camera and snap a couple of pictures. This one is right before Richie Sexson hit the game-winning home run.














And this one is of the celebration afterward.















So after the game, we went back to Tacoma. I took Andrea on a brief tour of my home town. We drove down Ruston Way, and then drove up to Point Defiance Park, and drove around Five Mile Drive. There are some great view points along this road. Here is Andrea and I in front of the Tacoma Narrows.













Here's a picture with the old Narrows Bridge in the distance with the new one being built right next to it.

Ramona Falls

I went to Gary's to change my oil a couple of weeks ago, and Andrea met me there when I was done. We wanted to go hiking with her friend Suzanna. Gary suggested Ramona falls up the Sandy River. We found it quite easily. I would highly suggest this hike. It's a good loop hike. Go to the right when you get to the junction in the trail, and just follow it to the falls, and head across the creek, and back down the hill. YOu hike up the Sandy River, and see great views of Mt. Hood. Then you hike down along this nice little creek. Here are some pictures:


Andrea and Suzanna in front of Mt. Hood on the Sandy River.



















Andrea and I, same place. On a side note, this is the last picture you will see with me in the green hat. It fell victom to some spilled motor oil so it had to be thrown away. It served me well all over the world. Now, I have a new hat that will hopefully be just as trusty, if not more so (I forgot I wore the hat on this hike, so I moved the note from the previous post to this one ;).




















And this is Ramona Falls. I forgot the name of the creek, but it cascades down these rocks. It's tucked in amongst the trees, but it's also pretty big and spread out. A very unique site that photographs cannot do justice to.



















































Next time, you'll have photos from Safeco Field in Seattle!

Walupt Lake Part III

So, now that I can load pictures again, here's the rest of the story:

The next morning, Andrea and I arose early (actually, I arose early and fixed coffee, and then she got up ;). Then, we each had a granola bar and headed off for Walupt Creek. I hiked there a couple of years ago, and have never before or since seen a creek with water so clear. So I was happy to be taking Andrea to see this, considering last year, the creek was dry.

When we got to the far side of the lake, we stopped and had some breakfast and just looked out across the water...
















After that, we headed off to the creek. Crossing the creek with Kirby was a bit of a trick...















Two years ago, while hiking up here with my dad, I found a waterfall tucked away in the woods just off the trail. It's pretty nice, but you can't get a good angle on it safely. Just feet from where this picture was taken, there is a long drop.





















We got back just after noon, and took a long nap before having some lunch and heading over to my uncle's camp site to visit my folks and my aunt and uncle. Then, Andrea and I went out on my uncle's raft and rowed around for a about an hour. I rowed out to the far side of the lake, and the we motored back in.

It was the end of a long, but fantastic day...



















We went home the next day. We stopped in Trout Lake, and got burgers and huckleberry milkshake and huckleberry pie. It was goooooood. :P Along the way, we stopped and took more pictures. Here's us after three days camping!

Walupt Lake Part II

So I've kept you in suspense long enough. Here's what happened after we started back down the trail:

We decided to follow some tracks down the snow left by some previous hikers. Simple enough. They were headed back down the hill. I figured they must have better route finding skills than me, so we'd find the trail in no time. Well, they didn't, and neither did we. We lost the track, and then couldn't figure out exactly how we had managed to climb up the hill in the first place. We were lost. Shortly after this revelation, we found bear scat... We stopped and prayed.

I knew, that if we stayed to the right, we would eventually come across a trail. So I kept us traversing along the hillside. Soon, I heard voices, and then I even saw people walking on the hill above us! I headed up and to the left, because they were on top of a cliff, so we had to get around it to find the trail. Soon, we found it. In fact, the picture of Mt. Adams that you saw in the last post was taken right where we found the trail again.

So we hiked the rest of the way down, warning other hikers of the risk. :) Needless to say, we were exausted. We went for a brief swim in the lake though, because we were quite dirty from the hike.


Well, there will have to be a part three later, because Blogger is not letting me upload pictures right now. So, pictures will have to come tomorrow. I guess that explains why I couldn't load them at Andrea's.