Astoria

Cedar Creek Hatchery
Hebo, OR

Yay! We escaped!

A day to ourselves..

well sort of..

I still had a few work calls :-(

George and I took a ride north about 85 miles to Astoria.

It's a beautiful town, right at the mouth of the Columbia River.

But first, we stopped at Fort Clatsop.

Fort Clatsop was the encampment of the Lewis & Clark expedition
in the Oregon country near the mouth of the Columbia River during the winter of 1805-1806.
We were surprised at how small it is!

There were a few guides in period costume explaining life at the time...

...and a great little boardwalk trail that led down to the river..

the Lewis & Clark river.

Our next stop was the Astoria Column.

We did not climb the 164 steps to the top :-)

But we did admire the view!

Even though it was overcast all day,

the views were spectacular of the Columbia River,

Washington across the river,

and the Youngs River.

 Once we oooed and aaaahed about the view,

we drove down into town to get a closer look at the river.

We hopped the cool trolley that goes up and down the river walk.

It's only $2.00 each to ride all day.

Once we saw the river from there...we hopped off and walked beside the river.

We saw some big cargo ships..

and smaller sailboats..

There were even some California sea lions stopped on their way to CA..

One of our favorite places to eat in Oregon, has been the Rogue Public House.

We had a great lunch there, and a beer or two :-)

One place that surprised both of us was the old Bumblebee Tuna cannery.

A stroll through there was pretty cool!

I took tons of pictures, too many to post here.
Hopefully I can get them all uploaded to SmugMug when we have free wifi!

We really enjoyed Astoria!

This & That, Here & There

Cedar Creek Hatchery
Hebo, OR

Another week of being tied to the computer :-(

I will be glad to be done with it!

We did get into Tillamook on Thursday.

It was time for a haircut.

I have decided to let my color go..

it's gotten too expensive to keep up every 6 weeks.

 I'm seeing a few gray sections now :-)

We stopped at a little diner called Alice's Country House for a late lunch afterwards.

George had a cheese steak sandwich, and I had a taco salad.

The salad wasn't all that great, so I had a piece of homemade German Chocolate cake :-)

I wish I had taken a picture of it..man it was great!

The weather here has been perfect! It makes it easier to have an outdoor job.

The mowing here has pretty much come to a stop due to lack of rain.

We fill our days weeding the flower beds, keeping them looking nice.

George has been putzing around fixing things..

and I have been helping count fish again.

5 weeks from today we'll be rolling again...

we're starting to get that ole' hitch-itch feeling!

Counting Fish and other wildlife

Cedar Creek Hatchery
Hebo, OR

George and I cannot believe that we've been in Oregon for two months.

With only a little more than a month left to go at the hatchery,

we've started sketching out our plans after Labor Day.

More on that later :-)

The last couple days we've gotten more work done around the hatchery.

George continues to play with the front-end loader..

There is a buildup of sediment from the creek in the largest pond - Pond 15.

It is at the very top of the hatchery's property, and although there is no water in it,

the dirt needs to be removed so that no plants or trees take root and ruin the pond.

(It is a cement pond)

I got to help count fish in ponds 1 & 2.

These Spring Chinook will be liberated tomorrow into a couple different rivers.

They will then begin their trip back to the ocean.

Fish are counted by weighing a netful of them,

then with a counter, adding up how many were in the net.

Then the hatchery worker can determine how many fish per pound.

We got an average of 12 fish per pound, which is the correct count & size for liberation.

Some of the Chinook have a microchip inserted into them.

This chip can be scanned by Fish & Wildlife after catching by an angler,

or if they make their way back to this or another hatchery (in 4 years or so).

They have found this hatchery's fish as far north as British Columbia!

We haven't done any sightseeing lately.

I was tied to the computer all last week due to the pending sale of the water company.

However, today we took a ride into Tillamook to get an ice cream cone.

You can sure tell it's summer..

the crowds are crazy!

We had a few visitors this week..

This Great Blue Heron loves looking at the fish.

The other night, right around dusk, I heard some noise outside.

I peeked out the window and saw this little spiker munching happily at our flowerbed.

I had to get pictures out the window of Harvey, 

so not to scare them away.

They spooked at the slightest sound from us.

Our plans..

We are planning on leaving Oregon around Labor Day weekend to head east.

We'll be doing some one-nighters, and a stop at a Camping World to get a slide adjusted.

George & I are stopping in Denver to see Austin,

and in Akron, Ohio to visit some friends we made in California at Coyote.

I found a great place to stay in Indiana called Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

This will be our first 'no reservations taken' stop..so hopefully we'll get in!

In Ohio we'll stay at West Branch State Park, and we have those booked.

By the third week of September we'll be in Pennsylvania visiting George's family.

We are looking forward to that! 

Not a whole lot

Cedar Creek Hatchery
Hebo, OR

Let's see..

not a whole lot to report since last week.

My Mom & Dad made it home safely after their week-long visit here.

We had a good time seeing them, and the weather was perfect the whole time.

George's birthday was Sunday, so we drove to Salem to check it out,

and find a good place for lunch to celebrate.

George chose Olive Garden, as it is his favorite.

My parents gave him a MasterCard gift card, and he's busy buying things online that he wants~!

Work here at the hatchery has been the same..

mowing, weeding, etc.

George and I worked on a decorative pond, trimming the bushes and making it look nice.

I need to take a picture of the new look!

Yesterday we took a walk around the property again, from home, around the ponds, and back.

It was a total of 3/4 of a mile.

The Runkeeper app that I have on my phone now has a map feature that shows your walk.

Cool! I should keep that on every day that I work..I'm sure I walk enough around here!

The weather has been perfect here for weeks..

sunny, warm, and nice!

Today, however it is raining, and it wasn't in the forecast :-(

I'm still working on things at my old job..but it may be coming to an end soon..

looks like we might have a potential buyer.

We've also heard from FEMA on our flooded house..

looks like we'll have our offer by week's end!

Tomorrow I have a recheck on my eye. Still have the floater issue..but I guess I'll have to live with it.

While we're in Lincoln City, it is time for a pedicure :-)

George and I have scheduled a trip to Astoria on our next nice day off..

probably next week. 

Anxious to explore that area too!

Stay tuned! 

A nice train ride on the coast

Cedar Creek Hatchery
Hebo, OR

What a beautiful day..a perfect day for some sightseeing!

Mom & Dad picked us up this morning, and we took a drive north.

We ambled up through Tillamook, and just north of Tillamook Bay,

is the small town of Garibaldi.

It even has a 'G' up on the mountain..

One of the main attractions is the

Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad

For $17 each (senior discount!) we had a nice 1 hour roundtrip ride along the coast.

The train is a steam locomotive, and travels from Garibaldi to Rockaway Beach.

There are closed cars to ride in, but also some open cars too.

Since it was such a nice day, we decided to sit in the open car.

The scenery was spectacular!

When we got to Rockaway Beach, we found a great little place to eat..

Grumpy's!

We had great sandwiches..

and met Grumpy :-)

We had a great time..the day was perfect, the company even better :-)

A visit!

Cedar Creek Hatchery
Hebo, OR

My Mom & Dad are here!

They really enjoy Oregon, and have vacationed up here lots of times.

Since we're in the area for the summer, they've taken the ride up.

They're staying nearby in Pacific City in a cute little park model at an RV resort.

Last night we went out to dinner at the Pelican Pub, Dad paid :-)

Today, we had to work until about 2, so my parents came up and we sat outside for awhile.

We gave them the tour of the hatchery, and they think it's terrific!

We took them for a ride to see the sites..

We also took them to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Once we came back home, we grilled some chicken, and sat outside to eat.

We plan on doing some more fun things since we have the next 3 days off.

Glad they are here!

The joys of a small town - Cloverdale, OR

Cedar Creek Hatchery
Hebo, OR

We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July.

George and I traded our Thursday day off, so that we could celebrate today.

The local town of Cloverdale had 'Clover Days', and we wanted to be a part of it!

It started out with a pancake breakfast at the local high school.

We had pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, and OJ or coffee for $7.

Not a bad price, and the food was good!

We walked down to the main drag (Hwy 101!),

where there were vendors set up ready for the day.

We were afraid there may not be enough parking for our big truck,

so we had left it up at the high school.

When we got down to where the vendors were, we found there was a great spot..

to watch a parade :-)

George went back up and brought the truck down.

He parked it so that we could sit on the tailgate.

People started finding a spot to sit on the side of the road.

The parade began at about 11 am..

Led by Clover the cow!

Of course there were fire engines, cheerleaders, and flatbed trucks with hay as floats..

and even a few horses..

all in all the parade took about 30 minutes :-)

But the thing that cracked us up the most was the fact

that this parade was on the northbound side of Highway 101.

That meant that traffic had to sit and wait and take turns going on the southbound side..

There were a lot of confused looks from travelers,

when they realized they were in a parade!

It was a fun day..

tomorrow back to work,

and Mom & Dad are here!