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Depoe Bay to Portland

May 25, 2026May 25, 2026 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

We went for a run Sunday morning. It was not our best personal records since I kept stopping to take pictures, but Depoe Bay was stunning. It was high tide so we randomly stumbled on to this spouting horn, cliff. Brants cormerant (bird) and 5+ of whale spouts.

This led us to stop by the OPRD Whale Watching Center before leaving Depoe Bay. They had binoculars set up for everyone to use and a video feed. We saw whale tails and spouts;)

https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fm%2F02qhxj8&hl=en-US&q=OPRD%20Whale%20Watching%20Center&shem=rimspwouoe&shndl=30&source=sh%2Fx%2Floc%2Fosrp%2Fm1%2F4&kgs=86c634a710ce8257

Grey whales are the only bottom feeders. They scoop up mud and eat the krill, eating as much as 1.2 tons of food per day.

After our educational whale stop we took a pit stop in Bob Straub State Park for some giant sand dunes and beach time.

Next we stopped at Tillamook and my second ice cream in 2 days. I’ve reached my quota for the summer;)

We got to Portland late afternoon and stopped at the Scotch Church Winery that had music.

As you can see Mt Hood was out when we got to Portland. We ended the day with some fabulous sushi at Bluefin Tuna and sushi on Broadway.

Today has been a travel day. Our flight this morning was delayed so we all scrabbled to get on an earlier flight to Charlotte. George and I got to CLT with a 3 hr layover but Sadira and James didn’t get the same flight and had a 5 hr layover. Then they delayed our flight. So, we rented this bad ass ride for 100 bucks to get home in 2hrs.

Calling this trip a great success. Signing off

Featured

Redwoods

May 21, 2026May 21, 2026 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

This morning after a beautiful beach run at low tide with sea stars and fog we hopped in the car and traveled down to redwoods national Park. We started with the lady bird Johnson trail which was dedicated by Nixon (r) after Johnson (d)left office. We spent a good amount of time discussing how far we’ve sunk regarding the civility of our current president. Now we have a thug posting petty insulting narratives under the past presidents portraits. Alas, back to the trees. Here are some lovely pictures.

We couldn’t get passes to Fern canyon. We didn’t know that was required in advance. Our last visit here, we hiked the 10 miles to get there and realized when we got there that people could just drive in. So instead we took the James Irvine to cathedral trees trail right out of the prairie creek visitor center which was truly amazing.

Sadira and James made shrimp tacos when we got home. It’s good to be here in Brookings.

Portland to Brookings

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

George and I walked Mt Tabor a extinct cinder cone volcano/city Park. Then we gathered the kids for breakfast at jams in Hawthorne before heading out of Portland.

The ride into Brookings was long but relatively easy. The Pacifica rides with style. Our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean was by the sand dunes. Then we had an epic feast when we got here, Dinner with a view.

Admin completion

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

We signed Fiona’s and Ashe’s paper work for their new Portland apartment early on Sunday morning and got busy having fun.

Picture from the new Portlandians on their front stoop.

After the admin work was finalized we leapt into fun mode. We started towards Mount Hood, but had to stop and wait for some clouds to pass. We stopped again at mcmenamins for a picnic lunch and arm wrestling before heading to the Timberline Lodge.

The timberline Lodge was built during the great depression and is a testament to American history. It’s an awesome hotel that is open to the public from our history when we all worked together to lift Americans up. It contrasts so much to the gaudy gold decor ballroom that the molester in chief is going to build and make us pay for and I’ll never get a chance to step foot in (don’t get me started). It is also where the shining was filmed. It’s beautiful with a rich history and unique craftsmanship and has an amazing view.

After the lodge we stopped by the international rose test garden. It was founded in 1917 as a safe haven for roses from wwi. It now showcases over 600 varieties of roses and has views of Mt Hood. Sign me up

Portland admin work

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

We started our summer fun with a reconnaissance mission to Portland to find housing for Fiona and to see what Portland has to offer. We kept Portland weird. We visited the Columbia River gorge, roster Rock, and multiple water falls. George and I took a trail to nowhere while the kids saw Multnomah falls, but our reward was a giant cookie. We ended the day at mcmenamins in troutdale but oddly, I took no pictures (having been there before… ). We had a delicious dinner and a designated driver.

Home is wherever I’m with you

July 11, 2021October 29, 2021 / rugreen4u4632 / 1 Comment

Finished up John Day Fossil and traveled to 10 Mile Campground outside of Boise in the Boise National forest.

Lovely evening. We parked our camp chairs in the creek and stuck our feet in the creek. The temp got to 104 on the way through Boise and I was happy to have Frank as our travel horse (sorry Veronica…)

Idaho tonight! Going, going, Ore-gone

I posted this yesterday, but it cracks me up.

John Day Painted Fossil Beds

July 10, 2021July 11, 2021 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

Left Tumalo Falls heading east towards the Clyde Holiday campground. Hit the John Day Fossil Beds on the way. Really enjoyed the painted hills, but since it was 100 degrees, we waited to go to Sheep Rock for an early morning hike.

The Austin girls will be happy to note that we did make it inside to see the visitor center video, but we had to do it in shifts since we had Ringo. This shows our dedication to both Ringo and the movie. And as George observed probably because one of us can’t have more facts than the other person…

We got a nice camp spot with great connectivity so George got a few hours of shady work. I tested the ac which works fantastic!

Heres the inside of the T@g. It’s much bigger than it looks on the video. The bed appears to be a king.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

July 9, 2021July 10, 2021 / rugreen4u4632 / 3 Comments

When we got to the first information sign at the Big obsidian flow there were three boys (age ~ 5-6) pointing at the volcano and making explosion noises. I totally agree, Volcanos are cool!

Newberry is a shield volcano that basically did the same thing as crater lake, exploded then fell in on itself. It had two lakes instead of one with a huge obsidian lava field.

We also took the 4×4 to the rim edge. The view from the top was even cooler. The Ridge can be seen, as well as a cinder cone (2 actually). 2 lakes (East and Paulina), and the lava flow. We had lunch right there on the truck bed.

We stopped at Pauline falls on the way to the Lava Cast Forest. These are hard to see in the pictures. Think slow lava building a wall around a tree and leaving a Hollow trunk mold. I jumped in one for size.

Then we stopped by 2 other breweries for samples. 10 Barrel and Sunriver.

10 Barrel has a set sampler… So we got 16 Oz samples.

Back at the campground we saw this weird camping dump truck. Where do you need that sort of equipment? My t@g was embarrassed for him.

Bird & bees, Smith Rock, Bend

July 9, 2021July 9, 2021 / rugreen4u4632 / 2 Comments

We stayed the day at the Sister’s municipal park campground. I was throwing the ball for Ringo in the park while George was working. I looked up to see a deer about the same time that Ringo saw the deer and he proceeded to chase the deer across the road and get lost. I was frantically searching along the creek and George got in the Taco (Tacoma) and went searching in the neighborhood. This went on for about an hour. I thought the little asshole was a goner forever. George finally went back to the camp ground to put away any valuables and found Ringo humping the neighbors dog. That’s the one thing I wasn’t expecting to be happy seeing Ringo doing.

Next stop petsmart for a dog tag. George asked the clerk if we needed to stick under Ringo’s skin so he would be microchipped? The clerk thought George was a dumbass & George thought the joke was really funny (typical).

Getting on with our day… We knew that we’d see a big rock but had no idea we would get these views of the volcanos. These pictures don’t do it justice.

This picture of beer and the tag is for Joe & Merrydeath. We also liked vicious mosquito. Other than a great name, the beer was delicious.

Volcanos & Sisters OR

July 7, 2021October 29, 2021 / rugreen4u4632 / 1 Comment

Pulled into our campsite, dropped and then took an amazing drive along the lava flows and volcanos!

George and I saw some guy running up the path in a wet suit and we thought it was weird. Then about 15 minutes later we heard yelling from the top of the falls and George turned around to see this kid splashing into the water after a cliff jump. I just got his picture coming out of the water. Note self. .. When you see someone in a wet suit at a water fall wait around and pay attention. You might see something insane. Maybe we missed this :