EKjourney Backup

We drove up to Idaho to attend Grandpa Zane's wedding the last weekend of our Summer Break. The 10 hour drive was through the Oregon Gorge along the Willamette river and then through Eastern Washington to Spokane and East of Coeur d'Alene.  The scenery is so different from our Willamette Valley home.  The landscape is dry, barren, colorless, treeless with rolling hills and lots of sharp rock cliffs for most of the drive until the trees start to dot the countryside before Spokane comes into view.  I found myself thankful that I don't live in one of these little oasis towns along the highway...and that I had brought along my crochet to keep busy! Bug spots through the window and sagebrush. Nothing but dry grass and slopes.  Barbed wire along the reservoir at a rest stop.  One of the little oasis towns. The terrain changed dramatically once we entered Idaho.  Lots of evergreen trees, mountains, and valleys.  The view from the mountain side property and th...

It was nice spending time up on the mountain and visiting with Uncle Mort, Cierra, and Cody.  There was 4-wheel riding, rock hunting, and exploring.  With wedding preparations, there wasn't as much time to spend with Grandpa Zane and his new wife Tammy but we did have dinner with them on Friday and of course wedding festivities on Saturday. 4-Wheeling  It isn't often you get everyone in the shot looking spacey.  Sawyer learning to ride a dirt bike.  He did really well.  It just took him a few minutes to figure out the throttle and brake with Phil's help stabilizing the bike and then he had it down.  And he is off! (I have to admit, I was nervous!)  We took Mort's 4-Runner down the mountain and got a flat tire on the way.  I think walking is better than riding anyway!  Laughing on the water tank while waiting for the tire to get fixed.  B didn't get the memo about red shirt day LOL!  Waiting for the wedding to start  Weddin...

We snagged 7 boxes of very ripe free peaches.  They were too ripe to can so I got creative in processing.  We froze about 6 gallon bags and the rest I turned into various and assorted canned goods.  I made two varieties of peach salsa, peach barbecue sauce, peach chutney, and a ton of peach jam.  It took me a good 12 hours to finish but it is so satisfying to see the pantry stocked with "freebees".  Peaches covering the table so they don't touch one another and mold. Peach salsa with ingredients fresh from the garden.  Boxes on the left, canned goods waiting to be put away.  Yum!   

We drove up through the Portland area and headed over to Astoria to meet up with Grandma Tracy and Cousin Allison for a day at the Oregon Coast.  We ordinarily go to Lincoln City/Newport on beach adventures so we were exploring new territory. I am not much of a "relaxing on a sandy beach" kind of person.  I enjoy hikes and pebbly beaches for beach combing.  The children had a blast playing in the waves and digging in the sand and there are a lot of trails and historical places I would like to explore on future visits. This is the Clatsop Spit where the Columbia River (which originates in the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Canada) joins the sea.  It is the border between Oregon and Washington. The South Jetty To the right is where the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean merge. Overlooking the ocean north of Fort Stevens The Oregon Coast trail consists of segments of trails along the entirety of the Oregon Coast.  There are about 70 miles of actual trails along t...

We went in search of pebbly beaches for rock and sea glass treasure hunting but the Northern Oregon Coast seems to be mostly sandy beaches.  It was getting late so we opted to have one last beach play time at Cannon beach.  We went to the north end hoping to get away from the crowds and walked along a very stinky waterway until we reached the ocean. There is a ton of fascinating history of the area including Lewis and Clark's exploration in 1806, Hug Point wagon route, numerous ship wrecks, Fort Stevens, Astoria (historical port town), etc.. Haystack Rock  Rolling in the sand  Jubilee  Brighton  Sawyer  There was much sand throwing  Burying himself in the sand Grandma and Glorielle  Me Unfortunately, Phil had taken Evi on a bathroom run so I didn't get any close ups of her or Phil and I didn't realize it until I uploaded the pictures.