Archive - Oct 2008

As I sit here typing this post I wish there was a way I could send you the smell of baking apples; cause that is what our apartment smells like right now. Another great weekend to report on; and this was all fall. Jaci and I had planned a fall weekend a couple of weeks ago; but I didn't think it would become this successful.

Saturday Justin and I drove down to Corvallis and spent the afternoon picking many many apples at Russ' parents farm with Russ and Liz (Jaci's coworker). And what is the easiest way to pick apples you may ask? Well I learned you use the chainsaw to prune the tree at the same time. Russ' dad wanted to trim the oversized apple tree and we didn't want to waste the opportunity. We collected a ton of apples.

After picking apples and felling tree branches a good way to relax may be to sit around and watch a movie, but not this weekend. Russ, Jaci, Liz, Justin and I went to Junction City for a haunted corn maize! It was excellent; well worth the ginormous line for tickets. The maze was huge; corn as high as an elephants eye in fact, and it had a pirate theme; with a pirate ship in the maze. It was a lot of fun, with good scare factor.

Next morning back to work. Russ and Jaci picked up the apple cider press and everyone got to work. Cleaning, cutting, grinding, pressing and bottling cider. In the end we made 15 gallons of oh so yummy cider and still a pile of apples for baking. Couldn't get much more fall perfect than this. I look forward to Thanksgiving to see how the hard cider turns out.

• Michelle's pictures (regular camera)
• Justin's pictures (iPhone)
• Lone Pine Farms Corn Maze

Well we did it again, we spent another weekend on the Oregon coast. This time Justin had planned a weekend away as part of my birthday present, isn't he just great! We started the weekend heading down I-5 and stopping in at the Eugene Saturday Market, which has been going on since 1970. It was a great time, lots of fun shopping and tasty food. Then we headed over to University of Oregon campus and toured the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Mostly if featured history about Oregon and the Native Americans that were there. But it also had a special exhibit on shoes, Eugene is home to Nike afterall. It didn't take long to notice everyone wearing yellow and green Oregon Duck colors, meaning there was a home game. Since Justin and I don't really pay much attention to sports we kinda didn't realize this and quickly found out that there was no way we were going to find a hotel room to stay the night in Eugene. Luckily we didn't really have a plan and drove over to Florence that night instead of the morning.

Florence is located on the coast and is a beautiful town along the Siuslaw River. We spent time walking along the very windy beach and made it there in time to catch the sunset. The next day my birthday gift really started as Justin and I went to visit the Sea Lion Cave. This is supposed to be the year round home to a group of Stellar's Sea Lions. However no sea lions were in the cave! We did see and hear them swimming along the shore. That made up for some things, but I really really wanted to see them up close, we will have to try again next time. We also drove up to Heceta Head Lighthouse. This lighthouse is maintained by the Oregon Parks, but the light is cared for by the Coast Guard. They had some great volunteers and we were able to climb up to the base of the light. They sure like their lighthouses here. Oh... trivia question for you: what state in the US has constructed the most lighthouses?

And the day only got better, when Justin and I went on our horseback ride along the beach at sunset! Turns out no one else signed up for the ride, so that made it just the two of us, our guide, Buddy and Chaser (the horses). It was a lot of fun, and now I kinda want to add that to things I want to learn how to do. The weather was a bit warmer on Sunday night than it was on Saturday, but the clouds moved in time for the sunset. To get to the beach we had to ride the horses over the tall beach dunes! And to top the weekend off, we spent the night in a YURT! And it was beautiful, really even though this was in a campground it was the furthest thing from camping. I mean we had a bed, heat, fridge, toilet and shower! And it was excellent, I definitely will be staying in one of those again. Camping anyone?

My mom came down to spend a long weekend with us. It was also the end of my birthday week, and the beginning of hers, so it was a great week! Throughout the whole weekend we had some great food, but the highlight was my birthday corned beef, carrots, potatoes and cabbage. YAY, thanks to mom that was very yummy and it was great to have Russ and Jaci there to join us!

Today we woke up very early.... got some energy from corned beef hash. And then went on our way toward the coast. After a windy drive over the Coastal Range we ended up at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Justin has already been here once, when he took a trip to Oregon six years ago with Gwen and Russ, but it was a first for me and my mom. The highlight... eating cheese and ice cream of course! Justin even got a prize block of cheese for home and we all shared some snacking cheese for the car ride. For the rest of the journey we stuck to 101 or the coastal road. We saw many signs for tsunami evacuation routes, thats a new one for me. They don't have those on the East coast.

We stopped at a couple sites, Cape Meares, Cape Lookout and Oceanside beach. I even got to stick my hands into the Pacific for the first time! Unfortunately our camera was being a little funny so we don't have any pictures to prove it. Cape Meares was great and had some amazing views from the cliff looking down onto the waves. It also has a lighthouse that you can walk inside and stand right next to the Fresnel lens.

Justin was quite a trooper with all the driving, I think some of the time both my mom and I fell asleep in the car! We had dinner at Mo's in Lincoln City. It was good- at least I give the grilled cheese sandwich 2 thumbs up. Best part of dinner was not the food, but watching the seals play in the water just outside of our window. I'm not really sure what they were doing, it looked like too much fun to be looking for food. They kept slapping the water and twisting and sticking their tail fins in the air. After that we headed back home, but there is still lots more coast line for us to explore- so I know we will be taking a few more trips there as soon as we can.

• Oregon coast photos