Abbi Modeling

Abbi is modeling Scout, a tank top I made-to-measure for her specific shape. I think she looks super cute, here talking on her new phone and posing for my photo shoot.

Here's what we're going to make next.  Abbi, will you come up with one of your delightful names for this pattern?

Wilbur's Vacation in Sunriver

We spent the last week in Sunriver and enjoyed our time away immensely. It was beautiful there - warm the first few days then it cooled off a bit.  We left on Wednesday of last week and that was when the Rooster Rock fire was burning just outside of Sisters, Ore.  This is the smoke from the fire that we could see from the road.

All the smoke that day made for an amazing sunset.

We spent a lot of time biking the trails and swimming and reading and playing games and eating great food.

We spent some time at the pool when we weren't exploring the trails via our bikes.  Got caught up on a lot of good reading and enjoyed the hot tub in the cool evenings.  On Saturday we took the kids to Crater Lake.  They had never been, and I hadn't been there in the summer since I was a little kid (remember hiking down to the lake but not having enough water on the long way back up??).  The kids really loved the park and I finally got my wish to go inside the Lodge there.  Very charming and alpine-y.  The building is absolutely beautiful, especially sitting on the edge of the cliffs.  We didn't take any pictures in the Lodge (I was too busy imagining myself getting to stay the night there), but it was very spectacular.  The drop to the bottom is surprisingly steep, and the road to the entrance wasn't for the faint of heart.

 

Visit to Mount Saint Helens Volcanic Monument

Once a month Andy and I get together for a typical Northwest activity. In the past we have climbed Multnomah Falls, hiked Forest Park, kayaked on the Willamette.

This last trip we visited the Mount Saint Helens Volcanic Monument. Our primary hike was to the Ape Caves, a 1900-year old lava tube system. Wikipedia describes the discover and naming of the caves as this: "A logger named Lawrence Johnson discovered Ape Cave in 1947 when his truck fell into a sinkhole and in there he came upon the entrance to the cave. A Boy Scout troop under the leadership of Harry Reese performed the first exploration in 1950; they named the cave for their sponsor, the St. Helens Apes: a group of local Scouts, sometimes called Brush Apes." We didn't bother to try and take a picture of in the caves ourselves - not one of us had a flash assisted camera. I found an image of the interior of the caves on Flickr, this photo was taken by Marianne Batchelder & Josh Grice, to give one a sense of the inside.

We hiked the more challenging upper cave. It was really rough going, with lots of boulders to scramble over while holding a flashlight. Fortunately we picked up some "Tactical Lights" ear mounted LEDs from Harbor Frieght to assist our caving.

It was a great trek and totally beat up our feet. We nixed the idea of going on the the Johnson Ridge Observatory, and instead head southeast to Carson Hot Springs. The time to the hot springs was less than to travel to the observatory. On the there we stopped at a lookout and captured some photos.

There distant in the background is the Volcano. In person it seems like such a mammoth presence in the distance. It was really amazing sight. It was a wonderful day out!