Family Hike & Picnic September, 2010

We had awesome weather for a hike and picnic in Forest Park, Sunday, September 12th.  Forest Park is one of the largest urban reserves.  It has tons of trails and beautiful hikes all within city limits. 
Present for the hike were David, Yukie, Sean, Ewan, Sarah, Nina, Andy, Carrie, Drew, Hugh and me.  Everyone brought their own lunch.  Yukie brought two ample tablecloths which were perfect for the picnic spot near the street bridge.
We celebrated Yukie's belated birthday, Nina's birthday, and Hugh's birthday with cookies to share.  Everyone went in on a pair of day-glow rain overalls for Nina and for show tickets to see Honky Tonk Angels for Hugh.  Here are some photos from our hike and lunch:

It was Sarah and Nina's craft project that brought Carrie and Drew along on our hike!

Drew and Carrie say 'Hi!'

Photo Op.

Nina is modeling her new waterproof Day-Glo biking pants.  She should be clearly visible to any motorists in any conditions!

Sean caught bugs.

Ewan walked away from his dad for a few minutes to check out what Andy and Sean were eating.

Old CCC structure on the trail.

A five-star review of Forest Park from Yelp:  "This is a city park?
I guess from my Chicago perspective on communal city spaces, parks are places you go to show off your new baby stroller to total strangers, conduct banal cell phone conversations or dispose of your McDonald's wrappers.
Stepping into Forest Park through the Lower McLeay entrance is like getting into an isolation tank (only without triggering the night terrors). Fifty feet into the mossy green ravine, the world is suddenly vivid with peace. Vivid because one can lift the blinders so necessary to surviving modern America without violence. One's mind turns from emails, meetings and bleeding eye sockets to tiny fronds of moss, to ferny curlicues, the leaf-filtered light, the grooves in the tree bark. The air is damp and redolent of trees, moisture and new mud, completely without trace of Lexus, Chevy or Ford. All this to the accompaniment of the murmuring stream. A stream that apparently contains live fish, not half-eaten fries and used prophylactics.

Now when I think about all my lazy summer days lolling in Chicago parks, the words 'misspent youth' are taking on a whole new dimension."

Munching on egg and edemame.

Drew, Sarah, Carrie, Andy are all smiles.

On the trail.

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!

Employee of the Year (Informally)

So last week I attended a quarterly meeting of all the employees of the City of St. Helens. In these meetings, the City Administrator shares the progress of projects, resolutions adopted by City Council, and other issues that concern or impact city employees. The City of St. Helens, like most municipalities in Oregon, is managed by a City Administrator who reports to the Mayor and City Councilors. This system ensures stability and continuity of management of City Hall operations since the Mayor and City Councilors are elected positions for 2 years. (FYI, most City Councilors/Mayors are paid nothing or token compensation for their work.)

Anyway, as the meeting starts the Administrator turns on the projector and puts up one of my maps. That map was one of a series that I made earlier in the month. The administrator proceeds to talk about City Hall business, not mentioning the graphic on the screen. After forty-five minutes or so, he turn the topic to grant applications that are in progress.

Finally he talks about the map up on the screen. He said that when they started the grant for the acquisition and development of the Dalton Lake Recreation Area, he thought the didn't have a shot at the money. They had a tight application deadline, and that city employees went above and beyond in their work for this grant. He singled out me, the City Planner Jacob, and my boss the Engineering Supervisor Sue as putting time into this project.
Showing the next in the map series, he says that now he is amazed at our work. He feels strongly that we are likely to receive the grant because of the work the 3 of us did. In way, we might have made his job harder because he'll now have to find the match funds the city has to pony up with the grant award.
With the final map on the screen, he asks everyone to applaud Sue, Jacob and Me. Sue interjects that she her contribution was minor and that it was Sarah and Jacob who did the real work. The administrator builds on her comments and thanks Me and Jacob for the GPS collection of trails and the amazing maps of the area that we made. He said that Jacob and I are the employees of the year!

For those who might be curious, Jacob and I walked all the de facto trails in the area while I recorded the location with the GPS. He made notes and took pictures. Back in the office I processed the geospatial data and put together the 3 maps. Jacob is an excellent editor, giving me important government verb-age and direction with improving the symmetry and design. I got to wow him with some of my advanced GIS skills in the production and representation of the data.

On a final note, this last Wednesday my supervisor Sue offered me a continuation of my position with the City. The have secured more American Recovery and Restoration Act (ARRA) money for a big stormwater project and I will be paid from that funding. I now have a job through all of 2011, maybe even 2012. So the next time someone you know complains about the waste of money the President's "recovery bailout" is, think of me and the fact I have meaningful work because of it.

Cheers!

Seaside for the 4th of July

Nina and I spent the 4th of July at Seaside, Oregon. We had a lovely time and the Sun even graced the sky for most of the time. I showed Nina how to fly a kite - something she has never done before. (!?!) I hadn't flown a kite since I was a tweener in Kaysville, Utah.

On another beach walk we happened upon an abandoned camera tripod. Joey the Beagle started barking ferociously as we neared it. Since the beach was deserted, with not even a bird overhead or in the sand, I felt real puzzled at what Joey's protection bay was warning us of. It was the tripod - which was standing upright on the sand. This picture is rather poor of Joey and I and the Tripod "beast," however I'd like to point out the large hill or mountain in the background. That is Tillamook Head, where our next hike took us somewhere near the top.

I'd like to describe the hike on Tillamook Head as: up, up, mud, up, mud, scramble over a ancient fallen tree (wider around than I am tall), mud, up, up, mud. Repeat this for three hours, then reverse for 2.5 hours. We climbed into the ocean mist, so our view of the ocean was whiteout. This is us taking a break on the way down on a tremendous fallen tree.

Hugh And His Trench

About a month ago Hugh began digging our yard beside the back sidewalk. 

Now, he's about to finish an expanded walkway, retaining wall, and French drain!