Weekend in Beaverton

As I have mentioned before, a big part of our decision to move to the Pacific Northwest was that we haven't had the opportunity before to really explore this part of the country.  Our intention, upon making the decision to move here, was to take full advantage of our location and take frequent trips to the surrounding areas.  Another big bonus to moving to this area was the proximity to our dear friends, the Daines, who live in the Portland area.  A couple weekends ago, we made the 3 1/2 hour drive down to Beaverton to spend a few days with them.  Let me take a minute here and say it is so fun to be close enough to them to do that!  Some of our kids have said that when they were younger they thought they were their cousins.  I love that.  Living away from our families for most of our adult lives, it is nice to know that our kids have still had friendships with people that were so close they felt like family. 

The weather was absolutely perfect when we took off early Friday morning.  Our intention was to take our time traveling down there, making a detour over to Mount St Helens along the way.  Texting with Anita after we left, however, I found out that Joe had taken a 1/2 day and that they were expecting us by early afternoon.  We took a family vote and decided to skip Mount St Helens this time and just take a camping trip there another time. 

Friday afternoon and evening were spent hanging out together grilling, playing kickball, and sitting by the campfire telling stories.  It never takes long for the stories to devolve to bathroom/poop tales, but we never claimed to be the classiest bunch.

Saturday morning we packed a picnic lunch and drove to Multnomah Falls.  I've wanted to go there ever since I first heard about them some time ago.  The drive there was lovely.  Perfect weather and views of the great mountains (St Helens and Hood) made it delightful.  Having spent five years in rural Dodgeville WI, and now living on a relatively small, quiet island, I have gotten pretty soft when it comes to traffic and the congestion of being in/near a larger city.  I felt like I could breathe again when we left Portland behind and the Columbia River valley opened up in front of us.  It is absolutely breathtaking and I couldn't take it all in fast enough. 

Since the weather was so perfect and it was a Saturday and the falls are easily accessible and awe-inspiring, it was kind of crowded when we arrived.  The parking lot was full, so we had to drive on a little further and park beside the road.  This wasn't a big deal, except that in order to get back to the falls, we had to cross a bridge.  Which wasn't a big deal, except for the signs prohibiting foot traffic across it.  We would have done it anyway if we didn't have four adults and 10 kids to get across.  Instead, we decided to climb down and walk under the bridge, next  to the railroad tracks.  This worked out fine, though it took us a little longer to get there.

I was really surprised how close the falls were to the road.  Just driving by you can get a pretty good view of them.  At the base of the falls there is a café and restrooms and gift shop, also quite unexpected.  We had already determined that we would hike to the top of the falls, a one mile hike one way.  A one mile hike is pretty easy, except when it is up a cliff.  The trail was great, many people we encountered pushed baby strollers (!) up it, but it was definitely uphill.  I believe the sign said there were 11 switchbacks.  From time to time we would stop to rest and I would take those opportunities to drink in the view of the Columbia River gorge dropping away from us as we climbed ever upward. 

The kids were awesome hikers.  Of course, most of our kids are Big Kids now, but even the littler ones did great.

 Upon reaching the top, we OOoooed and Ahhhhhhed for a while from the overlook, snapping pictures and resting our tired legs, then we found a spot upstream from the falls where we could sit on the rocks and eat our lunch.  

The trek back down the hill was much easier, aside from littlest Daines tripping, scraping up elbows and knees, and almost bouncing off the trail and down the side of the mountain. 

 

 

The drive back to Beaverton was pretty quiet, as everyone was tuckered out from the adventure.  It also made for a quiet evening of playing games and watching funny video clips online. 

Sunday morning we went to church in Beaverton, but had to cut out early, right after sacrament meeting, so we could make it back to Bainbridge Island in time for Kennedy's flute recital.  Driving home I was again struck by how lucky we are to be able to see Mt Hood, Mount St Helens, and Mt Rainier on that drive.  Such majesty and power in those mountains!

As always, each time we see the Daines it just leaves me excited for our next get together.

Shaw Island Service Project

 

This past weekend, we traveled to the San Juan Islands with other members of our ward, or congregation, to participate in an annual service project.  The event takes place at Our Lady of the Rock Monastery on Shaw Island.

 

We had to be on the 9:25 ferry out of Anacortes on Saturday morning.  Which meant that we would have to be on the 6:25 ferry from Kingston.  Which meant we would have to get our kids (and poor tired me) up by 5:00 on a Saturday, the first Saturday after daylight saving time, I might add.

 

Not wanting to do all that, we decided to leave Friday night and stay in a hotel in Burlington, WA.  This would put us 1/2 an hour from the Anacortes ferry in the morning. 

 

Long story short, we barely made the 7:00pm ferry Friday night, because we watched a Syracuse basketball game before we left and it went into overtime, of course.  But we hustled out the door and made it just in time. 

 

 

The kids were pretty happy to be in a hotel with a pool, (and I was happy to be in a hotel with a hot tub), rather than getting up at the crack of dawn.

 

So Saturday morning, we got up around 7:30, had our breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to Walmart to make a quick stop to get food to contribute to the lunch that day.  I also had forgotten to bring any work gloves so I wanted to pick some up.  It seemed doable enough, a quick stop, then on our way to the ferry.  However, when we came out of Walmart, it suddenly became very obvious that we were VERY tight on time.  We drove as quickly as we dared for Anacortes.  The GPS couldn't seem to find our destination, the ferry terminal, so we were kind of flying blind.  As we came into Anacortes, with no time to spare, we were seeing signs for ferries everywhere.  But we weren't sure which signs were for OUR ferry.  We called a friend, got instructions, along with a warning, "You'd better hustle!"  We began prepping our kids, "OK, everyone grab what you need and get ready to run!"  We had been instructed that there would be limited room for cars on this ferry, so we should walk on.  We were really stressing about parking, paying to park, paying our fares, and making it onto the ferry.  Luckily, our friend called us back and advised us to just drive on.  Best advice of the day.  We drove on, the last car to do so, and the ferry was underway before we were even out of the car. 

 

It was pretty fun to see everyone from the ward on the ferry.  And it was so delightful to be in the beautiful San Juan Islands.  What a beautiful way to start the day!  It was also fun to discover several puzzles on the ferry at various degrees of completion.  In between standing on the deck enjoying the glorious scenery and visiting with our friends, we took some time to place a few puzzle pieces.

 

An overcast morning.

 

We made a quick stop at Lopez Island to pick up a few more passengers.

 

While waiting at the Lopez Island ferry dock, we saw a bald eagle alight in a nearby tree.  Lincoln pointed it out to the kids.  Also at this dock is a huge bulls-eye painted on the dock surface.  It was lots of fun for the kids to toss coins down and try to hit the center.

Devon, on the deck in the chilly morning air.

 

Upon our arrival at the monastery, Mother Hildegard (seen below on the very right edge of the photo), began making assignments.  Assignments were made to weed gardens, cut brush, clean the chapel, move the priest's belongings, clean the hog pens, and clean the chicken coops, among other things.

Kennedy went with a friend to help clean the chapel.  The four younger kids went to help move boxes for the priest's move from one building to another, and Lincoln and I headed for the chicken coops.  We worked with Adda, a twelve year old girl from our ward.  She and I shoveled out the two buildings and Lincoln hauled off what we shoveled. The rain really began to pick up at this point, so despite the stink in the henhouses, (we did have masks to wear), we were glad to be dry.

 

After cleaning them all out, we spread fresh bedding.

 

After the chicken coops were clean, we moved on to the task of collecting beach stones to use as gravel.

A view of the barn.

Renie, happily skipping along after her chore was complete.

 

The kids had an absolute blast in the haymow.

 

Such a beautiful location. 

As we ate our lunch, (man, did it hit the spot after all that work-lasagna, garlic bread, caeser salad, fruit salad, and tons of desserts), the sun came out and helped warm us up and dry us out. We had heard a rumor that only a certain number of cars were allowed on the return ferry and that in the past, someone from the group had been too far back in the line and had to wait 3 hours for the next ferry.  We did not want this to be our fate, so we ate quickly and skedaddled to the ferry.  We were car #3 in line.   The ferry trip back was lovely, with sunshine and better  views of the islands.

Upon reaching the mainland, we drove from sunshine toward foreboding skies, that proved to be holding nothing more than rain.

 

We are so glad that we were able to participate in this event.  The kids, some of whom had said the only reason they were going was to stay at a hotel, all had a great time and are already looking forward to next year.