The Love of a Family is Life's Greatest Blessing: 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

Fall Festivities in Benson

I went down to Benson last weekend while Sandy was still there and we had a great time getting together for the Fall. We had fun visiting with each other and all our other family.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Jed & I decided to go on a little jaunt up the west coast line. We started in Nevada and made our way to California, Oregon , Washington, and Idaho. We put a few miles on the car, but had a fabulous time. We stopped whenever we wanted and went wherever we wanted. We especially liked the Redwood Forrest and of course the Lighthouses. I think we stopped at every Coast Guard station there was and looked at the boats in each bay. We lucked out on the weather, too. It was beautiful touring weather.

Bonneville Dam Fish Hatchery

This is the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam. The salmon actually jump up the ladders during the right season.

We went below the ladders to view the salmon working their way upstream. You can see how huge they are. It was real interesting.

Astoria, Oregon

This is the ship, "Steadfast." We watched the crew restock the boat as they were preparing to patrol the coast.

This was at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Jed is presenting a visual reenactment of shooting the enemy. Sound effects not included. Thank goodness.

Jed in the port hole.

Oh Captain, My Captain!

Jed and his deep sea diving buddy.

Loving Reminders

We stopped and ate at this diner which reminded me of my Dad. See all the front ends of old cars? Notice even the pink cadillac on the side of the diner. If you sat in the booth in the diner, from the outside it looked like you were driving it.

This was at Tillamook Air Museum. This C-47 plane reminded us of Jed's Dad who was a pilot in World War 2. This is the plane he flew to deliver supplies and soldiers.

Lincoln City, Oregon

We walked along the beach here just waiting to watch the sunset. As you can see, it was worth the wait.

We met up with some friends, Debbie and Mark Watson, and walked along the beach with them. Jed thought it would be funny to scare us with a long piece of seaweed that we found. Debbie and I were looking at it closely when Jed picked it up and jabbed it toward us. We jumped about a foot in the air. He and Mark thought it was very funny. HaHa.

Heceta Head Lighthouse-1894

We stopped to look at the lighthouse and heard seals barking. We looked down the cliff side and saw 50-60 seals basking in the sun! Some are laying on the rocks and some are playing in the pool.

Umpqua River Lighthouse-1857

This is one of the lighthouses we toured at Winchester Bay.

This was taken at the museum at the Coast Guard Station.

Coast Guard Motto. The upstairs floor of the museum was dedicated to the Coast Guard.

These rescue boats were used more than 50 years before putting them out of commission. We heard tales that they held 50 people on one rescue. I don't know where they put them.

Coast Guard Sites

We visited as many Coast Guard stations that we could as a tribute to Travis.

You might be a rough neck.... when you name a boat, "ROUGHNECK."

Anchors away!

Brookings, Oregon. A couple of cutters.

One of the Coast Guards restoration projects. Looks pretty sharp.

The Oregon Coastline

This is part of the Oregon Coastline just off the side of the 101 highway. We didn't make very many miles this day because we kept stopping to look at the view. Breath-taking huh?