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| Rockaway Beach |
Hi all,
We had an interesting long weekend up in Portland, Oregon, visiting Annett's sister Meredith, her husband Tom, Annett's parents, and Tom's family. It all started out as a birthday celebration for Meredith (she turned 29 ;-) but due to some unforeseen circumstances the party schedule was a bit disrupted...Meredith broke both her wrists in a fall so the celebration ended up being somewhat muted but definitely still full of lots of love!
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| Gilbert House |
We flew up on Wednesday night, spend the day Thursday in Salem, Friday and Saturday in a house on the coast near Rockaway Beach, and Sunday at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. We originally all planned to be at the beach house, but Annett, Tom and Meredith stayed behind in Portland to take care of the injuries.
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| Gilbert House |
Anyway we had a great time in Salem, a cute town along the Willamette River which includes the Gilbert Discovery Village. We met with the museum director and got half price admission for being a great grandchild of A.C. Gilbert, who was born and lived in Salem for his younger years before going to Yale back east.
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| Bubble Room |
The facility consists of a large playground, a hands-on science building, and an exhibit building containing memorabilia from the A.C. Gilbert Company, including the Chemistry Set, Atomic Energy Set, and the Vibrator! The kids enjoyed the bubbles and playground the best.
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| Gilbert Inventions |
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| In the Museum |
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| Atomic Energy Lab, complete with Radium! |
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| Ecola State Beach |
On Friday we headed out to the coast and spent a couple of hours at Ecola State Park, running around and looking at tide pools.
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| Carson, Maggie, and Ella |
Then we drove down to the rental house in Rockaway Beach, where we ate great food and had fun playing frisbee on the beach and roasting marshmallows over a bonfire.
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| Tom Sr. Cooking Breakfast |
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| A true Southern Breakfast! |
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| The Meredith 40 Castle |
Saturday we headed over to a nice beach at Hug Point, which included some cool sandstone caves, a nice flat beach for more frisbee, and sand for a castle that Meredith requested as a birthday gift. We all helped build the ramparts and castle, so it was truly a family effort! Maggie and Ella even planted a flower garden out front!
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| Kneeling before the Royal Castle |
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| Carson at Hug Point |
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| Running on the beach |
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| Hug Point |
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| Maggie at Hug Point |
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| Maggie and Ella |
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| Cameron cooking lasagna |
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| Roasting Marshmallows over the bonfire |
Then on Sunday we headed back to Portland via McMinnville, home of the Evergreen Air and Space Museum, and of Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose", the world's largest airplane! The museum ended up being more than we expected, with lots of different planes, WWII history, and of course the magnificent Spruce Goose, so named because it was made almost entirely of wood (birch, actually) during the mid-1940's. Here's a video of the plane's one and only flight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5XSESxKfKE.
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| The docent flew 30 B-17 missions over Schweinfurt! |
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| Moved from Long Beach, CA to Oregon, amazing! |
Notice any similarities?
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| Carson |
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| Howard |
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| Bob |
Finally, we all made it back to Meredith and Tom's in Portland for some cake, birthday stories, and an attempt to give Meredith some good cheer after days of no sleep and dealing with casts on each arm! It was great seeing everyone and hopefully next time we can all celebrate together with less painkillers! Happy Birthday Meredith!
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| Meredith and Cake! |
