Lifestyles Cover

We'd heard we had become celebrities, but were really surprised when we found the magazine sitting on the end table in the customer lounge of a Saturn dealership!

New Pictures of Brayden

Caryn sent some new pictures (and new movies--I love what a digital camera and the computer can do!) It looks like Brayden in on the move! He's seven months now and sits, crawls, eats avocados, and is a very happy baby.

Brayden

I can sit up all by myself now, and look at my teeth.

Crabbing in Florence, Oregon

Once you get to a place you have to figure out how to spend your time, and we discovered that crabbing was something we could do. Rent or buy? We decided to buy because we'd be here long enough to crab more than two or three times. We bought a crab trap, licenses (out of state), and bait, and more bait, and another trap, and more bait. (Those things eat fish, chicken thighs, turkey legs, and canned cat food!) Our per crab cost is now about the same as those free glasses we got at the casino!

The Old Town bayfront of Florence is the first place we went, a quaint little harbor area. We have also tried the crabbing and fishing dock out on South Jetty (the wind there blows about 50 miles an hour and it's cold). No matter where we go, you bait up, throw out the traps, and wait.

Crabbing

You don't just sit and wait, you watch the people (there are a lot of people to talk to too!), watch the seals (the one in the first picture is doing the back float--click on the picture for a close up), and when about 15 minutes have passed you pull up your trap full of crawly, pinchy crabs. Toss the little ones and the females back into the water, and measure up the big guys (they are all more than 6"). Actually, in Oregon, they have to be larger than 5 3/4 inch (use the green crab measuring tool). Mitch has made some wonderful crab cakes and crab stuffed mushrooms. He's still experimenting. We also bought five kinds of local mushrooms from a little farm/flea market at the wharf and Mitch made mushroom soup to die for.

Fun Stuff to Do

We also crabbed out of Winchester Bay, just south of Florence. As you can see it was another hard day. This crab was the biggest we have caught, filling up the whole bottom of the five gallon bucket.

And we play bingo just for fun!

Chowder, Blues, and Brews

Although crabbing has taken up a lot of our days we still have time for other things. The Chowder, Blues, and Brews Festival was a lot of fun. We had an opportunity to taste and judge nine different chowders from local restaurants. Then of course we had to try out the beer from the local breweries, and listen to some very good blues bands. And again we meet some really nice people.

We also decided to visit the local casino since we had some "free" money from the casino to spend, and Mitch managed to be in the right place at the right time and he won $300. We actually came home with money!

TT South Jetty--Florence, Oregon

Here we are at our new location. Front yards always look about the same, don't they. But the backyard is completely different. This is the south jetty of Florence looking out into the Pacific Ocean. We love this traveling stuff!

Pacific Sand

We took a walk out on the jetty and saw beach and ocean as far as we could see. However the temperature dropped about 30 degrees from the campground to the mile out to the beach. And does the wind blow!! Just down the road from us in Oregon Sand Dunes State Rec Area--huge sand dunes that a lot of people seem to enjoy. Looked crazy to me. Click on the middle picture for an up close picture of the dune adventure.

New Pictures of Addy

Here she is! And what a smiley little cutie at three and a half months.

Addy

I'm anxious to see if Addy's hair turns out to be curly! and isn't Addy just a little she! I love those eyes.

Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

We moved from Chehalis to Portland to have an air conditioner fixed on Labor Day. It was a gorgeous, 90 degree day, so we decided to get out...and went to visit the Columbia River Gorge. It is a spectacular collection of river, beach, mountains, waterfalls, and, of course Mt. Hood.
It's Tuesday and we have pulled into Monaco Fix-It, we'll find out tomorrow how long we'll be here. In the meantime, we'll find something to do!

Thousand Trails--Chehalis, Washington

Actually, this post should come after the story of the casino, but I had neglected to download all the pictures and couldn't figure out if I could insert these in the right place. Oh well...

This is home, another nice park with Mt. St. Helens in the backyard (click on the picture to enlarge the view!)

Mt. St. Helens, Washington

Mt. St. Helens is about 60 miles from Chehalis and it made for a great day trip. The mountain from the distance is awe inspiring, just like Mt. Baker, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams--great structures that loom above everything else. Seeing Mt. St. Helens close up was something else. Everything seems so bare. The sides of the mountain are empty except for the snow that has settled in some of the ridges. The story is one of devastation. The north side of the top of the mountain became a huge landslide that left a thin crust so the built up pressure of the volcano spewed out laterally blowing trees right off their trunks for miles around. The landscape was totally changed in a matter of minutes. The 27 years since the eruption has not changed much of the National Park area. Private companies have reforested so outside the park you find skinny trunked trees, but at least it's green. The inside of the crater is still growing about a dump truck load of lava every 40 seconds. At that rate they figure it will take about 200 years to fill in the crater. Click on the picture of Mt. St. Helens to see the plume of steam still coming from the crater.