2001 Oregon

Oregon

Even though Mom died last year, Ken and I still made our annual trip to Oregon.  This time, Dad was able to explore with us.  No kids this time, except for us!

View of Mt. Hood from the airplane.

This was the year Joe and Kati got married.  They asked me to take their wedding photos and I gladly accepted.  Unfortunately, that was still in the days of 35 mm cameras and I didn't notice that my flash somehow got off of automatic and was set on a weird setting.  They never complained, but I felt badly. 

Back at Dad's house, we went on walks with Dad.  He had gotten into the healthy habit of taking a 3 or 4 miles a day walk.  With the scenery near his house, that was a beautiful walk!

wild flowers and farmlands along his walk

more views

It even went by Peters' farm.  Being friends of theirs, they told us to help ourselves to their produce.   So we often snacked along our way.  Loved their Queen Anne cherries!

Dad even went to the coast with us for a couple nights.

the guys posing on some drift wood.

the beach near our condo rental

more of the beach by our rental

We loved checking out the tide pools along the beach

some of the anemones and a star fish in a tide pool.

there was always lots of driftwood on the Oregon coast.

With Lincoln City only being about 40 minutes from Dallas, the family use to come out and join us for a day and go to Mo's for dinner.  Loved those family gatherings.

the condo we liked to rent the last 3 or 4 years.  I even left my camera and bag here when we left and they had it in the office when we called to see if it was turned in.

It wasn't luxurious, but clean and had great views.  The prices weren't bad either.  Often we could get rent 2 nights, get 1 free.

We started another tradition with Dad, too----nightly cribbage games.  Loved those times!

the small but adequate kitchen

so many wild flowers along the coast in the summer

I always had to take this picture of the Newport Bridge.  I think my all time favorite is still the first one I took a few years ago.

We even toured the little Yaquina Lighthouse

And we took Dad to one of our favorite free places---the Hatfield Marine Center.

I think Dad enjoyed seeing the Oregon coast again. 

We even headed North.  We usually don't go both north and south from Lincoln City, but we had a lot to share with Dad.  Like Tillamook Cheese!  We use to always pack some up in our luggage and bring it back to St. Louis.  Now a days, it's sold nationwide.

But back then, it was still done by hand and rather fun to watch.  Now everything is done by machine, but it's still a fun place to visit.

flipping the curds and whey

Also in the town of Tillamook is the Air Museum.  The museum is housed in a former  US Navy Blimp Hangar, called "Hangar B", which is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world.

Back in 2001,  the Tillamook Air Museum was "one of the country's top private World War II aircraft collections".  Unfortunately, many of the planes have been moved elsewhere in the years to follow, but it still remains open.

In 1942, the U.S. Navy began construction of 17 wooden hangars to house K-class airships that would be used for  anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort.  With the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 and the Japanese submarine threat eliminated, Naval Air Station Tillamook was reduced to functional status.

After our coastal vacation, we did some ventures into the mountains.  Here the guys are going fishing in a slough

Dad sporting the hat of one of his grandson's ships.

Dad sporting one of the catfish he caught at the slough.  I always thought it was funny that they would fish for catfish when they could be fishing for trout.

Danny often went with them.

Another day we ventured up to Clear Lake---stopping at Detroit lake along the way.  It was extremely low this time.

the guys looking out over where Detroit should be.

the dam at the lake.  They lower the levels in anticipation of rains.  I guess they didn't get as much rain as they expected.

The boat docks on the ground

on to Clear Lake.  We loved going here and renting a row boat and rowing around the lake.

We'd even do a little fishing.  They regularly stocked the lake, so if we got here shortly after tht, fishing was very profitable.

an example of how clear the lake is---this row boat was 20-30 feet down.

coming back into the dock

Heading down the road a few miles to check out the McKensey River.  I remember Dad bringing us up here a couple times when I was a kid to watch the kayakers.

I also loved going to Silver Falls State Park.  Lots of waterfalls along a paved walkway.

Dad by one of the falls.

along one of the paths.

beautiful surroundings!

loved all the wild flowers, as well as the waterfalls.

thistle is even pretty in bloom

the Queen Anne's Lace in Oregon gets HUGE

We'd even find wild irises

so many kinds of wildflowers.

and the beautiful falls.

love that you can walk behind some of the falls, too

all the was to the bottom of the falls.

walkway near the Lodge

I sure do miss Mom, but It was fun showing Dad around his state.  I'm sure he had been to most of those places ---- about 40 years ago.  With Mom being a quadriplegic for the last 30+ years of her life, they didn't go out sightseeing.