Hiking Hood

We had another awesome visit from Shawn, so we decided to spend the weekend camping and hiking at Mt. Hood. We found the sweetest campsite, thanks to a tip from our landlord. It was tucked away in the woods and the Hood River ran right alongside it. We decided to forgo the tents again, and slept outside next to our campfire with the sound of the river rapids in our ears.

The next morning we drove to the Timberline Lodge, where we set off for our hike. We made our own trails around the mountain and had a great day of hiking! It was gorgeous weather, too, which made the day absolutely perfect.

Family Fun

My parents came out to visit us this past weekend! We had a lot of fun showing them around the area and immersing them into the lives we've lived these past three months.

They came on Friday morning, so we got to spend the afternoon in Portland visiting the Rose Garden and the beautiful Japanese Garden in the center of town. That night, Kelly made a delicious stir-fry dinner - one of his specialties!






Of course we wanted to take them to the beach, so we drove our favorite beach drive, eating Tillamook ice cream cones along the way. We wanted to show them the haystacks at Cannon Beach, but it was so foggy we couldn't even make out their outline! As we made our way back along the shoreline toward Astoria, we stopped at Sunset Beach for a night-time fire. They loved it!

The next day, we browsed the farmer's market and went to the local play, Shanghaied in Astoria. The acting was horrendous, but the play was a cute vaudville-type complete with the audience throwing popcorn at the bad guys, booing and hissing at the villains and cheering for the heroes. Kelly attended a friend's wedding that day, so he missed out on the play, but the wedding was a great time as well.



Monday we went to the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which is a pretty interesting museum with lots of local history. It's in one of the most architecturally interesting buildings in the city. Afterward, we had to check out the local sea lion population, and they didn't disappoint! One of the males was fighting off competitors for his pier space, and giving us a really good show! We also drove up to the local iconic landmark, the Astoria Column, to get the gorgeous views of the river, the city, and the surrounding countryside. My dad and Kelly climbed the 164 stairs to the top!






My sister was supposed to come out with them, but she unfortunately got sick and wasn't able to make it. We were really bummed and missed her this weekend, but we still had a great time with my parents! We were really pumped that they got to see where we've been living and spend some time falling in love with this area of the country, just like we have.

A Bonding Experience

Last weekend, Kelly and I went with a friend of his from Ball State and his fiancee on a pelagic birding trip. We geared up in our warmest, most weather-proof clothes and took to the high seas about 35 miles off shore in a teeny tiny little fishing boat with guides that are experts at finding and identifying pelagic sea birds. For Kelly and Brendan, this was a chance of a lifetime to expand their birding life lists. For Billi and me, it was a labor of love.

Bleary-eyed and with coffee and scones in hand, we set off at 3:45 a.m. for the trip. Kelly and Brendan maintained excited conversation the entire three-and-a-half-hour drive, while Billi and I promptly fell asleep in the back seat. When we arrived on the dock, we were not surprisingly the youngest participants by a margin of at least 30 years. Excited for the trip, we boarded the boat and stored our food, our seasickness preventatives (candied ginger, Pepto Bismol, and Tums), our water, and our extra clothes in the cabin and took our places at the prow of the boat. That was the last time we’d see most of the things we’d brought with us for the entire 10-hours we were at sea.

At first, the 15-foot swells racing toward the boat and the crashing of the hull upon the water were anticipated with glee, and maintaining our precarious balance like bull riders was exhilarating. After a few hours though, the captain stopped the boat to put out some bait to attract more birds, and that's when it all went downhill. The back-and-forth rocking of the boat was more than our empty stomachs could handle, and Kelly, Billi, and I, all of us a sick shade of green, ended up spending the next few hours hanging over the side of the boat--downwind, of course. There's nothing more intimate than loosing your breakfast (again and again) in front of 20 strangers!

Aside from the few hours of green pallor and churning stomachs, we were we were still able to see a lot of great birds, and Kelly and Brendan added about 15 species to their life lists. After we reached the dock at the end, though, we were ready to put a little good food in our stomachs and none too sad to pull away from the rocking boat!

We camped out under the stars that night, tossing our sleeping bags down on the ground next to our campfire, and had a great breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, coffee, and orange juice for only $4 the next morning! Sunday we continued up the coast back towards home, stopping every half-hour or so for a jaunt out to the beach, across a jetty, or into a small town for a home-grown treat, like cheese from the Tillamook Cheese Factory, Tillamook ice cream from a sweet shop in Gearheart, or clam chowder at Bill's Tavern in Cannon Beach. It was actually a great weekend shared with good friends, and the seasickness became the joke of the entire trip — once it was over, of course!


Brendan, Billi, Kelly, and me with sunburned faces at Bill's Tavern, feeling much better after a good night's sleep!

Fuzzy dorsal view of mystery Clubtail

Not the best photo, but the back pattern may help to narrow it down.

Fauna selections of the Ontario fishing trip

I paid much attention to the birds of Ontario, but found it easier to take pictures of other things, with the exception of a bird in an egg (they can't fly away).


What is this Clubtail? (Gomphus sp.?) on Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)



Green Comma (Polygonia faunus) on a flaky-barked tree. Pretty effective camouflage I think.



One-eyed Sphinx Moth (Smerinthus cerisyi) conveniently (for me) attracted along with many other moths to lights left on at night. Unfortunately, many moths don't accomplish the reproduction necessary for the next generation to exist because of the lights we leave on and because of their inability to fight the seemingly stupid attraction to those lights.



Common Loon (Gavia immer) nest with single egg. Apparently most loons lay more than one egg, and one-egg nests are usually due to the loss of the first egg.



This mouse, along with a couple others that showed up in our cabin, was just cute enough for me to include on this post. I forgot my mammal guide in Indiana, so I haven't been able to try to identify it yet. If anyone can tell, I'm all ears.

Flora selections of the Ontario fishing trip

While not fishing, usually while others were sleeping, I had to do some exploring. These are a few plants that look nice in the photos.

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Yellow Clintonia (Clintonia borealis)



American Mountain Ash (Pyrus americana) with Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis)



Pink Corydalis (Corydalis sempervirens)



Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)



Pale Laurel (Kalmia polifolia)

The crackle of the fire; the roar of the sea

One of the best things about living where we do is having fires on the beach at night. We got a visit from a very close friend of ours this weekend, and spent both nights around the fire, with great conversation and delicious fire-grilled teriyaki steak kabobs, all set to the natural soundtrack of crashing waves and crackling flames. Does it get any better than this?






We also had a great time at Cannon Beach showing Shawn the puffins and the haystacks.

old faces, new places

The past few weekends have been pretty low-key for us. We got to hang out with some Taylor friends of ours in Portland a couple of weekends ago, which was great. We got to tour the town from the eyes of locals, and it was really nice to see the familiar faces of people that we share some history with.

Last weekend we went to Long Beach in Washington, which claims to be the longest in the world. It's a beautiful area, and we were virtually alone. . . which is an amazing thing on a huge stretch of sandy beach. It's a breeding habitat for the endangered Western Snowy Plovers, so a lot of the beach is blocked off to preserve their nesting sites.

Almost Famous

Last week, Astoria was transformed into the backdrop for scenes from the upcoming movie, Into the Wild. Based on the book by John Krakauer, the movie tells the true story of Chris McCandless, a college student who left his Georgia home to cross the country and live in the Alaskan interior only to die of starvation a few months after reaching the wilderness outside of Fairbanks. Krakaur, the journalist who originally reported the story for Outdoor magazine, felt that there was more to his death than met the eye, so he wrote the book to uncover the real truth.

Sean Penn (who is directing the film) and Vince Vaughn spent the week in Astoria shooting scenes for the movie. (Vaughn was rumored to have been visited by Jennifer Aniston for a day or two during the shoot. Also, in an unrelated star-sighting, Johnny Depp was supposedly in Seaside, about 20 minutes from Astoria, checking out potential sites for Pirates of the Carribean III.)

Evidently there was a casting call the week before, but I didn't hear about it until afterwards. I could have been an extra!

Nungesser Lake, Ontario fishing trip

For the first time in two years, I got to go on our annual family fishing trip with my dad, my brothers Alex and Chris, my uncle Jim, and my cousin John.


1. My dad with one of many large walleyes caught during the week. We only ate the tender little ones, so this one is probably still cruising the lake.



2. I'm not sure which one would inflict the worse bite, Alex or the walleye...



3. A quality catch not quite caught on film. Four of us landed 24+ inch walleyes within about a minute of each other. Alex had already thrown his back, but I was trying to get the other three in the same shot. The one that Chris was holding flipped out of his hands just before I could take the picture.



4. After a meal on the lake, sometimes a nap is in order. I happened to find my lifer Spruce Grouse inland from this peninsula.



5. After a rough and exciting boat ride, we were blessed with a spectacular double rainbow. From the boat, we were able to see the complete arch.