Happy Centennial NPS!

The Natioanl Park Service officially turns 100 on August 25. As of today, there are 413 designated NPS units in the United States and territories. I am a huge fan of the parks. Each is unique. Each is special. Someday, I hope to visit each and every one. To date, I've only been to 77.

Road Trip 2016 - part 4 Hells Canyon

Leaving Missoula, we headed down Lolo Pass and cruised into Clarkston, Washington. A few years ago my dad was on a guided fishing trip in Hells Canyon, so we wanted to take a jet boat ride. We booked a half day trip with Snake River Adventures and had an awesome day.

We left the dock about 10 am. Our group had about 25 people in it. It was a beautiful day on the river. The boxed lunches were generous, we learned a lot about the history of the canyon and saw some wildife. It was just a great way to spend the day.

Snake River

Rafters

Mirror Image

Mama Bighorn with babies

Chillin in the shade

Gobbler

Petroglyphs

Leaving Clarkston, we headed home. 

Road Trip 2016 - Part 3 Montana

We only spent three days in Montana. It's where I went to college, so it was just a quick trip back. Our first night was spent in Hamilton. We stayed at the Black Rabbit RV Park.

A couple decades ago I visited the Daly Mansion with a college friend, so we went back to see what had changed. The answer is a lot. Back then many of the rooms had minimal furninishings and the third floor was closed to visitors. Now it's a beautiful house museum.

Daly Mansion

Mrs. Daly's room

Mosaic of Marcus Daly's favorite racehorse

It was good to see it again. I'll have to dig our my old (pre digital) photos and do some comparisons.

As we were leaving the Mansion to return to camp, we noticed  a great deal of smoke. Turns our a forest fire had started - the Roaring Lion Fire- and the highway had actually been closed. Initially, 500 houses were evacuated. When I checked the update a couple days ago, the fire was as 8700 acres and only 65% contained...two weeks after it started.

Roaring Lion Fire from the Highway

We headed into Missoula the next day. Wow! That town has grown! We made a trip to the University Bookstore, had lunch at the Staggering Ox, spent some time wandering downtown and visited the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. It was nice to relax for a couple days.

Elk on display at RMEF

Road Trip 2016 - Part 2 Idaho

From Oregon we headed into Idaho and spent about a week wandering through the state. We spent one night in Hagerman at the Hagerman RV Village. We also checked in at the Hagerman Fossil Beds Visitors Center, but didn't make it to the overlooks. It was incredibly hot that day, so we opted to lay low.

Another NPS site I wanted to visit was Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was really interesting. NASA actually trained astronauts here before the moon landing in 1969.  And Arco, Idaho was the first community in the world to be lit with electricity generated by a nuclear power.

Inferno Cone

Lava field

Vegetation in the lava field

Art installation - Lava Tube

After a couple days in Arco we headed north to Challis and camped along the Salmon River. We also enjoyed the pools at Challis Hot Springs. The hot springs were amazing. It was so nice to just float in the 99 degree water. The springs fill the pools through the ground and then needs to be cooled. 

Salmon River near Challis, ID

From Challis, we wandered just a bit further north to North Fork, Idaho and camped another night along the Salmon River. We stayed at the Wagonhammer RV Park, which was celebrating it's Lavender Festival. We took a little drive to do some wildlife viewing.

Salmon River near North Fork, ID

Elk grazing

Pronghorn

Leaving Idaho, we headed across the border into Montana.

Road Trip 2016 - Part 1 Oregon

This summer we had a conflict which prevented us from making a trip to North Carolina for our family reunion. But we couldn't just stay home, so we headed off on a two week road trip in the motorhome to see some new sights and some old favorites.

We wandered east on a Sunday and spent a couple days in Dayville, Oregon at the Fish House Inn and RV Park. We've stayed here before, and it's a good spot from which to see the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and to visit Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site in John Day.

I'm a big fan of the National Park System, and with this being the NPS Centennial, I wanted to visit a few.  We've been to the fossil beds before, but the improvements to the visitors center exhibits were worth the trip again. I do find it interesting that the man, John Day, was never within 100 miles of the site or the town of John Day, but since it's on the banks of the John Day River, which he named, the name transferred and stuck.

Sheep Rock at John Day Fossil Beds

Fossils in the Visitors Center

We drove into John Day to specifically visit Kam Wah Chung. Ten years ago, the museum wasn't open when were in town, and I'm really glad we stopped this time. During the 1870's, when gold was discovered in Oregon, thousands of Chinese miners poured into the John Day area. Kam Wah Chung served as a store, lodgings and medical office for the Chinese community. When "Doc" Hay  died in 1952, the building was boarded up and left virtually intact. It's a great museum.

Kam Wah Chung exterior

Kam Wah Chung interior

As we continued east we stopped at Unity Lake State Park for our lunch break. It's interesting how you can go for miles amid the dry grasslands and then pull up over a rise to see a lake.

Unity Lake

Summer Visitors

One of the things I've really enjoyed since having a yard is feeding and watching the birds that show up. I live in a quiet neighborhood near a creek, so there are numerous visitors to the feeders each day. Mostly I see chickadees and finches. However, once summer rolls around the makeshift "bird bath" I put on the deck rail draws some additional visitors. Today I saw a Northern flicker and a pair of ring necked doves.

May....

...came and went really, really quickly this year. Every weekend was packed and most of us were running in different directions.

• We celebrated birthdays...Nephew got a bounce house and water balloon fight with dinosaur themed cupcakes. Sister's birthday was pretty low-key.
• DAR State Conference....for doing alot of sitting during business sessions and other meetings, I still managed to hit my goals on my vivofit. Protocol committee rules...and runs.
• Last big push...for the end of the school year. Motivating 8th graders is challenging!
• A good friend announced a move. Their house sold in three days and they were gone! I'll miss them being close and will have to travel to Washington to visit them now.
• Memorial Day Weekend...at the beach. Excellent weather. Good friends. Family phtoos. 

Here's the summer, and hopefully a few more blog posts.

Tulips

Spring means flowers. On Sunday we visited the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm for the Tulip Festival. Acres and acres of beautiful flowers, food, music, and tons of people. It was a beautiful day to do something fun.

Fairy Garden

A friend gave me this little fairy door for my birthday. She has one propped up against a tree in her yard and thought I could do the same. I decided to do something different instead. Today I reconfigured the tableau and planned a few new plants. I just can't decide if I should paint or embellish the house in some way.

Blazer Game

Spent last evening watching the Blazers beat the Celtics while chaperoning some really great kids who earned a reward for awesome grades. We had a great time, and the win was icing on the cake!

Spring Break...

in Oregon means anything goes weather wise, even as we pray for sun. This year we had rain, wind, hail and finally some sunshine. As for the last several years, we spent the week at the Dunes.

Brotherly Love

The kittens are growing fast. They have a new windwo perch (had to save the window treatments) and they spend a great deal of time hanging out watching the bird and squirrels feed.

Crocus

Spring is in the air. Monday was absolutely beautiful. I had the day off and opened up the windows and back door to let some fresh air in. Today, when I arrived home from work I noticed that the crocus are starting to pop in the yard. I'm ready for spring.

Kittens

Losing Kit in November was really hard. I miss him, and probably always will. And the house was just too quiet. Thanks to the generosity of a friend, I now have plenty of noise and chaos. Charlie and Greyson arrived this weekend. They are brothers and about seven months old.

Charlie

Greyson

The boys are settling in and I'm remembering what it's like to have kittns again after all these years.

Those Moments - Challenger Disaster

Thirty years ago today the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after taking off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It became one of my "Where were you when?" moments.

I was sitting in the library with my classmates watching the launch on television. We were excited by the prospect of a teacher, and ordinary person (astronauts were extrodinary) being launched into space. The media had been hyping the mission for weeks. We all watched in anticipation. Up it went and then it was gone.

I don't remember who I was sitting with that day. I don't remember what channel we were watching (this was before cable tv and internet). I do remember the on air reports hesitating to announce that the shuttle was gone and that those seven people were dead.

Almost 18 months later, on a class trip to Washington DC, we visited Arlington National Cemetery and saw the memorial to those men and women.

In 2008, I visited Arlington again and the Challenger memorial had been joined by another, honoring the astronauts of the Columbia disaster in 2003. 

Two similar events, (Challenger exploded shortly after take off. Columbia shortly before landing) seventeen years apart that really bookend the shuttle program in the United States. Thirty years ago the prosepct of going into space was exciting and captured the interest of people. Today, it probably never crosses my students' minds.

The Challenger disaster keeps coming back into my life. It' one of "those moments." Last summer while visiting the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama I found a wall of mission patches and pins for sale. I love label pins and I wanted one, but only one. I wanted the pin from that day in 1986. It took some searching, but I found it. 

Rest in peace Challenger Crew. You are not forgotten.

And they're back!

The gobblers are back in the neighborhood. I'm pretty sure it's part of the same flock of juveniles who were hanging around last fall.

Race Day

This morning my friend Tina and I braved the wet, participating in the 17th Annual Cascade Half Marathon events. No...we don't run, and we don't do 13.1 miles. We take advantage of the short 2 mile walk, as we have for the last several years. We started with the 10K in 2011 and that was not fun.  I missed 2012 due to a broken foot. From there we've done the two miles. Get it done in 30 minues, eat some soup and home to do whatever for the rest of the day. It's a good January tradition.