Holiday Festivities and Flu

It was all going so well... everyone together, the matching PJs, the family gift exchange, long walks, good food and games,  Then the day at the coast... then three down with the flu and our holiday festivities were curtailed. But happy holidays anyway! Click here for photos from our Escape Room adventure, craft classes, river and beach walks, Hanukkah with the Salsburg-Romeros (our 15th anniversary), and more.  

Coastal Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Drew, Grace and Fig in Bandon, on Oregon's south coast. Click here for photos. The first day of our visit was blustery, but the rest of the weekend was unusually mild and dry for late November. 

Meanwhile in Portland, Emily and Coleman were busy getting ready for Christmas, and Jake and Elise were dodging snowstorms in Iowa and Minnesota.

Fall Fun

 

Sharing some highlights from September and October... including my trip to Minneapolis to visit Jake; Jake's trip to Denver where he got to spend some time with Arthur, Sarah and Nathan; Emily's time in Bend for a counseling workshop; and the start of nursing school for Drew and Grace in Ashland. Click here for more photos. 

 

Long Walks and Long Necks

This weekend we finished walking the 30+ mile Wildwood Trail through Portland's Forest Park and enjoyed a lovely harvest dinner/squash party at Emily's house. Click here for hiking photos. Day 1, we walked 18 miles from Newberry Road to Fire Lane 3, then returned to Fire Lane 3 on Day 2, walking the final 14 miles to the Washington Park Veteran's Memorial/Zoo. Thankfully, the days were not consecutive, but two weeks apart. 

Here are photos from the harvest dinner Emily and Coleman hosted, which featured squash lovingly grown by Emily and served many ways, all delicious. 

For our off weekend in between hiking the Wildwood Trail, we visited Ashland, Oregon, to see Drew and Grace in their new home. Photos from Ashland. We hiked around Lithia Park and Mount Ashland, saw the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, and got to see the campus of Southern Oregon University where Drew and Grace will soon start their accelerated nursing program.

Meanwhile up north, Jake got to do some volunteer beekeeping to cap off the summer, enjoyed some time with Elise's family and hosted Emily for a visit. Click here for photos. 

More Summer Travels

Emily and I visited Indiana for a few days in early August. Click here for photos. The one above is a view of the Ohio River from Veraestau Historic Site in Aurora.

Next stop, New Mexico. Click here for photos from our time in Santa Fe visiting Tim and Di. The photo below in front of the fireplace at La Fonda has become a required shot. We had our photo taken there in June of 2001, on our 10th Anniversary, again in July of 2008 with the kids and now in August of 2025.

Click here for a mix of summer photos that include the recent trip Drew and Grace made to Wallowa Lake in Eastern, Oregon, a couple of Renaissance Fairs, Emily's trip to Minneapolis to visit Jake and Elise, and more. 

Up next, Drew and Grace will be heading to Ashland in a few weeks to start nursing school.

North Shore

We spent a great week in Minnesota and Ontario - one that started in Minneapolis celebrating the 4th of July with Jake and Elise and ended in Duluth, also with Jake and Elise. In between, we explored lots of scenic spots along Lake Superior's North Shore, including Split Rock Lighthouse pictured below.

Click here for photos from our North Shore drive, Duluth to Thunder Bay. And click here for photos of our time in Minneapolis and Duluth, which was hosting its annual Festival of Sail during our visit, plus a lakeside high diving competition.

White Salmon Weekend

All these years living in Oregon, yet we've never really spent much time exploring the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge.  Click here for photos from our long weekend in White Salmon. We toured Bonneville Dam (pictured above); hiked Natural Bridges, Coyote Wall and Catherine Creek; visited the Maryhill Art Museum, its replica of Stonehenge (pictured below) and a nearby winery called Waving Tree; and stumbled across Schreiner Farm, a cattle ranch near Lyle that doubles as a drive-through exotic animal park.  

We ended our trip in Hood River and hiked the Mosier Plateau Trail. From either side of the river, the views were great, though much of the weekend was unseasonably cool and cloudy, making Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams a bit hard to spot. 

Click here to see what the kids have been up to and how everyone celebrated the summer solstice - Jake and Elise took in a solstice parade in Minneapolis, Drew and Grace checked out the campus of Southern Oregon University in Ashland where they'll attend nursing school this Fall, and Emily and Coleman attended a family reunion in Trinity County, California.  

A Weekend of Roses and Dragons

 

It's Rose Festival Weekend in Portland, which means parades, fleet week, dragon boat racing and lots of sunshine.  Click here for photos from our weekend on and around the water, cheering on the Willamette Wave Riders, sailing and enjoying the festivities. 

 

Victoria by Land and Sea

Drew and Pat saw a lot of Victoria and the Strait of Juan De Fuca these past two weekends, as they competed with Team Jugo in the Oregon Offshore (Astoria to Victoria) then Swiftsure (Victoria to Neah Bay and back) sailing races. Jugo is the boat on the left below. 

Click here for photos from both race weekends, which in addition to sailing, involved lots of long walks to see the peacocks and Moss Lady in Beacon Hill Park (pictured below) and explore the city. 

Joshua Tree

We had a great long weekend in the desert exploring Joshua Tree National Park. Click here for photos. We hiked to FortyNine Palms Oasis (pictured below), Arch, Heart and Skull Rocks, Hidden Valley, Barker Dam and Wall Street Mill. 

We also drove up to Key View lookout (pictured below), which offered a view of the San Andreas Fault (the dark horizontal line running across the middle of the frame) and to the southern end of the park where the Mojave Desert transitions to the Colorado and the landscape shifts dramatically from Joshua Trees to the equally unusual Cholla Cactus. 

In addition to Joshua Tree NP, we checked out a few local attractions, including Pioneer Town, the World Famous Crochet Museum and a beautiful desert sculpture by Daniel Popper called, Transmission (pictured below). 

Oh... and that dust storm was pretty crazy! Thankfully the 30+ mph winds settled down after the first day of our trip. 

Cape Disappointment

We celebrated Pat's birthday weekend with a trip to the coast... Cape Disappointment State Park, on the Washington State side of the infamous Columbia Bar. Click here for photos. And click here for a mix of other recent photos - sailing, biking, hiking, fishing and just generally enjoying Spring. 

Signs of Spring and a Roadtrip

The cherry blossoms are blooming in Portland, and Jake is off to new adventures. The picture above was taken near Bozeman, Montana, about halfway into a road trip from Portland to Minneapolis, where Jake will be starting a new job. Drew kindly accompanied him on the first part of his journey, which earned him a souvenir t-shirt. 

Jake has officially become the first person in our family to have visited the state of North Dakota, where he got (safely) up close with some buffalo. Click here for more photos from the boys' trip and a few other recent activities, including a farewell dinner we had ahead of Jake's departure. 

We posted this album in a previous blog entry but added to it as winter transitioned into spring, so sharing it again. The weather has been typically all over the place, as it always is in March in Portland... wet, warm, wet. 

A final note of congratulations to Drew, who celebrated a birthday in March, and to Drew and Grace for being accepted into the Accelerated Nursing Program at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) - an opportunity that will take them to Ashland, Oregon for 14-months starting in September.