From sea to mountain top to desert, then home.

Next trip to Oregon, I am going to pack every imaginable type of clothes. So far, I've been waaaay off, in regards to the weather. When we left Lincoln, it was a very humid 79 degrees, at 3:30 a.m. Phoenix was 107, when we landed. I think it was still in the 90s when I got to the airport, Sat. a.m. Gee shorts and tank tops should have been all I needed, right?! WRONG! Sunday, I ended up shopping for a second pair of jeans and a hoodie. It was cool and cloudy in Portland. We were leaving for the coast Monday morning, which I knew would be a bit colder. Put it this way, if you've ever been in Davis/Sacramento in the summer, when it's 90+, then visited San Francisco, you'll know what I mean. (To loosely quote Mark Twain; "The coldest winter day was a summer day in San Francisco.") Yep, those shorts and tanks are not going to be weather appropriate.

Monday morning, Chris, Kim (sister), and Bobbie (mom) picked us up, then we headed for Lincoln City, OR. This is "the coast" to Oregonians. I've quickly learned why. If you say "beach" most people think of Southern California beaches with lots of sand and sun.

First call of business in Lincoln City; figure out where I can get internet connection. I had an assignment due, and a test I could only take on Tuesday. The front desk assures me that the I could connect from the lobby, or at the very least the restaurant about 50 feet across the parking lot. Wi-fi is such a funny thing, so I've learned, anyway. I go down to the lobby to get online. Simple enough, right? Thanks to the fogginess, I couldn't get online in the lobby. Off to the restaurant. The restaurant had a little wi-fi area, in the corner, of course. Oh well, at least I could get the assignment done, and test taken.

We were going to spend some time on the beach, but the weather didn't really cooperate. It was foggy/misty and cool. From the hotel room, you could see the waves roll in from a greater distance, than the beach. Since it was high tide, the waves were huge! So we played cards, instead. After dinner, "the kids" went to the casino. Penny slots can certainly make a $20 go a long ways. I like playing Blackjack, but $5/hand is more than I wanted to spend.

Tuesday, "the kids" drove down to the outlet mall. On the way, Kim's brakes started acting up. So we ended up at the mechanics. Fortunately, it was walking distance to the outlet mall. (after eating at the little Japanese place, I needed the walk!) Four hours later, the mechanics were done with the car. Oh well, what can ya do? After dinner, we went to the casino for a little while. I was playing penny Keno, when I hit 8 out of 9 numbers! $330 pot! Guess who's buying breakfast!

Wednesday, we headed back to Portland. On the way, Terry and I decided to get matching tattoos, using the rest of my winnings. He called the place he usually goes to, to see how late they are open..."all night" just as well have been the answer. I've posted the pictures, so take a look!

Thursday, Terry had some appointments and I had homework to work on. So that was kind of a dead day. We rented a movie "Superhero" and stayed in for the evening. I wasn't so sure about this movie, at first. I hadn't laughed that hard at a movie in a looong time! (Highly recommended, but not for someone younger than 13.)

Friday, Chris picked us up, and we drove up to Mt. Hood. Such a beautiful drive. I wore shorts, but (knowing my luck) brought sweats to pull on, just in case. Even riding the ski lift, wasn't bad in shorts. You could tell the altitude difference, by the temperature drop. It still wasn't too cold for shorts. The adrenaline junkie was yelling "yahoo!", while the other two were hanging on for dear life. (won't mention names...I'll let you figure that on out.) At the top of the ski lift, there was snow on the ground. That was fun!...running around in shorts with snow on the ground. There were a lot of snowboarders and summer skiers. The view was just absolutely amazing! The mountains and hills just seemed to roll on forever.

From Mt. Hood, we drove further east to central Oregon. They wanted to show me the high desert. It reminded me of the high desert in Nevada, except there's more shrubs and small pine-looking trees. On the way back, we noticed a small forest fire on the top of a small mountain. Then a helicopter was spotted with a water pouch hanging from it. Just as we were approaching the river, the helicopter came in for some water. Got a good picture of that one! The drive back to Portland was really beautiful, with the setting sun hitting the trees along the road.

When we got back to Portland, I had to pack up to be ready to fly to Phoenix the following afternoon. Yet another, too short trip.

The flight from Portland to Phoenix was non-stop, and uneventful. Sunday morning, Sherrie and David, with the girls, picked me up at the hotel. As planned, we went to the mall, so the girls could get some souvenirs. Jaydee hit every "fashion" store; Kendra followed David into the sports stores; Sherrie and I just kinda followed the crowd. Sherrie showed us a place called "BlackMarket Minerals." This was a cool little shop. There were all sorts of rocks, beads and exotic carvings. Kendra bought some Japanese Iron balls, and a fascinating black Onyx egg. When the egg is held up to the light, it turns a cloudy brown color. Very cool! I bought a Hematite ring for myself, and fun little flip-flop key chains as gifts.

After the mall, we were off to the airport. We were some of the lucky ones. The waiting area by the gate we were assigned to, was filled with people on standby. The storms hitting Chicago, Philadelphia and Omaha were delaying incoming flights and messing things up a bit. I was a bit nervous about possible bad turbulance, but we were blessed with a somewhat smooth flight. A couple of bumps, and a bit more during landing, in Omaha, but that was it.

Once again...home safely.