Evergreen Aviation Museum

Hi All,

We worked eight of the last nine days, earning ourselves five consecutive days off again. This time we are off to Portland, OR. 

Along the way, we visited the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinville. This huge museum has original aircraft, many in flying condition, from the earliest days of aviation to modern military and commercial jets. 

The centerpiece of the collection is the enormous Spruce Goose built by Howard Hughes near the end of WW2. With eight turboprop engines, this craft has a wingspan greater than any other aircraft ever built. You can Google "Spruce Goose" to get the whole story in Wikipedia.

One aircraft had a wonderful history. It was a C-47, the military equivalent to the venerable DC-3. This plane was built in 1943, dropped paratroopers over France on D-Day and later flew over 5,000,000 miles as a commercial airliner. 

Carl enjoyed this even more than the Oregon Country Fair ;-).

Love
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Spruce Goose towers over other aircraft and our tour guide

B-17 Bomber from WW2

P-38 Lightning-notice the drip pans under each engine. They take these babies out and fly them!

P-40 Flying Tiger from the China Theater in WW2

ME-262 German Fighter- first operational jet aircraft

Soviet Era MIG-29

Lunar Module from the Apollo Program. Carl's first job after college was working on this spacecraft at Grumman

Replica of the Mars Rovers Spirit & Opportunity

Oregon Country Fair

Hi All,

Friday we attended the most unique country fair ever. Held in a huge wooded area with rough planked stalls for vendors, the OCF easily displays its hippy roots including occasional whiffs of marajuana. Nearly 1,000 vendors selling hand made items and lots of food stalls. No fried dough here! Instead there was lots of tofu, tahini and tabuli. Lots of people in creative costumes and lots of people in nearly no costume at all. We had been "warned" that some women would be topless. This was the case though in addition to lovely young women with beautiful bodies, there were lots of older, heavier women and men we would have preferred to be fully clothed. We have been to many fairs with face painting booths but this was our first with a breast painting booth!

There were also seven or eight performance stages with continuous, varied music and other entertainment throughout the day.

Sandy had a great time shopping and when Carl got bored he would people watch.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Big Crowds and Quirky booths

Some even 2 Stories

Lots of Tie Dye

And Lots of Skin

And Costumes

Back to "Work"

Hi All,

After our wonderful trip south we were back at Heceta Head. Unfortunately, there was little wildlife to show people, a few distant sea lions and less than a dozen murres and cormorants. With our collection of murre eggs we can still tell the murre story even if there are no birds in view. 

Love
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Univ. of Oregon field trip for international students (19 kids from 15 countries).  One young woman was headed for MIT in Cambridge MA for graduate studies in Urban Planning

More Coastal Beauty

Hi All,

After a lazy morning we did some shopping in Brookings then hiked some of the Oregon Coastal Trail and explored all if the viewpoints for ten miles north. The scenery defies description (see below) and this was just ten miles of a 300 mile long state!!

Love
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Harris Beach State Park

Natural Bridges

Whale head Rocks

Looking North

Redwood Country

Hi All,

We drove south into California today; our first stop was Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge. We set up the scope and looked at birds on an offshore rock, just like we do on days we work ;-).

Castle Rock is further offshore so we couldn't see the auklets we knew were there.

It is a beautiful rock and we saw Stellar and California sea lions and elephant seals.

The murre colony was enormous. The sign said 150,000 birds.

Next we drove to Klamath River Overlook where gray whales had been seen every day this week. We got the gray part as the fog rolled in but no whales. There really is ocean down there. 

This redwood is known as "Big Tree"

The groves of coastal redwoods are as magnificent as they are impossible to photograph.

The forest was carpeted with ferns

Our last stop was a beach walk at Gold Bluff Beach. This, of course, is Gold Bluff.

Love 
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Rogue River Jet Boat

Hi All,

Today we drove north to Gold Beach and took the 104 mile jet boat trip on the Rogue River. The boat did loops and spins until we were thoroughly soaked. Wildlife sightings were great as well, including river otter, beaver, deer and black bear plus bald eagles, osprey, kingfisher  common merganser, cackling geese and a spotted sandpiper.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Jerry's Jet Boat

The boat from yesterday's Trip

Patterson Bridge

Entering a canyon

Another even narrower canyon

View upriver from our lunch stop in Agnes, OR

More wild river with few signs of civilization (if you don't count our 1,000 HP jet boat)

This is as far as we go. Rocks block the river at mile 52.

We then flew back downstream 

South to the Border

Hi All,

On Monday we drove the coach 170 miles south to Brookings Oregon, just six miles north of the California border. From here we will spend the week running the Rogue River and touring the California redwoods.

The coastal scenery down here is jaw-dropping. The offshore island dot the water with innumerable shapes including one that looks like half-dome in Yosemite.

Across the country in Florida, Wyatt was showing everyone how to catch flounder.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone