Beautiful Oregon

We left the redwoods of California and headed to Oregon. We stayed a couple of nights at Lincoln City, OR where we watched a young lady "blowing a glass float" to be used at her home. Since no one was with her, I took pictures of the various steps with the hope that we could somehow get the pictures to her for her memory book. We also visited one of the casinos but found out the food was not as good as in Pahrump neither was it as inexpensive. A;so made our usual deposits.

Then we headed on to Salem to visit with our friends, Dave and Marlene Kohanes and Bill and Margaret Cook. We stayed at Hee Hee Illahee (when translated means A Place of Fun.) Dave and Marlene had already planned a trip out of town so we did not get to spend much time with them

However, believe me when I say Bill and Margaret really showed us everything that visitors would want to see in the area. We traveled up to Columbia Gorge which is full of beautiful water falls. On the way, Bill pointed out Mt. Hood which was covered with snow. We did not get close to Mt. Hood as we were going in the other direction.

We went to visit an Iris farm and I do not think I have ever seen such beautiful Iris and every color under the sun. The one I was most impressed with was rust colored with large blooms. We visited a peony farm and here again there were so many different colors, it was unbelieveable. One was red, not the magenta or pink or white but a fire engine red.

We left the beautiful flowers to visit covered bridges and you might know this was the one day that they had the worse storm they have had in ages. The wind blew and it really rained hard. (Should I say here that when we got home Chris had left the window on the driver's side of the car down).....Wet, wet, wet. ...Oh well, what's a little water.

We went to Mount Angel and the Monastery (Margaret said this was to make up for going to the Brothel in Pahrump, NV). Before arriving at the Monastery, we stopped in the town of Mount Angel where at 11 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, and 7 pm. the bells begin to chime, the music in the Glockenspiel tower began to playand the doors open and it was like watching a giant clock. Each of the figures that appeared after the doors opened represented a specific period of history in this small town. It starts with the Native Americans who came to Mount Angels to communicate with the Great Spirit and is followed by figures depicting the founders of both the civil and religious communities. We're told they also have a huge Octoberfest celebration here.

Well, on to the Monastery. It was like walking on the campus of a university. EXCEPT, you did not see any students... As twelve noon approached the bells began to toll (never did find out why they tolled so long), we did see the Benedictine Monks approaching for their prayer time. We were able to walk in the "lobby" and watch while the Monks sang "across" the room to each other. We did not stay for the entire thing as there were other places we wanted to visit. On one side of the campus were three bells which we understand were brought over from Engleberg in Switzerland.

There are also Benedictine Sisters but they live in the town of Mount Angel and help with unfortunate children and other unfortunate citizens in the town.

We went to a Fish Hatchery where we saw where fish eggs were incubated and read how they progressed to become fish and were sent to various places. We saw Steelheads, Chinooks and salmon going upstream in the locks at the hatchery. They were being counted by man sitting in front of a narrow window with a computer and counted as the fish came through the narrow lock. Some of the Steelheads are tagged so they can trace them from the time they leave the hatchery until they return to spawn. One Sturgeon in the Sturgeon Pond was ten feet long and 450 pounds. There was also a trout pond and I have never seen so many fish in one place.

Well, on to the next adventure with our friends. Margaret arranged for me to attend a Stampin' Up card meeting with her up-demonstrator. It was a pot luck lunch and we made six cards (or I should says items since one was a trio of boxes in a basket. What fun I had and what new things I learned.

Bill and Chris went to the "Evergreen Aviation Museum" specifically to see the "Spruce Goose". Chris said it was so large he could not get it on one picture. Imagine that!

On Sunday, Chris and I went to Church in Salem and then Margaret gave me an preview of what she was going to do at her card club the following Saturday. I made cards and you cannot imagine how good it made me feel to stamp and glue again.

I hope I have not left out anything but this was a busy, busy week which we enjoyed so very much.

We left on Monday morning heading Eastward.