Oceanside

Four days with the family at Oceanside was a great vacation. The weather was mild, we went for walks and hung out at the beach. Samantha and I got to ride to Cape Lookout together. Mom and Dad celebrated their 35th Anniversary, only 31 years to go for us! We also celebrated a bunch of birthdays and ate lots of cake all weekend long. Cousin Caitlin came in to town and stayed a couple nights and then came home with us too. The highlight was our first family charades game. Aside from moms addition of "Writing the Gettysburg Address" which I somehow conveyed successfully, it was a total party!
Other highlights were, hang gliders, eating sand, lighthouse, Octopus tree and yoga.

S24O

The bike camping retreat was a resounding success. We all sat through a great time management training at the office and then actually left on time for our ride to LL Stub Stewart State Park! The ride out found us at an impasse, literally. We figured it out and made our way down a country, gravel road to get back on track. The Banks/Vernonia trail was beautiful and tree covered taking us the rest of the way to the park. We checked in and found our campsites. After dinner we did a light-free night hike where I discovered the full force of my night blindness, it looked like this: and followed it up with some marshmallow roasting and chatting around the fire before bed.
The morning was perfect and we got some work done before we started back to Portland. Carl claims not to have pedaled from the top of the park entrance to the truss bridge, about 6 miles I think. It was the most amazingly mellow slope all the way back to Banks. We did have to stop for a blackberry break on the way. We capped the trip with a Zoo Bomb and rode home in the hot summer sun. Best day of work yet!

Upcoming and Updates

Tomorrow I am leading the new bike safety Ambassadors on a team building retreat in the form of a S24O to Stub Stewart State Park. This should be interesting as the weather report is HOT, HOT, HOT.

A long weekend with the family in Oceanside, OR will be a nice vacation before the chaos of another school year begins.

Clara is off to Rwanda for a month to make BTR a success. I hope. She'll be checking up on the bike shops and trying to locate two more potential sites. Also, COE and the Wooden Bike Classic will round out her visit.

The newsstand is moving forward, slowly, as they finalize funding for build out.

Juni's First Camping Trip

I had to work this last weekend at the first Cycle Oregon Weekend Kids Camp presented by the BTA at Ft. Stevens just ouside of Astoria, OR. It was a lot of fun and Samantha and June came out and camped with me. This was June's first camping trip and it was two nights too! She did great and we look forward to many more outdoor adventures.

Camp BTA


Night hike


There was a Civil War reenactment going on all weekend as well and they kept firing the cannons, they're really LOUD! The portable showers are in the background. I never thought I'd shower in semi trailer...not bad actually.


Part of the weekends events was a Jr. Ranger tour of the park ending at the wreck of the Peter Iredale. The best part though was this chunk of whale baleen, crazy!
...and wherever there is sand and water there is a crazy white dog known to many as Sampson, he ran his little ass off and for his efforts got a really good nights sleep.

Halfway to Texas

Samantha planned this hike with our friends Jason and Lacey from Seattle and we were going to meet halfway, go for a hike, catch up maybe stop for lunch and head home. Easy right?
Well, as it turns out the St. Helens area took quite a beating this spring and both parties ran into road closures, us from the south and they from the north. With no cell phone reception and a 2-hour drive back to I-5 we all got a little frazzled. The drive was beautiful though and we did meet eventually for a couple hours in a parking lot off I-5 to catch up.



A frustrating and hectic weekend was further salvaged when a cat-sitting client of Samantha's called on Sunday afternoon and offered us a pair of Lyle Lovett tickets for that evening at Edgefield. We both love Lyle so it was a no brainer. A little something to eat and a distant but clear view of the stage and a nice spot in the grass on what had to be the best evening this summer made for a relaxing night with good music.

Great!

We visited Yakima and got to spend time with the great grandparents




and the regular old grandparents too!

June thought it was pretty great all around!

We also saw "the kids", Lincoln & Sidney and they posed for this great brother-sister shot that any mom would swoon over, you can hear it now, "they're so well behaved."

Digest

Since my last post a couple weeks ago June has figured out that bottles aren't so bad

and is even starting to hold it while she eats. She found her feet too.

We got this cute picture of Sampson and June hanging out under the chair while gramma Brown was visiting.