The Fort George Incident

So I walk into this bar and Shorty stuffs a Goldfish in my mouth. Not just ANY goldfish. Note the captial "G." It's a Brand Name cracker, and he was good, too. Shorty, I mean. He caught the action, made the grab, and WHOMP. Right in the kisser. The Goldfish wasn't bad, either.

One for me, several for Shorty.

Yeah, I know. This one is out of focus, but I needed pix for my story. You can see how deftly Shorty (Teagan) handles pieces of food. In this case, I think it was bread. Speaking of "right in the kisser," the kid had had a little accident with a bathtub and a mat the night before. The doc said all was fine, but he still had a bit of a fat lip. Gave it to himself. He seems to be entering one of those stages.

I think we all cherished these moments. It wasn't long before Wiggle Worm was outa there and Mommy and Daddy had to put down their burritos and play herd dog.

The classic shoe phone - always in style.

Byeeeeeeeee! See ya around, Kid.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Aug 26, Astoria to Bend: On the Road

Thus begins a mini-adventure. Not that we expected anything to be difficult, but it would be the first time Laurel and I and Teagan would travel from Astoria to Bend to see Lee, aka Dad and Grandpa. First stop, Coffee Girl on Pier 39. I couldn't help but take a photo in this setting. I was a bit sorry to be leaving our wonderful weather and the coast I so love for dry and possibly hot parts inland.

My first glimpse of Teagan for the day was in the dark cave of the SUV. Dark because we're parked inside of the Pier 39 building.

Ooooh. Micky, Minnie, and Donald. I hadn't liked them so much as a child, but it seems they've morphed with modern technology into educational animals rather than ones that simply get caught in stupid situations and make impossible contortions with their bodies to get out of trouble. The colors are nice. As long as Teagan can't see the road from his car seat, he can learn about angles and the formation ducks fly in. I'm wondering if his first words will be, " . . . two sides of the triangle."

Same-old, same-old in a sense, but always different, and always worth a picture. I love being able to see the ships just about every day.

A few hours later and nearing Mount Hood, the clouds were interesting. In this case, the white thing on the left is INSIDE the car. Oh, well. I just like taking the photos.

More cloud formations nearing the mountain.

You get only a few good camera-worthy glimpses of Mount Hood as you skirt the old volcano. Today the glaciers are pared down to a bare minimum from where they were a decade or two ago.

Nice cloud formation, beautiful Mount Hood. Skirting the mountain by road.

Here's an underpass with pedestrian overpass adjacent to the mountain. It's attractive, with each design element featuring an animal or image. I hoped to get an animal in the camera sights as the car swooped past, but I think I got toboggans. On another trip, I believe I got a fish.

The small town of Government Camp is just off the main road. We stopped at the part of Government Camp that sits alongside the highway to use the facilities and take a break. As we pulled into a parking spot, a small animal (apparently a vole) scampered out of the weeds and stopped still. I didn't want to scare it, and my first photos were from farther away - as close as I could get with the optical zoom. After awhile, as it hadn't moved, I crept closer. It still didn't move, and I began to get the feeling it wasn't going to. "How weird," we both said, "It just crawled out of the grass right in front of our eyes and DIED, or what?"

Apparently so. This is my close-up of the cute little vole, but now it's a cute dead vole. I didn't touch it, but I did stomp on the ground a mere foot from the animal now baking in the sun at the top of the pass. Too bad. How strange. I wonder if it had been poisoned.

This is the view of Mt. Hood and the ski lift from the road at Government Camp. It looks beautiful, and today it was hot - about 95 degrees.

Here's another view of Mount Hood. For the record, this is the end of August, 2009, and the snow and ice is certainly depleted.

Laurel and Teagan get some exercise. I'd already checked to see about brain freezes or smoothies, but the place was out of ice cream and their freezer was broken. Hot coffee? Not today, thanks.

We had expected to see a lot of this, but there really wasn't much, so it didn't slow us down too much. Another two hours to go. Everything was going fine.

Past Mount Hood, down the slope and onto the high desert plains. It was August tan, gold and brown, and also hazy from fires. This particular short stretch is one of my favorites. It's in a slight draw with a marsh at the bottom. The branches of the marsh plants turn red and other interesting colors in most seasons. At one time it burned, and I always like the contrast of the tortured dark trees in front of Mount Jefferson, but unless one stops, there's only a fraction of a second to get a good photo from a moving car, and this time I didn't. In order to walk to a good photo stop, you need to park off the rise and walk on the narrow siding. That wasn't happening today, so I'm happy with the memory-book photo I did get.

Another photo of Mount Jefferson as we passed it, and then I put the camera aside for awhile even though there are wonderful rock formations between here and Bend.

I came up with one last photo, which I just love, in the valley at Warm Springs. I wouldn't know how to describe this feathery image with its subtle color and perfectly-formed shadow, so I'll simply say, I really like this one.

And on to Bend.

April 26, Astoria: The good, the bad, and breakfast at The Pig

For the fourth photo on my new project, the Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo blog, I was looking for something quintessentially Astoria, something representative of the whole town on its hill - the trees, the buildings, the scope. I thought I might get it from the Safeway parking lot, as we were going to Starbucks anyway for coffee. But I found that what was quintessentially Astoria was the fact that the nice view was marred by power lines and bad lighting. I zoomed the lens and got a photo I liked (above), but it didn't give the essence of place that I was looking for.

Astoria is such a hodgepodge of the strikingly beautiful and the maddeningly, stupidly ugly. I guess what city isn't, but I notice it here because - I guess because the damage feels so much greater than other places I've been. I can examine the reasons later. What I was looking for here was the idea that when the sun comes out, the events seem to blossom. Astoria has stuff going on all the time, but the outdoor events are ready to pop now that the sun is out. Both Astoria and Warrenton were packed full with the Crab, Seafood and Wine Festival running from Friday through Sunday, and a classic car show in Warrenton. I loved seeing that the Astoria Sunday Market will be starting again on Mother's Day, but I don't know the date. I didn't know there were boating classes, but of course there would be, I'd just never thought about it. Their slogan on the sign ("Boating is fun - Safe boating is more fun") is certainly a good one for our current-filled river. It's good to know these things, but look what we've allowed to happen to our special vista. It's awful.

We'd gone to The Pig (technically The Pig 'n' Pancake) because we wanted a cheap breakfast with some eggs in it, and we didn't want to cook. It seems everyone attending the various events had the same idea. It was crowded, but the wait wasn't too long. Lee decided to color while we waited for Laurel, Teagan, and Jen to arrive. And he kept on until he finished. The crayons in the cup were distinctly limited: purple, orange, yellow, and something dark. He stuck to the orange and purple. Probably a good idea.

Nice work in progress.

Teagan is starting to extend himself into a broader world, taking more and more notice of people and things around him, and wanting to go there. The first thing he did when he was born was to fling his arms wide, kinda like they are here. At the birth, of course, I didn't touch. Here, I reached across the table and brought him over for a chat. He likes pushing his legs straight out and either trying to stand up on you or just going rigid and holding the pose. He's starting to be more fun, and soon he'll be into everything. I can hardly wait. Actually, I wonder what it will be like. He's been very mellow from Day One, but very alert and has agendas. Let's see where they go!

Boats, baby, and a brand new President!

If anyone wonders why my blogs often start with ships and boats, it's because ships and boats are often the first things that catch my attention in the morning. It's still a novelty to wake up, look out the window, and see the variety of them every day. I don't know what kind of boat the smaller Hickson is or what it was doing, but it dashed left out of sight, and then came back headed toward the dock at the Maritime Museum.

Later in the morning, I dropped by to see my little grandtapir. He'd just had a bath and Laurel was folding clothes. I asked if he still cried and screamed during bathtime, but she said no, he's getting used to it. He looked so tiny and adorable propped up by himself on the bed. The light was good and I took a few pictures before I picked him up. It's surprising how close things have to be for babies this age to see them, and we had a good time looking into each other's eyes for awhile before he got sleepy. I could see he was really watching my eyes and following them. It was fun.

Teagan's been growing. He's put on some weight, which is good - about two pounds, I think, which puts him over 7 lbs. and less than 8. He changes fast, so I don't know the exact statistics. You can check out his mom's blog for more details. I can't believe I'm doing this. I never had much use for babies before unless they had fur, feathers, or a carapace, and especially if they had spots and stripes. Those were my criteria for interesting babies. I'm happy to see that Teagan is at least lounging amid stripes, even though he isn't wearing them. For the uninitiated, I will give you this explanatory link: really, shouldn't a baby look more like this one? (follow the link). . . .

Or this . . . I'm getting used to him :)

Hmmmmm. (Yeah?)

Not having television, and having the inauguration come in the middle of my work day, I missed it, so I thought I'd record the newsstand version of the historic event. It was kind of cool turning around outside the post office and being reminded that TODAY WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT! I feel lucky and happy to be seeing this historic day. Like so many, I feel optimistic and I look forward with anticipation to what I hope will be a very different next four years. At least he sounds intelligent when he talks, and I do like looking at Michelle. She wears watchable clothing. I like that!

I liked the simplicity of the "Daily A's" front page. Here's another one.

I was still in front of the post office, and the tree reflected in my car window looked photogenic. Ever since Marcela said she looked for reflections in photos, I've been paying more attention to them. You can hardly miss this one, but you know, I almost opened up the car door without even thinking about it.

Back to Astoria

What struck me first was how brown and muddy the water was. I should have expected it, due to all the rain they had while I was in Bend, but I hadn't thought about that, only about whether there would be any flooding. Right here in our area, most of the water just runs into the river, taking mud an debris with it, of course. There were a few areas of minor flooding locally, but it was much worse in other areas not far from here. The water was really opaque, too. It's never clear enough to see much, but you could tell that even that visibility had diminished.

The Oriente Shine was resting comfortably on the river.

And the coots didn't seem to mind the conditions. Back in California, we used to call these birds "mud hens."

Lee and Laurel and I went to Coffee Girl for breakfast while James stayed home with Teagan. This is still one of the two places I really enjoy drinking coffee in Astoria.

Out the window, things were wet and dismal. I would have gone out on the deck for pictures and to look around, but it was one of the rare days I've seen where the doors to the outside were shut.

Inside the building at Pier 39, and just a few feet from Coffee Girl is a small museum of historic boats and local life. They have pictures and memorabilia of the days when Pier 39 was a "buzzing" (sorry) Bumblebee canning plant. It was actually Bumblebee Seafood's first cannery until it closed in 1996.

Coffee Girl still uses the original counter where the cannery workers (mostly women) ordered their coffee on breaks. You go in the door just to the right of the round sign.

When you leave or enter Coffee Girl, you pass through this open area inside the cannery building. A few new offices are moving in, and the museum and boats are to the left. The whole deal is at the end of Pier 39, sitting out in the river on pilings.

Here's looking back in the same general direction as the photo was taken above this one.

When we got back, James and Teagan were taking a snooze. I think Teagan was the snoozer, and James was watching TV. Teagan is just over a month old now. His actual due date was yesterday! He's doing great, as you can see. And he's a very nice baby, too!

Toward the end of the day, the weather came in again, and it was foggier and wetter than it had been during the day, which is saying it was pretty soggy. Although not pouring rain like it had been, it was not very inviting unless you happen to be a river animal of some kind.