Backyard creations

Someday I will post about our trip home, but not today.  It has been unseasonably cold this summer, even for Portland, yet we still have reasons to be glad to be back.  We especially love being in a house again; I would not have been happy spending a whole summer in an apartment.  Backyards are bliss, and Eleanor has been off creating new homes and transport devices for her tiny dolls. 

Oregon Berries

One of the reasons we love Portland, is easy access to Sauvie Island. Located at the conflux of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, and the size of Manhattan, Sauvie Island is all farmland and wildlife preserves and it is a great place to spend time on a farm.  Two hours of picking gave us 18 pounds of rasp-, marion-, and blue- berries.

State lines and other signs

We’ve been having too much fun to keep up with our digital selves lately.  But as I have some time to kill here on the lawn of the Courthouse in Lakeview, OR (today's picnic spot) I'll start with a post of some of the self-portraits we’ve taken along the way.  I especially like the subset of state lines and other signs, so here they are as a set.

walking the line



also where we entered Arizona



Oregon!

Goodbye!

This is me signing off, before Mike packs the computer.  We will take about two weeks to drive home, passing through a host of National Parks on our way.  Here is about what I think the trip will look like (Mike did the planning on this trip, so I may be a little off in my timing). 

Leave Friday, June 29 at 3pm.  Eat German food and sleep in Fredericksburg.
June 30 - drive 6 hours to Carlsbad, NM
July 1 - tour the caves.  Then swim and sleep.
July 2 - drive north to Sante Fe, about 5 hours?  Swim, sleep
July 3 - drive north to Farmington but stop in Chaco Culture National Park on the way to see ruins
July 4 - drive to Mesa Verde.  Explore, stay there.
July 5 - drive West through Monument Valley, sleep in Kayenta, AZ
July 6 - drive North through Bryce Canyon. 
July 7 - explore Bryce Canyon sites
July 8 - drive into Zion.
July 9 - explore Zion sites.
July 10 - Drive to Great Basin National Park.  Stay really late to star gaze with the rangers, then at like midnight pull into our hotel an hour from the park.  Whew.
July 11 - drive to Winnemuka, Nevada.  The embodiment of the middle of nowhere.
July 12 - drive to Klamath Falls.  sleep here.
July 13 - drive to Crater Lake and explore.  Drive on to Roseburg and sleep there.
July 14 - arrive HOME!!!!!! This is a Saturday.

Wish us luck!!!!

Blues on the Green at Zilker Park

The packers come in the morning, yet tonight we found time to enjoy music in the park with good friends. It has been a week of so many goodbyes, and it was great to see these friends one last time.  BTW - it is really hot.  106 today. 

Paleontology museum at UT

The Texas Memorial Museum is UT's dinosaur and fossil collection which we finally visited this week as we've been powering through our "must do" list for Austin.  It is a good collection and it is small enough to enjoy it all before you tucker out.  We got to pet a real dinosaur femur.

Hot!

It is crayon melting hot here this weekend, literally, and we headed out to one of the spring fed public pools in central Austin.  This time we went to Deep Eddy, only a few minutes from here.  It's a public pool the size of a soccer field and 3/4 of it is shallow end (3 foot ish).  It rocks!  It is crisply cold, and it has plenty of room to play even with hot weather crowds.  Portland really needs this.

partial view of Deep Eddy

a crayon experiment on our balcony