Weekend With Grandma & Papa

Hey, it's been awhile since we wrote anything here but I guess we've been too busy with school, homework, soccer practice and soccer games to find any time to write. Well, over the weekend I brought both dogs and both boys to spend a weekend in Astoria. (Wendi made her annual pilgrimage to the beach with her girlfriends and did not attend.) The biggest drawback of doing the Astoria trip this time of year is that both boys missed their soccer games on Saturday.

The trip was great. Both Casey and Alex spent some quality time with the grandparents. They even got to ring the bell of the Astoria Trolley. Later in the weekend we all got to visit with my brother and his family. They have a kiddo about Casey's age and the two boys played non-stop for at least an hour. Needless to say, Casey slept most of the three hour drive back home to Corvallis.

My friend Gene and I had a little time to go Geo Caching in the Astoria area. We were able to pick up 18 or so. The best hidden one was underneath a sand dollar buried in the sand! The coolest hide was off one of the docks where someone had "hidden" it on a rope, submerged in the Columbia River.

Family Reunion July 25th-27th

The Gale-Sedlacek-Westerberg family reunion was held this year in Cascade Locks Oregon. We usually have lots of food and fun and this year was no exception. We try to look for places with a pool and the KOA in Cascade Locks met the bill. In researching campgrounds, we knew that the Union-Pacific railroad has a mainline that travels the Gorge and comes quite close to the camp. We were told that "after a few trains go by we wouldn't even notice it". Well, we noticed it. And noticed it. And continued to notice it, all day, and all of the night.

All the kids (big and small) played so hard both in the pool and in the campground. At night we had campfires and got a game of Catchphrase started. During the day, the Gale family went on a hike to search out more geocaches and to exercise the dogs as well as the humans. We also spend some time at the fish hatchery, where we met Herman The Sturgeon. Herman was longer than both Casey and Alex laid end to end.

We have pictures but alas, I don't have them on this computer right now. We'll publish some of them as soon as we get them.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Yesterday was spent locating and logging geo-caches in the Waterloo area just east of Lebanon as well as lots of fun in the sun on the Santiam river with a friend of ours and her two small rafts. We let the dogs play in the river first while the kids looked for treasure. Then we moved to a little better location where we could "put in the river". Needless to say we used lots of sunscreen.

We found seven of eight geo-caches we went in search of. One was listed as being easy but it eluded us. After reading some of the logs others posted, I think I know where to look next. If you want to know more about geo-caching, go to www.geocaching.com.


Sorry, no pics.

Day 6 Saturday June 28th

This is the last day of the ride. We started fairly strong and finished even stronger. Another day with a tail wind! This first picture is of the south end of Willapa Bay. The next picture is of Astoria with Saddle Mountain shrouded in the background with smoke. The third picture is of the Colombia River where I stopped to fix my first flat of the season. The last series of pictures are in Astoria enjoying a cool glass of sparkling apple cider and a celebratory bike lift. All total, 6 days and 323 miles. Up next, I think we are riding part of the Gorge.

Day 3 Wednesday June 25th Part 2

While the big boys rode down the coast, Wendi and the boys went with some friends further south and stayed a couple of night at the beach in some yurts. As you can see from these pics, they had a fantastic time both climbing around in the trees and at the beach getting very wet and sandy. Lastly, a nice warm campfire warmed and dried everyone. Of course the smores were a nice addition.

Day 3 Wednesday June 25th Part 1

Today we went from Bogachiel State Park to Quinault Lake, a total of 65.4 miles. Lots of this ride took place next to the beach though the last third went back inland. This first picture is of a bald eagle on a rock. We saw plenty of these wonderful creatures throughout our week. The second picture is of my buddies looking for a photo op.

Day 2 Tuesday June 24th

Tuesday we rode from Port Angeles to Bogachiel State Park, a total of 70.6 miles; Our longest day with the tallest mountain. This first picture was taken as the sun rose and hit our tent about 5:50am or so. Our tent is so huge it has three separate wings on the inside. We could easily sleep three families in there. Of course it takes a village to put it up but we don't mind. It allows our dogs to have a wing all to themselves. The second picture is of our two dogs, Raini and Bear. They are both well behaved and a joy to have in camp. This third picture is of Lake Crescent. We rode around the south side of the lake. The road here was decent if not very wide. The last picture posted is of one of my riding buddies as he gets off the bike to push the caution button to start the flasher lights. The sign warns bicycle riders that large RVs and log trucks use this eleven mile stretch of rode characterized by blind corners and very narrow roads. After the lake there was a climb up to 1200 feet and what was supposed to be a 30 mile descent though the head wind took the sails out of that excitement pretty quick. Once we made it to Forks, it was pretty short work to make it to the state park.

Day 1 Monday June 23rd

Day 1 went from Port Townsend to Port Angeles for a total of about 46 miles. We got a late start as we spent considerable time at camp getting ready and once we finally arrived at Port Townsend we spent the better part of an hour looking for a Geo Cache. We did find it but we ended up with pretty scratched legs. The ride itself was great. We stayed on Highway 20 until it met up with Highway 101 going up and down several rather large "hills". The highway 101 part went fine as well though there was lots of traffic. We ended up in camp around 4:30 and had a fantastic dinner.

Bike Ride Start

This is me and a couple of buddies starting in Port Townsend Washington on our way, via bike, to Astoria Oregon in six days. Our families did the ride support so we didn't have to carry gear with us.