Silver Falls State Park Hike, Witch's Castle and Papa Pete's

Mom and I got up around 6:30, went downstairs for our free continental breakfast, packed up our stuff and took it down to the tank.  We checked out and wanted to be at the state park before everyone and their dog came out since it was Memorial Day weekend and going to be a really warm day.

We plugged the address into Nuvi and followed the meandering road to the state park.  The lot was empty when we arrived except for the three other cars in the parking lot.  I walked up to the kiosk, paid our $5 and grabbed a map.  We got our hiking shoes on, put our water an snacks in our back packs, made sure mom had her camera and lenses and finally grabbed our hiking poles.  We locked the tank and headed to the stone circle trail head.  We parked in the west side of the park entrance so we had to orient our map and find the Rim Rail on the south side of the Trail of Ten Falls.  We were told to start here and this trail and then take the Canyon Trail on the way back to the parking lot.  It would be about a moderate 8 miles total.

I brought the GoPro with me to document some of the trail, the waterfalls and the experience for Ben since he couldn't make it this weekend because of work.  We started walking.  The path was paved for a while and then it turned into a gravel/dirt mixture.  It was dry so we never really encountered any muddy spots unless we were next to one of the waterfalls so that made the hike easier.  This side of the trail was more trail than waterfalls.  This side only featured two while the other side featured the other eight.  There were some steep parts and a few switchbacks...nothing we couldn't handle.

While hiking, we talked about a bunch of random stuff.  We talked about how work was going and the fact that I had one more week at L&I before I had to go to WSDOT.  Mom talked about some of the stuff happening with her office.  She shared more stories about Ecuador and I told her at the end of June Ben and I would be going to the TriCities again for the geocoin challenge.  We talked briefly about Grammie being in rehab for her stroke, the things that mom and dad were helping Grandpa with and the next steps in this new process we were experiencing.  It was very hard to talk about without crying.

We got to our first waterfall after about a mile of walking.  Winter Falls which was 134 feet from the top to the bottom.  It's probably more active in the late winter/early spring months when the rain it more plentiful.  We took a couple of photos and then trudged on.

After the first falls we started seeing people because we were getting closer to another trailhead.  A little bit more than a mile and a small spur, we found ourselves at our second falls, Upper North Falls.  This was near the North Falls trailhead with a small parking lot, picnic tables and some outdoor bathrooms!   We enjoyed the Upper North Falls.  You could actually walk out to this one and stand underneath the falls if you wanted to.

We took the short spur back to the junction and decided to use the bathroom since we probably would not see one until we got back to the south side.  For some reason, we must have that "I look friendly and know stuff" face. A college student from some Asian country asked us about the trail.  One, this was the first time we came here, two, we aren't from Oregon and three, I'm going to do the best I could to answer her questions.  First off, she had very good English which would have been my first hurdle if she didn't and secondly, I could answer her question thankfully.  She basically asked about the trail.  Where they should start, where the waterfalls were, etc.  I told her we were doing the "8" mile loop and that we parked at the south trailhead.  As far as the waterfalls, I told her where we came from there was only one and forward were the ones she and her friends probably wanted to see.  She thanked me and met up with her friends.

We headed to the next one, North Falls just down the first set of stairs.  This was the first falls we encountered that we could walk behind.  It was 136 feet waterfall that plunged over a lip giving it its distinctive look.  This is one of the several waterfalls people came to look at because you could walk behind it.  We enjoyed it for a while since there wasn't that many people on the trail.  It was pretty awesome.

Now came the longest gap between waterfalls, a 1.1 mile stretch to our fourth waterfall, Twin Falls.  This is where we started seeing more and more hikers, families and little kids...plus it was getting later in the morning and more people showed up to the park.

This falls really wasn't all that spectacular...in fact, it was really hard to see it from the trail.  Even one of the hikers that walked past us said it was really hard to see and photograph.  We took one shot of it and moved on to the next one which was a little over a quarter of a mile up the trail.

We approached Middle North Falls, which is a 106 foot waterfall, and you could hear it before you saw it.  During certain times of the year it is much wider in size however, today it was not as wide but still pretty cool because you could walk behind this one too.

We walked a little less than a half a mile to the next one.  The trail was getting busier and busier as we got closer to the end of the loop.

Drake Falls was another little obscure falls that we really couldn't see very well from the trail.  There was a small platform with handrails so you could see the falls from a better angle than from just the trail.  This one was only 27 feet.  We didn't take very long to check this one out.  Mom got a picture and we hiked to the next one, which was about a quarter of a mile away.

Double Falls was a pretty cool waterfall.  The picture doesn't really give it justice because you couldn't see the falls at the top of the canyon.  At this point we were running into people who were slower than us and lots of places we had to maneuver ourselves around them.  I couldn't believe how many bad-behaved kids were on the trail and their parents let them be rude to people.  Mom was getting tired of it and I told her to trip a few of them to see if their attitude changes.

Just up the trail, not even 500 feet was the Lower North Falls.  This one was actually a really pretty one with the sun hitting it.  I hated that there was a fallen tree in the lower left had corner of it.  We found a place to rest and had some snacks while we enjoyed the view.

Lower South Falls was another waterfall you could walk under.  This one was really muddy and very narrow.  There were several people who weren't patient to wait long enough for their turn.  One bad step or one accidental shove from a kid and your shoes are muddy and wet.  I got through pretty quickly but mom got stuck behind two families with kids and the parents did not have a hold on any of them.  Her and another woman chatted about how rude the parents were not grabbing their kids out of other people's ways.  I took pictures as I waited for her.

We went around the corner and made our way to the stairs.  There were warnings about how steep some of the sets were and to be careful.  Mom and I had no trouble with them but some of the more elderly people struggled and moved off to the side so we could pass.

The final part of the trail lead us over a foot bridge on to our tenth and final waterfall, South Falls.  This was the only waterfall in the park that seemed to have the most notoriety amongst the park's ten waterfalls (even though none of them were named Silver Falls).  Mom and I were very impressed with its size since many of the ones we just saw really weren't that spectacular in size.  South Falls has a direct plunge of 177 feet dropping over an over hanging edge to give it its classical skinny curtain shape.  While we were here, we stood on the foot bridge and did the Basalt Erosion at Silver Falls State Park (GC17JE8) earthcache.  This waterfall was the busiest one because of its proximity to the south end parking lot.  It took us a while to get around underneath the falls.

Once we got around the trail under the falls, we hiked back towards the tank.  When we walked through there that morning the little gift shop was closed.  When we walked by the second time it was open so we went in there to see what they had.  Of course I bought a few postcards.  When we got to the tank, I was amazed of how many vehicles were in the parking lot.  It was packed! We changed into some flip flops, dumped off our hiking stuff, grabbed the cooler and tried to find somewhere to eat some food.  It was hard to find an open picnic table but we managed to find one to share with a family who was enjoying the river rather than the picnic table at that moment.

We thought this was a great state park and a really nice hike.  You should definitely come early before it gets busy.  It's up to you which way you start and end up.  I highly recommend it if you want a somewhat easy 8ish mile hike.

We managed to get out of the insane parking lot. We left the park and headed back towards Salem.  I wanted to find a couple of caches while we were here so I checked the app.  I knew the 45th parallel was down here and wanted to find a cache at the line.  We drove out towards the northwest side of Salem to get a cache called Pinball Wizard (GC3R6V0).  We stopped here because it had over a 120 favorite points.  We pulled over on the side of the road directly across the road from the cache.  It was attached to a power pole.  I walked over while mom hung out in the tank.  I videoed the entire experience and took a photo as well.  It was just like the title said, pinball wizard.  You grabbed the knob at the bottom of the cache and let go and the cache came out of the top similar to a ball in the pinball machine.  It was pretty cool!

I put the next set of coords into the Nuvi and it took us to the other side of Salem.  I really wanted a cache on the 45th Parallel, halfway between the north pole and the equator.  We got to the cache site and parked at the bank.  We found the plaque and the cache very quickly.  Between Top and Middle (GC1GCYQ) was a container that was held together through friction.  I signed our names, took a quick picture and put it back before muggles showed up or walked by.  I found out later that we were the last cachers to find this cache.

From there, we got back onto I-5 and headed north towards home.  Just before we got to Portland, we got to talking about something I saw on the internet a while back.  It was called "The Witches Castle" and it was located on the western side of Portland.  She asked if we could go.  We put the address in and maneuvered our way through Portland via Hwy 26.  We found a place to park once we got there.  We had read a blog to park near the Audubon Society and walk down but turns out that was wrong.  We had a bunch of kids join us in the search for the trailhead.  We finally found it and made our way down the canyon.  For further reference, the trailhead is about 500 feet east from the Audubon Society.  You are looking for a sign that says Wildwood Trail which will take you down into Forest Park.  It was a short half a mile.  We walked past several people going to and from the castle.

When we got there there I expected the structure to be bigger.  It still was cool though.  Since we didn't have service I couldn't look at any of the information about the virtual on my phone.  I took pictures of everything to make sure I didn't miss anything for Witches Castle (GC7B679).  We were there for about a half hour and then walked back up the hill to the tank.  I was getting hungry.

We left the area and got back onto I-5 north.  I asked mom what she felt like and she said pizza.  I knew there was a Papa Pete's in Ridgefield.  The last one I had to visit to complete the quartet of Papa Pete locations.  It wasn't that busy so we got our food pretty quickly.  We shared a salad while we waited for the peperoni and black olives pizza.  We devoured it.

Before we left I grabbed the cache that was outside in the parking lot, Iron Horse (GCKQN6).  It was a very quick hide.

We got back onto I-5 and headed north towards exit 88.  I dropped mom off in Rainier around 8ish and got all of my stuff into my Escape.  I got home shortly after, unloaded my stuff into the house and took a much needed shower.  Overall, we saw some new places, found some geocaches, hiked around 11 miles all together and enjoyed some much needed sunshine.  Until the next mini adventure!

Next Adventure:  New Job and a Night Out with the Tacoma Rainiers

Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Moulton Falls and Oregon Hwy 22

Ben had to work most of Memorial Day weekend so I had come to the conclusion that we were staying home over the three day weekend.  I was okay with that.  Then mom called asking me if I was busy this weekend.  I told her no and she asked if I wanted to go with her to Oregon to see waterfalls.  I asked her which waterfall and where?  She told me Silver Falls State Park east of Salem.  I remember seeing a sign for that last summer when we drove to Bend along that highway.  I said sure because Ben is working all weekend and it would be nice to get away after the horrible news we received a couple weeks ago.

Mom booked a hotel for a night in Sublimity, Oregon because I wanted to be as close to the state park as possible.  She wanted to leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday evening to avoid all the holiday traffic.  I told her I would drive if we drove her vehicle because I would be driving my vehicle down to Oregon the following weekend for Amy's birthday along the coast.  She agreed.  The night before I packed up all the stuff I thought I would need and crammed it into my Nike duffel.  I knew some of the stuff would have to be packed after I got up in the morning.  I grabbed some snacks and drinks because I knew we would need them.

I headed over to mom and dad's house and parked the Escape out of the way just in case dad needed to move cars around.  I loaded my stuff into mom's tank and went inside to see if she was ready.  She had most of her stuff together and was putting together some snacks in a small cooler.  We hopped into the tank and headed towards the freeway via Tenino and Grand Mound.  The weather was decent and we didn't have to get gas...at least not yet.  This SUV tank holds a lot of gas and we might not even need to get any.

As we were heading down I-5 towards Oregon, I asked mom what else she wanted to do.  The typical answer was "I don't know" and that was the answer I got.  A few minutes later she added that she saw some places on Pinterest that she would like to see and new they were down by Woodland.  I told her to get the addresses so we can put them into the GPS to see if we have to do any back tracking.  I told her also down this way, there was a place I kept seeing on Instagram and on people's Facebook pages, called Moulton Falls.  She said yeah, let's go see that too.  She was on both of them and scribbled down all the notes she could find on the places we were about to go see.

The first one was called the Cedar Creek Grist Mill and it was just outside of Woodland on the Lewis River Road, opposite side of the river from Hwy 503 towards the south side of Mt. St. Helens.  We followed the Nuvi around all the twists and turns of this wooded rural road.  We finally got to the road, there was a sign for it, and we got stuck behind a bunch of cars you would see at a car show.  I wonder what they were doing out here?  Turns out the car club was here to check out the Mill this morning while we were here.  It made it really hard to find parking with all the cars everywhere.  We did manage to find parking at the top of the hill.  We grabbed the stuff we would need and walked down.

We went into the Mill and they were actually showing people the process in which they make flour.  It was really fun to see the "tour" by one of the volunteers.  Just in the short amount of time we were there, we watched him grind the grains into flour he filled up several bags for people to purchase.  I was in awe how much flour was made every minute that machine was on.  I could see why someone would need a mask when they were in here actually doing work while there were no visitors.  You would definitely get some sort of lung problem over the years.

We spent some time walking around and taking pictures.  Since there was an event going on with the car show and all, there was a volunteer outside making cinnamon bread from the flour they were grinding.  We decided to try some and it was tasty.

I grabbed a brochure to learn more about the Mill:

"The Cedar Creek Mill rests on a steep and rocky slope at the bottom of a narrow gorge (Lewis River).  It is the only grain grinding mill in the state of Washington that has maintained its original structural integrity, grinds with stones, and is water-powered.  George Woodham and his two sons built the water-powered mill in 1876.  Families throughout north Clark County brought their grain to the mill to be ground into flour or livestock feed.  According to an old newspaper article, debris fin the swiftly flowing creek damaged the dam that first winter.  Woodham moved away in 1879, taking all the equipment with him.

Mike Lynch bought the mill, but it sat for seven years until he leased it to Gustave Utter.  At that time a log dam was constructed about eighty feet upstream.  Utter built a flume and installed the Leffel turbine, which is still in use today.  The mill quickly became the center of activity where dances and musical entertainment were held frequently.  Milling fees were often shares of grain, so Utter raised hogs, which could be sold for badly needed cash.  By 1901, Utter couldn't keep the mill operating profitably, so he moved.

Gorund Roslund purchased the mill in 1905 but wasn't able to get the mill in operation until 1909.  He added a shingle mill to the rear of the original structure.  This addition was removed in the 1980's during the restoration.  By 1912 logging was booming and a machine shop was desperately needed.  Victor, one of the Roslund sons, was a mechanic and turned the entire lower floor into a machine shop.

Soon the shed on the front of the mill was added as a blacksmith shop.  It was operated by Elmer, another of the Roslund sons.  Victor remained a bachelor and turned the upper floor into an apartment.  Once again musical entertainment were common occurrences in the building.  Victor died in the late 1950's.  The State Fisheries Department bought the property, removed the old dam, and built a fish ladder.  Time and weather took its toll on the mill.  The Fort Vancouver Historical Society leased the mill in 1961.  They got the Mill registered as a Historical Place and replaced the rotting foundation.

By 1980, the old grist mill had suffered from both weather and vandals.  A group of local residents decided to save the historical structure and formed "The Friends of the Cedar Creek Grist Mill", a non-profit corporation.  Dedicated volunteers used broad axes and adzes to replace the posts and beams authentically.  The women held bazaars and raffles to help raise badly needed funds for the massive restoration process.  They also kept the men at the "work parties" fed.  The flume was completed in 1989 and extends 650 feet up Cedar Creek.  The group met its first major goal on November 11, 1989, when it ground wheat in celebration of Washington State's Centennial.  

The Cedar Creek Grist Mill is a working museum, showing visitors the inside workings of a grist mill of that time period.  A covered bridge spanning Cedar Creek was completed in 1994, and continues to draw visitors from all over the United States.  Many businesses and individuals have donated materials and cash to the project, and donations are still used for ongoing restoration projects.  Our volunteers work the Mill, answer questions about the old style milling process and welcome visitors from around the globe."

We took a few more pictures, walked back up the hill to the tank and went to our next destination.  We plugged in the Moulton Falls address into the Nuvi and had her take us the quickest way there.  We went through the small towns of Amboy and Yacolt to Moulton Falls.  We found the parking lot, ate a snack, grabbed our stuff and headed out.  We started exploring the south side of the highway before we moved onto the north side to explore some more.  Moulton Falls is a Clark County Park and is located on the East Fork of the Lewis River.

We walked out towards the concrete bridge that arcs over the river.  It was very picturesque and our photos turned out great.  There were some people along the shoreline enjoying their day and a few of them out in the river wading and swimming.  It really wasn't that warm out but everyone had a different threshold.

I tried to figure out which trail we needed to get a few of the caches in the park.  I ended up looking for four of them but only found one.  That one, Bridge View (GC6QC90) was down below the trail.  I actually had to climb down to a rocky landing to find it.  After a few minutes of checking every place I could, the coords jumped around a lot, I finally found it and made my way back up to where mom was.

We saw some girls riding horses across the bridge.  We asked where all the trails went and they really weren't sure because it was their first time here as well.

We walked back to where we parked and headed over to the other side of the park.  I didn't have any luck finding those caches either but we attempted them.  We did find a really cool part of the falls though.

After exploring for a bit we headed back to the car and followed our way out through Battle Ground to Vancouver and finally onto I-205.  We followed the freeway until it linked back onto I-5 just south of Tualatin.  We followed the Nuvi through Salem and then onto Hwy 22.  Our hotel was not that far off of the highway.

We checked in at the Rodeway Inn and Suites that we booked for a night because it was cheap and near the state park.  We brought in our stuff and decided what we should do for dinner.  I got onto the internet and looked for a close by restaurant that had good reviews and came up with a place called Cheers on 1st in Stayton, the next town over.  I put it into the GPS and it took us right there.  It was definitely a hole-in-the-wall bar and grill.  We sat down and our waiter asked us what we wanted to drink, I got a pop and mom got a water.  She left us with some menus to check out.  Mom decided on a burger and fries and I got a French dip sandwich and chips.  The food was surprisingly good.  We watched college softball super regionals as we ate our food.  We paid, thanked them and headed out the door.

I wanted to find a few caches so I looked at the app to see what was nearby.  Santiam Summerfest (GC5XRJN) was hidden right in the middle of town underneath a bench.  Of course it was a nano.  I signed our names and put it back as quick as I could.

We drove to the next one, Historic Stayton:  The Moving/Burnt/Replaced Bridge (GC1KH0P) and tried looking for it but I believe it was missing.  It still brought us to a really cool place though.  We've always enjoyed the Oregon covered bridges.  We took a few pictures and enjoyed the warm evening.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at one more at the park and ride.  I drove right up to it, Park and Ride (GC5ZBM7) signed our names and then I dropped mom off at the hotel and walked over to the last one for the evening, Our Home (GC5BKP4).

I walked back and got cleaned up.  While mom showered I looked up the route a little bit so I knew what to expect.  I even watched a couple of YouTube videos just to make sure we knew what waterfalls to look for and which ones were people's favorites.

We went to bed just after 10 p.m. so we could get up early, check out and make our way to the park before it got busy.

Next Adventure:  Silver Falls State Park Hike, Witch's Castle and Papa Pete's

Adding to the Bad Week: Mini Stroke

This week was one of the most brutal weeks I've had in a while so far.  Compared to the previous times this one was life altering.

The Monday was pretty normal and routine except I had to accept the job at DOT.  I got that phone call that morning and I had to say yes to it even though I didn't want to leave L&I.  I couldn't wait and see if I got the program assistant job at L&I at the end of the month.  If they said no and I said no to any job offer outside of L&I, I could be in the mailroom for a while.  I told them yes and thus starts the summer off somewhat stressful.  After work, and since it was hot, I wanted to relax with all the job stuff going on I decided to take Erika's kayak to Lake St. Clair to get a couple of caches that were easy to get to.  I expected to be gone a couple of hours since Ben was going to be at work for a 24-hour shift at the fire station.  I took snacks with me because I basically got home, changed, packed some snacks and some drinks and tied the kayak to the top of the Escape.  I had to bring the step stool because I wasn't tall enough.  This was my first time back to the lake since last summer and noticed they had paved the parking lot which made it nicer than it was.

It was warm and peaceful once I got onto the lake.

I grabbed three caches, 'Tis Wood (GC4QMQV), There Are Things I Can't Resist (GC4G0BZ) and Bee Careful in Octopus Lake (GC4NAKH) one was a Crossed Anchors cache and the other two were Ohjoy caches.  Two were a traditionals and one was a letterbox hybrid.  I got the traditionals first and the letterbox second.  The traditionals were easy...once was hanging along the shore tied to a branch and the other was tied to a stump near the shore of the lake, residents could basically watch me retrieve it. The letterbox was kinda hard to get to kayak to.  I had to maneuver the vessel around a bunch of downed trees and branches without hitting myself in the face.  After I grabbed the last one I took a snack break.

I headed back to shore once everything was secure including my phone and keys.  I tied the kayak back onto the Escape and headed home.

The next day, Tuesday, I felt weird in the morning.  Something was off and it wouldn't go away.  I continued getting ready for work, got in the Escape and headed to Tumwater.  It still wouldn't go away and I was afraid to eat breakfast.

I got to work and started doing what I needed to be doing.  My right side was killing me.  It feels like kidney stones but it's not.  I've had this happen to me now four times.  It hurts for a few hours and then goes away.  The third time we actually went to the ER in Puyallup (we were at Ben's mom's house) and got some tests done and they didn't find anything wrong with me.  I did my floor run at 8 and pushed myself to finish my checks.  I went to the back room and started opening claims mail and I had to run to the bathroom a few times because I was nauseous and thought I would puke.  Just before 9 I asked Trina if I could go home because I was dying.  She said of course you can.  Up to this point I have never left early from work because I didn't feel good.  I grabbed my stuff and headed to the parking lot.  I had to race home because I didn't want to puke in my car.

I got home, changed my clothes and laid in bed.  I got up several times to puke but I mostly just tried to sleep it off positioned carefully.  I also got a phone call from Ecology letting me know that they selected me for the job and to call them back so I called them back around 3ish since I started to feel a little better.  I had to tell them that I accepted another job the day before and thanked them for offering me the job.  You could tell that they were frustrated because now they had to go with "Plan B."  I took the one at the time with the most money and movement.

I felt way better later on that evening around dinner time.  Whatever was going on took its course and now my whole torso and lower back were really sore.

I went to work on Wednesday and that whole day it seemed like I was in a haze.  My body still was sore from the fiasco the day before and something else seemed off.  I went about my day like I usually did but today I was going to miss about two hours around lunch time for the insurance services public service week recognition lunch in the auditorium.  When that time came I sat with my Retro peeps at one of the back tables.  That table was hoppin' because our table was one of the ones that won Jeopardy and a few raffle items.  We came away with a cooler, a sleeping bag and each of us got a camping chair.  It was insane!

I went back to the mailroom and finished off my day and at break time I met up with Linda at the cafeteria.  We talked about my upcoming transition I was not too excited about.

While we were visiting, I got a Facebook message from my sister (my phone does not work inside the L&I building so I do not received texts or phone calls but I do get WiFi) and she sent me the most heart and gut wrenching news.

"I know you don't always get texts at work but did you get the news about Grammie?   She had a stroke and is at St. Peter's room 921."

Those words were going to haunt me every day.

At first, I wasn't sure if I read that right or not.  I read it again and I know Linda was watching my face the entire time.  She knew something was wrong and asked what happened.  I shared the bad news with her.  She told me she was sorry and wanted to know if she should let me go.  I told her, after I internally composed myself, that there is nothing I can do right now because she is stable and being taken care of at the hospital and I will just go there after work.  I kept telling myself that it was just a stroke and people can recover from strokes.  She was still with us but the thing we never wanted to happen is happening slowly.  Every day since May 16th was hard.

After work I went to the hospital and spent most of the evening there with everyone who came to visit.  Grammie looked very tired and her left side suffered the stroke.  That meant her dominant side will never be the same since she was left handed.  She told us the story.

She was sitting in her chair, thinking about calling Tracy for her birthday that morning around 10 a.m., reached for her coffee and could not move her left side or speak.  Grandpa was in the bathroom and she could not get a hold of him and tried texting Tracy.  Eventually Grandpa came out and saw what was happening and called 911.  The EMT's from Tenino came and loaded her up in the ambulance and took her to St. Peters.  She had not had any care for at least an hour.  They say the quicker you can get to a stroke victim the better chances they have to recover.  I was really hoping that the time was not our enemy that morning.

I prayed every night hoping that she would improve every day.

The next day was pretty routine at work and we all went to the hospital again that early evening after work for a few hours to find out if any thing had changed.  She looked much better than she did the previous day and she was more talkative.

Friday, on Mt. St. Helens Day, I was suppose to leave early from work to go with mom and Doug to a Mariners game but because of what happened we decided not to on Wednesday when this happened.  There will be more Mariner games.  Instead, I stayed at work the entire day and we celebrated Dianne, one of my co-workers, who was being recognized for 35 years at the state.  We had a taco bar lunch and I made her favorite chocolate chunk cookies for dessert.

That weekend we visited the hospital a few more times to go and visit, took care of some chores and cleaned the house.  This was going to be a really hard summer.

Next Adventure:  Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Moulton Falls and Oregon Hwy 22

Mother's Day

I had called Grammie earlier that month to ask what we were going to do for Mother's Day.  She said she would find out what time we should have it after she called Kevin and Tracy.  I told her we could do it at my house and asked if we could make tacos because it would be easy to make and wouldn't take that long to cook.  She said that was a great idea since we haven't had tacos since last year.  I assigned people toppings just to spread the love around.  I assigned Grammie and grandpa the meat which they had me buy and just reimbursed me later.  Ben and I had the rice, refried beans, black beans, taco seasoning and some of the condiments.  I had Erika bring chips and salsa, dad brought the  tortilla shells and grandma brought lettuce, onions and tomatoes.  Trish and Amy brought cheese and potato salad.  We were also going to celebrate Tracy's birthday since it was three days away.  Grammie called me back and told me that two would be a great time.  I said that I had a piñata (that I got from work) that we could bust open for fun.  She said sounds like fun!  The stage was set.

I went to the store on the Saturday before and grabbed the stuff I didn't have and bought the meat for Grammie and grandpa.  I went home and started cleaning the house and putting stuff away.  Mom was in Ecuador and was suppose to be home on Sunday.  So she probably wasn't going to make it to our gathering.  Kevin said Karla couldn't come and Erika said Red was busy.  

That morning Ben and I got the rest of the stuff done, got the tables outside and decorated and started cooking the food about an hour before everyone started to arrive.  I felt pretty proud of myself.  I needed to go find a rope and the bat for the piñata.  I took a few pictures of my set up and made sure the food wasn't burning.  A few people started to arrive just before two.

After about ten minutes everyone was here, I was happy and the food was done.  We started putting everything out on the tables, we said grace and started making out tacos.  We sat at the tables, ate and visited like we always do.  I've always cherished days like these when we all got together as a family and celebrated someone or something.  I knew the days together were dwindling as our grandparents got older and older.

As we ate and visited I got the piñata ready.  I was going to have everyone who wanted to a chance have a whack at it.  We let Grammie smack the crap out of it and it was fun watching her beat it with a baseball bat.  Then Ben and Erika finished it off.  Various candies and packages of Goldfish rained down onto the lawn.  I got a bag and we picked it all up after I divvied it out to the people who wanted some of it.

We brought the stuff inside that needed to be refrigerated and then had a birthday party for Tracy since her birthday was a few days away.  We had birthday cupcakes, sang and Tracy opened her birthday presents.  We did a bit more visiting before everyone had to go and get home for various things.  We gave out hugs and told everyone that we would see them again and to drive safe.  I walked Grammie and grandpa to their truck because Grammie wanted to give me some money for the hamburger.  I told them thanks for coming and we would see them later.  She told me that she had a really nice time and that I did a great job.  Tracy told me that she got me a Titanic model at a second hand store in Battle Ground the last time we talked for a whole two dollars!  I asked her if she wanted the money and she said no.  I thanked her and then we chatted for a few more minutes and then Ben and I cleaned up the back yard and the kitchen.

It was a fun gathering, the weather was decent and the food was good.  I was looking forward to many more this summer.

Next Adventure:  Adding to the Bad Week:  Mini Stroke