Oregon hot and Oregon not so hot

What a time we are having as we land in the embrace of family!  So much love, laughter, tears and rememberies.  A shared history is so important, whether it is with family or friends.  

Now about that landing: it was in Salem, Oregon, for the two most ridiculously hot days of the month.  Both before and after our short stop there, temps were somewhat normal - warm, but not crazed.  Only for our two days did the sun scorch the very air with 107 degrees!

No matter, a great time was had by all.  We were at niece & nephew Mary & Dion's home for the first time.  It's always nice to see someone's environment in person to put them in some context.  The pair are in the process of extreme renovations to house and grounds - so much done and so much more to go.

Their back yard water feature is splendid - I fell in love with it immediately.

It actually was pleasant sitting out and catching up after our drive from Burns.  I was a bit shell-shocked to be back in urban environments after so long in the land of sage and little else. 

Feasting with the fam . . .

Mary and Dion put on a feed of super proportions to accommodate more of the clan who showed up for an evening of fun and frivolity.  We were allowed to feel as if we were helping with preparations.

And then kin were coming out of the woodwork, or so it seemed.  Amazingly, we spent time with family whom I had not seen for decades, so there was plenty of catching up to be done, the result being non-stop talk and laughter.  The bonus was that Mary got out a crate full of photo albums that really got the memories flowing.

The real circus began when I decided we needed a whole-group photo.  It went like this: the bunch began gathering, and I began fiddling with the camera in an effort to remember how to do the timer doodad.  

The crowd began to assemble . . .

 . . . They grew restless as the pressure for me to figure it out grows . . . they may have been close to becoming dangerous . . .

  . . . but it was all smiles for the final product.

 

Ankeny Wildlife Refuge . . .

We were in the city, Oregon's capital no less; however, from possible options for the day, we opted for the one that included time outside hiking and the like, because really, who could resist spending hours outside when it's 107 degrees.  The bonus was to be a river ferry ride; however, like so much else, the ferry wasn't operating.

No matter about that and no matter that even some places on the refuge were blocked off, we went on our way exploring, birding, nutriaing (or whatever might be a term for watching nutria, with which we are fascinated but people who live near them, not so much).

Before we got more than a few steps, we discovered a plethora of blackberries.  The roadside vines we had scoured earlier with many a scratch for our efforts paled in comparison.  In fact, any blackberry bushes I had ever seen in my life paled in comparison.  It made for a very slow but very tasty start to our explore!

 

 

 We could have filled trucks with them and did our best to fill our bellies!

A map of the refuge indicated hiking trails that looped around through various habitats.  We cleverly chose one that looked to be shaded for a good bit of its length.  The catch was that once we were within the confines of that jungle-like vegetation, the humidity hit 500 percent.

No quitters in that bunch: we continued on, enjoying the sights, the birds and wildlife (well, really the only wildlife we saw were scores of frogs and a few nutria), but we did add to the trip list: American goldfinch and rough-legged hawk (a life bird for us),

When we emerged from the wetlands that drought had rendered mostly dry, we longed for that shady jungle again.  Seems that our path was much more in the open than anticipated and much longer than seemed reasonable in that scorching heat.  It had something to do with that red line along the route on the map . . . we wondered what that meant . . .

After not only surviving the ordeal, but actually enjoying it, we motored away to the Ankeny vineyard and winery for cold beverages and wood-fired pizza.

There's quite a history to that beautiful farmland.  A plaque on a magnificent pear tree demanded that I do a bit of follow-up research.

Thomas Cox, the pioneer who planted that one-time seedling in the 1840s, now grown to gargantuan magnitude, was a farmer and merchant of equally astounding proportions.  Cox was born in Virginia in 1791, and moved to Illinois in 1836, where he founded the town of Wilmington by buying land and dividing it into lots.

A decade later, he departed for Oregon, but unlike most who migrated west, Cox did it in a big way.  He emigrated with $10,000 worth of merchandise, which was transported in a train of 28 wagons, each pulled by four yoke of oxen!

He and his wife Martha produced at least eight children who survived to adulthood.  He died in Oregon in 1862 at age 70.  I suspect he would be pleased with how his farm has been cared for and the enterprises it supports.

It was not a long visit at Mary & Dion's, but the love was abundant enough to fill our hearts.  It was also great to see two of Grandma's paintings that are on their walls.

 

Westward ho . . .

Gearhart, a lovely town with that Pacific Ocean thing going on is the home of another niece & nephew, and was our next destination.  The distance to get there was not overly long, but criminetly, the traffic was ferocious.

Clearly, every single denizen of Oregon's non-beachfront countryside was on their way to cool off in those ocean breezes.  We and Woofy very slowly made our way through the throngs to finally arrive at Jim & Shannon's Eden-like property.  Their home, designed and built by Jim, is inviting inside and out.  Shannon's decorating has enhanced it even more - I never tire of strolling around their enchanting grounds to notice all the little (and big) touches they have done with trees, flowering shrubs and gardens, not to mention Shannon's antique and vintage yard art.

 

 

And it doesn't hurt a thing that they are sited right on Neacoxie Creek with grassy lawns rolling right down to the water and shaded by moss-draped trees.

 

 

Yet another point in favor of their location is that few minutes walk to the beach, a place of unending fascination for me . . .

. . . and for the newest member of the family, Brisket.  Who names their dog after a cut of meat anyway?!

A keyboard . . .

Way back when we were still at home, I had another of my multitude of good ideas.  This one revolved around Chris' large and heavy keyboard.  It is a bear to pack up to take to gigs where it has to be unloaded, set up and reloaded with all that hoopla again when it gets home.  I thought a lighter smaller board would be preferable for such events and would lend itself to travel in our new miniscule Wolf Pup.  

The problem came in when the keyboard was probably not going to be shipped prior to our departure, so we had it sent on to Shannon's.  I'm relieved to know that the señor says it fits the bill.  He was happy to be making music once again.

Reminiscing . . .

My bunch never seems to have our fill of delving into everything family: photos, documents, genealogy, sharing memories; we eat it up.  Toward that end, Shannon got out "The Trunks"; Mary came up to Gearhart with her boys, and we dove in head first.  

There was the 1997 video featuring two of those we love who are no longer with us, my father and my older brother.  The trunks were chock full of treasures we didn't know existed and others that we revisited, sharing the memories they conjured, and then there were the photo albums - they were extra special for us because we found pictures of our Darren that we had never seen. 

 

 

We were all fascinated as the memories flooded back, and in some cases were shared with the younger set.

Well, perhaps all of us weren't interested all the time.  There are, after all, other things to be attended to.

 

I am blessed to be surrounded with love.

That unique environment netted us more additions to the bird list: black-capped chickadee, northwestern crow, purple finch, western gull,  Anna's hummingbird, calliope hummingbird, fox sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, Caspian tern and spotted towhee.

The antics at our feeders are entertaining as flocks of American goldfinches compete for seeds, and Stellar's jays do a sort of shimmy up the pole to get their share.

As previously mentioned, my efforts at using the camera timer require some patience on the part of the subjects while I make several efforts to get it right and to get myself in place before that fateful click.  Here is an example of one of the failed attempts.

Patience pays off: I got there just in time to paste on a silly grin for the camera.