This and That

Sean found a new project that he's pretty excited about. It's a Torro Dingo with a blown motor. He got it pretty cheap and plans to gut it and turn it into an electric Dingo. I know I'd use the heck out of it cleaning animal pens outside.

 

It was a beautiful day so we took the kids to the nature center about an hour away. It's really a pretty place for a hike and we all enjoy it.

I tried a new vine this year called Thunbergia or Black Eyed Susan vine. I planted four little seeds and have this six foot tall vine. I'm sure it would cover the house if given the opportunity. I wish it would have bloomed more but I'll try it again next year in a different location.

I find Kevin to be very photogenic. He likes to lounge around sleep in a sorts of different positions. Kevin just turned three years old.

It seemed to get hot really fast this summer...quicker than normal. Which made us look for fun things to do inside rather than outdoors. We hadn't been to a local museum in a few years so we loaded up and spent the day inside.

I'm just throwing this in here because it made me laugh. Sean was clearing out some projects and sold a skid steer that he decided he didn't want to work on. Our skid steer didn't have enough lifting power to load the project skid steer onto the customers trailer so the customer (who looked like Santa) jumped on the back to give it more weight. It worked! They got it loaded and no Santa's were harmed.

I added a small water feature up by our front door since I was missing the sound of running water after we filled in the old koi pond. I added a couple of small goldfish to eat any mosquito larvae and a water lilly. One day I was diving home and stopped short after spotting a heron hunting in my tiny water garden. Pretty sure it got my two goldfish....darn heron. 

I'm still quite obsessed with hostas and am in the process of adding quite a few more to the gardens this summer. I've run out of shade around the house so I've decided to create a long hosta garden out in the walnut grove. Luckily its not all fenced in for the goats so I've got at least one row to plant in. Have I mentioned I love hostas?

Pacific Coast Highway

 One of our stops on the Pacific Coast Highway was seeing the city of Astoria, OR. It's north of Cannon Beach about half an hour. We talked to our hotel clerks and they said we needed to go see the Astoria Column so that's where we headed. It's just what it sounds like, a giant column that has a large spiral staircase going to the top. At the top there are great views all around the town and the beautiful Astoria Bridge.

A bunch of Corvettes were parked up at the Column, Sean enjoyed talking to their owners.

There is a hiking trail off of the parking lot to the Cathedral Tree.

We didn't make it far on the trail as our legs were tired from climbing the hundreds of steps.

 The movie "Goonies" was filmed in Astoria so we headed up to see the house. Apparently many people make the annual trek to see the "Goonies House" and there were about 12 people there photographing it. 

We stopped in Hammond to see the Wreck of the Peter Iredale. She ran ashore in 1906 on her way to Portland to pick up wheat. It was neat to see the bones of this ship while it's still there. It's in Fort Stevens so there are many trails and bike paths throughout.

We headed south on the 101 and stopped at the Devils Churn at Cape Perpetua. Our youngest child was tired of getting out of the car at every stop so there will be very few pictures with Max. In Max's defense, we stopped a lot! It was absolutely beautiful country.

We kept heading south on the Pacific Coast Highway and entered the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor near Brookings, OR. It's a 12 mile stretch of the 101 that has some of the most beautiful coastline in the world. It's breathtaking. This was nearing the end of a long day of driving so we were all pretty tired but we still managed to pull off on every view point. I wish I had a full day to explore this 12 mile stretch. There were hiking trails everywhere and boardwalks down to photography points. It was the highlight of the trip for me.

It was SO windy that day!

We continued on our way south into California and stayed the night in Crescent City. We woke up and walked around the bay taking pictures of the boats before making our way into
Jedediah Smith State Park to see the giant redwoods. 

 

Battery Point lighthouse in Crescent City.

Fun bike stand.

Our cute rental car.

Thanks for tagging along on a memorable trip down the Oregon Coastline. I can't wait to go back again sometime!