And away again

Facebook friends can see pictures of the first part of our trip, but for the past 2 days, I haven't been able to upload photos there. Mahala drove from Macon to the Florida line. No toll booths to crash, but she did deal with her share of semi trucks and construction barriers. She did just fine, mom and dad. Here are just a couple to let y'all know that aside from Georgia losing her first day in the sun due to knee and back pain, we have arrive safely and Mahala's return to the ocean and Sophia's first look at the ocean (from outside the womb) seemed to be met with approval. Now all of our grandkids have at some time or the other made the trip to the Maverick Resort in Ormond Beach. Hey, they have really updated the place. Seems the only thing that hasn't been improved is the elevator system. The girls took the first load of stuff up while we checked in and the clunking, creaking, and jerking in the elevators (that have been the same since Mac first bought the timeshare) gave them a bit of a scare. Georgia's body improved with a day of rest and we got out to High Tides at Snack Jack's last night. Although I'm into taking advantage of seaside dining for fresh seafood, the girls use the same approach that I do when I order breakfast. I typically order the same breakfast wherever I go. With that, I can compare and rate the food. At this point, my standard breakfast of eggs over easy, sausage, potatoes with onions extra crispy and whole wheat toast are fixed best by the B&B in Gas City, Indiana, Tommy's 4th street bar and grill in Corvallis, Oregon, and The Maverick in Ormond Beach Florida. (I thought the Maverick ranked up there, but had to test again before including them.) So the girls seem to order chicken fingers and fries no matter where they go. (Like Aidan???) You'll have to ask them about the ranking. I haven't had the heart to tell them that chickens don't have fingers. Mahala, however figured out with a little prompting, that Jersey cows give milk with higher fat content than Holsteins. Her FFA folks should be proud of her. Along the education line, again with a little prompting, the girls figured out why we saw so much dedicated to Jefferson Davis after leaving Indiana. Sorry, I've taught too long to let educational opportunities pass by. Today we start our 2nd day of "fun in the sun" and I think we have finally reached the end of the adrenalin rush. Sophia, who was all into going to breakfast with me yesterday, declined this morning. As you can see, she loves the ocean.

Homeward bound: again

Our third tour of Oregon has ended. With the great and beautiful sights we saw on our wintertime visits, we were overawed at Oregon in her spring dress. Hopefully, we have given y'all a glimpse somewhat worthy of the things we saw. Here at home, the 90+ heat and high humidity make us think of the light jackets we wore in the past 3 weeks. Did get the yard mowed and 1000's of spent roses deadheaded. Cut the dead top from our once beautiful ash tree. The experts don't think it was the Emerald Ash Borer, but it scared me. Before leaving we snapped a couple of pics of the team in OSU imaging. Becki, Jack, and Jason. They made the work easy and fun. I also wanted to include a picture of a home on my walk to work that I had dubbed, "Classic Oregonians". This seems to be my idea of the typical urban Oregon Family. Here is "Laura" watering her plants. Since our flight home began on the north side of Portland at 9am on Saturday, we went to Portland on Friday night after our hair raising drive to the airport the last time we flew out of Portland. That worked out great. We had to deliver the Dodge to Thrifty which was "off site". I found a LaQuinta that was within sight of the Thrifty place. That all worked out very well except that for some reason the internet access at the LaQuinta was down while we were there. Wasn't much time to mess with it anyway. I did get to Challenge Bobbi and Brian to a race for home. I think they won. While we were viewing the Pacific Ocean, they were in Myrtle Beach at the Atlantic. We arrived at Thrifty just in time for the shuttle, so that went smoothly. Got to our gate in plenty of time and the plane was a fitting exit for our trip. It was Alaska/Horizon Airlines and was painted up with Oregon State stuff, including the Beaver. Somewhere along here, I realized that 2 of the 3 big OSU's have the same school colors. There was again a cloud cover over northern Oregon. It was cool however because Mount hood poked it's head through the clouds to bid us good bye. On this trip, we essentially traveled down the cascades range, so we also got to see Mount Jefferson near Sisters sticking through the clouds. Apparently the 3 Sisters and 3 fingered Jack whom we had viewed often from the ground were visible on the other side of the plane, but we couldn't see them. Rather than the 4 hour flight from Portland to DFW as the other trips between Dallas and Portland, this time we took this small plane to Ontario, CA, then a "big plane" from there to Dallas, then the smaller American Eagle from Dallas to home. That was better than the long flight because we got to stretch these old bodies better this way. The only problem came when we went to find our American flight to Dallas to realize that we came into Ontario on Horizon which operates in one of their 2 terminals and the American flight was out of the other. This doesn't seem like a problem except that we were carrying our machines (cpap and nebulizer). To comply with the carry on rules and still be able to carry the computer, cameras and purse, I had "cleverly" packed both machines along with some dirty clothes into one carry on bag. Still doesn't sound like a problem, right? Wrong again. You see, I found out on our flight out that these machines not only had to come out of the larger carry on bag, but they had to be removed from their own carrying cases to be wipe tested by the security. By now you should understand that to change terminals in Ontario, you have to go out of one, cross the street, take a shuttle to the other, then go through security again. So not only did we have to take off our shoes, belts, etc. for the second time on this trip, I had to unpack and repack the "machines" and dirty clothes. This of course put us at the America gate just in time to board. By the time we got on that plane, we were pooped. Oh, I almost forgot. We were nearly the last people on. As we entered the ramp, the airline lady asked; "are you two together?" We said we were. She said, "this pregnant lady ( yup, she was close) is sitting in the exit row and can't handle the responsibilites there. Would you be interested in sitting there where there is more leg room so she and her traveling partner can sit in your seats?". Being the noble characters we are, we agreed. Here's where it gets interesting. As we arrived at the gate and they were boarding people by groups, we noticed that the couple with 2 chihuahuas were in our group (and ended up sitting 2 rows in front of our original seats). We were concerned that the dogs in that enclosed environment might stimulate Georgia's allergies. So we thought, that will get us further from the dogs. We made our way another 9 rows back to our new exit row seats. There was more leg room. We checked out the instructions for removing the door for exiting, then settled back to relax for the trip. Hmmm. The row behind us was also an exit row, so our seats didn't tilt back (so they wouldn't block the exit row). Furthermore, when the drinks came around, we realized that we had no tilt table to set our drinks on. So again, we had been sold a bill of goods; more leg room, should have been presented as "more leg room, no tilting seats and no table for your drinks".. Oh Well! Fool me once, right? And we allowed the pregnant lady to take the trip without worrying that her 250 pound, 30 year 0ld traveling partner would have to lift that heavy exit door. If there were an emergency, we would be the first ones out the door and she would be stuck in row 11 waiting in line while people all around her panicked. Justice prevails! We made it to DFW, then hit home around sundown, noticing water in all the fields. Greg, Mel and the kids met us, gave us our keys and off we went for home. As good as it was in the places we stayed, our own bed really felt great. Thus ends another of our adventures.

Last leg of the Oregon Coast

This being our last usable weekend for this trip, we went to the coast. Having not been to the northern Oregon coast yet, we took the 3 hour trip to Astoria which is at the mouth of the Columbia River. On this overcast day, we did fine until we got to Astoria. As we approached the river, we saw the 4 mile long Astoria-Megler bridge that crossed the Columbia into the state of Washington. Georgia said, “One thing I don’t want to do is go across that bridge.” On the Oregon side it was a high arch to allow ships to pass under it on their way to and from Portland. Somehow, again we missed a turn somewhere after navigating the roundabout and I then realized that we were on the way to Washington with no place to turn back. This of course meant that we had to make the 4 mile trek over the bridge to Washington (Dismal Niche rest stop).. hmmm. And of course it meant we had to come back over the bridge. So we start our adventure doing something Georgia didn’t want to do.. TWICE. Coming back it was very easy to find the turn to the Cannery Pier Hotel. ( http://www.cannerypierhotel.com/ ) This is a 4-year-old hotel built on the pier where a fish cannery stood during the fish canning heyday. Our 4th floor deck and windows looked out on the river where the ships passed by pretty close to us. The story is that the river is treacherous enough that most of the ships require local “pilot boats” to lead them in and out so they don’t run aground. These pilot boat captains know the river intimately. This hotel really stands out. Along with it’s unique setting and modern/ historic decor including a small museum depicting the rich salmon fishing past of the area, the services are like none we have found elsewhere. These people do not follow the typical lodging formula, but the place and services are really unique. I’ll let the website tell the story. We’ve found it to be true including these great old cars they use to take you places. Talk about humming like a sewing machine. The only downside we found in room 402 was that there is apparently an apartment above where some little kid or kids ran back and forth….. quite a bit. Didn’t keep us awake. A little annoying as well as a little endearing. Georgia loves the pitter patter of little feet because it reminds her of the time the boys were that age. It was near dinner time when we got settled in and we didn’t want to venture out in the car again. The hotel has that cool limo service to take you to dinner, but the guy at the desk said the place in the red building as we came in (within walking distance) might be acceptable. The Bridgewater Bistro http://www.bridgewaterbistro.com/ was fantastic. Georgia had the duck breast (Jude, you have flung a cravin’ on your grandma.) Chinese Turkey… right? …. And I had “Northwest Potlatch” which is the northwest version of bouillabaisse, which I love. Also very good. I didn’t wake up until about 7am on Sunday. Within the next 2 hours 4 ships passed by. The first, reminded me of a Mississippi River barge, then shortly after that 2 barges pushed by a tugboat came by. Those were all going out. Then 2 “real” ships came in. One with the name Poseidon and the other carrying lots of stacked containers from Seattle. It takes about an hour for a ship to make it from the Pacific to the bridge. After watching to ships go by and taking way too many pictures of the bridge, we headed south through the touristy Seaside and Cannon Beach where Haystack Rock lives. We did miss some of the recommended sites because we were concerned about crossing the coastal mountain range in the dark. (Guess we'll have to come back to finish that.) In the winter, a mother-daughter duo we met in the Carlton area raved about the little town of Manzanita. There was an overlook just before we got there, so we got some pictures from above. We were looking for a place to eat (which we never found). There seemed to be lots of B&B's there. One neet thing was the kite flying (or parasailing) on the beach there. Several of the people were waterskiing using the kites (or parachutes) to pull them. Again because of time, we didn't stop at the famous Tillamook Cheese (and ice cream) plant. I was taken by herd after herd of Jersey cows in the grassy fields. I didn't see one herd of Holsteins that didn't have a few Jersey's mixed in. Reminds me of our first cow "Toots". Because of her we only had Jerseys in the beginning. She, I believe, was a wedding gift to mom and dad. I remember when we got our first Holstein (Bessie) and how her milk appeared blue compared with that of the Jerseys. At that time milk was sold based on its butterfat content. I digress. We connected our dots to complete our trek of the Oregon Coastal Scenic Byway as we reached Lincoln City. At that point we weren't far from Depoe Bay so decided to stop at Tidal Raves which had become our favorite coastal eating place. You may remember that this is the place where they say resident grey whales can be seen all summer. When we arrived, I told the waitress this was our 3rd trip to Tidal Raves and we really needed to see a whale. She said, "They are out there, but I haven't seen them for a while. I pulled the famous Aidan head drop and we ordered our meal. Rod has been telling me how good fish tacos are. It still doesn't really sound good to me, but I try to be a sport. Last winter we were at a good eating place and they had fish tacos on the menu (Tilapia) I decided to go for it... wasn't impressed. As I look at the Tidal Raves menu, I see halibut tacos. OK, lets give it another shot.... MMM Good. I really liked them. Rod, your sense of taste has been vindicated. After we finished eating, Georgia went to the "little girl's room" when the waitress came over and said, "You asked about the whales. The hostess just pointed some out to us. There's one just off the point." I sprung into vigile mode. Then there was a spout. I finally recognized a spout. Then this body rose up and I could see about half a whale. I quickly grabbed my camera and got just a bit of the back... You'll have to believe me. That is a whale. When Georgia came back we saw whales at least two more times including the famous tail flip. But I was so excited, I didn't have my camera ready. So I switched to the 300 mm lens and we went outside to get a better view... We saw one more disappearing behind the point of land at the edge of the bay, but that was it. So this is the best picture I have. Sorry. We snapped some pictures of Depoe bay and headed home, satisfied that we finally saw whales. Again, this was a pretty good weekend outing. Again, my facebook friends can see nearly 100 pictures from this trip.

My Happy Doctors

If you’ve followed our discussion of our new home in the northwest, you know that the first trip out, I drove to work or Georgia dropped me off and picked me up… Or, I hitched a ride with Fuge, the CT tech who worked there at that time. I also demonstrated that if you stand on the railroad track at the corner of the vet school grounds, you can see the Poultry Building that houses our apartment while in Corvallis. It is roughly a mile. Last winter on our second trip, I decided to rent a bicycle for transportation to and from work. Got a bit more exercise, although I did have to buy a “skull cap” to keep my head warm on the trip. The present stint is only 2 weeks long and the weather is great (sans rain) so I decided to finally do what my doctors have been asking me to do for several years. Walk about 20 minutes at least once a day. Yesterday was my first day to walk to and from work. The weather was great. I enjoyed walking down the track and then on the bike path I had ridden last winter for the last 2/3 past the stadium where the Beavers play football as well as the basketball arena. In February, they were restoring the west (I think) side of the basketball building and now they are working on the other side. Looks like a massive undertaking. I also walked by the Naval Science building (hut) and the USMC playground as well as the tennis courts. While walking down the track the first morning, another of those random thoughts came zipping through my head. I was looking at the railroad ties as I walked along. Some full and solid while others were decaying. Why are they called ties??? Oh no, here we go again. Another word that I have used all my life, yet, I don’t know what it means. How many of these words can be left? As I walked on, pondering this new puzzle, I came to the conclusion that it was probably obvious. They tie the tracks down and at a specific distance apart… During the day, I asked a few people and I don’t feel so bad because it seems that many people never thought of it. When I got home I looked it up. I found all kinds of railroad ties for sale. Many uses for them, most of which I had employed in the past. Good old Wikipedia went into this whole diatribe with no definition. Finally I found a definition: “one of the cross braces that support the rails on a railway track”; the British call a railroad tie a sleeper; crosstie, sleeper, tie. Now I know; and so do you. Just after high school graduation, I worked at a feed mill (called an elevator). At that job, I unloaded lump coal from railroad cars and loaded cars with grain to be shipped away. Yesterday at work was great. This is the first week on clinic duty for the OSU class of 2010. It is the most fun time to teach because of the newfelt enthusiasm the students bring. This time was doubly great because this group of students are the first students I taught basic radiology to during winter quarter of 2008. The first time since I retired that the students were taught using my thinking processes. No “retraining” so to speak. This group did very well for the first day. It was also good to restore acquaintances and friendships I had made during the other 13 weeks I have worked here. There is however a hole left by the absence of Carol Coulton. Today was another great day at work. In addition, Greg had sent the link to pictures of their U2 tribute band. http://gallery.me.com/prezmcmahon#100213 At one point, I put up a picture of Greg in full dress at the mike and asked the students "Who is that?" One of them said, "Is it Bono" I said, "He would like to be, but he's my son." Greg; does that make your day????? Here are a few pics of flowers in our neighborhood and one of the veterinary college and some of the 3 rooms that I inhabit while working here.