Skamania Lodge Retreat

Back in November of last year, my Army unit decided to hold a marriage retreat for us, but it was postponed because of bad weather until this past weekend. The retreat, or as Rebekah has taken to calling it, "the parent's runaway vacation," was held at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA. Stevenson is on the Columbia River about 40 miles east of Portland.

It was amazingly beautiful down there, which is saying something cause I've been spoiled living here in the North West. The lodge, resort really, was great. I try not to get all gushy about how cool things are and what not, cause I've seen some really amazing things and been some crazy places, but the lodge was top notch. Beautiful grounds, good service, fantastic food, and lots and lots to do.


One of the many things to do at the lodge was to borrow bikes to ride. Pamela and I decided to ride into the town and see the beach/pier. We took the long way, going up the mountain side and then back down around into the town. Of course, half-way down the mountain, my back tire blew out. Not just the tube, but the tire itself had a huge hole in it. So, we walked the bikes into town and the gas station attendant pointed us in the right direction for a tube and we headed that way. The hardware store did in fact carry bike tubes (me thinks this is not an isolated incident) and the folks there were kind enough to let me use some tools to change the tube. Then it was back to the gas station to fill'er up and continue on our way.


We made it to the pier and stayed there for a few minutes watching crazy people kite board. I'd never heard of this before, and it looks like a lot of fun. I'm thinking I need to try it when I get back from the desert. Anyway, if you're wondering what kite boarding (I guess it can be one word) is, it's exactly what it sounds like. You strap a snowboard onto your feet and hold onto a huge kite and ski across the water (I guess it could be a slalom water ski, I'll have to find out). Some of the more...adventurous ones were using their own wakes to launch themselves 15-20 feet in the air. Pamela took some video of it, so I'll have to figure out how to get that onto this from her phone. Anyway, it looked awesome!


All in all, we had a fantastic time and I was once again reminded of how completely lucky I am to have such a beautiful and amazing wife. Not sure how I pulled that off, but I'm awfully glad I did.

Test photo post

I was just trying to see if this would work from my phone. Apparently, it did.

Test post.

The Beach; or at least it looks like a beach...

A few weekends ago we decided to venture out to the beach here in Washington. It was a very different adventure from what I'm used to.

See, I grew up in SoCal, so going to the beach was a very common occurrence. We would go surfing, body surfing, wake boarding, play volleyball, have campfires, and have long walks on the beach in the sunset. One constant was the warm water and the warm weather. The beach here in the North West is just a lot different. The biggest difference? Cold, Cold, Cold!!!!

Oh, cold and windy, I should say. It looks like a kite flyer's paradise. In fact, there were a whole lot of kites around. So anyway, we got there and decided to park in one of the many parks along the coast. We parked and walked up to the shore. There was beach sand, and there was beach water, and the water was washing up on shore in waves just like it's supposed to, but that's where the similarities ended. The water was colder than anything I've ever felt. And the wind was howling around us. And then, the biggest difference of all... You can drive on the beach here.

Yup, that's right, you can drive on the sand. In fact, that's what most people do. Drive out to the water's edge, park and set up for the day right there. So, that's what we did. We walked back to the truck, and drove out there. The best part was as we were driving along, I drove in the ocean. It was cool. I've never driven in the ocean before. I don't know many folks that have. It was a great time, and such a different experience from what I've known. What a fun place!

Shrek the Musical

Oh yeah, Shrek made some sweet music of his own!

So, about 4 months ago, when we found out we were moving to Washington, Pamela's sister Jennifer told us about this cool program that Broadway productions have. Before they get all spun up and spend all of their money on a new Broadway show, the producers will sometimes do a pre-run in other locations. This way they can test run the play and get audience and critic feedback and make adjustments. So Jennifer, who is working on her last semester in a Masters in Fine Arts Degree and very much into all the stage production stuff (she's very cool), told us that they were going to do a pre-run of Shrek the Musical. So, on Saturday, we went to the World Premier of Shrek the Musical. It was awesome! Don't get me wrong, this was no local theater troupe doing a test run of a concept; this was the full blown Broadway production with the Broadway cast. (Unfortunately, it also came with the Broadway ticket price). Needless to say, we were one row away from being on the back wall of the theater in the balcony. But it was still great. My only beef with the show was the parts they copied directly from the movie. A lot the jokes from the movie were repeated in the play, and most fell pretty flat. But the original content of the play was phenomenal. Lots of new songs, new scenes and new characters. One scene they added, in which Fiona grows up from a seven year old to a 20 something, was particularly outstanding. The three girls that sing were fantastic and their voices were beautiful. All in all, it was a great day in Seattle. If you're in the neighborhood you should check it out: Shrek the Musical or you can wait till it's on Broadway.

The Space Needle

Who wants to call something a needle? That sounds painful, or at least like I'm gonna have to do some work. And a "Space" needle no less. What's next? Space Thread? Which a space seamstress then weaves the fabric of time together with? /shout out to my Dr. Who peeps! What happens if somebody loses it in a space haystack? I could go on... Anyway, since we're in the great state of Washington and within an hour of Seattle, we decided we'd better go see this "Needle" thing. Holly Streebe was here visiting Bekah, so the day we took her back to the airport we visited the Space Needle.

So here's my beef with the "needle." First, it looks nothing like a needle; where's the eye? It's white (needles are generally silver), and anyone who looks at it can see that it is three towers that look more like ladders than needles. Secondly, it doesn't go into space. What's going on here? Ok everybody, let's put on our imagination hats and pretend that the space needle isn't an earthbound object that has absolutely no resemblance to a needle. Ha ha ha! Oh don't get your panties in a bunch Seattle, I'm like this with everyone! Except Mt. Rainier, of course. What am I going to make fun of in that place? It's perfect!


Anyway, first we missed the exit. (I know, you can see it all the way around the sound, how do you miss the exit? but we did) After that we drove around it for a long while, trying to figure out where to park. Finally we pretended we were rock stars and did the valet parking at the base of the towers (ahem...needle).


Then we got our tickets and headed up! It is a pretty cool view of Seattle and the Puget Sound, so I forgive the whole not being a needle thing. Turns out the "space" part was actually just a marketing ploy for the World's Fair (do they have those anymore?) as is often the case. What are you gonna do? All in all it was a fun trip that allows me to say that I have indeed been to the Space Needle, such as it is.

Hike in Mount Rainier

Ok, so I was going to try to give this great daily log of the move and our subsequent adventures, but as it often does, life got in the way. So, I've decided that I'm just going to give some highlights of things that we've done recently, hope that Pamela can fill in some of the gaps on her blog and keep going forward. Someday the past will all get wrote down! I know, great English.







Moving on. One of the things we wanted to since before we even got here was to hike in Mt. Rainier. You can see some beautiful pictures of the park and learn all about it at the National Park Service's Mount Rainier website. Obviously, that wasn't enough for us, and I highly recommend you not be satisfied with a silly website either.

We ended up going with Pamela's parents while they were visiting over the 4th of July week. We drove up the Monday morning after the 4th weekend. We didn't go very far into the park but what we did see was breathtakingly beautiful. One cool feature of the park is that a seasonal pass for the whole family (one vehicle) was only twice as much as one trip in. It's already paid for itself and will again several times over just this summer. We started up the mountain and stopped first at Cougar Rock for a lunch picnic. From our spot at the picnic table we could see Eagle Peak in front of us and one of the mountain's seven glaciers behind us. Did I mention Mt. Rainier has glaciers? It is actually an inactive (not dormant) volcano that last erupted about 5000 years ago. When I mentioned this to my father, who was commenting on how beautiful the Wasatch Front was, he said, "yeah, but my mountains are true." I can't believe my own father has become one of "those" Utah folks. Anyway, I digress. From our picnic spot we were able to get great views. We had some friendly birds join us for lunch (no idea what kind, anybody know?) and we did our best to keep the kids (and the grandparents) from feeding them...







After lunch we drove up to the start of the Christina Falls trail. From there it is .8 miles to the first falls bridge. It was a great hike and not strenuous at all. The falls were beautiful and just a bit frightening as Bekah and Brenton ran around the bridge and the edge of the rocks and such. How odd that doing that never bothered me as a kid, but terrifies me as a parent; sorry Mom and Dad, I didn't know! We all survived though, and Pamela's parents made the trip to the bridge and back with aplomb. I was glad they went and the kids got to spend that kind of time with them. On the way back out of the park we stopped at a bridge and looked the rocks underneath. The water had turned them this weird orangish color. We played around there for a little while and then headed home. It was great trip altogether. Can't wait to go back!