Sunshine on Silver Falls

Spring has sprung. Our family celebrated this day among the first of sunny days and warmer temperatures by hiking at Silver Falls State Park. With the runoff still high from this winter's snow melt, the falls are spectacular this time of year. We began at the South Falls, hiking up the Rim Trail to Winter Falls. This took us past some gigantic conifers (mostly Douglas-fir) probably 300+ years old on a very kid friendly trail (wide with no steep drops). My son hiked the first 1/4 mile all by himself with his very own little pack on his back. The little REI pack has a whistle built into the chest clip which my son discovered soon after we bought it. He happily traipsed through the forest blowing his whistle and carrying the map (he was really into the map.. who knew?!) and telling oncoming hikers "Hi! Here we come!". When my son was ready to be packed for a while, my partner slung him into our Sherpani pack and we took the Winter Trail up to the Trail of Ten Falls. This took us past Winter Falls and Twin Falls. Here is a picture of my sweetheart and our son in front of Winter Falls. We continued up to the North Falls letting our son down to explore the cavernous trail behind the waterfall. There were lots of butterflies under the rock overhang, possible having cocooned there. We then dipped our hands into the river before hiking back down to the South Falls (and our car) following the Rim Trail all the way. Long stretches of the Rim Trail were kid friendly; not too many steep drops off the trail edge, lots of wooden bridges, running water, trees, snags, stumps, sap, ferns, mosses, lichen, shrubs, wildflowers (lots of wild trillium blooming), insects, etc. With so much to explore and examine this is a great overall hike with a little one. When our son tired, I carried him on my shoulders. It'll be a sad day when I can't whisk his slender little frame up like that anymore. We hiked 4 miles round trip. I carried him on my shoulders most of the way back down. This 4 mile trek took us about 4 hours and was great fun.

Tribute to Bush (and I don't mean the president!) **contains faux nudity**

Newport is for Lovers

Valentines Day 2008 we spent in Newport Oregon. We stayed at the Whale Inn, a quaint and rather run down, coastal motel off Hwy 101 in Depoe Bay. My sweetheart, spent all day in a conference while my son and I packed ourselves off to the Newport Aquarium. We then grabbed some lunch and drove out to Yaquina Head where we sat beside the lighthouse and ate. Appetites sated, we hiked up Salal Hill a quarter mile to the top. My son and Sam, our dog, ran the whole way up, here's a picture of the view. After looking at the ocean from afar, we decided to take a closer peek. We descended to Cobble Beach on the south side of the lighthouse. The cobbles were lots of fun to walk on and slide down, making such cool clacking and cracking noises. Since the tide was out, we were able to walk out to the tidepools. My son loved touching the sea anemones and sea stars. After the sun had gone down and my partner was all conferenced out, we collapsed into our little double bed in the motel room and fell asleep... despite the periodic whirring of the heater which sounded like a rocket was launching once an hour at our feet. If cherubs and arrows spell Valentine's Day then our gritty motel room, noisy heater and crowded little bed spelled Love.