Crater Lake

Hey everybody. As you can see from the title of this one, we spent about 3 days at Crater Lake in the backcountry. We started out on the rim of the lake and after a couple of miles of hiking, we headed west into the backcountry. We intended to do about 25 miles over the three days but due to a lack of water we had to chop it down to about 14. We hiked in about 10 miles or so and set up a base camp on Friday. Then on Saturday we took a couple of day hikes totaling maybe 4 or 5 miles. Then on Sunday we hiked back up to the rim of the lake to make our exit. It was a very beautiful area as you can see. The water was an amazing color of blue and the Cascade range all around was beautiful. Be sure to check out the photo link on the right for more pictures of this great weekend!

Sunday & August

While recovering from another adventurous weekend, this time @ Crater Lake, we found out that our old stompin' ground was about to receive a huge hurricane. It was kind of annoying to continually hear the news drone on about New Orleans - big drama opportunity - when all the models predicted Katrina arriving in our former front yard. We hear that right now there is no communication or thoroughfare to between Bay St. Louis & Biloxi, but we are very curious to see the storm's impact and to hear from our friends. Tomorrow...

The rest of the month-to-date has been pretty busy & exciting too. Paul brewed 2 batches of beer, plus he celebrated the beginning of his 3rd decade on the 19th. Before that, Anne's Mom came & visited for a week! We ate pretty well, toured an open house at Ladds Crossing, hung out, visited a few local parks, drove to the Pacific coast, and did some gardening & extravagant garden planning. This afteroon we recieved a good surprise in the mail too - photos from the week's activities!

Health Nut

No one knows the hardships of the overweight cat. The Great Gatsby tries to eat a healthy, balanced diet, and get plenty of rest, but nothing seems to work! We think its his thyroid or maybe his metabolism is low.
Plus, as every cat knows, when they hit the big 4, it's like you can't eat anything without it heading straight for your draggy waddle belly. It makes exercising uncomfortable, as the draggy waddle belly tends to skim along the dewy, sharp grass blades whenever running is encited.


Sigh... What makes it even harder is that his brother (he's adopted, but don't tell him) is such an athlete (he must run everywhere) and seems eat as much as he wants. It's just not fair!

Cone-Heads

Well, my hops finally "grew up" this past weekend. As you can see from the pictures, the cones are fully developed and much bigger than the bracts that used to be in their place. I knew that they were ready when the edges of the cones became slightly browned. Also, when I crushed the cone between my fingers, the yellow lupulin glands were really obvious, both in color and smell. There is nothing
like the smell of fresh hops! I only got about 100 cones this year which is probably only enough for 1 batch of beer. Next year should produce a much larger harvest as the root structure will be better developed. Next stop...The brew kettle.

Paul & Anne walking to the Haystacks at the Oceanside beach, but we never got there. Our fingers got numb! 

Down the beach @ Oceanside; fog is clearing. 

Trees, trees! - At the Meares S.P. lighthouse point. See the fog? 

Da Beach

Again!
We visited Oceanside beach & Meares St. Park with Anne's Mom on Sunday. It was chilly & foggy!

Race Day

This morning I did my first competitive event in Oregon: the All Womens Duathlon: 5K Run/12.5 mile Bike/5K Run.
I was happy to have my support crew (Paul) along for the race & the post-race party. He took some pics, cheered me on, & shared my pizza.

The experience was very different than any other race I've attended in Mississippi/Louisiana. First, the weather was awesome - I checked weather.com when we got home at noon, and the temp was still below 80, & humidity was @ 30%! Last night I froze a water bottle to use on the bike - the idea is that between the time you take the bottle out of the freezer at 6 am & the time you drink out of it at 9 am, it thaws. Not here though! It was still nearly completely frozen at 8 am. Good thing I brought a back-up!
Another thing was different was the way everybody interacted. I'm used to just doing my thing, maybe saying hello to a few people, and not really having too much conversation with other racers before, during, & after the race. Today I must have talked to over 10-15 other women before, during, and after the race. It was fun, and I'm still wondering what factor changed the way my race went. Hmmm....

Oh yeah, I think I got 5th or 6th place overall, and 3rd in my age group. The girl in blue in the "Finish Line" photo was in my age group - it was close! The results should be up (SOMEday) here.