Silver Falls

Triumph! A pose this dramatic can only mean one thing; for President's Day we took the best hike EVAR! I've got to warn you though, there are a ton of pictures in this post. I can't find a way to trim it down - it was all too great.

I've been trying to get down to Silver Falls for quite a while, but the timing never seemed right. Silver Falls is basically a waterfall lover's paradise of ten perennial waterfalls. In just 4.8 miles, we saw nine waterfalls. NINE! The Hammonds came with us and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day; perfect for a hike.

So, let's begin. The hike starts at a very historical (and pretty) lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1941. You can purchase a hot chocolate at the cafe and sit at their beautiful (and valuable) myrtlewood tables or...

...you can warm up your tootsies by the fire or...

...you can learn about the park's history and other activities. Then the fun really gets going when you start the trail.

Here are the nine waterfalls we saw that day...

South Falls (#1) - The best known falls in the park, it's only 150 feet away from the lodge. If you look carefully, you can see that the trail goes around the back of the waterfall - one of three chances in the park to get behind (and really close to) the spray. Back in the 1920's, a local man would send an old car off this waterfall every Independence Day. Why don't they still do that???

Jordan thought it would be fun to make sketches of all the waterfalls. Cute kid. If I could draw/paint, I'd probably do the same thing.

One of the reasons Silver Falls is a State Park instead of a National Park is because heavy logging 100 years ago left a large number of stumps in the area that (apparently) are too unattractive for a National Park. But hey - the stumps sure make for great photo ops!

Lower South Falls (#2) - I think we all agreed this was our favorite waterfall. It's so perfectly flat that you'd swear it was engineered to cover some evil mastermind's secret lair...or maybe it's just me that thinks that.

Lower South Falls is another one the trail goes behind. The waterfall is incredibly wide and the trail is so close to the spray that it's quite an epic experience. Cold in February, but unforgettable.

Lower North Falls (#3) - Nice little waterfall, but it looks a whole lot better in Autumn.

Double Falls (#4) - this two-tiered waterfall is the tallest in the park at 178 feet. I hear there's usually a rainbow visible there when the sun is out.

Drake Falls (#5)

Middle North Falls (#6) - By this point on the trail, you're wishing that someone could have come up with more creative names for such pretty falls.

Here's another of Middle North Falls. In the past it was possible to go behind this falls as well, but it has since been closed off due to unsafe conditions. Boo.

Twin Falls (#7) - probably the hardest waterfall in the park to get a good picture of. We had our lunch right on the banks of the stream above it. Doritos and Twizzlers were somehow involved despite my objections. Blech.

Winter Falls (#8) - I'm guessing this was named Winter Falls because it looks like icicles on the canyon wall, but that's just a guess. This was the last planned waterfall on our trip...but...

We also caught a view of the beautiful North Falls (#9) before leaving the park. 

I'm not sure if we'll ever top this hike. Ten possible waterfalls, only $5 to get in, a modern cafe in a cozy lodge, beautiful Oregon scenery the whole way, and the hike is of variable length - anywhere from a few hundred feet up to 9 miles. If anyone reading this from out-of-state comes to visit us, Silver Falls will most likely be on the agenda. I can't wait to see it the other three seasons of the year.

As a sidenote, Jordan and Carter did great on this hike. Much better than our Ramona Falls hike last year. I'm excited to go on more longer-distance hikes with them while we're in Oregon. Way to go, boys!

Silver Falls (more pics)

Tillamook

I think we all had cabin fever during the winter, so we've gone on trips the past three Saturdays. First we went to Tillamook, OR to visit the Tillamook cheese factory. Strangely enough, even after living in Wisconsin for four years, this was the first cheese factory we visited. We hoped to purchase some grilled cheese sandwiches at the grill...but apparently the grill burned down. Oops.

Instead we got ice cream. Cynthia chomped on her classic flavor, Bubble Gum.

Jordan and Carter both got Cake Batter. It was good stuff, but if I want cake batter, I'll open up a box of Duncan Hines! What ever happened to Chocolate and Vanilla ice cream?

Carter was really excited the entire time at the cheese factory. I guess that's to be expected from a child whose three major food groups are cheese, milk, and ranch.

You're looking at a 40 pound loaf of future sharp cheddar cheese being wrapped for aging. The back of the worker's shirt says "I loaf you". Another shirt said "Loaf thy neighbor".

Of course, no trip westward would be complete without a trip to the coast. Oh, Pacific Ocean...how I love thee.

Story of My Life

Sorry I didn't post this earlier, but in case you haven't heard, we're having another boy. Yup, three boys. My life is becoming more like a sitcom every day.

Crafty

Well, in an attempt to add some girly things on our blog and portray life from my thoughts I am going to write a post. Besides, I can do things worth writing about.

See, I make things.

Balloon hats and swords on demand!

 

Receiving blankets and burp cloths as gifts for baby showers.

 

Quilted blankets for Jordan and Carter just because Carter asked me how I made a quilt from my childhood. (I took them to Joann's and they picked out the materials. But I did all the work.) I even learned how to make and attach my own binding for these, which is something I have never done before.

And of course, my annual tradition of making this nativity wall hanging. I've made one, or more, every year for the past seven years. Each one has gone to one of my siblings for Christmas. I have one left to make!

If Jordan had his way I would be making a whole lot more things. He wants to put into production every idea in his head. Like when he wanted Santa to bring him specialty costumes made from characters in his books and drawings. Unfortunately, Santa was a little too busy to make detailed costumes of "Bolt - Lightning Man" and "Huggie Monster", or they would be featured here.

But this idea made it to production. Jordan was home sick from school and thought it would be fun to make a fishing pole and fish for Carter. (Carter loves fishing.) I think they turned out darn cute for a totally from scratch idea and supplies.

The next idea on the list is sock aliens and sock monkeys. *sigh* That one is sounding like a big project. But, I like to be creative and see what my hands can produce.

 

Luck or Unlucky?

While telling my colleague about my latest misadventure, I thought about how lucky I was. His first reaction though was to tell me how unlucky I seem to be. So which is it? Do I have great luck in bad situations or am I just optimistic in an unlucky life?

This is my bike, Chaplin. Yeah, I give everything a name. Its name is an homage to Charlie Chaplin as they share the same monochrome color palette. I've been riding it about 50 miles per week since June largely due to the encouragement of the above mentioned colleague. It's been a great bike, but I have had quite a few incidents already.

The most recent incident happened on Wednesday and now Chaplin is out of operation for at least the next few weeks.

In case you've never dealt with bike repairs, in the above photo there are two circled parts: the green circle is around the rear derailleur (de-RAIL-er) and the orange circle is around the derailleur hanger (aka dropout). The rear derailleur is an engineering marvel. The upper half (silver in the above pic) is responsible for changing the gears on a bike by moving the chain exact minuscule quantities, and the cage (black in the above pic) keeps the chain taut. The derailleur does all this while the bike moves at high speeds and wheel spokes are spinning at the speed of death just millimeters away. The hanger however, is just a piece of metal that attaches the derailleur to the frame. Its sole purpose is to sacrifice itself in case something 'goes wrong' so your frame and your derailleur don't break.

So on Wednesday I'm riding to work and the gears completely lock up as I'm climbing the biggest hill of the ride. I quickly unclipped from my pedals before falling over and surveyed the damage; I saw a complete carnage. The cage was brutally ripped off the derailleur. The derailleur was curled backward and stuck in the spokes. The hanger was bent 90 degrees. The only thing I could do was carry the bike to the bus stop and bus the rest of way to work.

To give you a better understanding of the carnage, I present you with this picture:

The top two pieces of metal are the sides of the derailleur cage. The bottom piece is the hanger. They should all be COMPLETELY flat to stay out of the spokes. And this photo is after I bent the hanger back into shape. They were mutilated by the rear wheel.

This is just about the worst mechanical damage you can have on a bike. And it's not supposed to happen! That hanger was SUPPOSED to sacrifice itself before the derailleur. Not so. So I purchased a new derailleur for $26. The rear tire will need to be trued and inspected as well. Here's the weird thing...I had to order the hanger from the UK at a cost of $26. How could a tiny piece of metal cost as much as the mechanically complex rear derailleur?

My colleague's viewpoint is that this is an exceedingly rare and rather expensive accident in my already extensive line of bizarre biking incidents. Plus I had to walk a long distance to the bus stop in my bike shoes which means I now need to replace the cleats.

But as I see it, I'm fortunate that the derailleur only cost $26 instead of the typical $100+. Plus, my frame was spared from the carnage. I'm also glad that I could even buy the hanger because they're hard to find and if I couldn't secure one, the bike would be useless. I also count my lucky stars that I was within walking distance of a bus. And finally, I think I'm lucky that it happened while I was going slow on an incline instead of while going downhill...or else my bike would have locked up like this...

Christmas 2010

I've decided to muscle my way through the umpteen posts that I've had simmering on the back burner. First is Christmas. I already wrote about what we got, but I want to tell a few side stories.

Carter got the same present for the third consecutive year from Santa Claus. Remote-controlled dogs. That Carter...if he finds something he likes, he sticks to it.



He was quite the ham opening presents this year. At one point he ripped off the wrapping paper from a box and said "a box! A box? Why would I want a box?"

Here are our friends, Dan and Andrea. They're awesome, just so ya know. They came over for most of our Christmas festivities. For Christmas dinner I made duck. Really good duck. Not to mention the potatoes that were fried in the leftover duck fat - one of the greatest substances on earth. As good as it was, we decided not to make it a tradition. Maybe I'll try Turducken next year!

This was our very first real Christmas tree. More Christmas trees come from Oregon than any other state, so we must have sounded really strange telling people at the tree farm that we'd never cut one down before. Noble firs are just beautiful. Plus, they last so long. We also got a Noble fir wreath that is still on our door. I can't bear to toss it out while it's still fresh!

No story here...just stockings. I'm glad we had the foresight to purchase five of those stockings instead of just four. It'll come in handy next year. By the way, Cynthia has her ultrasound on Tuesday!!! Any last guesses on boy or girl?



I tried to build up excitement for the Wii by fooling the boys a little bit. Didn't quite work the way I had hoped, but it was still a decent reaction.

More Glasses in the Fam

What do you get when a husband and wife, both with bad eyesight, breed? High vision insurance utilization! Geez, that almost sounds like a bad Actuary joke.

For the very first time we have vision insurance so Jordan now has glasses for the first time. They are twistable rimless Nike frames in red that look surprisingly good on him. They also look quite a bit like mine, but that's subject to change as I also need to get new glasses soon.

I asked Jordan what he wanted to blog about his glasses. He said "I love them! They can twist...without breaking. The glasses are red."

Be My Super-Awesome Wii Friend

So I just figured out how to add Wii friends. Our console number is below; please add us and give us your console number so we can add you. No idea how to find your console number? Go here.

4421 0628 5280 7464

I know this is really geeky, but I used the LUHN Mod 10 method to ensure this wasn't a valid credit card number before posting it to the world.

Our Wii Connection enabled games are: Mario Kart, Mario Strikers Charged, Dr Mario Online Rx, Tetris Party (Wiiware, not the Deluxe CD version), and Wii Music. Even if you don't have any of those games, we'd still like to have super awesome Wii friends...'cause a Wii without a friend is just a Mii.

Pets

It is now official; we have the first pets of our whole marriage. Not the best picture, but there are two frogs (African Dwarf Frogs) in that aquarium. Jordan asked for frogs for Christmas and Santa came through! Jordan named them "Sam and Toad"...great names if you ask me. The best part of this aquarium (Natural Aquatics system) is that we only have to feed the frogs twice a week and only need to 'clean' the water twice a year. I say 'clean' because we simply remove 2/3 of the water and fill it back up again. The perfect system to teach a 7-year old responsibility.