Favorite Pictures: Daughters on Sea Lion Statue

In 2003, we traveled down to Arcata, California for summer vacation.  We spent much of the time driving along the coast in Oregon and Northern California.  Along the way, we stopped at Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon.  We saw this statue, Stellar Sea Lion Family, and decided we needed to have a family picture as well.  

Check off another box on the Man List.

This is a carburetor.  Specifically, the carburetor on a 5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine on a wood chipper.  It is another check mark in the Man List.  The Man List is a list of things all men should do before they pass away.  Different from a Bucket List, for not everything on a Man List is pleasant (changing dirty diapers, for instance). 

The story starts this spring when I finally called a lumberjack out to trim some branches that were growing on my roof.  After he was done, I had 6 foot piles of branches on each side of the house. 

I decided that I would rent a chipper to make some mulch but when I looked into it, they were like $400 per day for the really big ones, and they didn't rent out little ones.  For that price, I could buy a new one.  But the last thing I need is another thing in the garage, so I figured I'd pick one up on Craigslist and sell it when I was done.  Sure enough, I found one for $120 just south of me so I went and picked it up.

The chipper had been sitting in the gentelman's shed for about 5 years and it didn't have any gas in it so I couldn't test it out.  Sure enough, it didn't run when I got it home, so I figured I'd use YouTube to rebuild the carburetor and see if that did it.

After two trips to the auto parts store, two deliveries from Amazon, three weekends and a visit from an engineer friend from church, it finally chugged to life.  And it stayed running.  Two more weekends later, I had smaller piles of mulch and a bunch of limbs to cut up for firewood.  As a bonus, I sold it to a friend at work for what I paid for it. 

Without the help of YouTube, I wouldn't have been able to accomplish this one. It makes me wonder, though, how many people watch YouTube and get in over their heads?   

Mount Rainier GeoTour

Mount Rainier from White River Valley
at Sunset

In a nice marketing move, the Visit Rainier organization leveraged the 100th anniversary of Mt. Rainier National Park by creating a series of 100 geocaches in and mostly around the park.  The caches were released in groups of 25 about every 6 months, and were placed so that you would have to travel around the mountain for each of the groups. 
We began this last year, and were a couple of short for Series 1 before the snows came.  Series 2 came in the fall of 2015, and we were busy and couldn't get to any.  Series 3 came right before we went camping over the weekend of July 4th, so we decided to get as many as we could. 

We obtained 42 of them the weekend of the 4th, I got another half-dozen a couple of weekends later, and last weekend, we got back to the Sunrise side of the park and polished off the last ones.  A little hiking, a little camping, a little sightseeing.  We went up to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort to see the Perseid meteor shower, but after an hour without a trace, we gave up.  It was still nice to see the stars outside of the city lights. 

Fruit so good I can remember eating it.

There are three times in my life that I remember where I have had fruit that was so good, I can remember exactly where I had it.  It was that good. 

Strawberries from Central Valley:  One summer during her college years, Corinne got a summer job for a company in Los Angeles.  We had an extra car at that point, so I told her she could take it down to LA for the summer and sell it afterwards.  Of course, we needed to make a road trip, so I decided to take the weekend and drive down there with her. 

On the way to Sequoia National Park, we were driving along a local road and came across a stand selling fresh strawberries.  We purchased a pint and had them when we got to the park.  The fruit was ripe, red throughout, juicy and melt in your mouth delicious.  Afterwards, we decided that we made a mistake in not buying more. 

Peaches in Georgia:  A few years later, we decided to get a condo in northern Georgia.  We were between my niece's wedding and when Valerie had to return to college, so we decided to vacation in the southeast. 

One day during our excursions, we found a peach orchard that was selling peaches.  We tasted one and decided to get a large bag to last for the week.  I can't remember how long they lasted, but they didn't last us the week.  Between 4 of us, I'm sure they were gone within a couple of days.  The fruit was ripe, juicy, sweet but not too sweet, and that perfect consistency that it melted in our mouths. 

Pineapple in Fiji:  This past winter, we used some money my mother gave us and took the whole family to Fiji for Christmas.  The trip was long, but everyone managed to make it from five cities on two continents. 

The first day we were there, Christmas Eve, Gail and Valerie went to a local market and got some produce.  Part of what they bought were some pineapple.   They were a bit smaller than we normally get in the US, so they bought some more.  Again, the pineapple was ripe, juicy, sweeter than we can get in the US, not as stringy, and perfect for snacking, daiquiris, and cooking.  We went back to get more, and I believe that had twenty pineapple before we left, and not a one was disappointing. 

America the Beautiful Pass

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Wallace Stegner, novelist, environmentalist and historian, once said "National parks are the best idea we ever had.  Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."  I agree.  

Every year, we manage to visit at least one National Park, and when we go, we make sure to get an America the Beautiful pass.  It allows access to all the parks and any national fee site.  We may not get full value from the pass, but the money goes to a good cause.  When I retire, I'd love to devote some of my time volunteering in the parks.  

When I hear of certain individuals who "take over" national lands and demand that it be "given back to the people", I am puzzled.  As a US citizen, I own 59 National Parks, 82 National Monuments, 19 National Reserves, 50 National Historic Parks and a huge number of other public areas.  If they aren't being run the way I like, I vote.  

Buy one today.  

Disclosure:  I am not compensated in any way for any sales from the National Parks.  

Camper

When we were in St. Louis, we frequently went camping with our friends from church, Dan and Donna.  Their daughter, Rachel, was about the same age as our oldest two and they all loved to have little sleepouts in their camper. 

A few years later, Dan called us up and asked us if we wanted to buy the camper.  We agreed, and we then began dragging the kids around the country in the camper.  It went with us to Yellowstone, Glacier, Utah, Oregon, California, and many places between.  The most notable was 15-days straight when we were moving from Iowa to Washington (via the Grand Canyon). 

Now it's primarily used once or maybe twice a year.  It makes a great shelf in the garage.  This year, I had 4 days off around the 4th of July holiday, so we went camping near Mount Rainier. Deanne was able to come, and Maria and Chris came up from Oregon to visit for a bit.  It's showing its age, and there are fewer parts than there used to be, but we still enjoy getting out in the "wild". 

Hiking - Goat Lake

As a technology professional, I end up staring at screens much more that I should.  That may account for my desire to get outside when I can.  One of my favorite ways to get outside is to go on a hike.  Living in the Northwest lends itself to many spectacular hikes within a couple of hours of the house. 

On Father's Day this year, I decided we'd go on a hike to Goat Lake.  It was recommended by one of my coworkers who enjoyed it the week before.  So, I made everyone get up early, and we hit the trail. 

The trail follows Elliot Creek about 5 miles to the lake.  Along the way, the trail divided, so we went up to the lake by the creek and back down by way of the old logging road.  

We were doing fine until we were within half a mile of the lake.  We missed a switchback and ended up on a non-maintained, overgrown trail heading toward the falls.  After wandering around for a half an hour or so, we decided it was time for lunch.  We headed out to the little rocky island at the base of the falls and had our lunch.  The dog never really got relaxed, but it was a very cool place to be.

Goat Lake

After we got our energy back up, we doubled back, found our wayward trail, and made it up to the lake.  There were a couple of dozen others up there, some camping, some sleeping, some just enjoying the view like us. 

After the dog got his swim in, and we found a geocache, we headed back down.  The trail along the road was easier, but in the end, it was about 2 miles too long.  We got back to the car nice and tired and picked up some KFC on the way home. 

All in all, a good day.