Don't tell anyone, but it doesn't actually rain that much in Portland

Remind me I wrote that in February.

Let's start at the end... the sunset tonight over the Pacific Ocean


That was just south of Cannon Beach, OR. Today we woke up to some fog in Portland, but it seemed to be burning off quickly, so we headed to Astoria, of Goonies fame. We had fog off and on the whole way there. But when we got there, it was beautiful and sunny. Our first stop was the Columbia River Maritime Museum where we learned that we never ever under any circumstances want to be on a boat of any size at all anywhere near where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. Something like 2,000 wrecks there in the last 200 or so years. You wouldn't have known it by the calm water today.

Then we drove around some of the streets up the hill and saw some beautiful Victorian homes, and saw some that needed some work. Then off to the Rogue Brewpub on the river for lunch. It was in one of the old cannery buildings. There aren't really any operating salmon canneries left in Astoria because of overfishing and the damming of the river.

Then we headed down the coast to Seaside (the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail)

Next stop was Ecola State Park. People were surfing. It might not have been raining, but don't let me give you the impression it was warm. These people were not sane.

Then the Ecola Point Lookout...

Okay, one more, this was around the Ecola Point lookout, too, just a little later after Dennis walked and I drove from the beach back up to the point.


Well, we're really looking forward to seeing much of the Hubele bunch at Thanksgiving - I can't believe it will be here so soon! Then, just 2 weeks after that we move in to our house! Everything is still on track there.

We're also anxiously awaiting news of a new Smith baby. We can't wait to find out if we're buying pink or blue Christmas presents!

We bought a house! and miscellaneous other adventures

Well our huge exciting news is that we're buying a house, but you've probably already seen pictures, received our new address, and your invitation to come visit anytime after December 11... like December 12-14, if you're just dying to do some heavy lifting that weekend. I mean, what else are you going to do, go to the mall???

We've been in Oregon for a month tomorrow and it's been a whirlwind. Dennis is logging more miles that we can count flying back and forth to Philly. Luckily I was able to find a great furnished condo to rent month-to-month near downtown Portland, so I shortened my commute after about 2 weeks of driving back and forth to Independence every day. Last weekend we decided we really hadn't been travelling enough, so we decided to go to Seattle for the weekend. We saw the Stumpff's and their new little boy, Tobin. Trevor is a very caring big brother, and Heidi and Jason are veterans by now at this parenting thing.

Then we headed to Rob and Claudia's to celebrate Rob's birthday with a fantastic dinner, a night of celebrating and some mean Wii competition. We did spend some time in Seattle figuring out an offer on the second house we bid on. Then we had to find a fax machine to submit the offer, only to be outbid by two people... and one was all cash. Insanity. Sunday afternoon we all went to the Eagles / Seahawks game. It was a fun day. We saw the sun, and an EAGLES win. Sorry, Northwest.

Felix has been logging some miles of his own, mostly in hot pursuit of the poor defenseless rodent population in the field behind mom and dad's house. The days they don't find a decapitated mouse on the back porch have become noteworthy. He also likes to explore inside now and then... like the night he got really curious about what was on top of the shower door. He didn't realize it was only an inch or so wide until he landed on it, I'm sure. But he managed to stay on, turn around, and get down without requiring traction the next day. Luckily I had the camera close by. Dennis never would have believed the cat who fell off the second floor landing his first day here could balance his large self on a tightrope of a shower door. He's come a long way.

That's all for now.

P.S. If you see a mouse with a white collar and a red tag that says "Felix" you'll know the species stands a chance after all. He seems to have lost it in battle.