Silverton and Salem

We decided to tour around and check out the surrounding areas.  Mainly because driving home from Tillamook, we saw a sign telling of the Frank Lloyd Wright Gordon House.  So we went to check that out.  Unfortunately for us, you have to have tour reservations, and they never returned our phone call, so we had to limit our tour to the outside.  Still really cool to see.  

Gordon House was moved from its original location because it was sold to people more interested in the land than the house and a group purchased the house and moved it to maintain a Frank Lloyd Wright house.  NS was taken with the idea of becoming an architect.  Since we couldn't take an inside tour of the house, we moved on to the next thing at the same site--The Oregon Garden.  80 acres of botanical gardens and teaching areas.         On our way home, we drove through Silverton and were talking about how Silverton was founded and what the purpose of the town originally was.  As we were driving, we spotted the visitor center and popped in to chat.  The best thing that came out of that was the Marquam Hill Ranch, where they raise alpacas! We were told at the visitor center that they were open until 5, which was perfect, since it was about quarter to 4.  ALWAYS call first!!!  Bill called, and they really close at 4, but Jennifer let us come on in for a tour and an amazing education about alpacas.  What a splendid trip!!!!  

Babies were born just a few weeks ago.  They were adorable!            

J was absolutely taken with the alpaca.  It was a fantastic day for us.

Silver Falls

Silver Falls State Park is the largest state park in Oregon, and home to many waterfalls.  So we headed out to see South Falls, the most popular hike in the park.  Got to see a wedding party having pictures taken.  Brilliant--get that done on a Tuesday morning.  Especially since it was rainy and all.  Which I'm sure didn't get her dress at all muddy.  But I'm sure the pictures are GORGEOUS.  

This is how we started our hike.  Absolutely stunning.            

Our first glimpse of South Falls.  We walked along the river that eventually became the top of the waterfall.  It was a great trail, but a bit slippery with the rain.              

The trail leads behind the falls.  The rock wall behind it is kind of a cave.  NB climbed the rocks in there and then required three adults to help him off his high perch.  Thank you to the gentleman who just hoisted him up and off the rock.  I have a non-interference rule, so he might have stayed there all the rest of his days if it weren't for that gentleman!            

Overall, though, I liked lower South Falls better.  We could have seen 10 different waterfalls on this trail, but the stairs down to lower South Falls were a bit scary with their water, so we exerted quite a bit of energy on that.  Sigh.

Cape Meares

Cape Meares State Park and Lighthouse is also located adjacent to the Cape Meares Wildlife Refuge.  We didn't explore tons and tons.   We got out there after 2pm, and the rain was cold.  We had to park about a half mile away because all the parking was taken.  So we checked out their largest Sitka tree in all of Oregon, and then hiked down to see the shortest lighthouse.  

Sitka spruce really thrive in the wet of temperate rainforests.  But we had seen Spruce Almighty (name changed to protect the innocent) in Hoh, and this one was only about half its size.  So while it was big, we weren't as impressed as other visitors.  Sorry!              

Octopus Tree is another must see while out there.  The trunk branches out, essentially at the ground.  It is wicked cool.              

And then there's the lighthouse.  Smallest in all of Oregon.  But we toodled around looking at trees so long, we missed getting a tour.  Such a disappointment!!!!!!  But I think it's really alright, because I might just have freaked out being in such a small space, and you could see all the other tourists on the tour from outside, so I think I just missed some info, which I'm sure I can research myself!

Tillamook

Our first day at Silver Falls was rainy, but that was ok because we had already arranged with Bill's aunt and uncle to meet up at Tillamook for a tour.  So off we went, content to spend a portion of our day indoors, out of the rain.  We were a good 15 minutes into the trip when the telltale splatter hit the backseat.  Now the van is truly ours, it's been marked with vomit.  But, being the troopers we are, we forced Noah into continuing on with our day.  And he turned out just fine after that, I think it was just a case of road weariness.  

Tilly's the mascot of Tillamook, used in their advertising since the 1930s or so.                

It truly is amazing how much they do in this one building, how much cheese is made and distributed.  Truly mind boggling.  After the tour, with all the requisite learning that went with it, we had lunch in their cafeteria.  If you take this tour, plan time to stand in line for the lunch. We stood in line for maybe 30 minutes or more.  Sooooooo huuuuuunnnnnnggggrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!  It was good, but I have to say that I preferred the mac and cheese at Beecher's in Pike Place Market.      

I didn't do a good job of getting a group photo, so I at least took a photo as some of our group were leaving the building.  We continued on to Cape Meares, but Rick and Sharon bailed at this point, despite them being the ones who suggested it!  In all fairness, we stayed at Tillamook for about three hours, and it was raining (I think I've said that before....).

Triad of Rain

While we had no real rain at the rainforest, it rained for our travel day.  And the next day as we toured Tillamook Cheese Factory and the Cape Meares Lighthouse.  And the next day as we hiked the temperate rainforest at Silver Falls State Park.  We've been very fortunate in that the weather has been pretty amazing as we travel around the country, but I guess the rain was bound to catch up to us.  

The view on our drive.  It was very nice that it was a travel day, so it didn't really interfere with any of our plans.          

Cape Meares, a lighthouse close to Tillamook Cheese Factory, was perfect in the rainy weather.  Really drives home the need for a light on the coast.              

 Hiking in the rain, though, was a bit much.  I was definitely done with the rain by the third day when we were hiking.  Tired of being damp....

Hoh Rainforest

In the western part of Olympic National Park lies a temperate rainforest.  Hoh Rainforest is a wonderful place to camp.  My sister didn't want to camp with us because she did not want to camp in the rain.  We had wonderful weather the entire time we were there, right up until we left.  

The 12 or 14 feet of precipitation they get annually helps the trees grow BIG.  We were all amazed at how big the trees were, and all the amazing growth just hanging out in the forest.  While tropical rainforests have the greatest biodiversity, temperate rainforests have the greatest biomass.  They're DENSE with all the growth.  The kids and Bill went to a talk about all the growth and they were pleased as punch to show me all the epiphytes, spores, licorice fern, and other types of growth in the forest.  NB loved the sulphur shells, and he told me all about Goblin's Gold, which we looked for but didn't find.        

Seriously, trees big enough to climb into the underside.  These guys grow on nurselogs, and when the nurselogs decay away, the trees are stilted, so you can climb in and around these trees.              

Our campground host told Bill that elk come through the campground.  Never happened while we were there, but we did get to see the herd hanging out on the island on the drive back to the campground.          

The colors were hard to catch in true likeness.  I challenged NB to count the different greens we saw, and I think he got up to something like 17.  He saw more banana slugs than that (21), but 17 different greens is impressive!

Seattle

Our Seattle visit is coming to a close.  My sister and her family have been fantastic to us, and we've had a blast seeing Washington from their perspective.  

Saturday I spent the day sick in bed, but Sunday we got to get out and explore a bit.  We headed out to Saint Edward's park and checked out the hike and the water from there.  Quite a lush piece of forestry, right there.  The kids were excited to check out the enormous banana slugs that were there. HUGE.  And quite unattractive.            

J was happy to get his feet wet again.  All the kids splashed about for a little while, then we took a killer hike (steep incline) back to the playground for a bit.  I am woefully out of shape, plus I was recovering from being sick, so the short hike really took it out of me.  Need to keep up with my allergy meds!!!!!            

Monday we hit Brackett's Landing in the morning to check out low tide.  Check out my niece and see how smart my sister is--rain boots.  Sweet.  But we have none of those, so we wore either water shoes or, in my case, hiking boots.  But it all worked out the same, and I got to test out the waterproof-ness of my boots.  They kick butt, by the way!        

All the stuff we found was so cool, but I was wishing I had brought along an expert.  I don't know what I'm looking at!  BUT, the kids were super excited to check everything out, and they got to experience a habitat they had never really experienced before.  Their curiosity was piqued, and I couldn't ask for anything more.  Truly some great things were witnessed this day.        

Simply amazing.  Once again, I gotta look this stuff up, cuz I have no idea what I'm looking at.  But it blows my mind that the tides leave this out for us to observe, and then take it all back in again.              

NS exploring the inside of a crab.  He was all proud of himself, touching "crab brains."  The shell was pretty much intact, but a bird had been feasting on this poor guy.  I wanted the kids to have crab for dinner, but all the kids were grossed out by that suggestion after seeing this guy.  Oh well.              

Before dinner, Tanya and I took five of the eight kiddos berry picking.  We got pretty good at figuring out which blackberries would be the best, and we got enough to make a blackberry crisp and have plenty leftover for eating with ice cream.  Bill discovered a place here that makes a killer blackberry milkshake.  YUM!        

Tuesday we headed out to Mt. Rainier.  Where it rained.  And was only 54 degrees.  And snowing at the Paradise Visitor's Center.  But we did get a hike in, where the kids were delighted to take in the wildflowers and such.  Those kids who were willing to last the hike, that is.  We had a group break off and head back to the visitor's center a bit early.  Like halfway through the hike.  Slackers.            

My nephew, H, took this picture.  He was very taken with showing me the really cool flowers, so I asked him to take a picture for me.  He was happy to oblige.           For some odd reason, we felt that we could go to Rainier on Tuesday and head out Wednesday.  Didn't happen.  It's Thursday morning, and we really have to take off today.  We're hitting Olympic National Park today, and then heading to Oregon next week.  Yeah!!!!