We had some nice fall weather this weekend so Ava and Scott went to the Hulls Gulch area to see if they could catch some lizards (we looked them up and identified them as native Northern Sagebrush Lizards). They are really quick and good at hiding in tiny cracks… deceptively hard to catch. We only caught a few after trying various methods but it made the trip worthwhile.
This one we named “Lightning”
Lightning was content sitting on Ava’s leg for a few minutes in the sun
We took a day trip to McMinnville to visit the the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. The main attraction here was the Hughes H-4 Hercules (aka the Spruce Goose). Just looking at the size of the hangar needed to house this plane was impressive.
This is inside the fuselage near the wing ribs. The pontoons and part of the hull were actually full of beach balls for flotation in the event of a water catastrophe to keep the aircraft from sinking.
Unfortunately one has to pay more than we wanted to see the flight deck so the view was kind of limited.
Ava playing in a Chadwick C-122S helicopter. This was an early ultralight helicopter that someone had donated. Only a few were ever built.
Annalise was tired and pretty grumpy so keeping her happy was a challenge for all of us. She did enjoy playing on the wood airplane toy though.
One of my favorite things was seeing one of the engines that powered the H-4 up close. The Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp engine was a radial engine with 28 cylinders, producing 4000 horsepower. Keeping 8 of these running would be such a challenge. This is about as big as combustion engines got before turbojets gained popularity.
On the way back to “home” we stopped for dinner at Mo’s in Lincoln City per tradition.
After dinner we went outside of Mo’s to the beach, which is also a great area for clamming. We ended up getting about 25 of these butter clams which are a lot of fun to catch.
Outside of Mo’s in Lincoln City
Mo’s sits just inside the bay’s narrow inlet, here’s an aerial view of where we were clamming.
In July we went to the Oregon Coast with Scott’s parents and brothers’ families and Jenn’s younger brother Max. So the fifteen of us (Jenn, Ava, Annalise, Scott, Max, John, Jess, Kayla, Piper, Sawyer, Dave, Hulya, Aylin, Roger and Nancy) rented a beach house in Gleneden Beach, Oregon We left at 04:30 AM, drove all day and arrived mid afternoon. The entire picture set is [here], but here are some of the highlights of our trip.
The long drive went surprisingly well. Plenty of “are we there yet?”s but all things considered it was a fun drive. Luckily Scott brought an old tape cassette of MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” to pass the time and pass the bad music we listened to as kids on to the next generation.
The house had a hot tub that the kids (and adults) really enjoyed.
One of the best things about all staying in the same house is watching all the cousins bond and have a great time.
One day we rented a boat and went crabbing in the Newport bay.
…and had a crab feast that evening…
Scott towed the powered parachute trailer to the coast as there was a small municipal airport 5 minutes away from the beach house. The weather was unusually good and we were able to get a flight in almost every morning. This is some of the most scenic flying, really beats the flying in the Idaho desert.
