What should this week be called? Is it the First Week of 2019 Or perhaps, should it be called the Last Week of Christmas Vacation? I think it is a combination of the two.
Most of the week was taken up with the Christmas activities for grandchildren.
Monday was Natalie's day; she had requested a hike - an interesting hike. So I chose a trail on the south side of the Clackamas River - the Riverside Trail from Fish Creek upriver to Pup Creek Falls.....and maybe The Narrows. I'd heard about Pup Creek Falls, and the map shows some camping areas which I wanted to check out. Also, The Narrows can be seen from the north side of the river, way down the steep canyon to a narrow gorge where the water swirls and rushes through a "narrow" opening. From the road, the area looks mysterious and foreboding. So, of course, I wanted to go there. There were even three geocaches along the way to add interest to the day. We left about 9 am and drove through thick fog all the way through Estacada, and then as you go up and over the big crest of the hill upstream from Estacada, we burst through the clouds, and the whole Clackamas River Valley lay out in front of us - it was magnificent.
At the trail head both Natalie and I realized that neither of us had brought our map, and I hadn't brought any of the geocaching details. Oh well, I'd studied the map, there was only one trail, it went upstream, no problem. (I did have a first aid kit and people at home had our trip plan!)
The trail was pretty easy - not really steep as it followed the river, but there were lots of ups and downs, and the trail was wet and the rocks were sharp. But, honestly, for the next three days my thighs were barking.
Most of the trail looked like this:
Neat tree that received the bad end of a lightening strike.
There is a cable car crossing along this route - I've often seen it from the car, and it is noted on the maps, but I have no clue who owns it or its purpose or anything. But we found it. Natalie did a good job of "hanging" from the cable, but she made no progress to the other side of the river.
We knew how far Pup Creek Falls was (about 5 miles) and we watched the "walking app" on my phone, so we knew these little waterfalls weren't the right ones, but they tweaked our interest anyway.
Here's one of the side canyons we traversed.
And a little stream crossing with the coolest stepping stones.
Finally!! Beautiful Pup Creek Falls. It was really beautiful.
It looks like there is a pool midway which might be fun in the summer for daring YSAs
We headed back at 3:00 and were back at the car by 5:00. It was a great day and a great hike!
Tuesday - was Ruby and Abby's Day - and lucky for us, Paul wanted to come too. The two girls had chosen a hike - hmmmm...... what is the perfect hike for a four year old and a six year old? Needs to be easy, but interesting, close, so not too much driving is involved. There needs to be a destination. I chose Latourrel Falls Loop hike, 2.3 miles 600 ft elevation gain. Paul and I decided to drive the scenic highway (rather than take the freeway) which goes through the countryside east of Gresham and it goes right by (and around) the scenic Vista House on Crown Point! That was a big plus for Paul because he's wanted to go there every time he drives on I84 and sees it in the distance. The view was wonderful.
Abby and Ruby were good little hikers - really, for their first experience. It was cold, the trail slippery/wet, there was mud, and a lot of the rocks were sharp and wobbly.
We passed by the Lower Falls on the way to our destination of Upper Falls.
At Upper Falls we ate lunch, which turned out to be a bad location because it was cold there and a strong breeze blew on us as a by- product of the falling water.
Both girls were cold - Ruby wanted to have Paul carry her in his back pack and didn't like his assurance that, if she started walking, she and her feet would warm up. Abby's hands were FREEZING, and she said she was bored and knew were were going the wrong way because she could see cars in the parking lot "over there" and were were going "this way". They were unhappy, but, miraculously, after we began walking they warmed up and were happy and "loved" hiking and wanted to come again.
The loop trail crosses the highway and then come back on a trail under the road.
And here we are a the base of the Lower Falls.
It was a great day - perfect hike - perfect kids (after they warmed up). Ruby wrote in her thank you letter, "I loved the hike! Can we go again tomorrow?"....well, yes, I think we should plan on that.
Wednesday was Jude's day. Interestingly, he had chosen Geocaching.....without really knowing what it is. We've talked about geocaching, and he went with up to Alder Flat when we replaced two of our geocaches that we've hidden, At the last minute he announced that he didn't want to do geocaching because it is is 'boring'. Boring? That is not possible! He wanted to switch to shooting a gun. I explained that I'd already chosen 12 geocaches to look for and that it was too late to 'return' his gift.
Being a good sport, he drew his own "treasure map" for us to use!
Before starting we went to the Dollar Store where we bought two little packages of plastic toys - one dinosaurs and one amphibians. We told him he could trade these toys for ones he found in the caches. Then, off we went to Clackamette Park in Oregon City which is between the Willamette River and the Clackamas River. There are eight caches in the area, and we found all of them. Dad let Jude hold the phone which has a line with an arrow which shows the direction to walk. That really didn't make much sense to him, so Dad said things like, "walk toward that tree" or something similar.
Here is his very first find - a GRC...a guard rail cache. He is trading a green frog for a black spider.
There was a cache in the crook of a tree which was growing in the middle of these big rocks.
We didn't know there is a public dock right behind the motel which is across from the OC Shopping Center. Jude wanted to board the sailboat which was docked there....ah.....no.
Nearby we visited the site where an Elm Tree had been planted by George Abernethy who was the first Provisional Governor of Oregon. Turns our George and his wife had two children. One of them married Sarah Fidelia Gray who, it turns out, happens to be a cousin with a common grandfather born in 1619.
We found a cache under the OC/Gladstone Bridge - it was out along the edge of the lagoon. Notice the color of the bridge. It is a specific color created by the designer of the bridge. On his plans he had colored the bridge this light green, but when built, the bridge was black steel. He won a design competition, and when he learned that the the organizers of the event were going to come to the bridge, he ordered the engineers to get a green paint that matched the color on his design and paint th bridge.. Now called ODOT Green, you can see this color on other bridges in Oregon.
We went to McDonalds, and Jude found his cache in the box - it was a Cutie Car.
Thursday was Evan's day - I asked him what he wanted to learn from his Cooking Activity - "well, I'm going on a mission and I"d like to be able to eat in a healthy manner". Unfortunately, I have no photos..
We started out encouraging him to be able to plan menus so he only has to think once a week about what he'll eat. With a menu, one can buy all their food on Preparation Day. Honestly, most of the missionaries did not plan and kinda ate as they went. As a result many of them had a Snickers for breakfast and bought street food during the day. We made a list of about ten different kinds of meals to make for breakfast - most were egg based - but there was also cereal, and corn meal mush, and oatmeal, etc.
Then we moved to main dishes - "Do you know how to cut up a whole chicken?" "No". Okay, this is how you do it". Piece by piece he cut up the chicken. He made a flour and spice mixture and baked the pieces in the oven. The back, wings , and other bits were put in a sauce pan to cook, after which he picked off the pieces of meat and said, "I can have some chicken sandwiches now."
"Evan, do you know how to cook rice?" "In a rice cooker?" "Yeah, but how do you do it if you have no electric rice cooker?" So-----we taught him how to do rice the old fashioned way in a sauce pan, and voila, he created perfect rice. Then from the baked chicken drippings, he made gravy,
Next was to put together a meat loaf. Meat loaf is relatively inexpensive and easy to make, and you can use up left over bread and surplus veggies. He took the meatloaf home for his family's dinner
Then we moved to desserts which satisfy the sugar cravings and calm the soul. He made banana bread first - everyone loves banana bread and eventually everyone has a few bananas who have no future except to be mashed for this recipe. Then we made fudge. We explained that it's always nice to take something when your invited to dinner......but really fudge is a great door opener when you are visiting less actives or you can use it as an excuse to "call" on someone.
Friday was the day to go to a "Museum or Something Similar". Independently from each other, three cousins (Clara, Logan, and Gretchen) each chose this Christmas option. We decided to go to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum. Only Logan had previously been there, but he didn't remember anything about his visit.
Their favorite place was the school house
Or maybe it was the General Store where they bought supplies and loaded their wagon....and then unloaded it.
The girls like shopping at the dressmakers
Logan was attracted to the fur trapper style
The living room was nice too. Gretchen had a tea party, I did a puzzle and Clara and Logan remodeled their house.
After we all tired of the museum (really - how many times can you load that wagon?), we headed for the Oregon City Promenade on the Bluff. We went down the elevator and visited that coin and hobby shop - oh my, the kids did not want to leave that shop as there were so many really good things there.
We walked on and frolicked all the way to the highway turn off right above the falls. The kids had never seen this before.
And we ended the afternoon at.............
Saturday - at last - and it was Tyler's turn. He had chosen "Shooting". It took me half a day to get set up: cleaned out the area under the canopy, found the guns and ammunition, found the targets; tried to remember how to load and fire the 22.
Tyler turned out to be a natural even though he was shooting right handed and right eyed - actually he is a lefty.
Look at his target on his first day - all of his shots are clustered!!! It is better than I do.
He tried shooting my two had guns, and as expected, he barely hit the target. And, he didn't like the bigger hand gun - really loud and a really big recoil.
The most fun he had was shooting apples. We got a pallet, and he set the apples on the edge and casually and accurately picked them off. Each hit made a big spray of apple juice!
Next time I am going to teach him how to fire a shotgun and let him try the AR 15 - but I need more training myself on both of those - Travis...help!
Sunday was our regular family dinner and Tyler's birthday celebration.
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