Hamilton Mountain

 

 

 

Today Lindsey and I went to Hamilton Mountain on the Washington side of the gorge. Many of the spring wild flowers were in full bloom and the views were beautiful. We did the approximately 8 mile loop with 2000 feet of elevation gain. It was great. Sweating up the mountain even made my cold feel better. One of the collages is of the views of Beacon Rock, the gorge and Hamilton Mountain. One of the collages is of some of the flowers and plants that we saw and one of them proves that Lindsey and I were actually there.

challah

 
For many weeks now I've been meaning to make my own challah. This week I finally pulled myself together enough to do it (ie: I bought yeast and found a recipe to try). I made honey whole wheat. It was quite yummy.

petroglyphs

 
Two weeks ago Thursday, myself, Chilton, Laura and Lindsey took a treck to the Dalles to look for some petroglyphs that were rumored to be there. We did find a couple in what I would asume our their original locations (the owl) and then we found a bunch more that had been moved to musiums and parks. We also found a little damaged owl that now lives at the museum in The Dalles. We may have more in their original locations but the area that we hoped to find them in was on private property. Oh well, what a perfectly beautiful day.

Pesach

Yesterday was Pesach (Passover) which is the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Today, with the help of Laura and Lindsey I hosted a Seder at my house. All total there were 13 of us plus a place for Elijah (darn, he didn't come this year). I have been to several Seders but this was the first year trying to host one (same for Laura and Lindsey). I have to say that it went very well. It helped having a very well written Haggadah (the "program" for the Seder). NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM :o) I blame the high quality of the photo's on how incredibly well my camera functions. Somewhere out there on a couple of other camera's lurk some better pictures.

 

 

 

 

June Lake

 

 

 

 

Last weekend I went snowshoeing at June Lake on Mt. St. Helens with Laura, Lindsey, Chilton and one of Laura's college friends. The weather that morning when we left the house was awful and rainy but when we got up to the trail it was snowing and beautiful. The weather couldn't have been better with snow for the first half of the hike and then clear skies and beautiful views. It was a wonderful day and a beautiful hike that would definitly recomend and hope to do again.

Mirror Lake

So this weekend L and L and I went to Mirror Lake on Mt. Hood. Our goal was to do Tom, Dick and Harry Mountains but the snow conditions weren't ideal and we started a little late in the day to do it safely. Once again God blessed us with a beautiful sunny day (except this week it was actually warm and NON-windy).

Above are photo's of sledding and climbing fun.

The crowds are kept down at Mirror lake in the winter (despite the fact that it is a designated snow shoeing trail) because you have to park about a mile away from the trail head. Nope, about a mile is not exaggerating.

If you're wondering why L and L are laughing so very hard in one of the above pictures it is because on attempt on of me taking the photo I fell into the tree well behind me. On attempt 2 I braced myself to run and take the next picture and I promptly fell into the tree well off to the side of where the picture is being taken. And there I am in tree well number 2. Oh clumsy me. The picture that was finally successful was taken by Lindsey.

Lindsey found a dollar!! Here she proudly displays it.

White River

Two weeks ago I went up to to White River on Mt. Hood with Laura and Lindsey. It was a beautiful sunny (and also windy) kind of day. We did some hiking and then some sledding.
Here are some pictures from the adventure.



In one picture Laura is holding up a giant hunk of snow that she dug out of the hole that she is standing in. Yep, that's right folks, she's STANDING in that hole. :o) Also demonstrated in this collage is Lindsey showing off her new water bottle that she got at the super REI half off clearance sale.