Silverton, Oregon

We picked up Crystal and Gracie at the Portland Airport and then the next morning moved down to Silverton.

Crystal had a roommate when she was in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo by the name of Kristen Hunter. Kristen suffers from a very rare hereditary disease called Huntington's disease. I would suggest you Google it and see the systems of it.

Kristen is a very sweet and loving person and loves Jesus with all her heart. God has put her with a great Christian family, the Hilgers in Sublimity, Oregon. Tim's wife Amy also suffers from Huntington's. They are very active in trying to find a cure for this horrible disease.

Fund Raiser

We were blessed to be able to spend a week with Kristen and the Hilgers. I know it was a great week for all of us and we really enjoyed going to Foothill Community Church with them!

We used the Silver Spurs RV Park in Silverton as our home park while we visited. It was a Passport America Park so we were given half price the entire week. It was a very nice and convenient park for us.

Every day we would go to the Hilgers house and pick Kristen up to visit with her. One of the highlights was going to Silver Falls State Park. In this picture from left to right is Kristen, Crystal, Brian and of course Gracie in the front. Patty is taking the picture.

Silver Falls State Park

There is a trail that takes you behind the waterfall! Because Gracie was in a stroller Crystal decided to stay at the top and only Kristen, Patty and I hiked down. It was magnificent!

Waterfall

The water is very low right now. Normally there is much more water flowing. It was still pretty awesome walking behind the falls. You can see a little bridge in the distance on the river. We walked down to that and circled back up to where Crystal stayed.

Behind the Fall

Here is the Falls from the bridge. It was just about a mile and a half hike. Not bad.

Falls from the bridge

We circled back around and caught up to Crystal and Gracie. Grandma was loving on Gracie!

Grandma and Gracie

We had a great week but Crystal and Gracie had to head back to Ventura to see hubby and daddy. Here we are at the airport waiting for the plane.

Portland Airport

We will be back in the Ventura area in early September to see the whole family. We will see them again then. We are having soooo much fun but do miss our kids! 

Well that's it for this week. See you all soon.

Love you,

God Bless,

Brian and Patty

Multnomah Falls, Portland, Oregon

We are in Portland, Oregon for three days to pick up our daughter Crystal and granddaughter Gracie at Portland International Airport. We are in Portland at the Columbia River RV Park for 2 days before they arrive so we decided to do some sightseeing. Last time we were in Seaside we heard about Multnomah Falls. We wanted to get here but never made it. It was a must go this time around.

Multnomah Falls

This is the picture of the falls that most people have seen. You can walk across the bridge and get a great picture of the upper falls.

Multnomah Falls

The lower fall is only 69 feet tall, but the upper fall is 542 feet. The elevation gain is a total of over 700 feet. 

Trail to the falls

You can hike a trail of a little over 1 1/4 miles to the top of the upper falls. You must cross this bridge to get to the top.

Bridge to the top

As you can see there were a lot of people on the bridge but the people thinned down as you started up the trail to the top of the falls.

Trail

The trail was challenging because you climbed 700 feet elevation in a little over a mile, but it was beautiful and well worth the effort.

Trail

At mile marker 1 1/4 we are almost to the top. Finally! :)

Mile Marker

We made it! What a spectacular view from the top! Now we get to hike back down... 

Top of the Falls

Tomorrow we pick up Crystal and Gracie from the airport. We will be driving to Silverton, Or on Friday to the Silver Spurs RV Park. Crystal is here to visit a college roommate of hers from when she was at Cal Poly SLO named Kristen.

We are so looking forward to our visit.

That's it for today..

Thanks for reading,

God Bless you,
Brian and Patty

Monroe, Washington

We arrived at the Thunderbird Thousand Trails in Monroe, Washington on Tuesday July, 22nd. This is the first time pulling with our new truck, Huntram II. It is amazing the changes they have made in ten years in trucks. When we got our Cummins Turbo Diesel in 2004 it was truck to get. We didn't know what we would be pulling, so maybe we should have gotten a 1 ton but we still got a great truck.
The 2014 truck we just got is not even in the same ballpark as the old one. The old one was rated to tow about 13,000 pounds. This one about 30,000 pounds!! I can put the 6 speed Aisin automatic transmission with 850 foot pounds of torque in cruise control  and it easily keeps at 65 mph pulling my 15,000 pound 5th wheel  even over 6% grades.

We got a beautiful back-in river site at Thunderbird. Although there is no sewer on the riverside, it does have 50 amp. We could also not get satellite at our site. Some nice people 2 sites over that were able to get satellite reception allowed us to set up our portable dish behind their rig. It was still iffy with the huge trees in the way, but 2 other guys and myself worked on it for 45 minutes and finally were able to receive it. There are also plenty of wild blackberries behind us just ready for the picking, which we did! This picture was taken out our back window in our 5th wheel. The river is the Skykomish River.

Site 94

The next day we decided to go into town for breakfast. We were not having much luck finding a breakfast place because the one we wanted to go to was closed down. We came across Steve's American Cafe and Grill but it was attached to a gas station and wasn't very promising. We walked in to check it out and guess what? It was an amazing place! Live music for breakfast. This bluegrass band was pretty good.

Steve's American Cafe and Grill

The food was really good too! Steak and eggs and Pancakes and bacon... Yummy!

Steak and Eggs

After filling up the belly's we went to Snoqualmie Falls. You may remember that I am a big waterfall person and patty is a big lighthouse person. Today is my day!

Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls is one of Washington's most popular scenic attractions with a 270 foot waterfall. It is spectacular.

Snoqualmie Falls Selfie

The falls are so powerful, even from the top you get hit with the mist. You can clearly see it in this picture. It was very refreshing on a hot day.

Snoqualmie Falls Mist

After we left the falls we went to the City of Snoqualmie. The town hosts the Northwest Railroad Museum. Here is the depot.

Snoqualmie Depot

They have tracks of old trains and cars with signs explaining what they are. It is very interesting and makes for a pleasant walk around town.

Old Trains

Several mornings we woke up to fog in the river. It would burn off by about 9:00 AM.

Fog on the Skykomish

This day we are going to Everett to see a lighthouse. We had to follow the route that the people that take the ferry take. They are the ones in the right lane. We were told they have a three hour wait!! It was backed up for miles. You can see our line takes a left turn into a parking lot.

Ferry Line

The ferry has just left Everett. It is headed across the Sound to Whidbey Island.

Ferry

We walked out to the boat docks to get a great view of the Puget Sound.

Puget Sound

This is what Patty was waiting for, the Mukliteo lighthouse in Everett.

Mukliteo Lighthouse

As you can see there are people up on the top of the lighthouse. They have docents that give guided tours for a requested donation. 

Lighthouse Selfie

This is the Fresnel lens in the lighthouse. With the Fresnel lens a very small wattage bulb can be seen for 12 nautical miles.

Fresnel Lens

The lighthouse keepers quarters is now being used for a museum and a lighthouse store.

Keepers Quarters

We had a great time in Monroe. We had intended to go to Seattle, but decided we just don't prefer to go to the large cities and prefer waterfalls and lighthouses! Lol!

God Bless you for reading,

Brian and Patty