Broken Clavicle

Well after much ado, Eric went to the doctor to find out that he actually broke his clavicle. He is in a sling for a bit as there's not much you can do besides not put weight on it. He's just excited because this gets him out of the chores and minnie poop pick up for a week. I told him he still has 1 good arm, that's all it takes.

Sauvie Island Beach!!

Well, it was 100 degrees for the third straight day and very miserable in the house. And after huddling in the one AC room, the bedroom with both the dog and the cat, we decided to venture out. We went to Sauvie Island where we learned that there is one of the few "clothing optional" beaches in the country. How quaint. And just up the street from the public beach. So we couldn't just not check that out. It's very odd though, as it's kind of buried within this primarily agricultural island.

Sorry, there are no pictures from the beach. As usual, the ones without clothes really shouldn't be without them. So we wandered back up to the public beach.

Biking Accident

Eric took a spill on the mountain today. I'd post the pictures but it grossed even me out. His left side is pretty lacerated from a 30mph tumble off the bike when his left brake broke off and threw his balance off. The ground up there isn't very forgiving either being a volcano and all. We don't think he broke his collarbone or rotator cuff as he still has full range of movement, it's just very tender. More later...

Trails!

Eric decided to help out with trail maintenance at Timberline Lodge and then go mountain biking so I headed out with Minne to explore more trails in Forest Park. It's a huge Park that links over 40 miles of trails. We did the Lower Macleay Trail that followed Balch Creek.





Our trail dog. Who said Boston's couldn't go on trail hikes? She pulled the entire length of the 4 mile hike with steep inclines. Then collapsed when we got back home.

The Creek. It's also a trout stream so areas of it are protected.

Mary Ann and Wilbur come to visit!

We had visitors on Friday. On their way back up to Seattle to head back home, they stopped by for some dinner, and SUN! It was foggy and/or rained everyday on their Oregon & Washington coastal tour. We told them that they got the true NW experience. It was sunny on their last day here so we ate outside.

Mount St. Helens

At last we made it up to the mountain to our north. Then we realized, we probably should have dedicated more than a day to it. The eruption occurred on the north side and it takes upwards of 1.5-2 hours to get from one side to the other as the roads do not connect and its fairly remote in most areas.

Mount St. Helens from the south.

Ape Cave: We were all gung ho about going in there until our flashlight died 5 minutes into it and I realized that it was pitch black with bats. Ape Cave is a lava tunnel that you can explore for miles on end.

Yes, there is still snow up there.

We're not sure how much longer Jeepie will be around so we wanted to capture the moment.

A view off the offroading trail. We're not really sure if it was intended to be used for offroad vehicles and evidently neither did the rangers, they just 'worked there' as they said.

Steel Drum Band in the Savannah!

We headed out to take advantage of the 2 month long free concerts in the park. This one was at a Nature Preserve on the east side. A dinner picnic at sunset in the savannah grasses listening to the steel drum band! It was a lot of fun...and we watched the hippies dancing in the field. One slight miss was the 2 mile hike to the top of the extinct volcano where the band was playing in the valley. A drink was definitely in order by the time we got there.