Four Part Harmony

We had a big fun weekend up on Mt. Hood and then out in Trout Lake, WA this past weekend. However, thanks to my own obsessive/compulsive need for chronological order, I can’t bring myself to sit down and write up any reflections or recollections without first putting up a few photos from last last weekend (the weekend before last). After all, we did a lot of fun and important stuff…

Most importantly, we took Milo on his first camping trip! The band I play in was scheduled to play at a benefit concert in Astoria, OR called the Concert for Big Red. We were scheduled to play Saturday morning, so we decided to go out on Friday to camp at the beach.

We drove out along Hwy 30, which follows the Columbia the whole way out to Astoria. We used to drive that road quite a bit, but it had been a few years since Nicki and I had made the drive together. We took our time and made several stops along the way, since Milo would periodically need to eat or be changed. We stopped just outside of Rainier, OR at a little County Park and had a picnic under a big cottonwood tree.

Here’s Anna at that same park, looking out at a tugboat on the Columbia. We also saw one of the big ships go by, looking very loaded down with cargo of some sort.

We stayed at Fort Stevens, which is a pretty big State Park at the northwestern tip of Oregon, right where the Columbia comes out into the Pacific. We were right across the river from Cape Disappointment, where Anna and I had camped the weekend before.

We got in early enough on Friday to get our little camp all situated, and then we walked down to this little inland lake that was pretty close to where we were camped.

Anna and I waded in a little bit. The water was pretty shallow and warm. We stayed and sat and played in the sun at the edge of the lake for quite a while and then headed back.

Our evening was pretty nice. We had a small fire and sat around it telling stories again (a tradition now, it seems). Anna would say “Tell me a story from before I was born”. We’d think of one and tell her, and then she’d say “Tell me a story from before you were born”. which was a little harder, but left a lot of leeway. Then it was “Tell me a story from before Milo was born”.

We stayed up pretty late, well past dark. We counted stars. Then we crawled into the tent.

Saturday morning was fairly leisurely. We packed up camp after breakfast and headed out to the fairgrounds where they were having the show. Our band played at 11:00 or so, and the sun was just starting to come out. There weren’t too many folks out there, but we did see some friends. Our set was ok. To be honest, it seems they were still working the kinks out of the whole sound system (no drum monitor?), and as a result we had a hard time all getting together on the same page. I’m pretty sure I’m usually my own worst critic though.

There were a ton of Portland bands lined up to play all day Saturday, and we had planned on maybe sticking around and seeing some of the other folks playing.  But it got hotter and hotter, and there was nowhere to escape except back in the tiny musicians tent. We decided to split.

Before heading back to Portland, though, we decided to stop back at the beach to let Anna get out and run around a little bit. Here’s a shot from the top of a big sand dune looking south down the beach.

We stayed quite a while at the beach and then started the slow drive home. We had hoped to make better time coming home, but we still ended up having to make several stops. Somehow we got home just before dark and both Nicki and I felt like we’d just driven across country.

Next morning we all went outside and had our first big tomato harvest of the summer. Anna was a big help.

We also harvested a whole bunch of eggplants. Everything in that garden bed is just doing great this year (except, surprisingly, the zucchini). We’ve never had eggplants or basil like we hve this year, and haven’t had tomatoes this good in several years. We haven’t done any canning yet. Instead, we’ve been roasting up these big pans of tomatoes, onion, garlic and basil, then freezing it. It makes a great tomato sauce.