Oregon Coast and the Spruce Goose

After the NW Area rally in Albany, we took advantage of our Thousand Trails membership to stay at a park called Whaler’s Rest on the Oregon Coast.  We always love the natural surroundings of most Thousand Trails parks and this was no exception.  The sites were beautiful and it was a short walk to the beach, BUT, we had no Internet.  That’s a problem for us since we run an Internet business. 

There was good Wi-Fi at the clubhouse, so anything we had to do we schlepped our computers up there.  We only planned to stay a few days, we could make it.  And, look at this great path to the beach!

Lynne came to visit, and we spent a wonderful day together. She came bearing gifts!  She sewed us a windshield cover for our old Honda that we used from 2004 to 2013.  Then we bought a new Honda … it has a much bigger windshield!  So she sewed us a new one!  And, I thought sewing was just for hemming pants!

 

When we left the coast, we made time for a stop in McMinnville at the Evergreen Museum that houses Howard Hughes’ gigantic airplane, the Spruce Goose.

That plane is definitely impressive, but the museum has a lot more to offer.  An Imax theatre, a World War II airplane collection, and a Space museum.  It’s 3 huge buildings.  Jim has always been a big fan of planes and especially space exploration.  I just love any kind of history.  I especially liked the story about Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler – 2 pilots in WWII.  Click the picture below to read the story.

And, check out these missiles.  Can you even see Jim?

Once we left the museum we got back on the road and traveled north thru Portland and the horrible traffic there.  Our destination was the Elks Lodge, just on the north side of the Columbia river.  We’re scheduled to get our slide serviced on Thursday.  Wish us luck.

Serendipity

I guess it’s just a fancy word for lucky – but I like that word, Serendipity, and I feel it describes my life. 
It describes big things like the serendipity of Jim being the person who was assigned to support the computers I bought for my computer training company back in 1993.  That was really good luck!
More often I notice the little serendipities in my everyday life.  Today I got a notice that the forum plugin software I use for my Wordpress-based websites was officially updating to the latest version – 5.0.  I doubt that it sounds very exciting to anyone reading this, but I think it’s way cool!  We’ve been using Simple-Press Forum 4.x to run the forum on our business website for nearly two years.  It’s great software and I always believe in working with the latest versions – so when I decided to use Simple-Press on another website I manage (for Women’s Executive Club) I took a leap of faith and installed the Beta version of 5.0 (Beta means it’s still in the testing stage.)  I’ve been working with it for a month or so, getting it ready for the club to use.  I promised to present it at the Club’s luncheon meeting this Tuesday, but I was a little nervous rolling out a website feature to the group when it wasn’t yet out of testing.  Serendipity!  Version 5.0 will be official on Monday – my Presentation is on Tuesday.
Imagine if it had been the other way around!  What if I hadn’t taken the risk to use the Beta software when I set it up?  Then I would be presenting on Tuesday with version 4.x – software made obsolete the day before!  I like being lucky
The word serendipity is a little more specialized than just ‘lucky’ – it means an unexpected pleasant surprise.  Wikipedia notes that the classic serendipity is looking for a needle in the haystack and coming away with the farmer’s daughter!  It was not unexpected that the software would become official – but I do consider it serendipity that the announcement comes the day before my presentation!
When I notice a lot of serendipities in my life I feel charmed.  How about you?  What serendipitous (? is that a word) events have happened in your life?
I had a really nice afternoon with Mom yesterday.  We started at Pirates Republic riverside restaurant.  Dee met us there and took this picture:

We were hoping to meet up with her brother, John, but he wasn’t feeling well.  We’ll do it again John!  Here’s the water taxi … our chariot cometh:

It was a perfectly gorgeous day for a ride on the water, sunny and warm, but not too hot.
The houses and boats along Fort Lauderdale’s waterways are quite a sight.  This little boat was pointed out to us as belonging to Steven Spielberg – they say he paid $200 million to build it.  I’ll bet it has a great movie theatre inside – whaddaya think?

When the water taxi made a stop near the beach at Bahia Mar, we got off and took a little walk on the sand.  Ahh – winter in Fort Lauderdale!

Then we got back in the water taxi and headed back up New River to the Pirate’s Republic where our car was.  One of the waitress ‘wenches’ offered for Mom to hold the Macaw … she wasn’t so sure!

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Cool Parks

On our way back to Fort Lauderdale from the RV-Dreams rally, we had no idea where we were going to stay.  The Georgia State park that Howard and Linda stayed at sounded pretty nice … Crooked River State Park in Georgia.  But, since we didn’t get on the road till noon – it was just too far a drive.

Using my Droid for Internet browsing, I found another Georgia State park just off I-95 and just south of Savannah – Fort McAllister.  It was GORGEOUS.  And all the sites were pull thru – the kind that parallel the road off to the side.  It makes so much sense. 

You can click the red pushpins in the map above for more info on the parks.

I just love it when my office has views like this:

And nice views when we open our front door too!

We decided to take our ‘family portrait’ here.

And, the Azaleas were in bloom just outside the park!

We like to spend the last night before Fort Lauderdale at the beach.  Our normal place is Sebastian Inlet State Park, but I called from the road and they said they were FULL.  OK – we stopped at the Florida Welcome center just over the state line and picked up all sorts of literature.  I found an interesting sounding park with beach access at Cape Canaveral.  It was perfect!  Operated by the Port Authority at Port Canaveral – it’s called Jetty Maritime Park.  A little pricy at $42, but for one night on the beach – what the heck!

There is even a bar and grill within walking distance of the park … a RonJon’s Resort!  So, we took advantange and didn’t have to cook any dinner last night.

Usually, when we need to get somewhere in just a couple days, we don’t bother finding cool places to stay.  We just get out the Passport America book and pick someplace convenient and cheap.  Two things conspired to make us put out the extra effort this time, 1-having Mom with us, and 2-taking Howard and Linda’s ‘How to Pick a Campground’ seminar at the rally.  They try to find campgrounds with what they call the ‘IT’ factor.  Campgrounds that have *it* are cool.  And, as they described in their seminar, they spend a lot of time researching. 

So – we tried it – I think these two parks have the IT factor and I’m glad we spent the time to research!  Thanks RV-Dreams!

New Year’s Blue Moon

It doesn’t look blue does it?

 

 

But – it was the second full moon in December, and that’s the definition of blue moon. 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We (Jim, Me, and Mom) celebrated by going to the beach to watch the moonrise on New Year’s Eve.

 

 

 

 

This seemed OH so fitting, since we ushered in this decade by sleeping at the beach and watching the sun rise on a new century … I had to dig a little to find these pictures:

 

These were taken at a friend’s house on the beach.  He had a New Year’s Eve party – then we stayed the night to see the sunrise.  Jim and I slept in our Van (shades of things to come?) Mom slept on a cot outside and was rudely awakened by the sprinklers on New Year’s morning! The upper left picture is of Mom willing the sun to rise with her drum, and that’s me and Jim feeling oh-so-happy to be together and looking forward to a great new century. 

 

Once in a BLUE moon.

My New Year’s resolution is the same as it always is … lose weight, get in shape … but, this time I started before the new year.  When I stepped on my Wii Fit on New Year’s morning I got a really nice reward – I met my goal!

 

So – now I can say that “Once in a Blue Moon I lose weight!”

Now I set another goal.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

I’m also working on a photo album for the whole decade.  I’ll probably put it on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/chrisguld) when I’m done.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

*May we all reach our goals … or at least have fun trying!*

Christmas Morning Sunrise

Our USA Dive club has a tradition among some members to meet on Christmas morning at the Beach in Boca Raton and watch the sun rise.  Whenever we’re here, we participate.  See Xmas 2008 and Xmas 2006.

The weather report was not good for this morning, but it worked out just fine.  A few clouds, a little sprinkling rain, but lots of beauty – and hugs all around.

Here’s Gary Sharp – a long time dive buddy of Mom’s, Mom, and Jim.

And, Robert Scherer – aka Santa Diver.

Do we hear that snowstorms are making it miserable in most of the country!?  We’re glad we’re here.

Not a Day for Kayak Diving!

You can tell it’s been a while since I’ve taken any pictures!  I snapped 112 photos this morning :-)

A great start to our Christmas Day!

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Sebastian Inlet – Florida State Park

We’ve made this our last stop before Fort Lauderdale for 2 or 3 trips now.  Florida has a lot of great State Parks and, in this one you can walk to the beach. 

 

We took a little walk to toast the sunset last night. 

 

 

There was a distant thunderstorm turning the sky all sorts of ominous colors.

 

Mom got all snug in her ‘room’ where she could watch the action.

 

Then, this morning was beautiful.  I made everyone go for an early morning walk.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, time to go.  On to Fort Lauderdale.