Foliage, Farmlands and Fun at a Museum--Our 3nd Trip to McMinnville

We started our trip by taking Hwy 26 over the coast range.


This is our umpteenth trip over this highway because it is the main route to Portland, hospitals, and the airport.


We are over the summit and on our way down into the valley.


Some autumn color is still visible.


We've left the main highway and are heading south through all the little towns--Banks, Forest Grove, Yamhill, etc.


I'll bet the early pioneers were happy to see the wonderful woods and pastures in the Willamette Valley.


A cute little pond and someone's farm off in the distance.


A picturesque barn and green fields.


The Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinnville. We went here after my appointment with the oral surgeon. Results of the biopsy aren't back yet.


A Blue Angels plane


A Russian MIG 23 from the Korean War.


The museum currently has 80 planes.


They are building another building to hold space exploration rockets, nose cones, etc. It will be open next year.


A Coast Guard Helicopter


DeWayne is reading about the Saber jet used in the Korean War.


More planes.


And a cute little plane for one person.


A Fighting Tiger used against Japan in WWII.


And more planes.


Orville and Wilbur Wright's plane. The first flight for man at Kitty Hawk, NC


The nose and the entrance to the cockpit of the Spruce Goose. They had to go by boat to get to the entrance.


Beach balls to keep the plane afloat. I couldn't believe it--beach balls in a hi-tech (for those days) plane.






Looking back to the tail section. We didn't go up into the cockpit. It was an extra $50 per person for that tour!!


The Spruce Goose from the second floor of the museum. It is HUGE. It is all made out of spruce and cedar and 5% metal. Howard Hughes built it in 1947.


The Lunar Rover. It weighed 70 lbs on the moon (because of decreased gravity) and was easy to unfold and set up for two astronauts. It only cost $6 million (each).


Autumn colors in the parking lot.


More color. We passed this on our way to the Omni Max where we sat in seats at the equivalent of seven stories high and watched a movie called "Cirque de Soleil" in 3-D. It had acrobats under water, synchronized bungee jumping in a Redwood forest, and from a line hanging from (we're guessing a helicopter) in what was similar to the Valley of Fire and gymnast doing all kinds of leaps and balancing feats.


On the way out we passed the Spruce Goose Vineyards in the late afternoon sun.


More vineyards.


We had a full harvest moon on our way home. I hope you enjoyed your visit to the museum and our tour of a small part of Oregon.

Mushroom Photos

A group of tiny mushrooms up by the mailboxes.


A great, big brown mushroom.


A big reddish-brown mushroom.


A large (6inches across) red mushroom up by the mailbox.


Kato is enjoying the sunshine and the grass. He follows us like Mary's little lamb, up to the mailbox, to the bus stop, around the block, and up at the neighbor's house in this case.


Rhiannon is sitting at the top of the stairs at the neighbor's house enjoying the warm weather and the view of the pond, meadows and mountains.


I am at the top of the hill at the neighbor's house sitting by a giant spruce tree. They have gone home for the winter so I like to go up there and look for elk and ducks in the pond at the bottom of the hill.

We are in the midst of a ten-day projected warm spell. It was 73 degrees today, just warm and gorgeous with this soft, gentle breeze blowing. It was 79 degrees down in Newport! 70 degrees on the coast is like 80 degrees inland. I met Rhiannon at the bus stop and it took us 40 minutes to walk home when it usually takes us less than five minutes. We took pictures of each other, mushrooms and Kato the cat. How did you like coming with us on our our nature walk? Nicer photos to look at than those awful ones of my face!

Face Update

It's worse!! And now it's on the other side, too. I don't even want to go out in public.

Post-surgery Beauty

Pretty shades of purple


Do you think I could win a beauty contest?

I look like a chipmunk with a fistful of nuts in each cheek. My cheeks and neck are really swollen. The bruised side is where I had the most teeth and also part of my tongue removed. I took these pictures of myself. I missed my Saturday outing to the grocery store and will miss church tomorrow since I am zonked out on pain pills. I should be back to normal next week and after being housebound for a week, will be glad to get out again. We have been having the craziest weather--wind, rain, hail, thunder, lightening interspersed with clear, sunny, beautiful interludes.

An Update on Michelle

We talked to Michelle tonight and she is sick with a bad cold and bronchitis. She got some medicine from the doctor at Urgent Care and was doing some kind of breathing treatment when we called. She has taught one and a half weeks now and says she has six boys in her class that she is having trouble with. Barry and Tony carried in 25 bins of school stuff that Michelle has collected over the years for teaching into her classroom and she is getting it all unpacked and set up, while Barry and Tony are getting the stuff at the house unpacked and set up. Barry and Tony are still job hunting. The company Barry worked for in Oregon gave him a referral to the same company in Reno and they said they will call him when they have work. Meanwhile he is job hunting at the same places Tony is. Michelle says she will get a car, and set up the internet after she gets a paycheck, so she hasn't been able to read any email or blogs since before they moved. I will keep you up to date when I have anything to pass on to you all.

Oral Surgery

Come on, Racer, look at Grandma for a picture. What cute little boys they can be and little terrors at other times.

The photos that follow are ones I took out the window of our car as we traveled to and from McMinnville where I had oral surgery this morning. I feel great as long as I keep taking pain pills. It was really rainy on the coast and as we came over the coast range, but it was nicer in the valley and I got lots of photos of the farmlands and the cute streets in McMinnville with autumn foliage. When we got back to Seaside we saw evidence of the wind storm.

The wind blew things around at our house.

The wind blew the chairs into the blackberry bushes


The trampoline is half-way across the yard


A machine lifts branches out of the creek on the South end of Seaside


Creek full of wind-blown branches


A farm in the valley


Beautiful fields--looking East


An Oregon retirement home--any buyers??


Come on in!


Fall colors in the valley


A street in McMinnville



Another view of downtown McMinnville


Downtown McMinnville


Farmlands about one hour West of Portland in Yamhill County


A pastoral scene of sheep browsing (or do they graze?)


We saw signs for several wineries in this area



I could live here


More beautiful farmland


The ubiquitous Oregon log truck

OK--I survived the surgery after all. It was really scary. I hate that automatic blood pressure cuff, but I asked her to put it on my forearm and that worked out fine. The doctor was really slick starting the IV and that's all I remember until I woke up. I guess he gave me shots (nerve blocks) in my gums, so I wasn't in real pain until they wore off. Now I have percocet plus the oxycontin so I feel greeeaaaat. He removed eight teeth and the lump on my tongue, so when I go in for my post op check up in a week I will find out what it was and let you all know.

We had a big wind and rain storm today. It rained for the two hours there and back but I think we were in the doctor's office when most of it happened.