Oregon Trip

   I took a few days off this past week and drove down to the Portland area to visit family.  Its probably the last opportunity I'll have to do that until after the package bees are over. I started my bee classes in the store this week.  Combined with the Monday night classes for Snohomish County Extension I'm teaching bee classes three nights a week for the next month or so. At least I'm not doing the mason bee booth at the Seattle Flower and Garden Show this year and I have a full time employee at the store. I'm not feeling as much stress as past years.

    Linda wasn't able to come with me so I got to take my six year old granddaughter Britton as a travel companion. That is one of the great advantages of home schooling. More flexibility when it comes to family trips. Britton is quite talkative so we had a lot of interesting conversations. A little reminder to parents, no secret is safe when your young children spend time with other adults. We also made a lot more stops than I would normally make. Smaller bladders and smaller tummies need both emptying and filling more often.

    One particular stop was actually planned.  A good bee store friend had given me both a deer and an elk hide this past fall. The frozen hides had been occupying a significant portion of our limited freezer space since then.  This was the first opportunity I have had to drop the hides off at Centralia Fur and Hide to be tanned. I think Britton enjoyed the stop because they had a lot of interesting things in their little store.  They had tanned  raccoon, otter, fox, and skunk furs, along with rawhide drum kits and turtle shell rattles.  A large stuffed moose head dominated one wall and several raw hide canoes hung from the ceilings. Their main customer base are folks who are into Indian and mountain man stuff as a hobby. Their customer amenities left a little to be desired as their restroom was just a portapotty out back behind their building. Britton was a trooper though and didn't blanche at their primitive facilities. She noted that it didn't smell nearly as bad as she had expected. The skunk furs were actually reasonably priced in case any of my children think they have a little stinker who needs a skunk skin hat for Christmas this year. I definitely have no plans to  do a skunk fur as a home tanning project.

Enjoying a little rest break during our hike through the "Wildewood" with Britton, Lance, and Luna.

    While in Oregon we had a great time. Britton got to spend time with cousins and I got to spend some quality time with Rachel, Sarah, and grandkids.  Highlights of the trip included gardening with Rachel, Chloe Kang's birthday dinner, and a hike through Portland's famous "Wildewood".  Like all such trips it was over way too soon and we were headed back to Snohomish.

Not quite the right shade of blue. I think she would prefer baby blue.

I'd rather she have a really bright color for better visibility.

   On our way out of Portland we happened to drive past a Vespa dealership. I know Portland is a little different, but I still suspect that they only have one Vespa dealership.  It was quite serendipitous that I found it. I stopped to take a few pictures to show my sweetie. I'll definitely have to take Linda by there the next time we go to the Portland area. She wants a little Vespa so bad her teeth hurt.