Germania!

Today's Saturday excursion was a trip over to the Oktoberfest @ Mt. Angel. Seeing the Abbey parked on the top of the hill overlooking the valley reminded me of the Abbey in St. Meinrad. I guess it's not a fluke, the similarity between the two--they're the same order. We parked across the street from St. Mary's, a huge Catholic church that looked like something straight outta Ferdinand, and immediately saw a tons of people rocking really rad suspenders, lederhosen, a variety of hats, and of course the Oktoberfest girls rockin' aprons, vests, and dirndl dresses.
We strolled on over to the biergarten where the oldtimers were dancing to polka music accompanied by overpriced beer. Out in the streets, a peculiar cloud of the mingled smells of sauerkraut, grilled sausages and artery-clogging fried foods competed with the smell of strudels and other cinammon-y deserts. Sitting there watching father/daughter dances, reminded me of listening to my grandfather play the accordion on Friday nights when I was a kid.

Probably the only time since I've been in Oregon that I saw anything the reminded me of Southern Indiana...

going to seattle

Quote of the day: "Everything always works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out, it's not the end."

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the franticness last-minute-pacing of this whole undertaking, but maybe I just need to chill and not worry about it. After all, there are more ways to be in this world than those I tend to prefer, and I need to learn to let go of some things.

goaty goats

When nothing else goes quite right, at least you can go to the Tillamook cheese factory...icecream is a good consolation prize.
Later we ended up at the petting zoo over at Blue Heron and had a time of romping around with the goats and sheep and the shy llama. They also have several vintage tractors on the premises. Fortunately I was appropriately dressed for this excursion...
Later we went back and had a nice big campfire, and smoked up the whole campground with alderwood...don't try this in your woodstove at home, kids...

Trask River, Garibaldi

In the morning we got up and drove around by the Trask river, and now I have some really lovely pictures of the river.
Later in the day we ended up climbing out on the jetty at Barview which was really wild and windy. There were scores of boats out circling like vultures in hot pursuit of salmon so it must be a good spot. It wasnt the best spot for what we were up to just in time for the tide to come in and nearly had ourselves trapped out there. Oops. So we gave it up and went to the pier at Garibaldi for the rest of the afternoon and amused ourselves enourmously.

Nehalem

we drove down the 6 out to tillamook past tons of forest and towering elderberries.
after awhile, we made it to tillamook just in time for some really lousy weather. we decided to make way to the cheese factory. it looks like everyone else had the same idea too, because it was hype as all get-out in there. sheesh. I dont know where all these folks even came from, but i did notice we were about the only people under 50. Mid-September must be the equivalent of spring break for the AARP crowd...Since it was feeling for all the world like fall to me, maybe on account of the rain, I decided it was as good a time as any to get into some pumpkin icecream which was amazingly good.

We hit Nehalem Bay state park in the midafternoon and got settled into the yurt we were staying in that night. After that I heisted a few huckleberries and we went over to the beach trying to find some clams but we didnt see any at all. The pier after dark wasnt terribly successful either so we wound up the evening listening to the rain on the roof, drinking sake, and loving the fact that we were not shivering in a wet tent with no heater. Call me a wuss, I can take it. Im getting to be of an age where warm and dry is happy, and in Oregon these arent default settings.