We are just returning from San Francisco, a weekend celebration of
Sandra Fladger's 50th birthday. This was our second trip to the Bay
Area, and with each return, I am always a bit more impressed with the
culture of the area. This probably stems from the magazines I
subscribe to and regularly read: Make, Craft and Wired, all of which
are based out of the Bay Area. The area speaks to my inner technogeek,
and I am not ashamed to admit it.

While stuck in our hotel room during a fit of heavy rains, I picked up
my iPhone while lying in bed, opened up Google Maps and typed in craft
in the search bar and hit the Google button. I discovered an
interesting result, Craft Gym.

Craft Gym? What the heck was that, I asked myself as I sat up in bed.
I opened up the contact information and tapped on the included URL.
Safari opened up the website, and I navigated to the about page.

It compared itself to a health club, selling access to high-level
industrial equipment and training sessions for a variety of crafts.
One could purchase daily or monthly access passes. Very interesting,
indeed. It was something that struck a cord to my maker ethic. I
shared my find with Jill, and Jill liked the concept also.

I had discovered a similar service, but for industrial arts, called
TechShop. In fact, I was excited to also learn that a Portland-area
branch was scheduled to open this summer. I definitely will be trying
out the service.

During our visit, we also managed to visit the Exploratorium, which I
absolutely loved, and it warmed my heart to see McKenzie excited to
touch and play with the exhibits as much as I did. The Exploratorium
does such an excellent job in showing the aesthetic beauty of nature
and science and inspiring you to become more fully aware of that
beauty. The short afternoon we spent there wasn't nearly enough to
even scratch the surface.

We also managed to extend our caching streak to 156 straight days with
at least one geocaching find. As lame as this may sound, I hold a
great deal of pride in our streak, offering a small sense of
accomplishment and control in a world that is becoming increasingly
more daunting and chaotic. What can you say that you have done
consciously for 155 consecutive day? Outside our caching streak, I can
say nothing.

I guard and treasure our streak as I become more and more acutely
aware that, as with all streaks, it must one day end.

Sent from my iPhone

Kiet

Notes from the Field:

We attended the Rose Festival Parade today, catching the MAX train from the airport into downtown. It was McKenzie's first ride on the MAX.

Kiet

Kiet

Post from the field:

During the month of February, the new Portland Aerial Tram is free on Saturdays. What a ride, though Jill could have done without the wild dip and sway as the tram passed one of the transfer towers. Another cool thing about Portland!

People who complain about the cost of the tram really don't understand its impact in the development of the city. The South Waterfront area is booming. More to come . . .

I finally got around to uploading my photos of our tram adventure into Flickr. Here they are:

Kiet

The Fladagers, Perry and Sandy, were very generous to invite Jill, McKenzie, Koda and me to stay with them in Sunriver, Oregon this weekend. After work on Friday, Jill and I packed the car and headed down, not wishing to waste a perfectly fine Saturday on travel. We left home at about 7:30 PM. McKenzie is quite the traveler, and we made to Madras before she decided she had had enough and needed to eat and stretch her legs. We arrived in Sunriver shortly before midnight.

McKenzie was too excited to sleep for long and was up by 6:15 AM. When she is up, her parents should be up, too. For breakfast, we decided to take Perry and Sandy to our favorite Bend breakfast place, the Westside Cafe & Bakery. However, the morning wasn't without its excitement.

Koda had slipped out an unattended door. Normally he would have just sniff and pee on the nearest trees and return to the house. Today he decided that he wanted to explore his new surroundings and disappeared off into the neighborhood, and I was off to try and catch him. Eventually I caught to him at the nearby gas station, and no coaxing him to come would work. He decided he wasn't done roaming and took me on a guided tour of the neighborhood.

Finally he began to head back to the house. However, the family in the house behind ours were loading their vehicles to leave and had their front door wide open. Koda took it upon himself to stop in for a visit. I can only imagine the scare one might receive when a 90-pound akita unexpectedly visits. However, I was able to get a hold of him and take him home.

We had a pleasant breakfast, and Jill and I think Perry and Sandy enjoyed the Westside Cafe & bakery as much as we have.

After breakfast, we walked over the Central Oregon Saturday Market in nearby downtown. Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed at public events in Bend, so Koda and I went off geocaching while the others went through the market. The closest cache, according to my GPS waypoint list, was GCTRA3, The Source's Apprentice. The Source is the Bend weekly newspaper. This is a multi-cache, a cache which has intermediate steps before reaching the cache. This particular cache had two parts, a micro cache, consisting of only a log to sign, and a regular cache with items to trade. The log instructed you to go inside The Source office and ask for the regular cache from the person behind the counter. Unfortunately, the regular cache was only available during regular business hours, and Saturday morning wasn't among them. We will have to come back at a later time to complete this cache.

After Bend, we went back to Sunriver. I stopped at the Sunriver Fly Shop. Last year I had stopped in and bought a particular streamer pattern with which I had tremendous luck. I picked up six more.

Then we walked around the Sunriver Mall. There was a micro cache somewhere in the middle of the mall, GCPRFC. We looked and looked, but no luck.

After lunch, we headed back to the house for an afternoon nap.

Kiet

After working the Hazel Dell Parade, Jill, McKenzie, Koda and I headed off to Bend to fish the Deschutes River tomorrow. On our way, along US 26, we took a slight detour to Timberline Lodge.

Timberline Lodge was built as part of the Federal Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, and its craftsmanship is amazing, particularly the stone and metal work. As we walked through the lodge, the snow still buried the the ground floor. The ground floor windows were still boarded up, and the sky barely peeked through the second floor windows. This winter made up for last year's extremely dry winter.

Kiet

Today marks McKenzie's first airplane ride and trip back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her baptism is on Sunday, and of course, she had to make the rounds of family and friends who will be meeting her for the first time.

She traveled beautifully. During ascent and descent, we made sure that she was bottle feeding in order to prevent her ears from popping. She slept through most of the flight, waking up in just the last 90 minutes of an almost four-hour flight. By the time we touched down, she was back asleep in my arms.

I also managed to join the parents' 5-mile high club, changing her diaper at 33,000 feet in a cramped airplane restroom. Luckily, she managed to come out of the restroom with a diaper on and all of the clothing she entered with.

Today in History:
04/26 William Shakespeare baptized in Stratford-on-Avon, England, 1564,
04/26 Confederate Memorial Day in Florida & Georgia
04/26 Union Day in Tanzania
04/26* Omer 29th day
04/26 Carol Burnett born in San Antonio, Texas, 1933

Kiet

Millions of years ago, a major volcanic eruption began the formation of Smith Rock. Ash a half mile thick covered the area and eventually hardened to become rock known as Smith Rock tuff. Wind and water erosion altered the tuff leaving spectacular rock spires. Less than a half million years ago, fluid basalt flowing from other volcanic eruptions eventually pushed the Crooked River up to the base of Smith Rock. Today, Smith Rock is a premier destination for rock climbers who can be seen scaling the walls of Smith Rock.

I cannot count the number of times we had passed the sign to Smith Rock State Park without so much as a second thought. However, today we were heading home early. Jill had felt ill since getting up and could use some time out of the car. Though we didn't the opportunity to do some hiking, Jill and I agreed that this is a place to return to and explore.

Today in History:
04/16 Charles (Charlie) Chaplin (Sir) born in London, 1889
04/16 De Diego's Birthday celebrated in Puerto Rico
04/16 Holy Week (5 days) in Venezuela
04/16 Tourist Week (5 days) in Uruguay
04/16* Omer 19th day
04/16* Yom ha-Zikaron (Israeli Memorial Day)

Kiet

While watching the local evening news on Friday, I caught a glimpse of a story about the grand opening of the Tillamook Forest Center this weekend. At the time, I didn't think much of it other than the passing thought that it may be a nice place to visit in the distant future.

Well Saturday arrived, and I wanted Jill, McKenzie and Koda to experience something new, something different. However, most of all, I needed to get coffee; there was none left in the house. Today, on our way out, we would visit the Tillamook Forest Center.

McKenzie enjoyed her visit and vocally expressed her delight to all the other patrons. The Tillamook State Forest was created from the lands affected by the Tillamook Burn, a series of forest fires during the 1930s and 1940s. Because of the financial hardships of Great Depression, many landowners couldn't afford to not pay the property taxes on their burnt lands, and the counties suddenly found themselves owners of large tracts of burnt forest lands. The state created the Tillamook State Forest and undertook the replanting of the burnt areas. In the end, a now successful, sustainable forest management program was established.

After we finished at the Forest Center, rather than just turning back around the way we came, we continued west toward Tillamook. I then planned to head north on US Highway 101 along the coast and return home via US Highway 26. In Tillamook, we stopped for ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Visitor Center, and McKenzie for the first time gazed upon the broad expanse of the Pacific Ocean at Hug Point State Park.

Today in History:
04/01 Yourdon, Inc. founded, 1974 (It figures.)
04/01 Matthew Jacob born in San Francisco, California, United States, 1958
04/01 Bill Fenner born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, United States, 1971
04/01 People of superb intelligence, savoir-faire, etc. born this day.
04/01 Youth Day in Benin
04/01* Hol ha-Mo'ed
04/01* Omer 4th day
04/01 April Fool's Day

Kiet

|

One of the things I miss about Wisconsin is the Coulee Country. I miss traveling the back country roads and having every one I pass along the road wave hello at me.

Kiet

When we first started coming to Rullands Coulee to fish, we were always struck by the beauty of this cottage just across the road. We later found out that you could rent the cottage, but never got around to doing so. Eventually our lives changed, and we moved onto Washington State a couple of years ago. However, we always remembered that cottage on Rullands Coulee, but not its name or address. A couple of days before leaving for a return trip to the Driftless Area, I feverishly searched the Internet for information about that cottage and found it, Stein Vatten. There was no information on the Internet other than a telephone number. Jill called and made arrangements for our stay for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

The craftsmanship of this cottage is truly remarkable. This is the first of many stays here at Stein Vatten whenever we return to Coulee Country to fish.

Here is the information that came with the cottage:

Rates
One to four guests.
Sunday-Thursday: $100.00 per night
Friday, Saturday and holidays: $150.00 per night
$700.00 per week
Minimum two night stay weekends and holidays.

Tax
All rates are subject to a 5.5% sales tax.

Deposit
A deposit of 50% is required within seven days of booking to hold your reservation.

Cancellations
If cancellation becomes necessary and notification is given within 21 days prior to expected arrival date, the deposit will be refunded, less $20.00.
Cancellations with less than 21 days notice will not be refunded unless the cottage is rebooked.
Early departures: guest responsible for payment of all days booked.

Payment
Cash or personal check made payable to Stein Vatten.
Gift certificates available.

Miscellaneous
Registered guests only.
Children under 12 and visitors by special arrangements.
Smoke free. No Pets.
Tent and RV camping will be directed to area camp grounds.
Check-in after 3 p.m. Check-out by 11 a.m. (adjustable by arrangement)

Kiet