Camping and the Coast

We closed on the house in Minnesota last week!  All went smoothly and we are now proud non-homeowners! 

We headed about two hours southwest to Loon Lake for the weekend.  We stayed in this yurt and really enjoyed it.  It has almost all of the comforts of home and we decided we wouldn't mind having one in our backyard.  Andy suggested we live in one but I'm not *that* in love with them.

Inside of the yurt

We arrived at our yurt around 7:30 on Friday night and after getting settled, started a campfire.  Shadow soon learned that she likes marshmallows and graham crackers.  She looked at the smores fixings intently just in case something dropped.  There was a family in the neighboring yurt with a little boy about 2 or 3 years old and he called smores "schmoos" -- so cute.   

Shadow, Smore Hunter

On Saturday, we slept in and then went to the Oregon Dunes.  Cool, huh?

 

 We walked down the dunes and went to the ocean.  Shadow got her feet wet!

 She was really interested in the washed up crab shells like these. 

After our hike, Andy asked if we could stop by Leona's Sugar Shack Bakery.  Cute little local joint with delicious peanut butter m&m cookies. 

Shadow was an excellent cook out assistant, as you can see here.  Isn't she cute?

Despite how helpful she tried to be, no pancakes for Shadow.  She did find some food on the ground after we made our pie irons on Saturday night.  We figured she'd had enough human food when she found a half bag of Andy's beloved Twizzlers on the table on Friday and helped herself.  Andy = not happy.

Notice how very empty it is.

Possum Sighting

We headed over to Corvallis today and did a little 1.5 mile hike.  The hilltop offers a great view of Corvallis.   After our hike, we found a u-pick strawberry place and helped ourselves to a couple of pounds.  I tried making some jam tonight so we'll try that tomorrow and see how it turned out!  The house smelled amazing!

Our neighbors appear to be big 4th of July fans...or at least pyrotechnics enthusiasts.  We've been hearing fireworks every night around 10 for almost a week.  It sends Shadow into a panic and scares the bejeezus out of me and Andy every time it happens even though we know it's coming.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the grand finale and we'll be done with them.  A guy that works with Andy and happens to be from India told Andy if he wanted really good fireworks, he should go to the Native American reservation nearby and made sure he said several times, "but you didn't hear it from me."  Apparently, it's top secret information.  Andy said that the fact that his Indian co-worker recommended the Indian reservation made it even funnier.  

 Before I sign off, a few Albany highlights.  

You're reading the sign correctly.  It's the HASTY (NOT Tasty) FREEZ.  We chuckle every time we drive by. 

And the second highlight:  Possum Auto Body.  Any time I drive Andy to the bus stop, I see this place on my way home.  It makes getting up early just a little bit better.

 Notice the spray can in the big possum's hand (paw?) and the little possum hanging 

upside down from the tree.

Here's a shot of the front with a few more possums hanging from the tree.

To make things better, they take the possum statues in each night.  I can only imagine them driving up one morning to see the original possums had been kidnapped and having a staff meeting to decide that they'd order one more set but someone would have to volunteer to put the little fellas away every night before locking up.  If they ever turn up missing again, I *promise* they won't be in our living room.

Hiking and House Hunting

We started the weekend off heading up to the Woodburn Company Stores for some shopping.  We've been wanting to get more Le Creuset cookware since my older sister gave us a piece for our wedding and when I came across the outlet store, I knew we had to go.  We found this nice little saucepan which will really be handy and are also on their mailing list so they'll alert us to future sales.  Woohoo!

Earlier in the week I'd found a coupon for a free entree at Panda Express after 9pm on Friday.  Andy enjoyed a late night snack and Shadow and I went along for the ride.  :)


On Saturday, Andy and I headed out to Mary's Peak and expected to drive most of the way up and then do a little 1.5 mile hike to the top.  When we got to the park, we found out that the road was closed and the only option was a 5 mile hike to the top.  I was not thrilled about a 5 mile hike ( I was sore from exercising earlier in the week) but we decided if we'd come all this way, we should at least walk for a while.  After an hour and a half and 2 miles up hill, I called it quits.  My legs were killing me before we started and I had a mini meltdown on the mountain and told Andy I was heading back down to the car.  We were really close to the summit so Andy hiked to the top and took these photos. 

After the hike, we stopped in Corvallis on the way home for dinner  at Block 15.  Andy has been hearing about their beer since we got here so he was anxious to try their brews.

Today we went to two open houses to get an idea of the housing market here and to see what we can expect to get for the price.  Corvallis (where Andy works) is more expensive and Albany (where we're currently living) has pricing a little higher than Rochester.  We're hoping to start seriously looking in August and ideally we'd be in a house by December 1!  We will see!

Sweet, sweet air conditioning

Isn't it beautiful? 

We broke down on Tuesday and bought a window air conditioner for our bedroom.  Of course the forecast has changed and it's supposed to be 70-75 for the next week but I think we'll be happy we have it later in the summer.  The installation only took two trips to Home Depot which reminded me that I don't like the big home improvement stores and would much rather go into an Ace Hardware and give a really bad explanation of what I'm trying to do and have the cute retired man in the red vest hand me exactly what I need.   

I rode my bike down to Target yesterday and found out that the ol' girl needs a tune up (the bike, not the rider - okay, we both need some work done but we're talking about the bike here).  It sounds and feels like the gears are changing even when I don't want them to so I need to take it in and get it fixed up.  I also need a more comfortable seat -- I'm not as young as I used to be.  So the local Bike 'N Hike store will be getting some business this weekend since I've been bugging Andy to get a helmet and he's finally agreed it's a good idea. 

We figured out this week as we made it through all of our laundry that we're missing at least one bag of clothes.  Next time you're at Goodwill, take a look for my clothes.  Luckily, there are super cute clothes on clearance at Target.  I have also discovered a wonderful place. 

I went and spent over an hour wandering around.  It's not any different from a Hobby Lobby type place but it's all new stuff so it's fun.

The house inspection is over and went OK.  Apparently the radon levels were high so we need to fix that but otherwise, everything is good to go.  We're still planning to close on July 5th!

Silver Falls Hike

Andy and I went to a state park about an hour away to hike around today.  We did a 3.5 mile loop and were able to see lots of gorgeous waterfalls.    

Winter Falls (134 feet tall)

Middle North Falls (106 feet tall)

Showing my husband a little love after he told me he got a picture of my "caboose"

snail!

 

 

 

North Falls (136 feet tall).  The great part about the North Falls is that you get to walk behind the waterfall itself.  We're glad we saved this one for last or the rest would have been disappointing!

The green on that little hill there?  And all the green behind that?  Christmas trees! 

Saturday in Eugene

Saturday Market in Eugene

We had plans to go to Eugene and hit up the Saturday Market and Farmer's Market and decided to keep our plans despite the misty rain we had all day today.  Saturday Market is in downtown Eugene and features all local artists, musicians, food, etc.  If you want tie dyed clothes, beeswax candles, handmade soap or incense, this is your place.  Hippies galore!  Here's a photo I found of what the market looks like on a nicer day...the white tents go on for blocks.  We want to go back when the weather is better and spend some time looking around.

The Farmer's Market is right across the street and there were tables and tables of gorgeous fruit and veg.  We found these shelling peas that are just huge and super sweet and tasty, too! 

A Growwwler.   Haha.

Andy after a pint and two samples.  :)

After the market, we headed to the Eugene City Brewery which serves all kinds of Rouge beers.  It was clear when we walked in that Andy was going to love this place.  They come to your table with menus and samples of one of their beers.  He was in heaven.

 

A posthumous note from Brewdog, Chairman of the Board

Quick Sale of MN house? That'll work!

The big news in the past few days is that we got an offer on the house.  I never thought we'd be so excited by a low ball offer but paying to maintain a house we're not even living in has made Minnesota home ownership one of our least favorite things.  The buyer's offer was very low (10k+ under asking price) and she wanted new doors installed.  We countered saying we'd take the offer but would not do any more work on the house.  We just got word that the offer was accepted.  The big plus of this sale (other than the fact that we want rid of the house) is that it will be a quick sale, closing on July 5th and the buyer will be paying in cash.  We are still waiting on a home inspection since it seems the previous owners never got permits when they finished the basement so we're hoping that doesn't cause too many problems.  

Andy and I went to lunch in Corvallis yesterday so he could sign the offer papers and we could get them faxed back before the close of business central time.  When I was running errands yesterday, I saw this swarm of ducks just hanging out in the parking lot.  Hilarious.