Last night up at Timberline they had a Star Party put on by the Forest Service and an Astronomer and a couple of his students. It started at 9:00 pm with a mini-lecture and then everyone was able to go look at the moon through two different types of telescopes.
It was pretty cool. You could clearly see the craters on the surface and the different variations of the moon.
We then waited for the moon to set at 10:20. During that time they showed us different stars in the sky, Big Dipper, Scorpion, Teapot, Northern Cross, Summer Triangle, North Star, Andromeda, and then as it became darker the Milky Way, which was totally amazing. The Milky
Way stretched across the whole sky from horizon to horizon. Beautiful.
We now know that the North Star is 45 degrees on the horizon. That it does change and we had a mini lesson about the Egyptian Pyramid's and how the peaks lined up with the North Start at the time they were built. We learned that when looking at the stars you are looking back in time, which is a difficult concept to get. That planets and explode but we won't know about it until sometime in the future when we can actually see that it has happened.
Did you know that "Shooting Stars" are really specs of dust that are hitting our atmosphere at a high speed and burning up.
I tried to take pictures of my own, but they didn't turn out. Also Jupiter came out later in the evening. It was amazing that you could see the rings around the planet.
It made for a very long day as we were up at 5:00 am with Lacey, picked blueberries came home did a few things, had dinner and then turned around and headed back up to the mountain.
If you ever want to go star gazing, head up to Timberline. It is absolutely stunning!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Blueberry Hill
Several years ago we decided it would be great fun to go huckleberry picking. I think that perhaps we found a small handful, but on the way home we did find a wonderful little blueberry place in Dee, Oregon. We have been going back every year since then.
There's nothing quite like blueberries, and it's always a nice trip around the mountain. Our goal was to pick 4 buckets of berries, and perhaps have a taste or two.
Every time I turned around someone was munching away, or as he says just sampling to make sure we were picking the right berries :-)
The berries are big and juicy and it only took about 1.5 hours to pick our 4 buckets. Once we were finished it was off to the shed to weigh, sort and pack the berries for the trip home. Gloria the owner of the field is quite interesting and is always available to help with suggestions on how to make the process more efficient. The grand total this year was 25 pounds....not bad for 1.5 hours worth of work.
After working up an appetite in the fields we always stop in Parkdale for an ice cream . If you are ever in Parkdale be sure to stop for a cone or dish...Oregon ice cream...yum....you can't beat it!
It's hard to believe that we live in such a beautiful place. Mt Hood is beautiful no matter what time of year.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
What is 13.1?
This may mean absolutely nothing to one person, but to us it is a goal that has been conquered.
In 2002 Bill and I ran a 10K run from Women’s Forum State Park to Multnomah Falls. Ever since then he has mentioned that he would like to run a Half Marathon and wanted me to do it with him. I poo pooed that idea because it wasn’t me.
A few years ago Bill said that he would really like to run a Half Marathon for his 60th Birthday. So I started putting my thinking cap on, and earlier this year opportunity knocked and I grabbed it to help make Bill’s dream come true.
I won a membership to Portland Fit, which is a running group that trains people to run the Portland Marathon in October, and Con-way offered 50% discount for employee’s and their spouses. So, I signed us up and Bill and I agreed to stick to the schedule, make the commitment, and accomplish his goal.
The first weekend in April was the first meeting of Portland Fit and it was a 3 mile run to identify which pace group people were placed in. Our pace was slow but steady and we were given a schedule of three runs each week for a specified period of time with a long run on Saturday morning.
We have been very committed to the schedule and unfortunately we both got sick in early June which threw us off the Portland Fit training schedule as that group ran their Half Marathon on June 13. As a result we backed up their schedule found, another Half Marathon to run on July 4th and have been training on our own since then.
As the run grew near our excitement started to grow. The weather unfortunately wasn’t cooperating this week as the temp has been in the 90’s but a goal is a goal. We were up at 04:00 AM this morning and out of the house at 05:00 driving through town to Sauvies Island. The route was 13.1 miles around the island. The organization is a fabulous job of supporting the event as water, etc were available every couple of miles.
Probably 3 miles into the run there was a big sign posted that said “There are many obstacles in Life…..This is not one of them!” Yes we can!
It was pretty inspirational and several times during the run we both said….yes we can….to encourage the other to keep going.
We held hands as we crossed the finish line, we each received a medal as a “finisher” and what had originally been Bills goal to do a Half Marathon, also turned into mine. Not only was this my gift to him, to support him through training and help it success, but somewhere along the way it also became my goal.
Goals are amazing things….they take time, commitment and result in a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
In 2002 Bill and I ran a 10K run from Women’s Forum State Park to Multnomah Falls. Ever since then he has mentioned that he would like to run a Half Marathon and wanted me to do it with him. I poo pooed that idea because it wasn’t me.
A few years ago Bill said that he would really like to run a Half Marathon for his 60th Birthday. So I started putting my thinking cap on, and earlier this year opportunity knocked and I grabbed it to help make Bill’s dream come true.
I won a membership to Portland Fit, which is a running group that trains people to run the Portland Marathon in October, and Con-way offered 50% discount for employee’s and their spouses. So, I signed us up and Bill and I agreed to stick to the schedule, make the commitment, and accomplish his goal.
The first weekend in April was the first meeting of Portland Fit and it was a 3 mile run to identify which pace group people were placed in. Our pace was slow but steady and we were given a schedule of three runs each week for a specified period of time with a long run on Saturday morning.
We have been very committed to the schedule and unfortunately we both got sick in early June which threw us off the Portland Fit training schedule as that group ran their Half Marathon on June 13. As a result we backed up their schedule found, another Half Marathon to run on July 4th and have been training on our own since then.
As the run grew near our excitement started to grow. The weather unfortunately wasn’t cooperating this week as the temp has been in the 90’s but a goal is a goal. We were up at 04:00 AM this morning and out of the house at 05:00 driving through town to Sauvies Island. The route was 13.1 miles around the island. The organization is a fabulous job of supporting the event as water, etc were available every couple of miles.
Probably 3 miles into the run there was a big sign posted that said “There are many obstacles in Life…..This is not one of them!” Yes we can!
It was pretty inspirational and several times during the run we both said….yes we can….to encourage the other to keep going.
We held hands as we crossed the finish line, we each received a medal as a “finisher” and what had originally been Bills goal to do a Half Marathon, also turned into mine. Not only was this my gift to him, to support him through training and help it success, but somewhere along the way it also became my goal.
Goals are amazing things….they take time, commitment and result in a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
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