Hanford Site Tour

Today I was fortunate enough to go on a tour of the Hanford site. OMG!! What a great day! I know I am from this area, I know that the government came in and took over the town of White Bluffs and built the Hanford area, I know the purpose of the Hanford site was to produce uranium to use in the atom bomb being produced in Los Alamos, New Mexico during World War II. Past that I am not knowledgeable. What a treat it was to be able to go onto the site with the most knowledgeable Historian about the Hanford legacy (her name is Michelle, but I don't recall her last name...sorry!)

Greg, Jan, Mom, Dad, Kyle and I all signed up in like April to take part in the tour. It was scheduled to last 5 hours but because our bus decided to have transmission problems towards the end of the tour, it ended up closer to 6 1/2 hours. Still, even with the bus problem it was TOTALLY worth it!

We got to drive the "River Route", see the "F" Reactor, the "H" Reactor", the "D" Reactor, the "DR" Reactor, the "K west" Reactor, the "K east" Reactor, the "B" Reactor, the "C" Reactor and the "N" Reactor. We actually got to into the "B" Reactor....now a National Historic Site. That was FABULOUS!!

If anyone gets the opportunity to get on one of the tours, I suggest you do it!! You won't be sorry!!!

P.S. I'm going again some day!!

Zinnias and What I've Read

Just a couple of pictures of some Zinnias I cut before I went to the beach for a week. They are still doing good.

Here is the complete list of what I read the during the week at Arch Cape

(and two days before leaving!)

In no particular order....

***

Cannon Beach Princess

by Katherine James

***

Best Friends

by Jennifer Weiner

***

The Senator's Wife

by Sue Miller

***

When Crickets Cry

by Charles Martin

***

The Dead Don't Dance

by Charles Martin

***

The Perfect Match

by Jodi Picoult

***

The Summer Hideaway

by Susan Wiggs

Our Week at Arch Cape

Our week was a cool, sometimes foggy one, but none-the-less it was awesome! I don't know how many books I ended up reading, too many to count. And, there's still more to read. While everyone here at home was stuck in the upper 90's, we were in the upper 50's to low 60's, with an OCCASIONAL sun breaking through the clouds. We didn't get to see a sunset this week, but that is life. We went to 3 different Farmer's Markets this year....Friday night at Manzanita, Sunday at Astoria and Tuesday at Cannon Beach. We bummed around Astoria for a couple of hours....falling in love with that area would be easy! Here are some pictures (when I could tear myself away from flipping book pages, I actually did get out and take a few!)

One of my favorites of the week:

Queen Vic to great us every morning.

Like this shot too......kinda cool.

Astoria......

The trolley.....everyone needs to take the $1.00 trolley ride. It was full of information!

The Astoria Column. Jan, Mom and I went up....we almost didn't make it! It was tight and had a circular staircase. Clausterphobia was felt by us all!!! Down was a lot easier though.

Shot from the top.....straight down!!!

Jan coming out.....

Mom coming out....

Farmer's Market at Cannon Beach.

Walking to Hug Point during low tide.

These ocean goers know how to have fun!!

Multnomah Falls on the way home.

Fire in Eltopia!

Here is a picture of what Monday held in store for Eltopia. I was at mom's when the telephone rang and a neighbor from on this hill called about this fire. My brother and father were already in the firetruck headed over. It all started in some quanset huts behind the trees at the top of this hill. The wind was blowing and that meant the fire was spreading. We were afraid of it burning out of control and getting a few houses burned in its path. Luckily we have some great volunteer firefighters from 2 towns north of us and they got down to us in record time. They were able to get on the south side of the fire and the east side to keep it from burning the cheatgrass field and jumping the road to the houses below. It was an exciting afternoon....one that ended in good results instead of tragedy. Thank goodness!

Fishing and Sprinkler Problems

What to do when it's over 100 degrees? The answer according to Kyle is to go fishing. So we went Friday night, to the Snake River. It was nice. And HOT!

He caught a couple of Walleye but not until long after the sun went down. So, there are no pictures.

Yesterday in the blistering heat we found some sprinkler problems. It took most of the day to eliminate them....and LOTS of whining and crying and whining and more crying. But in the end it was a good day because they all got fixed.

This was the most headache sprinkler. The solution? Cap it off of course!

What a guy!

Absolutely Intoxicating!

I don't think there is anything better than the smell of sweet peas!

Just got done reading a fantastic book: Where The River Ends by Charles Martin. You just gotta!!