My birthday has come and gone, but I've still not blogged about it!  I was saddned when I thought I would have no photos to share on here since my digital camera seemed broken.  Thankfully, I was able to obtain these photos taken with a disposable camera so all is not lost.  Forgive me for how late I am on giving an update, but I hope you enjoy the next few blogs I intend to sit down and complete.

April Fool's Day just so happens to be the same day every year that everyone makes an annual celebration of my arrival  that occured all the way back in 1983.  I'm suprised to say that I've lived long enough to go through so many birthdays. There are a few I will never forget. One is when I was only 3 years old. That year I remember getting a really awesome yellow dumpster truck and also a piggy bank that a cousin had given me. Just as soon as I unwrapped that piggy bank and passed it around for other to see, it found an unfortunate fate of slipping through the clumsy fingers of one guest and smashing to the ground.  I cried, but  a smashed piggy wasn't the worst of it.  When my mom brought out the the Smurf birthday cake I was so excited to get, she found that the store sold here a cake that was so stale she couldn't put a knife ot it!  She had to take my cake back, demand a refund, and get me a generic cake to serve to our family and friends.  I'll never forget this event, and I think I'll always laugh about that rock solid cake.

This 27th birthday is going to be remembered just as well as my 3rd. It was a birthday of firsts. The first reason isn't very good because it's the first one without Mom. I missed not hearing a call from her singing Happy Birthday, talking about the day I was born, and how young I still am. I miss her so much! Yet for happier reasons,  I'll also remember this birthday because it was my first one spent at the beach, and I also went razor clam digging for the first time as well.

We started out in the early hours to reach the beach in time for the minus tide and found the clams were easily spotted all over the beach.  We were all looking for these small mounds around the diameter of a quarter.  Whenever one found a mound, we'd yell out for the clam gun and start digging. 

This is the first clam I dug up.  I couldn't believe how easy it was to get them!

This is the stance. You take the gun at an angle, your back to the ocean, and push down as far as necessary, and make sure to be careful not to damage the little guy.  

In the beginning, we were finding the clams all over. Yet as the tide made its way inward, it seemed like all the clams dug farther in the sand . So I spent some time walking out as far as I could to the edge of the Pacific.  As I stood there, the water kept creeeping slowly up my legs until it was well past my knees. In this picture you can't tell how far out the tide was, but it was really far.

Some of the clam digging crew: Avery, Meghann (who just had a b-day yesterday), and myself acting like I'm going to eat a raw clam.

After our fun at the beach, we decided to go out to Astoria, OR and climb the Astoria Column.  There are 164 steps we climbed to reach the top, but the view was well worth the effort.

On top of the Astoria Column, it's so beautiful.  I could see the Columbia emptying into the Pacific one one side, and beautiful Northwestern forests forever in every other direction.

Here I was back in July of '07. I was just a tourist seeing the sights.  I would have never thought I'd be a resident back then.

Remember the beautiful forests I was talking about? Here is just a portion of the sights on the Column.  on the horizon, you can see Saddle Back Mountain to your left. It's the highest 3 points in the horizon I could see.  

Later that evening, I learned how to clean and cook clams.  Altogether we counted 36 clams.  Avery found 10, Kyle and I found 9 a piece, and Meghann found 8.  Kyle gave me his since he hates clams, so I had 18! 

 Razor clams make for some good eattin' and don't take long to fry up either!

Adventures in Geocaching

About a month ago, 3 friends and I went geocaching up on some remote logging roads for the first time a little West of Longview.  The air was quite chilly as I ran down the stairs in response to the honking jeep in the parking lot. Excitement and curiousity filled my mind by how far out and remote we would be from civilization along these little treked roads. My roommate, Kyle, and I quickly climbed in the vehicle. I greeted his father, Avery, and brother, Connor, and so our story begins. Who would have known how much adventure waited for us up in those hills.

 As we entered through the blue logging gate, I was full of excitement and wonder thinking about what those big hills I see from a distance all the time look like up close. We treked higher and higher until we found the road that lead to the first cache of the day. This initial hiding spot we were headed to was near a very shallow man-made lake. We scavenged ever single inch of old log and lifted up rocks looking for the hide.  For over an hour we throughly searched every crevice imaginable to only find a red chewed up dog toy we at first thought could have been the cache. It turned out to be just some sad dog's lost toy.

Standing along the road, I took this picture from one end of the lake.

As I walked along to the lake's end, I found a site that was reminiscent to Leonard Springs Park in Bloomington, IN minus all the evergreens.  I stood there for a moment and let my mind drift back in time and imagine this being the very same hiking spot I've loved for so long.

The lake

Leonard Springs

It seems to me there are so many different types of lichen in the North West and they thrive on just about anything.  A tree limb of course is no exception, but I liked  the faint patinaed color contrasting the darker natural brown of the branch.

After a while of searching, we finally gave up on finding our first cache of the day. So we began our descent  back down the logging roads to our next geo-destination only to find a very large road block.  They were just finishing up, so it didn't take too long for us to get back to our cache hunting. 

Driving along, I was amazed at the contrast of dense forest and bare hillsides all on the same rise. 

One of the routes we took lead us among giants who watched as Avery changed a flat tire we had acquired.

Yay for flat tires in the middle of the wilderness!

Finally, we were back on our way.  As I walked up to the cache site, I was amazed at how clearly we could see Mt. St. Helens. How awesome!

After the cache was found, we took in the beautiful view we found through the trees. We were approximately 2,200ft up looking towards the Columbia River when I took this picture.  I didn't include a picture of where the cache is located because it'd spoil it for those that haven't found it yet. I did take a few for my personal viewing.

As we walked back down the road, I had to take another picture that had a better close up of the big celebrity.

 As we headed back off the hillside, we took a look at another great view not far from the road leading to the previous cache.  In the horizon, we realized we could see Astoria, OR.  Even further along was the Pacific.

In the distance was mound after mound of green lush wilderness.

All 3 processes of logging are seen in this photo.  We can see the ripe aged forest, recent remnants of a logging expedition, and the regrowth of a forest.

Soon, we will see ourselves down the same road as the truck down the hill.

Look closely.  You can see a faint misty Mt. Hood in the background to the left.

I loved the hue of the dirt and you get to see a logging machine at work to the right.

 A little farther along, we became a little lost down a  wrong turn.  As long as the way went down, we knew we were ok.  Yet to add to our small worry of finding civilization again, the tire Avery changed descided to contribute to a little bit more to out suspensful ride when it popped. Through winding roads we treked passing only on person who wouldn't stop for us to ask which gate we'd be coming out of.  Further we came until we saw the blue glint of a gate and past that beautiful sign of the beginning of the world we came from was the hint of black pavement! 

The Jeep with it's second flat tire..

Wow.  We drove on that.

As we waited for rescue from Kyle's grandparent's and mom, this very friendly dog kept us lots of company.  Many times he had us throwing a stick and petting him.  He was just glad to have some friends to play with! Too bad we didn't keep that chew toy.  We could've gave it to this guy!

My adventure out in the logging wilderness was quite fun and I can't wait to find myself out exploring some more of the great wild backyard I have all round me.  Next time, I'll have a better idea of what I'm getting into, and I'll be sure to pack a few extra spare tires on my back just in case.

My Winter Trip to the Beach

Yesterday, I took a trip to the coast with my friend Kyle. I had alot of fun during my first winter experience at the beach.  The forecast said it'd be rain, rain, rain.  I found it to be quite the opposite.  There were a few clouds in the morning, but it soon broke to a beautiful day. I love the coast. The following pictures were taken through out my trip to Long Beach, WA with the first photo taken at our first stop by the Julia Butcher Hansen Wildlife Refuge.

Looking out through an opening at the refuge.  We were looking for white tail deer but didn't see any.

An upclose pic of a log that makes up part of the viewing platform.

Along the way, we always pass this church.

I've taken pictures of this church several times before, but they were always while in the car. This time, we stopped.

Me on the stairs.

In Illwaco, WA, there is a little garden along with this area behind the Columbia Pacific Maritime Museum.

A sturgeon among smaller fish.

One huge stop, Cape Disappointment. This was up on the top looking out at the Cape Disappointment lighthouse.

This is actually the end of the Columbia River right before it begins to enter the Pacific.

The white oceanic waves to the right were converging with the mouth of the Columbia which was the mass of water in the foreground.

Looking down the cape. Am I really here?!  Beautiful.

Some other pictures along a trail on the cape.

Inside the Lewis and Clark Historical Museum (Located on top of the cape) was this old lighthouse lamp.  Awesome!

I love these glass fishing floats.  They come off of Japanese fishing nets and make their way across the ocean to land here on the beach during strong wind storms. People collect them like crazy.

A model of the area.  The Columbia River cuts straight through Washington and Oregon to empty into the Pacific.

Fort Canby is also located on the cape.  It was used until a little after WWII I hear.

This is a room here in the fort. 

In this same room was this painting.  I don't know much about it, but I found it quite interesting.

Finally moving along, this sculpture was in a small park in Long Beach.

Walking along the beach, several sea gulls decided to chill nearby.

Quickly, I ran as close as I could when the tide rolled back out to get these few pictures. I LOVE THE OCEAN! :)

I was down on one hand and almost a knee to get this close up picture of the incoming waves.

Beautiful.

I wonder what kind of fish this was.

This blob of substance is a dead jelly fish. 

This is the largest kite I've ever seen in my life!  It kept rotating in the breeze.  This guy was tending to it while we were walking up.

Did I say huge?!

Walking along the Discovery Trail in the dunes, I took this pic!

Another pic on the dunes.  You can see Cape Disappointment to the left and a littel bit of the ocean in the horizon.

This is a statue of a sturgeon (Yes, they're huge!) and Lewis or Clark (I don't remember) They found one beached when they came out this way.

YEEE HAW! lol

For non-coastal people, we may not know what in the world these things are for.  They are used to shield one from the sand on extreamly windy days.  They are needed, I've felt the wind's wrath at the beach before.

More info on the glass fishing floats

Info on Cape Disappointment