5-27-05 The tall ship, The Lady Washington...she was in port in the Vancouver area and we were fortunate enough to get reservations for a trip out on the Columbia River. Cool way to start celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary!! There was a lot of hype about this ship being in the Pirates of The Caribbean movie, it played the ship The Interceptor but when we got to go down in the galley area there was a picture from another movie that got me more excited....Star Trek Generations.......I had to rewalk the ship with Capt. Picard in mind......here's some info copied from the internet for those more historically minded...."As a privateer during the American Revolution, the original Lady Washington fought to help the colonies gain their independence from England. In 1788, she became the first American vessel to visit the West Coast of North America, opening trade between the colonies and the native peoples of the Northwest Coast. As the first American vessel to visit Honolulu, Hong Kong, and Japan, she played a key role in developing American involvement in Asian Pacific trade. Built at Grays Harbor Historical Seaport in Aberdeen, Washington, and launched in 1989 as a Washington State Centennial project, the reproduction Lady Washington sails the waters of Washington State and the West Coast of North America as the tall ship ambassador for the state of Washington." "Lady Washington displaces 205 tons, is 67 feet overall with a 22-foot beam and a draft of 11 feet."


 

5-27-05 The Lynx waiting to take off up the Columbia ...Mt Hood in the background...it was a great night for sailing!! 

5-27-05 Front(bow???) of the Lady Washington...the sun wasn't in the best spot to get a good picture & for some reason the captian wouldn't turn the boat around for me!! 

5-27-05 Waiting to board!! 

5-27-05 Chuck & I onboard the Lady Washington ....ready to sail. What a great way to start our anniversary weekend!! It was a 3hr trip on the Columbia river & when I found out about the length of the trip all I could think about was the line from the Gilligan's Island theme song....you know the part...."three hour tour"......... 

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5-27-05 Crew of the Lady Washington preparing to lower the sails......it takes 18 crewmembers to run the ship, 10 are paid employees and the rest are volunteers who pay to come aboard for 2 weeks and learn the ropes so to speak! 

5-27-05 some of the ropes aboard the Lady Washington 

5-27-05 View of The Lynx from aboard the Lady Washington...somewhere up the Columbia River...here's some infor on the Lnyx copied from the internet "The Lynx is an interpretation of an actual privateer named Lynx built by Thomas Kemp in 1812 in Fell�s Point, Md., and which was among the first ships to defend American freedom by evading the British naval fleet then blockading American ports. The modern version was launched on July 28, 2001, in Rockport, Maine.
Displacing 114 tons, the Lynx is 78 feet overall with a 23-foot beam and a draft of nine feet." Seems she was used to help train crews for the Pirates of the Car. movie.
 

5-27-05 Full sail ahead!! 

5-27-05 The first mate and other crew preparing to fire one of the cannon's. This was the best part of the evening for me!! The first mate was watching a fishing boat heading our way and from the conversation with the captian we thought he was waiting for the boat to get past us before he fired....were we ever wrong!! The fishing boat was there target!!! I was filming with the video camera and hope I caught the looks on the faces of those guys when that cannon went off....it was hilarious!! 

5-27-05 The Lynx & The Lady Washington...what a great experience....thanks Chuck for another great day!! (you can see crew members up on the mast's putting away the sails) 

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5-14-05 Guess my cat's not the only one who needs captions!! 

5-14-05 It stayed cloudy most of the day. It was fun driving in and out of them. 

5-14-05 What a spot for lunch!! The beaver hut was going the other direction. 

5-14-05 Getting to our lunch stream! 

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5-14-05 We were back in the Gifford Pinchot Nat'l Forest with our Topo map out traveling forest service roads when lo and behold we come upon a paved section!!! Talk about tax dollars at work...they were even kind enough to put up a road sign!!! It was only a mile long if that....just that one section....sometimes you've just got to wonder!! Getting off of the "main" roads it's no surprise that the mountian range out here was named The Cascades....there are beautiful waterfalls everywhere!! It was a bittersweet day as we enjoyed lunch by a stream with a beaver hut down in an old growth area....will we have areas like this if we end up in North Carolina?
 

5-14-05 Don't know what kind of critters called this fairly deep cave home but there were no fresh tracks around it. 

4-23-05 Chuck & I at his sister Susan's house in Sheridan Ar. We were getting ready to leave for the airport and head back to Wa. It was a great vacation but I forgot to take my camera...at the time I thought we were moving back there and thought I would be back to see everyone again real soon.....now we know that's not the case!! Theses are the highlights that I wish I had pictures of.....my parents at the airport picking us up, mom was so excited to see us. Sunday at church, it was great to have Chuck on one side David on the other and to be surrounded by friends. It did my heart and soul good to be there. The video camera would have been nice at the coffee shop when Kai arranged to get a bunch of us together one evening. We've got such great friends and the sounds of that night will stay with me for a long time...it was fun to laugh so hard!! Chuck wore himself out fishing & a picture of him and his buddy Jim cleaning out Lake Hamilton would have been good. On the 20th Kai and I went to the Poets Loft, a picture of us trying to suppress the pain that comes from listing to someone try to sing with a guitar that's so badly out of tune would have been priceless. The quiet out on the patio was a welcome relief...even though Kai then had to deal with an alergic reaction to the cedar chairs!! The next night provided so many photo opportunities...Kai bravely getting her first tattoo, the first moment of needle and ink touching skin and the look of "hey, this doesn't hurt!" to the grimace five minutes later & swearing that only comes from deep within. The gathering of middle aged women had begun when more of Kai's friends crossed the line of the studio's door. For Lisa and Jamie it was a first and I'm not sure which was more humourous...there faces or mine watching them cross the room. Kai was just glad for a distraction...any distraction. Then there was Zach getting his first tattoos as well....talk about a kodac moment, mother and son getting there first ink. I think it was more painful for Kai watching and waiting on Zach than it was for her own....she was ready to clobber his artist...now that would have been a GREAT picture!! Another image I would like to have captured on film was Cara sitting on the mower eating her chicken from Burger King, she looked quite content!! Dad working in his garden, mom in her recliner, David and Cindi and there killer dogs, Ben & Kim winning Hand and Foot despite David's cheating, Suzi in her new studio! So many images from just one week.......how does the brain process a lifetime of memories.....I hope I don't forget to many!! 

4-2-05 Me on a Kendall Johnson chopper at the Easyrider chopper show in Portland. Chuck was out of town so I went and did some daydreaming without him!! It wasn't long after I had gotten on this bike for my picture when I came back by it and they had a big DO NOT TOUCH sign on it.....glad I had already been on it...what a beast of a machine!! I can't imagine what it would be like riding something like this....crazy!! 

4-2-05 This is a bike built by Indian Larry. They had about 7 bikes from builders on the Discovery Channels Biker Build Off show.  

4-2-05 Me & Billy Lane, he owns Choppers, Inc. in Florida. I also got to meet Paul Yaffee...it was sure a fun day!!