Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Hiking with Helen, Thursday and Friday, June 8 and 9, 2017

On Thursday morning, we visiting Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge and had a pleasant hike.  We relearned about the apples on oak trees - they look like apples, but are actually galls made by the interaction of hormones from wasps laying eggs and the chemicals in the oak trees.  While there were some birds, there were not as many as we have seen in the busier winter season when many are migrating through the area.

We then had lunch at a very nice Vietnamese restaurant - Helen and Patty both ordered spring rolls and a bowl of soup.  The bowls of soup were large enough for two or three people to eat.

After lunch, we drove to Cooper Mountain Nature Park in Beaverton for a lovely hike.  They have a section where they have reintroduced native wildflowers and it is gorgeous, acre after acre of flowers in bloom (unfortunately, my photos of them did not come out well).  Of course, we came across some banana slugs on the trail.



While I had planned to then go to the Tualatin Nature Park, we decided we had had enough hiking, so we drove to Ben and Martha's new home where they will be moving in couple of weeks - a very nice neighborhood.  Then it was home for dinner and an evening of fun where many stories were told and much wine was consumed.   Instead of a "Ben Ware" sized glass of wine, Helen chose to have two glasses of wine at the same time.


Friday, we took Helen to visit Fort Vancouver National Historic Park.  We watched their short video explaining the history, visited the replica of the 1800s era fort with blacksmith, archeology, fur trading, woodshop, bakery, counting house, factor's house, doctor's office and more.  And then we had a delightful lunch at the Grant House Restaurant - we have had lunch here several times and every time we have enjoyed it.  Then it was home to greet daughter Megan, who had flown in Ketchikan and who had been picked up at the airport by Martha.  We had a wonderful Friday evening visiting and catching up with each other.

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