It was a
long and
hot summer. Even today, in late October it's about 75 degrees out. Still seems like summer! I guess that's what I get for planting those himalayan poppies, which rely on cooler temps and lots of rain. We ended up getting the driest summer on record and they didn't grow. At least I bought us some good traveling weather.
I spent way more time at the coast this summer than I think I ever have.... To be honest I'm not crazy about the coast, the smell really bothers me and it's usually cold and the mist is all sticky and it sticks to your hair. But I've been so antsy to get out of the house and it's only an hour away, and they have stuff to entertain tourists, so I just ended up going there quite a bit. Pictured below is Newport Oregon.
Spent some time up at Mount St Helens. And managed to miss all the excitement too. A few weeks after visiting there was a report that the volcano is starting to act up again, after about ten years of inactivity.
You may be wondering about the graffitied building that Laura is looking at in the graphic above. That's the UofO EMU (student union building). They are rebuilding it and this was taken right before they started demolition. They invited everyone to come and draw on it before they tore it down. We didn't participate in the tagging; and to be honest, we didn't even know about it, and when we showed up to art class that week we were shocked to find it that way.
Most of these pictures are of Enchanted Forest, a fun little amusement park up by Salem, Oregon. It's an entertaining little place to visit every so often. They've got a couple of roller coasters, and a few other little rides. Everything within the park was made by hand by the owner. Apparently he's a pretty artistic guy. Not wanting to disturb the forest that it's build within, they had to drag all the materials for building it in themselves without any big machinery. It's a nice place and considering it was all done by hand it's pretty impressive.
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