Lake Billy Chinook

You know, even though I personally prefer Detroit Lake, Lake Billy Chinook is a beautiful reservoir here in Oregon. It features 72 miles of shoreline and covers a surface area of 4000 acres. This year I stayed around the camp site or at the day use area where I enjoyed the company of friends and family, the arid climate, the beauty of the rock formations, and of course, the water.

Some of the family ties are either a little distant or too complicated to explain exactly but for this piece, my relationship to Ty will be cousin. He is a hit every year because he has the best toys for playing at the lake.

He generously gives nearly countless hours of skiing, tubing, and/or just plain cruising to all of the kids in this fruitful family. No one gets left out. And do you want to know something? He does it just for smiles. Well let's see his payoff.

Hmmm! Not bad!

Now it just wouldn't be right not to show some action shots of the fun we had on the tubes. (I'm afraid I don't have any images of skiers.) I do need to mention that we had a couple of our group who were able to get up on skis for the first time this year. Congratulations to each of you!

Take a look at some of these!

Now you see him.

Now you don't.

Before I forget. It would be completely improper to not mention that this year we had an octogenarian involved in this year's friviolity. In fact, we had special members of the family who traveled all the way from Germany to attend this campout due to the fact that one of the patriarchs of this clan turned 80 years old on July 21, 2010 right in the middle of the campout. If you remember, wish Hans Winofsky a Happy Birthday. He is the proud husband of one wife and the father of two beautiful girls. He has six grandchildren and even two great grandchildren. Each of them was there this year to help him celebrate the anniversary of the day of his birth. It certainly is an accomplishment to be admired!

It truly was a great year with a lot of great memories. I think that I can say for everyone that this year was a delight and we were sorry to see it come to an end. For me? I can hardly wait till next year! What a family !

Family Campout 2010

Somehow our wires got crossed this year and our family campout had to change venues from Detroit Lake State Park to Cove Palisades State Park at Lake Billy Chinook. I was a little disappointed I’ll have to admit. Traditionally, I have loved to sneak away and venture off up the Breitenbush River to tease the native and hatchery trout that can be found beneath the surface of that stream.

I went ahead and brought some gear with me but it is beginning to look like I might not get to fish much this year due to some details which are too complicated to outline here.

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE IMAGES FOR MORE DETAIL!

One of the amazing features of the State of Oregon is the diverse content of landscapes. We have ocean beaches, Alp-like mountains, rain forests and high desert. Cove Palisades is located in the high desert of Central Oregon. One cannot visit this area and not be awed by the remarkable rock formations along the high plateaus above the reservoir.

I wonder what kind of cataclysmic activity caused the basalt columns to twist and turn into what we see today. Was it volcanic or perhaps the flood from the days of Noah or a massive release of water after the ice age? What ever the causal forces were, I’m glad I wasn’t there to witness it.

Here is something else that is amazing. We have here what appears to be a harsh, arid climate but amongst the dried grass and dust one can still find some apparently delicate flora appearing to flourish.

The scenery here is just lovely. In spite of my first feelings of disappointment, this is starting out to be a great week!

Did You Know?

That is the question I have for you. We started a new blog and we are pretty pleased with it. It is the story of an adventure which we are taking together. We called it Dining in the Dark. Check it out at www.dininginthedark.blogspot.com. I hope you'll put it in your favorites or follow it on Blogger. Thanks

I Chose a Peaceful Settlement

A couple of weeks ago Debbie decides that her bedroom is just too cluttered. She thinks that she should simplify and make her room look a little more minimalist. So I come home from work one day and its like when some guy comes home and finds all of his stuff out in the yard except that mine is just dumped willy nilly out in the living room and where ever else it happened to fall. In quick order she's having me separate the stuff that truly defines me from the stuff that I could sell if push came to shove. The next subtle suggestion is that between Monticello, Ebay and Goodwill there should be some place to put all of my things. Realizing early on that the battle was unwinnable and that attempting to retake the "hill" would only lead to insurmountable pain and legal debt I suggested that we talk to Joyce at Monticello and see if there was availability for a temporary booth. Perhaps it was planetary alignment, but we think God intervened because whoever had booked the front window for July backed out at the last moment and guess who acquired the rights for the next 31 days.

I had some really cool collections and finally they are being displayed properly.

I realize that it means that I will have to permanently part with some of it.

Right now it just my aim to see that it all goes to a good home.

You know, the kind of place where they will take care of it and love it like I do.

I'm thinking that those are the kind of guys that go to a place like Monticello.

So for now I've bid all of these treasures farewell. We had a good run and the time we spent together was a joy.