Beacon Rock

Beacon Rock is a 848 ft tall monolith that sits on the north side of the Columbia River and watches over it.
We climbed it on Saturday with some friends.  Not technical rock climbing, mind you, but we hiked up the trail that has been created so that people who don't rock climb can get a view of the gorge.  And when I say up, I mean UP.
See for yourself:

Can you say "switchbacks"?

It was close to a beautiful evening, almost 90 degrees with a nice wind from the east.  In the photos, you can barely see the haze in the air from the nearby wildfires.  I would prefer about 70 degrees and cleaner air, but that is about to get here now that fall is upon us and the rains have finally arrived.  I hope the rains put an end to the wildfires soon.

I love fall

Yesterday was Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Tomorrow is the first day of fall.
Monday is National Ice Cream Cone Day (According to Sonic).

Will the fun never cease?

UPDATE:  Sorry- one of my calendars said that the 21st was the first day of fall, but another one (and all the radio news people) said it was the 22nd.  (So, that takes some of the fun out of Sunday... but not all of it.)

This school year

We've only been in school 4 days, and two things have happened that have not ever happened to me before:

On day 1, our security guard came to my 1st class of the day to pull out two different boys and talk with them.  DAY ONE.  PERIOD ONE.  How much trouble could they have gotten into since they got off the bus?   This doesn't bode well.

On day 4, during my last class of the day, a smiling young lady came up to me and informed me that I had taught her mom years ago.  Well now I feel old.  I didn't feel old 10 minutes before she told me that, but now...  yeah.

Real Vacation, part 4

Part 4 was supposed to be Coffenbury Lake, but our friends took those pics and haven't sent them to me yet.  And so, I give you the Pacific Ocean!

The shipwreck is the Peter Iredale.  It ran ashore in 1906 and has slowly rotted and rusted away until you just see the ribs of the bow.

And then they found a log placed appropriately on a stump.  It quickly became a pivotal part of the camping adventure.  I wish I had taken video.

Oops.

Not as strong as we thought!

As soon as I get the lake pics, I'll post them.