Big week

Scheduling issues pushed Weekly Wednesday to Thursday again. We settled on seeing the new "Indiana Jones" movie, followed by Thai lunch and a Costco run. The movie was terrific - super campy and action packed, just like the originals. Harrison Ford was great, even poking a little fun at his age. We would all recommend it!

Brad's mom, Donna, celebrated her birthday Wednesday. We made the trip to Vancouver Thursday evening for dinner at Applebees, ice cream cake and presents. Happy Birthday!!!!

Because Brad was on a climbing trip and missed my birthday last month, he took off Friday for a special make-up birthday. After a lazy morning and a short stop at the annual G.I. Joe's tent sale, we drove to the Gorge for our first visit to Rooster Rock State Park. Brad packed us a picnic of fancy cheeses, bread, fresh fruit and Snapple lemon iced teas, which we ate at a shady table near the Columbia River. The river was beautiful, but our real entertainment was watching all the people heading to the nude beach at the far end of the park. It provided a lot of laughs!

We'd heard about rock climbing on Rooster Rock, so we went off in search of the route for future adventures. After some bushwhacking, walking next to the freeway and wading through poison oak, we found the spot. The bottom section is vertical fourth-class rock, meaning that we didn't need a rope, but a fall would have been bad. We scrambled up to a lookout spot, heard some loud squawking and looked over to see a big osprey nest on the tree next to us. The birds were not happy with our proximity and began circling and yelling loudly. Before they could peck us right off the rock, we grabbed a couple pictures and headed down... very carefully.

Saturday included plans to hit the REI return sale and then hike in the Gorge with Christine. Instead, we shopped into the afternoon, getting awesome deals for us and Christine - she's turning into a gear head! We all did a short, intense hike at nearby Tryon Creek State Park, checked out the Art Walk in downtown Gresham and then tried a new-to-us Mexican restaurant, La Fiesta, at Division and 242nd (YUM!). Once home, we did a bit more REI shopping with some online coupons (more deals!!) It was a really fun day of spontaneity and new adventures.

-Liz :)