Please Visit Our New Blog

All future blog posts will be made on our "Oregon Adventures" blog site - look for "Our Oregon Blog" in the sidebar to the right or click on this link www.jubileepdx.blogspot.com.

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To view the sailing portion of our travels, check out the "Blog Archives" section of the sidebar and click on entries dated June-2007 through May-2008. All these entries were posted during our time aboard Jubilee.

Thanks for visiting!

Back at it.... back to work; back to school

It's the first day of school! This also is the first post to our new "Oregon Adventures" blog (see link in sidebar).

It was off to 4th grade this morning for Jake & Emily; the first day of middle school for Drew; Day 2 of work for Dad; and Day 1 of a strangely quite house for Mom.

The Jubilee Crew was up early making sure backpacks and lunchboxes were ready to go. No chance of being late today!

Jake recently read a article about a "backpack fairy" who apparently visits some homes on the night before the first day of school. He decided to try leaving his pack out, as did Emily, and sure enough... tic-tacs and gum were found this morning from a source unknown.

Pat has altered his mode of commuting downtown from bus to bike. He loves the exercise, plus there's lots of "gear" involved!

Here are some photos showing how we spent our last weekend of summer... it was a chilly one, but included a trip to the Sauvie Island Corn Maze and the "Art in the Pearl" festival.

Back at Home

We've been back at home for two weeks now... plenty of time to remind us just how much we enjoyed the pace of life at sea!

The list of chores hit Pat the hardest... bedrooms had to be painted, furniture moved, boxes unpacked, school supplies purchased, suits & ties located, lists and schedules made, etc, etc... Emily offered up an "ocean waves" CD to help him pass the hours painting trim, but he was less than soothed by the familiar sounds. He'd much prefer scraping barnacles v. base boards!

We have all enjoyed the opportunity to reunite with neighbors and friends and to rediscover items packed away in storage during our travels. For the kids, it's been like Christmas unpacking their favorite toys.

Our first weekend back in Portland was highlighted by one of our favorite annual neighborhood events... the Multnomah Days Parade. It's one of those events that really brings home the saying "Keep Portland Weird"!

Here's a photo album of the parade, the kids hanging out with friends, and Emily proudly showing off her new "green" room.


A note about our post-trip blogging plans: We will be creating a new blog soon, linked to this one and updated periodically with photos of the kids school activities and our family weekend adventures. You can rest assured the Jubilee Crew will not let our now limited free time impact our commitment to fun and adventure!

Timothy Lake Reunion

We surprised the kids with a stopover at Hoodview Campground on Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood. They thought we were just "driving through" to say hello to one of dad's work friends before we pushed out the final 70 miles home. Instead, they discovered that a dozen or so of their friends from Bridlemile "just happened" to be camping with their families!

We were thrilled to be able to wrap-up our cross country drive with this surprise reunion and enjoyed catching up with old friends. We were treated to quite a feast, as you'll see from these photos!

Boise to Baker City

Here's a quick photo album from the final fews days of our travels - through Western Idaho and Eastern Oregon.

We're homeward bound!

Moon Walk

Passing through the Idaho Falls area, we couldn’t help but make a quick stop at the Idaho Potato Museum... that’s definitely a place you only go once! An adult admission to the museum comes with a complimentary box of "dehydrated hash browns" (yum), so at least we got breakfast out of the deal... sort of. The kids got potato-shaped lapel pins, which was a bit of a let-down. They had their hopes set on potato chips.

The day got better when we reached Craters of the Moon National Monument. Here we discovered some incredible landscapes, both above and below ground. Here are some photos of our “moon exploration”.

The kids loved our hike to the top of a cinder cone on a very windy afternoon to look over the miles of lava fields... talk about a harsh environment!

Drew was especially happy to be able to utilize the hard hat and knee pads he got on his caving tour at Mammoth Cave to lead his very own “wild cave” tour through the Monument’s four caves. Despite very hot temperatures above, one cave still had ice covering much of its floor.

Grand Teton

WOW! This is exactly what we’ve been looking for. The days we spent in Grand Teton National Park were by far the best of our trip. If it had been our first stop, we probably would never have left! We’ll definitely come back. We even liked the campgrounds... that’s a first!

Here’s a photo album from our time in Grand Teton. On our first day in the park, we took an amazing 10-mile hike that passed alongside Two Ocean Lake, through fields of wildflowers, and up to a fabulous viewpoint, Grand View, from which we could see all the peaks and valleys of the area.

Afterward, we stopped by Jackson Lake Lodge and Lunch Box Hill to watch for elk and moose in the early evening. Jake was the first to spot two moose in the distance.

Our second big hike took us from Jenny Lake up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point, then on into the canyon where you really get a sense of just how massive the mountains in the Teton Range are. This time our moose sightings were up close... one in a stream and another feeding on a hillside just above the trail.

White Water Rafting on the Snake River was a huge hit. Drew and Pat got to serve as “lead paddlers” for our 14-man raft. Jake and Emily and I sat between them in the front row as we passed through several Class 2 and 3 rapids along an 8-mile stretch of the river. One wave knocked the sunglasses right off Jake’s face!

Thankfully, Pat had encouraged everyone to put on their wetsuits for our rafting adventure... the water was really cold and we got really wet. For obvious reasons, we were not able to take photos. (Note for our next trip... invest in an underwater camera!)