Matthew in Oregon 2009

Matthew arrived at Portland International Airport the evening of Saturday, June 20, and we drove to the ranch for a day. Monday, we loaded the pickup and drove to Ft. Stevens on the Oregon coast and set up camp for a four day stay. We joined a bicycle tour of the park which took us to the wreck of the Peter Iredale, a four-masted steel barque that ran ashore October 25, 1906, with parts still visible more than a hundred years later. Matthew waded through puddles and climbed the skeleton.
We visited Fort Clatsop,










a reconstruction of the stockade Lewis and Clark built near the mouth of the Columbia River to spend the winter of 1805-1806.While there, we wandered into an instructional presentation. Matthew played Jean Baptiste Charbonneaw, Sacagawea's husband.
In the gift shop, Matthew ran into Christopher, who camped next to us with his mother and two sisters, and they worked together to earn their Junior Ranger badges.

In camp, Matthew rode his bike and played with Christopher.

One day, we took a pedal boat into the lake,

another day we rode in the back of a 1952 army truck on a tour of the bulwarks and gun emplacements of the old Fort. After the tour, Matthew climbed into the driver’s seat for a photo op.

In camp at dusk, we had visitors who were reluctant to pose for a good photo, but they left evidence the next morning of their investigation of our food supply.

We drove to the really fine Astoria Maritime museum where Matthew got to operate the controls in the wheelhouse of a Columbia River tug and of a World War II destroyer escort. He also got to handle the gunner’s end of a .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine gun and look at actual vessels and artifacts from the fishing industry that for years provided the major income for people on the coast. Perhaps most impressive was the United States lightship Columbia, the first lightship on the Pacific Coast, now anchored at the museum but maintained in working order so it can put to sea if again needed. Lightships have guided vessels across the Columbia bar—“Graveyard of the Pacific”—from 1892 until 1979. This lightship, WLV-604, was essentially a small town anchored five miles out to sea marking the entrance to the Columbia River. We wandered through the crew’s quarters and looked in the officer’s cabins, but were not allowed in the engine rooms or on the bridge.

I had read that the Astoria column was closed for repairs—the top had been lifted off by a crane and new stairs lowered in. When I asked at the museum, a worker called the tower and got a recording saying that the column was not scheduled to open for another month.We drove up for the view, and discovered that it had opened ahead of schedule—the day before we got there.

We climbed the 164 iron steps and enjoyed a view of the Columbia on one of the clearest days I have seen at the coast.

We packed the gear and the bikes and drove to Eco Park in Washington where we stayed in the same yurt Maren had stayed in several years before.
In the evening Matthew rode his bike up and down the gravel road before we ate “Cowboy Steak” at the camp restaurant.
Of course, a primary reason for camping there is the proximity to Mt. St. Helens. The morning dawned clear and absolutely still, making the helicopter parked in front of the restaurant irresistible.
We chose the extended tour and flew up the valley by the crater (FAA rules forbid flights over or into the volcano) for views closer than from the highway. We saw steam rising from the west peak (although it could have been dust, no way to tell) and got a clear view of the massive rock pushed up as part of the dome building.

Flying back, we saw elk who seemed confused about the source of the noise.

After landing, we stopped at the restaurant and drank coffee and hot chocolate with whipped cream to try to digest the flight, a remarkable experience. Then we drove to Johnston ridge for other views of the mountain, all of them worth the trip.

Next morning, we drove around to the back of the mountain to Ape Cave, the longest continuous lava tube in the United States (at some 2.5 miles long, the second longest in the world). The cave is part of a lava flow from about 1900 years ago but was discovered only in 1951 and named for a local Boy Scout troop.

We stopped at the “Trail of the Two Forests” which we had always before passed by. Among the trees of the contemporary forest are casts of old growth trees buried by lava flows at about the same time Ape Cave was formed, some upright, some horizontal. Matthew skinnied some ten or fifteen yards through one, and then as other visitors arrived, guided adults and children through for some five or six trips.

Spring flowers blossomed everywhere, dotting ash flows, providing a blanket foreground for the mountain.

Back at the ranch, we swam, rode the three-wheeler, and watched Fourth of July fireworks on the grass in Albany.

On the Fifth of July, we celebrated Matthew’s Ninth birthday. Among his many presents, was a Junior Ranger vest on which he could display his badges and patches. The party started in the afternoon when we fired the cannon. The tennis ball disappeared in the smoke—no one saw it go.

Christopher came from Vancouver, Shelley brought her grandkids, Neil and Nadine brought Lara, and everyone swam in the pool and played games on the lawn.

We drove to the locally famous St. Paul Rodeo for the evening of Professional Bull Riders program but before the start, Matthew rode his own steed on the carrousel.

When the main attraction began, there was more than enough action to keep us all interested.

Back at the ranch, Matthew enjoyed many lunches at Bonnie’s, who had free Wii games and on some days, free pool. We found electric racing cars that Matthew’s Great Grandfather had saved, and set it up for hours of entertainment.

Matthew particularly enjoyed visiting Avery park with its dinosaur bone circle and old Number 5.

Then, July 9: we drove to Vancouver for supper and an evening at Christopher’s. At 6 the next morning, Matthew caught a plane to return to Alabama.