A Glorious Weekend - Home and River Boating

Hello! Did you have a good weekend?  We did. Saturday was spent doing things at home.  I got all the cushions on the deck chairs and tied them on with bows and got them around the table.  Dayle got some nice plant brackets and installed them on the new gazebo and hung up the beautiful hanging planters that Travis and Kristi got me for Mother's Day.

Dayle wintered over this gorgeous "Bonfire Orange" Begonia and it sprouted up and has buds on it!

Dayle started the burn pile after it had been added to all winter and boy did the flames shoot up high!

Shawn, our older son, hoisted the heavy pots of Jasmine back onto the deck for me and moved them into place in front of the new gazebo pillars.  I must tell you that I felt a huge sense of relief to have things back in tidy shape on the deck after a year of deck construction and then gazebo construction.  

Meanwhile on the side of the house younger son Travis is getting the boat cleaned up and ready for a Summer of fishing, crabbing and (for me) cruising.  Shawn is on the other side of the boat waxing it and then moved all around the boat getting it shined up.

We have a bunch of yellow iris bulbs around the base of the black bamboo patch but they don't get enough sun to bloom.. except this ONE.  :-)  We need to move those bulbs to a sunnier place.

I just *love* the black bamboo - it starts out green and then takes 1 to 3 years for it to turn black.  

See how much smaller the burn pile is?

Kristi was tired of weeding around this old stump so she got on the tractor and went into battle and she was successful!

And she happily drove that stump down and dumped it on the burn pile.  :-)

I charged up the battery of my Lumix bridge camera so I could see if I could get some better photos.. I like this one of the koi in the pond.

And look at this amazing Petunia!  It looks like a starry night sky.

And our new patio table was delivered this morning so Kristi and Dayle are out on the deck putting it together.  I'm so excited to see it all done.  It's longer than our 14 year old glass topped table so will seat more of us.  

Dayle has 4 thistle socks on our bird feeder hanger and we love to see how many are there at the same time.  Dayle keeps a running tally.. lol.

Sunday was full of activity!  Dayle, Travis, his BFF Ernie and Ernie's adorable little boy Diego, went fishing on the Columbia River.  Our grandsons were at their aunt and uncle's house for a few days so didn't get to go fishing.  This is Beacon Rock from the water.

They planned to bring Ernie and Diego in at around 4 pm and by then the boys were home so the 3 of us met them at Rooster Rock State Park.  I told the boys to keep an eye out for the boat and soon they told me it was coming our way.

Soon they were zooming past us to get to the entrance to the boat ramp, see Dayle waving to us?

We went on down to the dock to wait for them to arrive, this is the view from the dock, Vista House is up there on the rock bluff 733 feet up there!

It wasn't long before they came around the corner from the west up the boat harbor towards the dock.

Our C-Dory is named Sea Wolf, Travis at the helm...

... Ernie ready to jump on the dock with the dock-lines.

And Grandpa?  Well.. he was holding a sleeping Diego who'd worn himself out fishing all day.  :-)

How adorable is this darling little boy?  He has a new little brother who I look forward to meeting some day.

Their catch of Shad.  Apparently it's a very bony fish which they have frozen and will use to catch crab.  

The boys and I climbed aboard after they helped Ernie load his gear into his truck - and off we headed for a scenic cruise.  See the dock back there?

The trees have engulfed Rooster Rock and are growing so tall that soon you won't be able to hardly see it!  Time for some judicious pruning or removal, wouldn't you say?  Apparently this rock is part of a slide from the rock edifice that Vista House stands on now.

Hitting the open Columbia River, heading West.  Dayle and I were comfortably ensconced in two folding chairs in the stern of the boat - looking East up the gorge.

From this vantage point you can see Vista House on Crown Point, kind of fuzzy.. but you get the idea.

Travis at the helm, Hayden and Caleb being boys.

We passed a beautiful Grand Banks yacht, we waved and I snapped a photo. Dang, wish we could afford one of these beauties!

One of my favorite scenes, "sun pennies" sparkling on the water. We cruised along for a few hours and I'm so happy, I wasn't able to go boating all last summer as we were so busy building the new deck and painting the house and out-buildings.  It was a "home improvement" summer.  This one I'm hoping to get out on the water more.  

Our crew holding the boat while Travis brought the truck and trailer to the boat launch to load the boat and head home.

While the guys went home and cleaned up the boat, I took the boys to Cascade Locks for an ice cream, let them run on the pebbly beach by the yacht basin then took them to the playground where they burned off some energy climbing on the sternwheeler shaped play structure and then spent some time playing hide and seek.  :-)

The Sternwheeler Columbia Gorge went by while I was watching the boys play.. so I snapped a shot of it.  Then it was time to head home.  A very good day.

And so.. today no swimming as I tweaked some back muscles yesterday pulling some weeds out of a pot.  I hope you're having a good day and the whole week ahead.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)