NW Art & Air Festival

Friday night in Albany for the NW Art & Air Festival. It was a beautiful evening and there was music to enjoy, people to watch, and the Night Glow.
There had been a shooting on the interstate that blocked traffic for miles on I-5 but luckily I didn’t have to use the interstate to get to the fair grounds. The State Patrol had stopped a man that was suspected of armed robbery at some rest stops along the interstate. The patrolman was shot twice in his bulletproof vest and once in the foot. He was treated and released. The only man died the next day from his wounds
I wandered through the booths of artwork for sale enjoying the great variety of creations from mostly local artists. I didn’t buy any thing but enjoyed seeing it all.
One of the things I noticed as I sat down to enjoy the music was the people. Now I know I am wanting to loose 50 pounds but looking at many of the people there, I felt I was not as overweight as many of the people. I had first noticed that in Branson that most of the people or overweight, even though we read stories every day about how bad it is for our health. My feeling is that Middle America needs to loose most of its middle. Enough on that!
The music was a young woman singing country songs to canned music, a marimba band, and then a fiddle player with a band. Nice but not what I was there to see.
It was the Night Glow I wanted to see. Last January in Indio we had many fancy balloons and the Night Glow was a fascinating experience. Well Albany is not Indio. First there was not the room to have that many balloons and the balloons were of the basic hot-air balloons design and there were only seven balloons. But it was fun and I enjoyed the show.
A follow-up on the Mona Lisa – There were two accidents on Wednesday. In both cases a car was slowing down or stopped to pull over to the side of the road and in one case hit in the rear and in the other the chip truck we say had swerved to miss the car and ended up in the ditch. The No Parking of Shoulder” sign are going to be left up and only time will tell what will happen to the picture.

A Day at Newport

A hot summer day is always a good day to head to Newport and the ocean. It will be at least 20 degrees cooler and we get a chance to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium and have clam chowder at Mo’s. This Wendsday seemed like a good day. Marilyn didn’t have tennis and the athletic club is closed for cleaning so there were not workout classes to attend.

This time there was an added stop. Just before reaching Newport we got to see the Mona Lisa. Well at least a black and white, 60 foot tall copy of the Mona Lisa. A local artist, Samuel Clemens, painted a 40 by 60 foot version of the smiling lady on the hillside. There is only one problem with the painting. It is along the highway and there is not really much of a place to stop. On our return in the evening were delayed about 45 minutes because of an accident on the highway in front of the painting. I could not see what it was but the wrecker seemed to be pulling off a truck you would use to blow the wood chips when removing brush. I assume that some car stopped too fast and was hit. I don’t know that for sure but the accident was at the site of the painting. Another case of a beautiful woman causing an accident as the driver is look at her and not the road. I also noticed that there was “No Parking on the Shoulder of the Highway” along the road as we were returning in the evening that was not there in the morning. I don’t know if they were temporary because of the accident or going to be more permanent. I did get a good picture as we were gong so didn’t have to stop on the way home.

Well the trip to Mo’s was normal for the summer. There was a line out the door waiting to get in. Lucky for us a large family decided to move on and left the line. Of course it is always difficult to get a group of 7 or 8 a table unless they are willing to sit at separate tables. But as luck would have it we even got a table by the window to watch the fishing boat go out for the afternoon charter.

After finishing our bowl of chowder and slice of garlic bread we proceeded to the dock were you can usually find a number of large sea lions fighting over a spot to lie in the sun. The noise of their bark and they push at each other can be heard a block away. We were not disappointed this time as the dock was almost full as was the line of people watching them.

The trip to the Aquarium was normal for a nice summer day, crowded. We had been there earlier this year with the granddaughters but this time we were on our own. This year the special exhibit is CLAWS and exhibit of crab, lobster and other crustaceans. We did see the lobsters on parade and some crabs we had not see before.

On the visit to the bird we got to see a baby Common Murre. This was unusual because they usually collect any eggs laid in the exhibit to keep down the population. Unless another aquarium has out a call for one of the birds they are not allowed to reproduce.

We also got to watch the feeding of the sea lions and the sea otters. That is always fun but in the summer the crowds make in difficult to see and we usually try to let the others up close and enjoy our view of the feeding when the crowds are smaller. As members we do visit the aquarium often and get a chance to see the exhibits without the many people fighting for the best place to watch.
You can see all of the pictures at this link

Benton County Fair

Well it was off to the Benton County Fair. Fair is much different than I remember from my youth in Wyoming. Yes there are still some animals the 4-H club members are showing but goats and llamas are new and different to me. Also all the sheep are market sheep. None of the wool breeds that I showed in my younger days were to be found or dairy cows, only dairy goats.


Pigs yes we did see pigs. First the performing Valentine pigs performed on stage. Not the racing pigs but pigs that push balls around the stage or do other stupid tricks. You could even pay $5 to get your picture taken with the littlest pig. I’ll take a pass on that. Then there ware the show pigs and the FFA had a sow with a litter of seven pigs there just for people to see the real life of pigs, in the heat they were sleeping..

The chickens and rabbit barn is fun. An interesting collection of strange looking animals you never see on the farm. It was hot so most of the animals were sleeping for the day but one rooster was up and had to crow just to let us know he was there.

You have to stop by the stage often. The activity there keeps changing from pigs to music. The old time fiddle can be fun and I enjoy seeing the younger performers get up and show their talent. Many times it is better than the older adult players.

We had to spend some time at the rodeo for some calf roping and bronco riding. I will have to say most of the calves got away and the riders did not stay on the horse. But the rodeo queens were nice and acted as the clean-up crew to chase all of the calves and horses out or the arena. They may have been the best riders there. I was not impressed. May the cowboys in Wyoming are better or my memory is bad but I remember more success when I have been to rodeos before.

Of course you have to have the Livestock Association barbeque of beans, roll, beef, and lamb. And sit down with your ice cream cone to listen to Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts. A Portland group in its 29th year of rock and roll.

National Night Out

Tonight was the National Night Out - Ice Cream Social for our neighborhood. My Wife Marilyn worked with Tiffany Chona and Carol Rice in getting it organized. Everyone brought toppings for the ice cream and we had six gallons of Tillamook Ice Cream.


Of course the ice cream was the big reason for being there but it is also a chance for neighbors to have a chance to get to know each other. About 60 people attended the evening.Since the development is eight years old many of the homes are now owned by the second or third owner and there are always new people to meet. For many it is just a chance to catch up on what is happening with neighbors they don’t see often. It is all part of the Neighborhood Watch program to keep down crime in the neighborhood.


The party was visited by one of Corvallis police officers and the fire department showed up with a fire truck for kids of all ages to see and crawl up to the first steps. There were also games for everyone, with prizes.One of the projects for the evening was to collect food for the South Corvallis Food Bank. About 55 pounds of food was collected to be given to the food bank.