Labor Day Hike

Today the weather improved a little, so we went for a hike with Jon, Briana, Kadyn, and Coreen (in town for the day.) It was a beautiful hike and the weather held through the whole day. Then we hit a drive-through for some good old fashioned burgers and shakes. All in all a good day!

Captive Free, Together Again, Kind of

Our old teammate, Jess, came to visit us this weekend, and we had a great time showing her around Portland a little bit. The weather was kind of yucky, but we still had some fun catching up. On Friday we celebrated our 5th anniversary with her and Connor, mmmm....Cuban food. Then Saturday we slept in and went in to downtown Portland. We explored the Saturday Arts Market, hiked a long way for some cupcakes (it was worth it) and of course, took in REI. Then we headed home and made pizza and had a relaxed evening at home.
Sunday we decided to ignore the weather and head into the Columbia River Gorge to see some sights. We started at Vista House, a great place to see the valley, then headed out to Multnomah Falls. We did a nice hike there, and finished just in time for the rains to start coming down. We had planned to also hike at another falls in the area, and see Beacon Rock, but it was torrential downpours, so instead we drove home and spent some time on the couch for the afternoon. Then things cleared up so we tried out a local putt putt course. It was a great day other than the weather.
Monday she was back off to Minnesota, so it was a short trip, but definitely relaxing and fun! It seems that the blog sight is having issues with uploading pics, so we'll try again later!

Ahhh...another day at the beach

Not great weather, but still a very nice day. It didn't actually rain on us and it wasn't cold or windy, so it definitely could have been worse. We headed out with the Brines clan, the boys did a little kayaking (both took a bit of a beating) and drew some onlookers. Briana, Kadyn and Carole walked along the beach, checked out the waves and seashells, and played in the sand. Then, after a picnic lunch we drove out to Cape Meares lighthouse and then back into Tillamook to get some ice cream at the cheese factory. All in all the day was relaxing and successful!

Brandon heading out to the waves.

Kadyn REALLY wanted to get in the water, but it was quite chilly so she didn't get to. She did think it was pretty funny running away from them and having them freeze Mom's feet!

At the top of the lighthouse.

Local Wildlife

Hi everyone! When I came in from walking the dog this evening this is what I found on the front porch! It was about 4 inches long and had a creepy alien head that kept looking at me :) I've never seen a Praying Mantis in the wild, so it was pretty cool.

A trip extended...

So we got one more day in London! When we checked in for our flight they told us it was delayed 2 hours, which probably meant we were missing our connecting flight, bummer. So we sat around for 2 hours, then another hour, then another hour, then they told us "Well, there seems to be a mechanical problem we can't fix so we are cancelling your flight." Big bummer. They put us up in a 5 star hotel with food vouchers and gave us the number to call to get another flight. The next flight they could get us on was the next evening to Frankfurt, spending the night in Germany, then on to Portland Tuesday morning. We took it, then called back later and they got us on a flight to Frankfurt early Tuesday that would connect with the Frankfurt to Portland flight we were originally on. Not knowing how to speak German we felt better staying in London another night! So we had all day Monday to waste, went back into the city and saw Tower Bridge, had lunch in the park, and walked by Kensington Palace. It was a nice day, but we were both feeling that we needed to get back to work!
Tower Bridge...what I always thought was London Bridge, but it turns out London Bridge is pretty unspectacular and boring. We climbed up one of the towers and walked the walkways across the top, then back down the other side.Swans in Hyde Park
Kensington Palace

When we checked in the next morning they told us they didn't have assigned seats yet for the Frankfurt to Portland leg, so we were thinking, do you have seats for us? No way we'll be sitting together, right? When we checked in at the gate in Frankfurt they told us, you've been invited to sit in first class with us today!!! La-de-da! It was awesome! For a 10 1/2 hour flight that is the way to go, we had big reclining chairs, our own tvs where we could pick what we wanted to watch, constant beverage service, 4 course meals, it was great. Brandon says he isn't flying any other way....which probably means he is no longer flying anywhere :) A good end considering what it took to get home!

London

When we got back to England we had planned on a couple days in London, unfortunately Pam got a sinus infection so the Havecker clan didn't come in the first day. We went to London Tower and saw the crown jewels and where Henry VIII beheaded his wives, plus an exhibit of knights' armor and weapons. We only had about an hour and a half there and could have easily spent twice that there, but they closed :(
A guard outside the crown jewels

We also climbed "The Monument" which commemorates a big fire that destroyed part of London in 1666, it was 311 steps up the tower to a VERY narrow viewing platform that was probably cool 200 years ago, but now there is not much to see but skyscrapers. It is the tallest freestanding stone tower in the world, though.

Climbing up "The Monument"Brandon paying 20 pence to pee

Day 2 in London the Haveckers were all feeling well enough to join us. We saw Windsor Castle, caught the tail end of the changing of the guard there, then walked through Hyde Park to see Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abby. Then we rode up in the Eye of London, a gigantic ferris wheel that gave some fantastic views of the city.Mounted PoliceWindsor Castle...we all agreed that it was odd that the churches are so elaborate and the palace was pretty sedate.
Brandon making a call on the Queen's phone (anything with a crown on it is owned by the Queen)Westminster AbbyThe whole crowd in front of Big Ben and the Parliament Building
The London Eye
The view from up top

For all you Harry Potter fans, we found Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross train station.

Ireland

Here are some pictures from our time in Ireland. We spent one day in Dublin and found it to be a dirty and confusing city. There was actual human poop on the sidewalk a couple times, and we wandered for about an hour and a half trying to find the Guiness factory. Not our favorite part of the trip, although the factory was pretty interesting, and we got free beer :)

Yes, Carole actually tried the beer...how can you be in Ireland and not drink free Guinness?? But it still tasted like beer!
St. Patrick's Cathedral

Then we took the train up to Killarney, in County Kerry. It is on the west coast of Ireland, and incredibly beautiful country. We visited Killarney National Park, Ross Castle, and drove some VERY narrow roads out to stay in a fantastic bed and breakfast on the coast. Some bumps along the road included a minor ding to the passenger mirror (someone didn't believe he was really that close to the rock face on the side of the road) and a flat tire. But all in all it was one of our favorite parts of the trip. The driving was insane, under the advice of the guidebook we drove the opposite way on the loop that the tour buses are required to go, which meant we didn't spend a lot of time following large groups of tourists, but did mean we had to pass large buses on roads that would only qualify as sidewalks in the states, while driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Made for some white knuckles and lots of nervous laughter! After leaving the coast we completed the loop and went on to see a sheep-herding demonstration.Ross Castle...built in the 1400's!Muckross Abby in Killarney Nat'l Park
Killarney Nat'l ParkOur B&B on the coast (the smaller building behind the main one was our cottage, can't wait to go back!) The last night in Ireland we stayed in a hostel...good experience, won't do it again! It was loud, bare bones and "aged" we decided we are more hotel and B&B people!
We had hoped to go out on a boat trip to the Skellig Rocks (You can almost see them to the left side of the picture on the horizon) to see puffins, but as you can tell the seas were VERY rough that morning so the boats weren't running. Guess we'll have to go back!
Cailyn was not a fan of the sheep, she screamed every time they came close! Smart girl, some of them were biters :)
The sheep-herding was amazing, the dogs just go out and do their thing. This farm has 3000 acres and 1000 sheep, so there is no way the farmer can do it without the dogs. The red on the sheep is a kind of paint that they use to mark which sheep are theirs, kind of like a semi-permanent brand.
There were O'Connors everywhere! Maybe some long-lost relatives?

Cambridge, England

Today we spent the day exploring Cambridge. The day started off with Carole, Pam, and Cailyn getting pooped on by a pigeon, but went uphill from there. We saw King's Chapel (finished by Henry the 8th), punted (boated) the river, ate a picnic lunch and wandered in the rain. Brandon is a pro punter as it turns out, he was very good at maneuvering!

We've Arrived!

Hi there everyone! Just wanted to let you know we arrived safely and made the trip from London to Cambridge. We had about a 2 hour taxi ride to get to Ericka and Ed's house. It looks very British, brick, tile roofs, etc.

We will send pictures sometime soon hopefully. It would seem that Carole left all her new camera cards at home!!! She sewed up a case to keep them in, but it seems to be missing. So, she only has 800 pictures unless she decides to try and buy a new one. I guess if we had to forget something that isn't TOO bad, but frustrating that we got new cards specifically for the trip!


Cailyn is doing the best of all of us probably, we are thinking of starting dinner and it is only late morning there! Weird!! The flight over was pretty quick, actually, we even arrived a little early. We have mostly been hanging out here, meeting Isaac (Ericka and Ed's 3 week old), we walked to the grocery store and then Pam and I did a little more walking around the neighborhood to get Cailyn to sleep. Tomorrow we are planning a day at Cambridge, possibly some "punting" (which is kind of like the boats in Venice, with the poles) you can either rent or hire someone to punt for you, we'll see how brave we are feeling!

So, we are resting up, taking it easy and tomorrow the action starts. Hope you are all having a good morning :) We'll update as we can, probably pictures will just go on the blog but we'll try to e-mail if we update it. Love you all and we are already having fun and relaxing despite being pretty worn out.

always, Carole and Brandon

And We're Off!

The dog thinks he is at the pound, everything we can think of is packed, the garbage is out and the plants are watered. Must be time to go on vacation! We are off to Europe, today we fly from Portland to Philadelphia, hang there for 5 HOURS, and then on to London, landing at 11 a.m. local time tomorrow. Love you all and hope you have a good 10 days, too. We'll e-mail and update the blog as we are able, but unfortunately our antique cell phones do not work with the European system so we'll be out of voice range. We'll be back soon with lots of pictures!!!!

Happy Birthday to America, and Me!

On Friday we did a small celebration for my birthday, we're trying to ignore 30, anyway, right? We did spend a good chunk of time house-hunting, and found a few that we liked. We're making an offer on one, but it is a short sale, so we are in for a long wait to find out if we get it.

Saturday we went down to an arts and crafts festival with the Brines family. It was not as happening as we had expected, but we had a nice lunch along the river and wandered through some fun little shops. The trip home got exciting when Kadyn pooped (for about the 100th time!) in the last diaper we had. It was a doozy, so we wrapped her up in a burp rag and bolted for the nearest Fred Meyer. Of course, we were in the middle of nowhere, so it took a little while, but she did good and only peed a little :)

Then we went back to Jon and Briana's and barbequed, made homemade ice cream and did sparklers, and even got to see some big fireworks that were being set off in a nearby neighborhood. It was a fun day!