Stephen's Christmas Present!

Steve and I went to see Broadway Across America's performance of RAIN: a tribute to the Beatles! I didn't realize what a killer deal we got until we got to the performance! A gentleman behind us asked what we had paid for our tickets and we told him 24.30 a piece. He quickly added that up to 48.60 for the both of us and said "How'd you do that? I paid 80 and I'm behind you!" I told him about our health insurance benefit of "Life Balance" that gives all sorts of deals, like this one!

The show was great. Lots of well known Beatles songs, great engagement with the audience. Super fun. I think we decided we would go again if we could! Sorry no pictures of the show! You know how theaters are these days!

Let it snow...

BRRR! It is cold here! It wasn't supposed to snow today but it did!

This is our tree in the front yard. With some snow flakes.
The wire above my house. with some snow flakes.
Stephen's car. With some snow flakes.

The front tree... with some snowflakes. :) The dogs were't very cooperative with the picture taking. But, I'll try again tomorrow.

Santa's coming to town!!!

I can't quite see past sunflare... who is that handsome devil!
Oh no! Now he's in the shadows...
Only a smidge of his face can I see... Can it be?


I don't believe it! It's Santa Claus!!!
"That was a very long night in the sleigh" he says. "So I took my trusty steed out for a ride for a little me time!"*Steve says he was honked at and even got a fist raised at him as he rode around town today! Crazyness!

Christmas Presents!

**So the video and sound don't really match up - Sorry! I'll try better next time!**

After Steve got home from work, we opened all our Christmas presents! Thank you so much for all your love and gifts this year!

Now it's off to watch Mythbusters and maybe some Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

I hope this works!! Here is a video of Grandma's and the Sanderson's trip to the pumpkin cannons! It is approximately 10 minutes long - and it is little tough to see this small, but I will try to adjust it.

Tara

Another - Non motorcycle post!

Stephen and I shared our 2nd anniversary and went on a lovely boat ride!

Not really about motorcycles...

Though we did talk about trying some photography with this while on a motorcycle at one point. :) Just wanted to share some pictures of part of Steve's 30th birthday!



I know it is hard to see, but that is steve and our friend heather breathing fire! It was so much fun!!!

Tara Goes for a ride

I hope the first thing you thought of was "Herbie goes bananas!" Cause that's what it felt like!



It is amazing to me how heavy this bike is! It took me quite a while to get comfortable enough to take it from one corner of the parking lot to the other... but I made it and even shifted into 2nd gear once we reached our second location! I'm pretty sure I am not street ready yet - I am getting closer. A few more rides in the parking lot and I'll at least be ready for around town!

9 hours

Well - it all started with a question - doesn't that seem like the way it always does? Where do you want to go today?

We looked up some geocaches and Stephen planned out a route - and we were on our way around noon. Our trek began toward the beach stopping at the Grand Ronde Spirit Mountain Casino! We spent 4 dollars and got some free pepsi while we rested our bums!
2 miles from the casino is this great oregon history sign and a geocache! Our only problem was that we forgot a pen! So we don't get credit for this one - but we'll catch it next time! Then you wouldn't believe what happened! We headed out toward Hebo - and I convinced Steve to head out to the cheese factory for some squeeky cheese for him and just cause I like the cheese factory... and they were having their 100th birthday party!!!!!
They had all these cute little booths, food and music. They featured their new 100th anniversary Ice Cream and cheese flavor! YUM YUM! It was so cute!
This was one of their little "Baby Loaf's" VW vans! It was the most adorable thing!!!
AWWW! We really love this little tradition of placing our helmets next to our excursions! If you look deep into the hubcap you can see us standing in it!
Our next geocache was at Siletz bay near this little gazebo. It was a great little hiding spot!
9 hours later.... we were back in McMinnville enjoying the sunset!

I'm sure Steve's story will be much more engaging and entertaining - but after 9 hours - I'm tired!!!

Here's a map of where we were!

6 years already!?!

It is pretty fitting that our first journal entry comes today after a beautiful ride to Multnomah Falls. 6 years ago we began the adventurous relationship that has become a wonderful marriage (so far).When we got up this morning, I asked "what do you want to do today?" Tara answered "How about if we ride up to Multnomah Falls?" So we got up and grabbed some bagels at Safeway. We stopped at a local park to eat and headed on our way.

As we started out about 10 o'clock in the morning we made a comment about what a perfect day it was for a ride. Not a cloud in the sky and just about 70 degrees (not too hot for a long ride). Our first leg took us out to the scenic viewpoint overlooking Oregon City.

After a quick stretch we headed up the 205 and over to the 84E toward the Columbia Gorge. Sometimes I forget what a beautiful area it is when you enter the gorge. The ride down 84E was nice with the blue grey of the Columbia River on our left and the towering green of the cliffs on our right. But the best part of our ride was the Historic Highway that hugged the contours of the cliffs and led us past breath taking waterfalls and pleasantly shady turns.We stopped at Multnomah Falls to stretch our legs and take some pictures, poked around in the gift shop (which is the same as every other gift shop in the world) and commented on the number of motorcyclers that we saw going through. Then it was off to Horsetail Falls.

We found a parking spot (which is much easier to do with a motorcycle than a car) and walked over to the falls after chatting with the Search and Rescue "Host a Trail Day" representative. He wasn't actually part of search and rescue. But it turns out that as soon as they got set up - they got called out to do a search at Multnomah Falls, so the Sherriff's Department was filling in for them.
After a few pictures it was back down 84W with a brief stop at another scenic viewpoint overlooking the Columbia River. (We stopped mostly because of the voracious winds that almost took off our helmets during our ride back through the gorge!) From here the ride was pleasant - though getting a little on the warm side (up to 84 degrees by this point).We stopped at our "usual stretching point" (Haggen's parking lot) on our way back home and contemplated "Wouldn't it be neat if we put together an online journal of our travels so people could just check from time to time, if they were interested, and not if not?" Tara said "Yes, we could do a blog." To which I said "No. Not a blog, an online journal." So here it is.

We have pictures from our earlier trips that we will post when we get around to it. Most importantly with this process don't expect anything to be posted regularly. We'll get to it when we get to it.