Far and Wide

WEEKEND REWIND:  We left the big city behind this weekend for the central Oregon Coast. Happy to report, the Pacific Ocean is still there. :) We were so lucky - the weather was fantastic!

Spring is in full bloom, and we spent several hours outside, getting some much needed vitamin D. But more on that later. ... 

LAST SUPPER: Due to our schedule, I neglected to blog last Friday, the final day of Hunger Action Week, where we strived to live on the budget of a family of four on basic food assistance, $21 a day.

Before we left home, the kids had apple and cheese for breakfast, and we had coffee, totaling $1.57. A snack for all of us was a bag of Bugles (98 cents) and a stick of pepperoni (4/$1).  We actually stopped for 'lunch' at a McMenamins in Tigard, John Barleycorn's. 

It wasn't happy hour, and their lunch prices were too big for our whole family's budget. You should have seen the look on the kids' faces when I asked them to SPLIT a $4.75 kid's meal. Shock ... horror ... and then resignation. Surely half a hot dog and a dozen fries was better than nothing. (Meanwhile, we lucked out - it was their beer Ruby's birthday, and it was half off!). We got out of there very cheaply - with enough to spare to enjoy dinner. Hooray!

We'd let our our lovely hosts (hi Nonnie and Bops!) know ahead of time we'd be showing up with a shoestring budget for Friday night's dinner. They were kind enough to have labeled several staples in the fridge with prices for us and a meal planned that was budget friendly. 

Our last Hunger Action Week dinner, pozole (or posole), was not only affordable, it was DELICIOUS (thanks, Trina!) . Sorry the photo below is so crappy. I think I was shivering in anticipation. :)

(If you've never had posole before, you should. It's AMAZING. I've used this recipe as a base to make it before. Mmmmm, so good! - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-posole/ .)

In the end, we came in under budget for the day, and for the week. Mission accomplished. And in this, our fifth year of Hunger Action Week, we are once again reminded about the struggles so many go through year round, as part of their inescapable daily lives, not just as an awareness exercise. 

I'm not gonna lie, the day Hunger Action Week was over, we had a completely indulgent dinner, pastrami from New York City's Katz's Delicatessen. 

BUILDING BRIDGES: On Sunday, we took a little party barge ride. Launching at the South Beach boat ramp of Newport, we headed up the Yaquina River for a spell. The excursion gave us a lovely look at the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

The span was designed by Conde McCullough, a U.S. bridge engineer who worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation for 26 years, starting in 1919, The Yaquina Bay Bridge is just one of eleven bridges on the Oregon Coast Highway designed by McCullough. His world-class structures, they married function and form, often incorporated art deco-inspired design elements.
                                                   
Calling them "clasps" on a "pearl necklace," McCullough hoped his bridges along the Coast would become tourist attractions. I think his hopes were realized.  The photo of McCullough above is from Oregon State University, where he was a professor.

The Yaquina Bay Bridge was built between 1934-1936. This photo, from the state of Oregon archives, shows the span coming together. 

The bridge has a main span of 600-feet. It cost $1.3 million to build, with funding from the Public Works Administration. It opened to traffic on Sept. 6, 1936. 

I found a great video about Conde McCullough's Oregon bridges on YouTube (courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transportation)
 

In addition to McCullough's bridge, we saw the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration boats which make their home in Newport now. 

They used to be in our neck of the woods, before being relocated (logically) MUCH nearer the ocean.

While putting about Yaquina Bay, the kids' cousins dropped a couple of crab pots.  We picked them up a half hour later and found a few had crawled inside.

We saw both red rock crabs and Dungeness.  While all were too small to keep, it was interesting looking at them. And Uncle Skip taught us how to tell a male from a female crab. The one below is male, per the narrow, kind of rocket shaped piece on his abdomen. 

The kids also did a little jigging for herring, however the only thing caught was Annabelle. Thankfully, Uncle Skip was able to free her from the hook embedded in her sleeve.

Fun was had by all!

NOT SO FAST: This evening we tuned in to watch a Soyuz dock with the International Space Station.

It didn't happen.

The launch of Expedition 39 went off without a hitch, about 2:17 this afternoon, Seattle time. The mission was supposed to be on a fast-track docking - the new norm - and arrive at the station just a few hours later.

However, after achieving orbit, the spacecraft was not able to complete its third thruster burn to get the spacecraft going the right way. Bummer, dudes.

                                                

                                                                   Image Credit: 

NASA/Joel Kowsky

The voices on NASA TV assured us that those on board, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency, and Steve Swanson of NASA, are in no danger. Now, the mission is reverting back to the old school docking procedure, which takes a couple of days (specifically sometime Thursday evening). Here's hoping things go better then!

Speaking of things being better, here's hoping CJ is better tomorrow. Annabelle seems to have overcome the cold, but CeeJ is now in the throes of it and reminding us OFTEN that he "feel(s) like crap."