Date drive up the gorge!

To celebrate Harry's successful completion of the naturalization exam and being sworn in as a United States citizen as well as me finally graduating college my folks offered to watch the girls for an afternoon. We decided to head up the Columbia River Gorge and check out whatever suits our fancy. First we followed the historic highway and almost got out to do a little hiking at Eagle Creek, but decided instead to head up to Hood River and see if there was any windsurfing action going on. We have never seen the river as calm as it was that day--the only thing in the water was a dog or two at the local hot spots. The next stop was a cherry farm up in Mosier--which had just started u-picking. Harry picked about 7 pounds while I took pictures of the amazing view of the river. From there we looped around on backroads to The Dalles and then the historic hightway back towards Mosier, stopping at Rowena. The wildflowers were pretty much past their peak, but there were abundant blue bacholer buttons. The day was quite hazy and the lighting rather flat, so the pictures really aren't too amazing. We headed back to Gresham and had dinner at Tad's on the Sandy River.

Tad's Chicken and Dumplings or as we call it, the Chick-Dump

Royal Anne cherries that will be ready for picking in July.

Harry sample a few fresh of the tree- juicy and sweet!

The trees were loaded!! We were told that this year is one of the best crops that the area has had in decades.

We had a wonderful day that unfortunately ended on a not so sweet note. Once again, we had car problems and had to call for a tow. Last week, on our trip up to Tacoma, we got off in Centralia for a quick break and had noticed the temp was all the way up to H and when we parked, coolant was leaking out. We called Triple AAA and got a tow to a local shop (boy, we are getting good at this), ended up renting a car to make it up to the graduation on time leaving our car for a couple days. After many tests and not much success in causing a reocurrence of the problem, the mechanic thought we needed a new radiator and temperature gauge. So, we had it fixed and the car was running fine......for just one week. A couple miles from home I heard a belt squeak and I made an offhand comment about belts only squeaking when they got wet. Well, we turned a corner and then we noticed the temp was all the way up and this time the car was steaming. We pulled over as soon as there was a shoulder, popped the hood, discovered coolant leaking again and lots of steam. Never have we been so glad to have Triple AAA! Once again a tow came to take the car to the garage. What has been the most frustrating is all the time and money spent in the last year for all the little things going wrong. So, a few days ago we started looking at cars and found one we really like, a basic model subaru outback with low miles. The hard part is convincing the credit union to give you a loan when you are unemployed. We had hoped to trade in the old Honda and keep the Subie, but now, after discovering that the head gaskets need replacing, we are keeping the 17 year old car and trading in the 10 year old, that is if we can get it to the dealer and get a loan. So, much frustration this week. Sometimes it feels that you keep getting hit when you are down and you just wonder how much more you are going to have to deal with. Many prayers are being said for guidance, instruction, help, patience, direction and pleas for a bend in the road to more stable times. At the moment, we are so stressed and discouraged. I know all things happen for a reason, but really, why all at once? Anyway, enough of my rambling. Hopefully the next posting will have better news. We appreciate prayers for the job search for Harry.