26 Years
On October 13, 1996, Lisa and I boarded Oregon's Portland Vintage Trolley #513 with guests (some of whom read this journal) and while traveling over the Portland light rail system were married by a justice of the peace we had hired for the occasion. He said he'd done a ceremony in a hot-air balloon before, but never on board a train or tram. After the ceremony, the driver let him off so he could go see his grandson's soccer game, while the rest of us did a complete trip of the entire (at that time) light rail system.
Yesterday, Lisa and I commemorated our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary in the same way that we did last year, and for similar reasons, as we went to Fort Churchill State Park and had a picnic.
After paying the $5 day-use fee, we drove to the John C. Fremont picnic area, which we pretty much had to ourselves. A random Thursday in October isn't exactly the busy season here.
Lisa cleaned one of the picnic tables....
...while Kuma Bear supervised.
Lisa laid out the spread she had prepared, which included some cheese-and-mushroom sandwiches, deviled eggs, and some salmon we had bought from Cost Plus World Market the day before.
Kuma Bear said, "This is goods for Bears, buts whats yous goings to eats?"
Some blueberry scones wrapped up our picnic as we sat in the comfortable afternoon and enjoyed the solitude, with only the sounds of birds calling in the distance being audible.
After lunch, we packed up our picnic supplies and went for a walk.
A nature trail runs from the picnic area down to the Carson River.
When we came down here last year, the Carson River had gone completely dry.
This year, it's not particularly full, but the water is flowing (slowly).
There are some decent sized catfish in it. (You can see the ripples they are leaving in the water.) Kuma Bear took great interest in this.
Here's 30 seconds of video. Watch for a catfish breaking the surface. You can hear quail calling in the background.
After watching fish and stirring up a bunch of quail, we walked up toward the old fort.
We only got up to the edge of the ruins area before turning back on another trail that loops back toward the picnic area.
We would have done the Ruins Loop, but it was getting close to sundown and we needed to think about getting back to the picnic area.
As the sun set, we make the final turn back down the Railroad Trail (it parallels the Union Pacific Mina Subdivision that runs through the park) and returned to the van.
The Day Use pass is literally "day" use, as it expires at sunset. On our way driving out of the park, we stopped for Lisa to clean the front window, and a couple of RVs passed us going down to the overnight camping area. There's a different fee schedule for them.
We had a nice afternoon and enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't that elaborate, but Lisa was not up for an elaborate trip and that was fine with me.
Yesterday, Lisa and I commemorated our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary in the same way that we did last year, and for similar reasons, as we went to Fort Churchill State Park and had a picnic.
After paying the $5 day-use fee, we drove to the John C. Fremont picnic area, which we pretty much had to ourselves. A random Thursday in October isn't exactly the busy season here.
Lisa cleaned one of the picnic tables....
...while Kuma Bear supervised.
Lisa laid out the spread she had prepared, which included some cheese-and-mushroom sandwiches, deviled eggs, and some salmon we had bought from Cost Plus World Market the day before.
Kuma Bear said, "This is goods for Bears, buts whats yous goings to eats?"
Some blueberry scones wrapped up our picnic as we sat in the comfortable afternoon and enjoyed the solitude, with only the sounds of birds calling in the distance being audible.
After lunch, we packed up our picnic supplies and went for a walk.
A nature trail runs from the picnic area down to the Carson River.
When we came down here last year, the Carson River had gone completely dry.
This year, it's not particularly full, but the water is flowing (slowly).
There are some decent sized catfish in it. (You can see the ripples they are leaving in the water.) Kuma Bear took great interest in this.
Click to viewHere's 30 seconds of video. Watch for a catfish breaking the surface. You can hear quail calling in the background.
After watching fish and stirring up a bunch of quail, we walked up toward the old fort.
We only got up to the edge of the ruins area before turning back on another trail that loops back toward the picnic area.
We would have done the Ruins Loop, but it was getting close to sundown and we needed to think about getting back to the picnic area.
As the sun set, we make the final turn back down the Railroad Trail (it parallels the Union Pacific Mina Subdivision that runs through the park) and returned to the van.
The Day Use pass is literally "day" use, as it expires at sunset. On our way driving out of the park, we stopped for Lisa to clean the front window, and a couple of RVs passed us going down to the overnight camping area. There's a different fee schedule for them.
We had a nice afternoon and enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't that elaborate, but Lisa was not up for an elaborate trip and that was fine with me.