Lumberjacks of the Northwest

Well, well, well something new at the Mill Casino - The Northwest Lumberjack Competition.

This was not a contestant but one of the staff rigging the top of a 100 foot high pole.


Of course, for safety reasons he had some help on the ground.


I was hoping this guy wasn't going to cut the pole down. I was right it was one of the contestants just walking in for the contest.


The radio station announcing the event was K-DOC 92.9 and this was their car (as if you can't tell)


They had lots of wood for chopping and sawing.


They also had a booth with some great chainsaw wood carvings.


This young man was the artist a verytalented, engaging and nice person

He told us about this carving made from a redwood block he was given after doing a stump removal for a customer.


The old salt on the block isn't a wood carving and he looked like an old time woodsman.


Talk about your souped-up chainsaws, this one looked very powerful.



Here is one of the contestants working on his chainsaw.


This cool plane flew over and after looking at the picture I realized it had a propeller both fore and aft.

Then a seaplane giving rides took off - maybe it's more of a puddle jumper than a seaplane.


The big boys then got hard to work with the contests like the standing chop.


It didn't take long for the log to lose it's head.


Next was the axr throwing contest.


This guy was a teacher and obvlously a good thrower he was tied for the lead after the first round.


I did manage to catch the axe in midair.


A steady stance and sure hands are key in this event.


Sticking the target was really the only thing that mattered.


A small Coast Guard craft came and watched part of the show from the bay...

...followed by a Coast Guard Helicopter.


The next contest was chopping from levered ramps, kinda like a high wire act.


These guys arn't chopping off their feet but this event does look rather dangerous. The fourth person down with curly hair is a 13 year old contestant determined to compete with the old guys.


Notice the guy from the axe throwing contest with the grey shirt has already turned and working on the other side of his log. He won this contest by a wide margin,


There were plenty of chips all around and the 13 year old kid was still chopping.


Here is the champ grinning from ear to ear.

Scrabble Score - not yet played I did this blog early and will post the score later.

Quote of the Day ~ “One winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard. People had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking about the night before...” ~ From the Legend of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox

back to Coos Bay - Again

Satellite's up and here we are at Coos Bay and the Mill Casino RV park. There is something magical about this spot and it has to be the view across the bay especially at dusk.


We didn't see as many of the boats today but we did see a few. This tug is "The Beaver" I think after the animal and not Beaver Cleaver.


Great spot for Osprey watching and with my pride and joy Sony camera (Alpha350 DSLR) that Matt sent me for Father's Day. I even got a decent shot of the nest from the Musemobile.



Not much else to shoot today (lazy I guess) so I got some weeds...


...and a couple of pier shots.


I also got a shot of the accommodations in the Forbidden Zone (behind the fence) probably occupied by varmints.


I took this shot setting the lens to Wide Angle. One great thing about my Father's day present (the Sony) is the lens that came with it. The lens is:

DT - 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Zoom Lens

Take superb shots with this great all-around lens. In 35mm equivalent, it covers wide-angle 27mm to 105mm mid-range telephoto for gorgeous snapshots, portraits, interiors and more.

Next I took this shot from the same spot using the telephoto setting. Cool beans...


So then I went for the close-up flower shots that I love to take and got this thistle...

...and this grass going to seed...


Oregon blackberries are no place to walk if you don't like sharp stickers. I think they are second only to Jumping Chollas for the ability to reach out and snag you.


You can see in this shot that the wind was blowing pretty hard.


In among all the weeds and Blackberries was this cool flower. It starts out wrapped in a purple cloak and ....

...then grows out from the tip....

opening as it grows...

...and showing the petals...

...and finally blooms like a fountain up and outward line an inverted bell.


You can see here how hard the wind was blowing. I think they estimated the wind at 15 - 25 miles per hour.



Last but not least was an Daisey (Oxeye) I think.
Matt I just love this camera - thank you son.

Scrabble Score ~ The contender won big time but in fairness Scrabble Queen got lousy letters.

Quote of the Day ~

"The only English words I saw in Japan were Sony and Mitsubishi.” ~ Bill Gullickson

Bill Gullickson was born February 20, 1959 in Marshall, Minnesota. He is a former major league baseball pitcher who played for five different teams, in both the U.S. and Japan during a fourteen year career.

Seattle - Pike Place Public Market

We worried all night last night early this morning about how we could get to downtown and find a parking place near Pike Place Market. We checked every website and all we got was more to worry about. Could we park outside of Seattle and ride a bus. Parking the Musemobile in a bust downtown with such a premium on parking they sold parking places on Craig's List. We even considered a two hour bus ride from Bothell where our RV park is located.

In the end, and without a GPS we managed to get to the market and find a parking place 1/2 block away with an elevator up to the market. The parking was right on the bay next to this tower.


We could see out past the Seattle Aquarium to the container loading cranes at the Port of Seattle.


Next to our parking spot, in the water, was a coiled up oil barrier (I think) used to control debris or oil in the water.


The Seattle Aquarium juts out into the bay and will be a great stop on another visit.


Today was a day for the market that's nestled downtown on Pike Place Street. This is the view from the market.


This is turning around and looking at the Market at 1:17pm.


Another quick spin and looking out again you can see the market crowd on a "light" day.


A little to my left there's a cute piggy on the overhang.


Just like our Eugene Saturday Market there was music in the streets and, of course the open guitar case.


We spotted the Market Grill because our appetites told us we were late for lunch.....






... but we were sidetracked at the Pure Food Fish Market.


You really can't blame us for stopping. Of course they put the lobster tails in front...


... and this prize winning "ugly" fish in back.


Well we bought some shrimp and scallops and proceeded on down the line past some great produce.


They had some elephant garlic larger than the large onions.


One interesting thing I noticed were the floor tiles all having names on them. I looked it up in the Seattle Times Web page and this is what I found:

"During the Christmas shopping season in 1985, TV commercials touted the purchase of "the ultimate Seattle gift" — a personalized floor tile to help replace the crumbling concrete floor of Pike Place Market's main arcade.

For a tax-deductible donation of $35, people could, according to the ads, "Make someone you love a legend in their own tile." Boy, did they — buying more than 45,000 tiles inscribed with names and messages — thus claiming a piece of Pike Place Market as their own.

I make $35 times 45,000 to be $1,575,000.

Well I think I'd like to start selling floor tiles at my house maybe $30 a tile.


There was also a pasta store with all sorts of exotic noodles and shapes.


They also had some great samples of all kinds of Balsamic Vinegar. We bought several types of pasta and I'm sure Sharyn was thinking of Isaac and his new vegetarian diet and love of pasta.


We then looked to the left .....


... and to the right...


We even looked outside through the side door and decided it was way past time to eat.


So we headed to the Market Grill. They has some colorful posters on the walls next to the counter where we finally sat.


The fish market was across the isle.


and there were more posters across the way.


That's my Cajun shrimp being grilled by a really cool grilling expert.

This is the rest of the staff. The gentleman in the black tee-shirt is the other cook and the young lady was our server. I really liked the people working there and our server made the visit and meal a very pleasant experience. I even gave her my card with the URL Address for this blog. I hope if you find the blog you like it young lady.

So in the end we achieved our goal of visiting the Pike Place Marked and Sharyn even escaped with a hand full of goodies (note I am holding another bag as I took this picture)

All in all we had a great time and the Musemobile was waiting patiently at the docks for our return.
PS. It was overcast with a little drizzle from time to time while we were there and just after we re-hooked up at our RV site the heavens let loose with a Texas sized rainstorm - we were very lucky today.

Scrabble Score ~ Scrabble Queen gave up due to tiredness and loosing by 87 points

Quote of the Day ~

"I'd probably be famous now if I wasn't such a good waitress." ~ Jane Siberry (Now know as Issa) born October 12, 1955), is a Canadian singer-songwriter known for such new wave hits as "Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud" and "One More Colour", as well as her adult contemporary hit "Calling All Angels" from her 1993 album When I Was a Boy. On August 30, 2005, Jane Siberry was awarded the 2005 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in music by the Canada Council for the Arts.