Trees.

Betsy is wishing Abby a happy birthday.

This is where we ate lunch.

In Brookings, Oregon.

To the Sea.

Our mighty steed.
The view from the back.

Nerd games are always on the menu in Oregon.

At the Harold and Davey Factory.

Watching the oompa-loompas
Eric said he voted against the new company slogan, and I had to agree. For the legitimate wing of an evil empire, it just seems to say too much.

Best quote from the tour:
"They marketed themselves as country farmers when in fact they were well educated."

At the Harold and Davey factory.

The factory was pretty spectacular, but our guide was kind of an odd duck.
This is the chocolate truck, delivering 50,000 pound of molten chocolate.
Adolf and Benito in the salad days back in Leningrad. Before the changing political climate forced them to come to America and change their names to Harold and Davey.
Mixing up a batch of weapons grade Moose Munch.

In Oregon.

We rented a van so we could all ride together, but Anna and Jonathan took the best seats.

At the Butte Creek Mill.

Anna and Jonathon get reaquainted
We had been in their house for 30 seconds when the power went out. Really. It came back on in a couple of hours.
Anna and Jonathan getting some good grandma time.
At the Stuff Mart. Because everyone needs more stuff.

Wagons Ho!

So Mom and Betsy and Anna were all set to fly to Oregon the first week of January, and Dad and I were going to ride the train, which was becoming kind of a worrisome subject due to Dad's leg. Then about midnight on the night of the thirtieth, whilst we were all shivering in a cold, dark house, Amtrak calle to say that they had cancelled our train. After much discussion, it was decided that I would also fly to Oregon and that Dad would stay under the care of Heather and Greg. It worked out pretty good for everyone, since we didn't get power back until the 8th of January, one day after the girls got back to town.

For years and years Mom and Dad got free natural gas from the well on their land. BP decided they no longer liked this arrangement, so they paid for their house to be converted to all-electric, and are paying x amount per year of their electric bill. One issue which came up was what would happen in the case of a power outage since they would have no source of heat. Not to worry, said BP, we will bring you a generator if the power goes out. With this in mind, we were all expecting to spent New Years at Mom and Dads, with their generator heated and watered home. We were a little disappointed when the gas company brought out the generator shown below.

Luckily my cousin Heather offered to house us at their home in town. It was really nice to have a shower and a toilet that flushed. Anna had a great time playing with her second cousin, Madelyn.

Blackout.

Dad managed to tear a muscle in his leg over christmas, so this is how he spent the blackout.
Mom and Betsy read a lot.
We had some nice candlelight game time.
Some water for flushin'.

I kept getting more and more ill with what would later be diagnosed as strep throat. Anna loved the whole thing, from having her grandparents around all day to the multitude of birthday candles which prompted her to run around the house singing "Happy Happy Happy." That evening we also listened to ABC's broadcast of President Ford's memorial service at the capital. All of the radio stations were out, so we had to choose between CBS and ABC to listen to on my storm radio (a big, big thank you to DANM for a most thoughtful gift) to listen to. I was also able to check the weather on the internet using my laptop and my parents' dialup account.