Pinewood Derby 2011

Our cub scout pack's pinewood derby was held this weekend.  As we were setting up for the big event it occurred to me how different this was from when I was a cub scout.  It used to be that everyone would show up with their cars, weigh in on a balance scale, and run down a wooden track until the fastest cars were figured out and the winner declared.  Our derby looked more like the mission control center for a shuttle launch.  We had three laptops, a DVD player, LCD projector, two amplifiers, a digital scale measuring the cars to 1/10 of an ounce, and an inkjet printer on the head table.  One of our laptops was connected to the digital timer on our plastic track which identified the scaled speed, time, and 1st through 4th place cars for each race.  The software on the laptop would organize which cars would race in which lane and picked which cars would advance to the next heat.  With a couple of booster rockets would probably could have landed one of these cars on the moon.

Once everything was setup our system kept things moving right along with upbeat music helping to keep the excitement up.  The kids were great and would cheer on the cars in every race.

Each year I am impressed by the diversity of the cars the kids create and this year was no different.  One of the most popular cars with the kids looked like a chocolate covered pastry with sprinkles.



Patrick's design was lightning bolt themed which looked great streaking down the track.

Our first cross country ski outing

We went on our first family cross country ski trip a few weeks ago.  Everyone was excited to get out and give this a try for different reasons.  Aaron (3) had been wearing his cross country skis around the house several times for what I like to call basic training.  He had learned how to shuffle forward and how to turnaround without stepping on his skis.  Aaron had sat next to me on the couch watching ski racing and action skiing movies, but had never used them in the snow himself.  When we had packed everything up he knew that we were not going to be skiing on the carpet that day.  Patrick (8) has been enjoying alpine skiing for several years now, but always has trouble in the flats and slight uphill sections you can encounter in ski resorts.  The idea that these skis we were taking out would grip the snow and carry him forward on the flats and hills was a new dimension to what was to this point a downhill only sport.  Beth had been skiing once in her life (alpine) as a teenager and apparently it didn’t go well.  This was her chance to see if there was something more to skiing than pain and minor suffering.  And for me, this was my chance to introduce my family to yet another outdoor activity which I enjoy.

For our first outing I wanted to find a location which was mostly flat, had easy access to facilities, and didn’t take too long to get to.  The solution was the Summit Trail on Mt. Hood.   This trail runs through the Mt. Hood Skibowl resort on the south side of Government Camp.  If you access the trail from the Skibowl East parking lot you can choose to take the trail to either the east or the west.  The western section is a nice path through the woods with moderate hills and turns.  The eastern side is really just a wide snow covered forest road.  For our first time out as a family learning how to ski together, this is just what I wanted.

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Before heading out on the trail we spent some time just tromping around and learning how to operate our ski setups.  The kids both had Karhu Kboom skis with Aaron (35lbs) using the 70cm and Patrick (55lbs) using the 85cm skis.  These attached securely to their snow boots and worked very well for learning what this cross country ski thing was all about.  Patrick figured out how to get around quickly.  Aaron needed some more trial and error, but was insistent on doing it himself.  The one time I tried to hold his hand to help him balance, I got a scolding by him that a nun would have been proud of.  Beth found her balance on the skis and after we had been practicing for about 30 minutes, she asked if we were ready to go.  She was ready to hit the trail.

We started out with everyone on skis but it quickly became apparent that Aaron was going to need to hitch a ride if we were going to make any distance at all.  We loaded him up on the sled I was towing and headed out at a comfortable pace.  The noise of the ski resort and road was quickly muffled by the surrounding snow.  We saw a few other cross country skiers and snowshoers, but mostly we had the trail to our selves.  We had a lunch stop where the kids got to explore a little and then continued on a bit more before taking the trail back to Mt. Hood Skibowl.  We had only covered about 1.5 miles, but everyone enjoyed the outing.

A few weeks later we finally got a dusting of snow down in the valley.  Aaron looked out the window and announced, “Snow!”.  He then dashed off to the back room of the house only to return with his Kboom skis.

Family Kayaking the Nestucca Bay

Over the summer the family and I went on a week long vacation to the Oregon coast.  One of the major highlights was the time we spent kayaking in the Nestucca bay. 

Our setup

The average temperature of the water off the coast of Oregon is in the low to mid 50’s F.   Everyone was dressed for immersion.  Beth got to try out the NRS Venus wetsuit I had given her a couple months before for her birthday.  She was very impressed with how well it fit her and the difference it made from her previous experiences being out in water.  Patrick and I were dressed in our NRS Farmer John wet suits, while Aaron was sporting a second hand 1mm suit.  Although his was by far the thinnest wet suit,  Aaron seemed to enjoy the cold water as he rushed into it while we were setting up and taking breaks. 

For our boats Beth paddled an Ocean Kayaks Peekaboo while I had a Necky Looksha T.  The Peekaboo has a jump seat in the front with is perfect for Aaron (3yrs old) to hang out.  Patrick sat in the front of the tandem with me.  Due to our weight difference it looked like I was doing a wheelie in the kayak most of the time.  Loading more weight in the front with Patrick would have evened out the boat, but for these easy day trips in perfect conditions it was not a big deal.

The outing

The Nestucca Bay is a nice sheltered body of water just south of Pacific City and bordered on the west by Bob Straub State Park.  We put into the bay on the north side of Bob Straub where they have a parking lot.  In the south east corner of the parking lot is a foot path that leads down to the waters edge.  We carried our boats down to the water, loaded up, and set out south towards the mouth of the bay.  We started out just before the flood tide.  Patrick alternated between helping with paddling and dragging his paddle in the water.  Thank goodness for rudders.  Aaron kept a lookout on the bow of Beth’s kayak while dragging his hands in the water.  He loved watching the water peel away from the boat as it was propelled forward by Beth’s strokes.

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As we floated over the shallow mud flats we were greeted by thousands of little nickel sized holes in the water bottom.  There were clams every which direction we looked.  Both Beth and I lamented the fact that neither of us had a shell fish harvesting license with us.  Beth’s kayak gave her an excellent view in the shallow water as she has a window in the bottom of her kayak.  Patrick was impressed that every one of these holes was the home of a clam living in the bay.   As we traveled around the bay we also encountered harbor seals, bald eagles, various minnows in the shallows, and numerous water birds.

Near the mouth of the bay we all pulled up on a beach which is part of Bob Straub State Park for a chance to stretch the legs and have lunch.  We had been engaged in a bit of a water fight up to this point.  No longer bound by the boats all squriters came out blazing.  We were on a warm sunny beach and alone to explore as far as we wanted.  Our battle and lunch were finished in time to catch the peak of the flood tide for a ride back.

Beth had never experienced the joy of a well timed tide.  We paddled out from the shallow water into the deeper channel where the river of water was rushing back in from the ocean.  She was impressed by how fast we were traveling back into the bay with little to no effort on our part.  We were easily going as fast as or faster than when we were paddling out.  Our kayak fleet arrived back to our starting destination without incident.  The best part of the outing is that everyone wanted to know when we were going to do it again.