How was the Stargazers Gathering? Nothing short of stellar, of course! About 90 miles east of Portland, OR, this venue was decidedly out in the boonies begging the querry, "Where in the Sam Hill are we?". The Maryhill State Park and Campground was such a lovely, grassy, shady venue. Ryan (the Green Tortuga) and Amanda from Seattle did a wonderful job in planning for telescopes and trips to the observatory. The "Stonehenge" monument was pretty amazing up on the bluff about 500 feet higher than the river affording a glorious view of the river and dots of grape fields and fruit orchards below. (The fruitstands in the area yielded the most delicious morsels!)

The facility where we spent a lot of our time was a huge, covered structure with plenty of tables, electricity and even a sink with running water. We were right next to the river and the shore consisted of the most interesting, smooth penny-to-quarter sized rocks of all colors.

We figure there were about 70 attendees (including kids and dogs) Just off the top of our heads, here area few names:

DoubleTree, Maiden, Pungent Bob, Funhog, Wood-Aug and Kurious Joe (formally Slo-Mo) Delphinus (formerly dvn2rckr) and her husband (just in from Korea), kids and parents, Wild Hair, Heron A Foot, Kalli-K, Campfire Lady, Book Worm, Buppster, Marmalade, Clio Mouse, Kuku, Cat's Meow, Pupp and puppies, AZRoadie, Thunderbird, Team King (from Texas), Mike and Elaine, Old Vet & Quilting Noni and last but certainly not least, Der Mad Stamper.

Boxes were plentyful, about 25, and the exchanges, personal travelers and cooties were abundant as well. The only thing we would have changed was the temperature: the Weather Channel had put it about 8 degrees cooler but it was in the 90s most of the time and reached 100 on Saturday which, for most of these NorthWesterners was WAAAY too hot. Even the evenings didn't cool down and we were comfortable in sleeveless tops and shorts until midnight.

Did I mention we had a wonderful time? Ryan and Amanda, you're the BEST!!

Big hugs,

~~Doublesaj & Old Blue~~
Date: 07/03/2006 2:44
To:
Subj: [LbNCA] Re: LbNCA Dog Days Gathering(New idea)







We could be really urban and call it dawwwg daze.

Or not.

How was Stargazers?????

Lisa








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