The Beaver State

Last weekend we took a long(ish) weekend family trip to the Portland/Costal region of Oregon. Once we finally made it to Oregon (not Maine, where our plane tickets almost took us. Yup we were those people...) we had a fantastic time!

Our first stop was at The Albany Brass Ring Carousel studio. The building is an old turkey processing plant (random fact: at one time Oregon had the most turkey processing plants in the world... who knew?) and it is now being used to build/carve a carousel - all by volunteers and all by hand!

A model of what the finished carousel will look like.

A little bit about how this remarkable project came to be.

You actually tour the studio while the volunteers are working! The volunteers are all super friendly and willing to talk to you about their specific animal and what it is like to work on the project. The majority of the volunteers are not trained in wood working at all; they just have the desire (and time!) to dedicate themselves to this amazing community effort!

Once the carousel is completed they will tear down the studio building/ex-turkey processing plant and build a park area for the carousel to live! I think we will have to make a trip back once it is finished!

Our nest stop was Newport, Oregon where we are delicious seafood while enjoyed the fantastic view of the harbor.

We spent the rest of the time traveling up and down the coastline: walking on beaches, touring lighthouses, eating wonderful seafood. It was an great mini-vacay. I'm so glad we went (and didn't end up in Maine!)

Deceased baby whale. Gross. Guess that's what you get when you go on vacation with a Ecologist, Oceanographer and a Biomedical Engineer. They were fascinated...