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Took a nice walk through Beazell Memorial Forest this morning. It's about 30 minutes west of Corvallis, and it's a fairly new park. The trails are pristine, and the forest is shaded and lush. The forest floor is covered with ferns. Here's a sound clip I took on a bridge crossing Plunkett Creek:



I'm looking forward to going back over to that area to check out Fort Hoskins.

Update: Nevermind.

Corvallis has an extremely casual 4th of July parade that anyone can join. There are only a couple of floats, a few businesses, but mostly just people walking and riding bikes. It's not very long, and it's fun to see everyone. My favorite part of the parade today was a couple of kids playing the Star Spangled Banner on tubas as they walked by:

Alsea Falls is a small waterfall about 30 miles southwest of Corvallis. Today we took some back roads we hadn't been on before to get there, and then we took a nice walk around the falls. Here's what the falls sounded like:

Corvallis has a great Farmers' Market and we try to go every Saturday. They block off 1st street by the river (view from above) and a few city blocks are filled with local vendors selling food.



Here's what walking through the farmer's market sounded like yesterday:



If you listen you can hear a guy playing a didgeridoo, kids screaming as they run through a fountain, a few guys playing jazz, dogs panting, and lots of snippets of conversations. The best reason to go to the Farmers' Market right now? Oregon Hood strawberries are in season. We made this fantastic strawberry shortcake with Hood berries from the market:



Best. Strawberries. Ever.

You're probably wondering what Chip Ross Park (view from above) sounds like in the afternoon. I can finally answer that for you.

Speaking of sounds, here's what my backyard sounds like around 5am.



Now that spring is here and I'm sleeping with the windows open I often wake up to this around 5. There's even one bird I call the alarm clock bird that I'd like to catch on tape sometime.

I'd like to talk with my fellow Corvallians for a minute. Everyone else gone? Good, ok.

We get so few new places to eat around here, that I thought I'd mention a couple of new options. I finally had a chance to eat at the new McMenamins on Monroe last night. It's a nice space, same good McMenamins food. The plumbing art on the wall is fun, but I'm not sure about the giant, giant TV screen. I suppose it'd be good for watching OSU games, but it seems a little out of place when you're there for dinner.

Be sure to check out Thanh-Hien, the new Vietnamese place by Winco. (It replaced TCBY.) I've been there a couple times for lunch, and it's been surprisingly great both times. They've done a nice job redecorating the place. Food places don't last long over there, so try it while you can. I hope they do well.

Did you know that OSU has a nuclear reactor? Neither did I. Somehow they forget to mention that on those safest places to live surveys.

If you don't already subscribe to Paul Turner's email list (he runs the Avalon and Darkside), go subscribe now! His movie synopses are worth the price of admission alone, and sometimes commentary about Corvallis and his experiences running the theaters creep into the emails. Here's part of his recent rant about the Whiteside hullabaloo:

At the risk of not being silly, I must tell you that the Whiteside is simply not financially viable as a movie theater...The memories of exploring one's heterosexuality on the Whiteside balcony while Indiana Jones dodges Nazis will not pay the bills, and will not excite investors to pay them, either. Frankly, I will be a wreck when they start whatever transformation takes place at the Whiteside...But how I feel about the old queen does not change the way business works. And that sucks.

I wish Paul Turner had a blog so I could link to the whole thing.

Hope your leaf pickup is going well. Let's have a good Civil War this Friday—Go Beavs!