Historic

September 2013 was a historic month for me personally.  I stayed under my calorie goal every. single. day. in September.  It was hard.  The hardest day, was Sept. 30th.  I almost didn't make it that day.  

Each one of those pink stamps means I was under my calorie goal.  That's historic!

I've always had a hard time stringing two days together, in staying under my calorie goal.  I might have a good day or two and then a bad day or two.  Consistency was missing.  

I didn't lose any weight the whole time we were in Oak Harbor, so I decided to do something drastic.  I would stay under my calorie goal for an entire month.  Whoa!  Insane!  It worked though.  I got a stamp on each day and I lost 4 pounds.  Yay!  I'm working on October now.  

Also in September, we visited the historic city of Oregon City with our friends from Corvallis.  

Oregon City was established in 1829 by Dr. John McLoughlin, who worked for the Hudson's Bay Company.  It was the first U.S. city, west of the Rockies, to be incorporated.  

Dr. McLoughlin (he was a physician as well) chose Oregon City because of it's proximity to Willamette Falls, for a future lumber mill.  

Did you know there was a waterfall in Oregon City?  It's there, behind all those industrial looking buildings. 

There it is.  It served the Native Americans for who knows how many centuries.  At the time of Dr. McLoughlin's coming, there were many tribes living near the falls, for the fishing. 

Oregon City is also the end of the Oregon Trail.  It was where all the pioneers ended after trekking across the country.  It was where they applied for land claims as well.

So there are lots of historic homes in town.  I love old, historic homes.  They have so much personality and... well, history.

We were able to go inside the Stevens-Crawford Home.  It was built in 1908.  The husband (Stevens) and the wife's family (Crawford) were early Oregon City settlers.

A close-up of the books in the secretary.  A couple of the books I recognized as ones my grandparents had in their home.

It was the daughter Mertie, who lived in the home for 60 some years.  She collected dishes and tea cups.  The cupboards were full of them.

 Mertie was one of the founding members of the Historical Society in Oregon City and left her home to the society upon her death.  She never married and had no children.

The phonograph still works and they played it for us.  It was very loud.  There was no volume button.  They played Marches and Hymns.  No Jazz or "modern music" for the religious matron. 

 The spice rack.

 The original oven, the kind you build a fire in.  My grandmother had one like this in her home as well.

   And the washing machine. 

This is the Ermatinger House.  It was built in 1845 by Francis Ermatinger (another employee of the Hudson's Bay Company).  It's the oldest house in Oregon.

It was in this house that a famous coin toss took place, to decide what to name the future town, then known as "The Clearing."  One man wanted to name it Boston, but the other guy won the toss and "The Clearing" became Portland, Oregon.  

We also toured Dr. McLoughlin's house.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures there.  I don't think I was really allowed to take pictures in the other house either. 

Originally the home was built quite close to the Willamette River and falls.  It was later moved up the hill to preserve it and make way for paper mills and such. 

Dr. McLoughlin was actually Canadian, but he worked for the British Hudson's Bay Company.  He got in trouble with them for giving too much aid to the American pioneers.  So he resigned from the Hudson's Bay Co. and applied for U.S. citizenship.  

This is a view of the Municipal Elevator from the promenade.  Notice the set of windows overlooking the town.

Oregon City is a tiered city.  It has three tiers.  One down by the river, one up on the bluff and one up even higher.   Originally a set of wooden staircases were built to get from the river to the bluff.  Those were eventually replaced by stone stairs, then Oregon City built it's Municipal Elevator.  

This is the view from one of those windows overlooking the town.  

Let's see,  what else did we do in Oregon City?

We went to Carnegie Center, which is now their public library.  It was built in 1913.

 Taylor and her sweet friend are looking at the same book and trying to stay on the same page too. 

The boys, huddled around what else, but a Lego book.

The whole group of us, in front of a sculpture that is half horse, half sea creature.  Our friend's oldest boy has studied mythology and was able to inform us that this creature is called a Hippocamp or Hippocampus.  

It was a very fun and educational day, visiting Oregon City, even though it rained most of the day.  You just can't count on nice weather in Oregon, so we ventured out anyway.  

We stopped for lunch at a park that had covered picnic tables.  There was a splash pad there too, with mounted water "guns."  The water at the splash park was not turned on, of course, but that didn't stop the kids from running around and playing there in the pouring rain anyway.  

I later asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was.  They both said it was running around at the park with their friends.  That's what it was all about anyway, really, getting together with our friends.  Any excuse will do.