Adventure Day

Last week Serena and I adventured to Albany, Oregon. It's only a short 12 mile hop, but we took the bus in an attempt walk the talk and use less gas. Our goal: take a walking tour of the historic homes and enjoy the first nice weather we'd had in at least a week.

Albany is a town past its prime, with little to offer in terms of middle class employment or a vibrant city center. Many of its residents commute to Salem or Corvallis, leaving Albany in an economic and social slump. There were, however, some exciting things to be found.

First we came across David Beckham. Apparently after relocating from Britain to Los Angeles, he's picked up again and moved to Albany, Oregon and has started a new career as an attorney. He probably just walks into the courtroom and the jury announces, "You win!"

This discovery was quite a surprise, but only one of many for the day. Next we wandered downtown because Serena had heard something about a carousel. Little did we know what we were about to stumble onto one of the most incredible volunteer projects I have ever heard of, much less seen. On the south side of downtown we poked our heads into a building where they are building a full size, 52 animal, fully-functioning carousel. This is impressive enough, but the specifics blew us away.

The $5 million project is 99% volunteer (the lead artist and sculptor get small stipends) where normal people like you and me carve, construct, sand, and paint magnificently detailed carousel animals. From what I gathered, they have been working for about six years and have a goal of finishing in the next few years. We met two ladies who paint the animals as a hobby; the lady in green has been working on the dragon for over a year! In the workroom there were a dozen people carving away. In another room the actual carousel mechanism is being rebuilt. This project makes those fundraising drives for a new baseball field seem petty. This was inspiring. I've included a few pictures here and a couple more favorites at the bottom of the post.

Finally we got to the historic homes tour and we were not disappointed. This blue house was fantastic, the picture does it more justice than any description I could muster.

This white house was big and majestic...

... and with a small canal bordering the east side of the property it became special.


Also, I have to include a picture of this garage because it looked so cute... but you all will probably think I'm silly.

Some days are just awesome. This was one of them.

A few more carousel photos:


And, finally, a pretty picture of a blossoming tree with a cute home in the background: