Читать книгу Grant's Getaways: Oregon Adventures with the Kids - Grant McOmie - Страница 9

Introduction

Now, Grant—tell us again, what is it that you do for a living? I hear it has something to do with the television. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I would if you were on there … but I don’t really understand what it is you do—your mother said something about ‘Grant goes fishing.’”

It felt a lot like a doubleheader baseball game that had gone terribly wrong—two pitchers throwing heat at the same time—these were fastballs with uncanny accuracy as my favorite grandmothers were trying hard for a quick “strike three and you’re out” on their grandson, who, at that moment felt like scrambling into the dugout.

“Well, Grandma Sadie—Grandma Dee—it’s actually not just fishing,” I replied. “In fact, I travel across the entire Northwest on a variety of stories about people, places, outdoor recreation, and environmental issues for a Portland television station. They’ve sent me to Alaska, Canada, and most every state in the greater West—I’ve even traveled to Hawaii a couple of times.”

“So, you get paid to go fishing?” responded Grandma Sadie, our family matriarch.

“Is that it, eh?” came a high and inside fastball query from Grandmother Dee.

I was struggling with my answers—trying to find the exact words that explained my dream job come true. It was the mid-1980s and I’d just returned to Portland from a nearly 3-year stint of work at KOMO-TV in Seattle, where I’d proven myself as the outdoor reporter for a major market television station.

“And you call that work?” came the low and away curveball inquiry from my great-grandmother Sadie, who at 98 was sharp as a tack and determined to close out the inning.

I paused for a moment to carefully consider my words so as not to hurt my grandmother’s feelings. “Yes, it is work—darned hard work sometimes too,” I explained. “My photographers and I work year-round—day and night, anywhere, anytime under all conditions on unique stories about Oregon,” I insisted. “Try to understand, when it comes to Oregon, I’m absolutely sold on the notion that people love what they know and will protect what they love. So for me, storytelling with pictures is like a calling and anyway, I can’t imagine—even after a handful of years—I can’t imagine doing anything else. In fact, I don’t know how to do anything else.”

Suddenly, there was a hush and all was quiet on my grandmothers’ side of the kitchen table—it was as though I’d just hit a grand slam that sealed the game—it was bottom of the ninth and game over!

True story!

Over the past 35 years, when it came to explaining the challenges and pleasures of my work to friends, family, or even complete strangers, I’ve always acknowledged a bit of gut-wrenching guilt about my explanations. It’s been terrific work to be sure—but how much fun are you allowed to have—on any job? I’ve always been open about my unabashed love affair with my home state, one that reaches back to my earliest childhood memories of adventures with my family.

Seventeen years ago, I wrote about this love affair: “When I was a boy I fell in love with long distance—not the telephone kind, but the dust-filled lanes and rambling asphalt roads that enticed a small-town kid from central Oregon to explore his home region more than 40 years ago. These roads invited me to roam Oregon’s remote alpine mountains, glacier-fed rivers, and nearly 400 miles of Pacific shoreline.”

Little has changed! Quite the contrary, for as I’ve grown older and traveled even more, I’m also a bit wiser from the doing of the thing. Longtime newsman Charles Kuralt said it best, “I am seduced by travel!” Put me in his camp, for the love of my home state’s incredible variety of geography, climate, and people has grown even deeper. I’ve an insatiable appetite for the new or the old and the interesting—from the smallest of Oregon’s homegrown stories to the giant ones. I have been most fortunate to travel and meet new folks each week, write about the journeys and adventures, and then see the television screen come alive with stunning images and compelling stories from our travels. That love and the memories are at the root of this book—to reach back and hold on to my childhood recollections a little while longer and also relive the memories of time and place with my own sons’ Oregon explorations when they were young so many years ago.

I am told that there is keen interest for Oregon Adventures with the Kids and I’m hoping you will find some fresh ideas for your family’s consideration here—ideas that you may have missed from our Grant’s Getaways segments that you see on television or online. For example, you and your kids will enjoy a fishing trip on the Lake Born of Fire: Clear Lake—the headwaters of the McKenzie River where no motors are allowed and where the water is so clear you can see an entire underwater forest that was trapped by a lava flow thousands of years ago. Perhaps your kids will experience the sheer joy that comes with Two Tickets to Ride onboard scale model trains that run each summer at the Molalla Train Park—it’s where the kids can be railroad engineers for the day. We also travel far afield to the distant Southeast Oregon desert and show you where and how the kids can dig what some call “drops of honey”: sunstones, the Oregon state gem.

Some of our kids’ getaway ideas are from earlier Grant’s Getaways books, but have proven timeless and remain some of the most popular and requested ideas for families. Speaking of family, I’m a big believer that families who play together, stay together and this book offers many ideas perfectly suited to kids and adults alike. For example, when you step aboard Marine Discovery Tours you’ll learn much about the marine life that lives in Yaquina Bay at Newport. Or take a ride together on a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah zip line—I offer two zip line rides and each will take your breath away as you fly through the forests. We also meet a man whose invention takes the strain out of digging razor clams: The King of the Clam Gun has come up with a special design for kids to help them enjoy the recreation right beside the adults. Your family will want to seek out the unique and ancient Oregon hoodoos—there’s nothing else quite like them at one of the state’s most popular recreation areas in Central Oregon. If you’re new to the Oregon territory and have an interest in camping, paddling, crabbing, or any number of other outdoor recreation activities, we’ll set you on the right course with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s Let’s Go programs that specialize in teaching newcomers the ropes.

I also offer parents the basics to introduce their youngsters to varied outdoor activities—the clothing, the gear, and the safety measures you should know about and the required equipment you should bring with you when you head out. The book spans the varied geophysical regions of the state and includes adventures for each month of the year. I have selected locations and stories and tips and tactics that will guide you and especially the kids to forty-eight of my favorite destinations during what I consider their seasonal peaks. These are places I have especially enjoyed at a particular time of year. But let me be clear: These are but my preferred times to visit, so don’t get the notion they don’t shine at other times of the year.

My getaway selections offer my favorite experiences that have kept my photographers on their toes through the decades. Many of the destinations are accessible on a tank of gas, while others require more planning and time. Throughout the book I use sidebars to describe interesting bonus trips as well as more in-depth educational information and detailed travel strategies, extra content that I’m not able to share during my weekly television programs. I mention wheelchair accessibility where available, although there is almost always a path or trail nearby that can be navigated in a wheelchair. Each getaway concludes with contact names, phone numbers, and websites for further information.

Chris and I always made sure the kids joined us in the Oregon outdoors. Jackson Bottom Wetlands (circa 1999). Photo courtesy of Steve Terrill.

Much of my personal interest in your success with the kids comes from my background as a public school teacher; a passion to impart knowledge and skills comes naturally for a fellow whose classroom simply got much bigger through the years. It has always been my greatest hope that viewers or readers learn something new when they watch our stories or read my books. Moreover, I want more youngsters outdoors, enjoying Oregon. The more they experience, the more they learn and the more they learn, the more respect they embrace for what Oregon represents—and with respect grows a desire to help make our state a better place.

Finally, the point of all this, as I like to tell folks in person, on the air, or in writing, is just to get out there, enjoy Oregon any time of year, and make some memories of your own. I hope my Oregon Adventures with the Kids will guide your way.