What to do??? Part II

What do we do on our days off. Remember special events without a picture:

Our last afternoon at the lighthouse ended with a special "shared moment" with a group on my tour.

It was the last tour of the afternoon. There were three gentleman, two brothers and a son of the older brother. The son was probably in his late twenties.

They were there in remberance of their 94 year old mother/grandmother who had just passed away.

After the tour they shared their growing up years in Florence and their memories at the lighthouse beach and the lighthouse itself. The older bother told his son how he and his mother were enjoying the beach ..as teenagers do....and when they went to leave he found out his car was out of gas! He had to knock on the door of the family in the big house to call his dad. His dad brought the gas and nothing more was said.

They also talked about knowing the family that started the Sea Lion Den's tourist attraction and also how their grandfather had driven over the mountains to deliver milk.

The event was just a special moment honoring their mother and I was privileged to be part of that.

Now picture events of our days off .......

We had heard before and after arriving to the campground to be sure to go to Crater Lake while we are so close.

So we did. We rented a cabin in Mazama Village.and we were on our way.

It is a climb of about 7,000 ft and the terrain was not how I expected. It was more like high desert.

We were told it would be cold both by friends at home and friends at camp. By the time we made our way up  it was 91. Needless to say I was not dressed for the occasion!

My description of Crater Lake: Awesome, Mysterious and a bit spooky! By the way driving up we were right on the rim.......bothGary and I were white knuckling it as we drove up.

I will let you be the judge of Crater Lake .....take a look.

It is the belly of a volcano,Mt. Mazama, that erupted 7,700 years ago

Wizard Island

The white pines added to the mystery of the area.

Our cabin in the woods. Note how th big doors close off the entry to the rooms during the winter It gets 533 inches of snow yearly. This cabin may not even be visible at that time.

We had an enjoyable meal at The Lodge. We even sat out on the porch looking at the this very still, very quiet, very blue lake.

So went our adventure at Crater Lake. Oh, I might add it was 91 degrees when we arrived and 50 degrees at 8:00 am when we left.

As we drove back we made some discoveries of our own.

Breakfast at Beckie's Cafe. It is part of Union Creek Resort. It was an iimportant camping spot on the road to connecting Rogue River Valley and Crater Lake. It was named after Ed Becklehymer who operated the restraunts and gas station.  It just took me back to those western days. Gary and I decided if we ever come back in this area we would rent a cabin here......we loved it!

More adventures of ours days off in my next blog.

What To Do.....???

What to do on your day off....

....remember something worth remembering and don't have a picture of:

You know they do not have self service at the gas pumps here. Well, the other day when we went for our vegan meal at the YMCA I watched a group of preschooler playing  like they were getting gas for their tikes, four wheelers and scooters. It took me a while to figure it all out. I thought it amusing that they were all lined up, huddled against the wall when I realized a little girl with a water hose in her hand was  "filling" each trike, four wheeler and scooter with "gas". They even paid for it with a touch of the hand! JUST TOO CUTE, I HAD TO STAND THERE AND WATCH THEM PLAY.

...or on your day off you can take pictures of wild life near by.

The female was a bit skiddish

Here she starts to run..

....but she stops to give me a pose.

Notice: I don't have connection to Professor Google so I don't know what kind of deer these are but know they are smaller than our deer at home....also they have a black tail.

Another animal friend who often visits our camp is the ground squirrel. He is hard to see but look left of the yellow sign and you will eventually see him. Oh, and that yellow sign tells of a sighting of a cougar and a bear in July!!!! Oh well, this is August.

One of our host last night said he saw a male elk, three elk cows and a young one right behind his camper. He watched them for about half of an hour. They were really chowing down.....found good grass I guess and thought they would stay a while even though they were being watched.

Also yesterday those hosts who were at the lighthouse saw two whales in the late morning. They hung around until early afternoon. Tomorrow when we go up I hope we get to see some trace of them. I guess there is a pod of them in the area.

...Or on your day off you can go to the sand dunes. Becky, Luke and kids would really enjoy this area.

These are pictures of a family from Colorado who said it was a lot different than going down a hill in snow.

...Or on your day off walk the half mile Hobbit Trail to the beach.

Big steps and lots of roots made into steps.

Entry to beach. Hobbits? Nope no hobbits.....none that we noticed anyway....but you know hobbits. They could have been watching us!!!

Candid Camera. Which shell should I take home? Notice the blue water.....blue sky equals blue water.

Someone Flying a kite. A favorite thing to do at the beach. You need to look close. The kite is bright red.

So that is some of the thimgs you do on your day off!

Now for a nap!!!

Follow the Volunteer to the Lighthouse

II would like you  to take a walk with me to the lighthouse. The Volunteer is with us. Some times he is behind us patiently waiting for the picture to be taken.  Some times he is ahead of us and there are even times when he is nowhere to be seen. Enjoy the trip to the Heceta Head Lighthouse following the Volunteer.

This is the picnic ground and beach at the entry of the half mile trail up to the lighthouse. Note the waves and high tide.

The trail begins.

First curve.

Making progress. The volunteer is with us.

The volunteer is now in front of us.

 Moving on....

There are panels along the way to give the history of the lighthouse. This was taken in the early1900's of the head lighthouse keepers house and family.

Following the Volunteer. Note the cement path. It was made for easier access to the lighthouse but over time it deteriorated as you can see.

This panel shows the rider with his wagon trying to beat the tide. The beach was the main way supplies were brought to build the lighthouse and homes for keepers and their families.

We have caught up with the Volunteer. We are almost there.

Finally, the lighthouse! We made it with only a few micro breaks! the lighthouse is not falling over. The photographer must have been catching her breath. :0) 

This picture shows the differenenc in the beach from when we first started. Yesterday it was about like this and turned hot. I was taking off layers. But today it was nice but turned cold by two o'clock. I did have enough on but not as heavily layered as yesterday......you never know .....

The beach takes on a new look from here.

Covered Bridges Ride

On our days off this week...August 13 - 14 we wanted to ride our bikes and do some adventuring.

We drove to Eugene, rode around Alton Baker Park along the Willamette River,ate at a wonderful vegan restaurant, Tru Veg ,that was housed in the YMCA. (We had done some research to find the best vegan restraunts)

After the ride we made ourselves comfortable in a cute old motel downtown call The Timbres Motel.

The next day we drove thirty mile up the rode to Cottage Grove. A pretty little town nestled at the foot of the mountains. It is known for it's covered bridges.

The two pictured below were just redone in the pass few yeas.

We saw two others on our ride and got pictures of them on our camera. The iPad is to big to carry in my bag. How far did we ride on this ride? about 16 miles in two hours. We had the bike path which is a rails to trails ride, all to ourselves. A beautiful fun ride. even picked a few apples.

This next picture is not a covered bride but a swinging bridge over the Row River.We did not know that when we crossed it. It took us by surprise but we kept on pedaling. After we crossed it we said to each other....what just happened!!!

Just a pretty view we saw.  Kind of an interesting spot. I am not sure of its story....more research..

As we headed for home we saw that it had been raining. So we drove down to the lighthouse parking lot to see how many cars were there. Surprisingly quite a few......rain does not stop people from looking at the lighthouse and beach. Our last day for tours this week was in a soft drizzle most of the afternoon and we were busy.

This is what it was like on the beach.

As you can tell from the pictures the day had quite a variety of scenes. Love what we are doing.!

Funky Town

How to describe Eugene Oregon?

Home of the University of Oregon....the Ducks.

Bicycle mecca of USA ........so it would seem. Bikes everywhere and the city is setup to provide for them. You can ride almost any street and feel like you are welcomed.

Kind of a dirty town without really being trashy.

Where there are flowers, they are beautiful.

Home of 17 vegan restaurant. We tried a few. Liked some, didn't care for others.

So far we have been there to ride our bikes around the parks twice. They were nice bike rides so may go back before we leave. 

Great people....we thought our iPad was dead. The Mac guy kept his store open longer to help us out. Even called us as we were struggling to find our way to his place. He waved at us as we were on a access road on the other side of heavy traffic.....finally found our way. The iPad just needed a quick fix.....no charge! Eugene....home of the Ducks has won our hearts!

Camp Site #14

No, that is not our camp site number. Our camp site number is #4.

Camp site #14 belonged to our good friends, the Nortons, from Wichita. They arrived at noon on August 8 and left about 8:30 on the 11th. 

Since we worked in the afternoon our time was limited to morning and evening with them. It was just enough time to enjoy them and do some fun things.

You saw from one of my last blogs when we went to the beach which was a lot of fun. The wind was blowing so hard we could hardly stand up......so much for a leisure walk on the beach. 

We were able though to do some tide pooling, eating at some yummy seafood restraunts and just fun visiting.However none of the restraunts matched the eating shared at camp site #14.

Enjoy the pictures of fun with the Nortons.

A windy afternoon at the beach.

Taking evening pictures of the lighthouse. 

This was a delicious breakfast with huckleberry pancakes. We picked the huckleberries from around our camp sites and from those camp sites around us.....those huckleberries that were left anyway. Picking huckleberries is a popular thing to do around camp.

Sunday after we got off work Don and Karen had this wonderful Alaskan halibut and salmon dinner for us.

We weren't ready for them to leave but they were excited to be on their way for more of their own adventures so we let them go.

Site #14 will always be a special site. Thanks Karen and Don for a fun time. See you in Wichita.

A walk to the Beach

This is the trail to the beach from our campground. It is a half mile hike. Karen and Don Norton joined us with their camper early afternoon today. They are with us on this walk. They and Gary were patient with me as I took the pictures.I love this walk. When we first took it I could hardly believe how beautiful it was so I want to share it with you.

The entrance.

Look at the moss.

Makes you feel you are in a fairy land.

Moving on down the path.

Getting closer to the beach. Notice the sand.

Arrived at the steps down to the beach. Notice how the wind has blown the sand up into dune like shapes., The first time Gary and I went down here it took watching a young couple and their little dog cross these to know how to do it. We braved it and went across them.

Notice how windy it is from the way our hair is blown back. A young man is attempting to fly a kite behind us. We were struggling to stay upright I guess and didn't even notice him until we saw the picture!  This is Karen and me.

You will recognize this couple.

On our way back.

A very windy afternoon on the beach but a fun one.