Sisters, Oregon

The Three Sisters

Exploring the town….

…and learning about the West.

Sisters, Oregon had been on our list since the moment the trip began as my Aunt and Uncle (my Dad’s sister), my cousins Christine and Linda and their families live in that area.  Linda’s granddaughter Zoe is just Isa’s age, and the two have written each other a couple of times since we started planning this trip, so we were eager for them to meet.  Sisters was a place to reconnect with family, and also a place to catch up on things like homework and mail, and take the car in for a checkup. We really enjoyed exploring town, spending time in the bookstore, learning about the community garden, annual quilt show and Sisters Rodeo, and borrowing a stack of library books.

Addy the eagle at the High Desert Museum

A pioneer cabin

The High Desert Museum in Bend was a one day outing with Aunt Nancy, cousin Chris and Zoe as our guides.  We were blown away by how welcoming, professional, informative, and fun the museum was. If you’re ever anywhere nearby, you have to visit.  There were animals native to the high desert, exhibits about Native Americans, meteorology, ecology, history of the area, art installations, and a Living History section where you can experience ranch life of 1904.  We were hard put to experience it all, and the three girls surely had a lot to think about by the time we left.  

Addy listens as F.D.R. delivers a Fireside Chat

 

What does this do?!

Chris and Nancy took the girls to supper and a tour of town while Jud and I went out to dinner on our own and a wander around downtown Bend. How decadent! We were really intrigued by Bend which in our short visit, I would characterize as a super cool artistic athletic foodie brewery type town. It would be such a fun town to be near as there were so many shops and food spots to explore, and it had an air about it that felt like new things were always happening.

Lava Lands National Monument

It’s cold out there!

We woke up to a tent crusted in a thin layer of ice, a glassy lake and picturesque clouds shifting over the mountains on the horizon.  Overnight we had snow, rain, and sleet, and by morning the temperature was 26 degrees.  The girls opted for breakfast in the car while Jud and I broke camp. Saying goodbye to Diamond Lake, we headed for Lava Lands National Monument to check out the lava tube that Addy has been waiting eagerly to experience. It’s been her number one goal for this trip and by the time we hiked to the entrance with headlamps and warm layers she was grinning ear to ear.  It was a one mile tube in the earth where lava once ran and there were no lights in the tunnel except our headlamps and from time to time the light of another explorer.  At the very end of the trail as the tunnel got quite small we all turned our lights off to experience the depth of the darkness and listen to the tiny drips of water off the tunnel roof. A sign blocked the end at one mile to protect bats roosting deeper in the tunnel, and we all wished for Addy’s sake that she could have gone down further where she’d have to crouch and crawl, but alas, she may have to become a real spelunker for that sort of thing.

Someone is excited!

Descending into the depths!

Other fun things at Lava Lands included walking the rim of the Butte Cinder Cone, hiking through the lava fields, and checking out great footage of volcano events in the visitor center. According to my folks, I came here too when I was 6, which Addy almost is now, and when my brother was 8.  It’s such fun to take the girls places that I once was, whether I remember them vividly or not!

Still smiling!

Loving Lava Lands!

Crater Lake

Coyote near our campsite

A change of temperature and scenery… the road to Crater Lake!

A coyote shared our campsite at the Rogue River in Oregon. He was not far from our tent in the morning after I came back from a jog along the river. It was sunny and nice but that all changed as we drove north and higher in elevation to Crater Lake National Park. It was snowing on and off, and there were rumors of 20 feet of snow in some parts of the park.  Only a few miles of the parks roads were open, so we explored what we could.  The visitor center was not completely shoveled out because of deep snow drifts, and one door was totally covered. The sublimation from the snow made an odd fog. It was gorgeous and a tad inhospitable. Our picnic lunch indoors had an unbeatable view of the lake and Wizard Island when the breeze blew the clouds away from time to time. We saw folks with snowshoes, and the girls even made a fine snowbear, named Meetcha, as in “Nice to meetchya!”

Wizard Island

Enough snow for you?

Making a snowbear!

Without snowshoes, exploration was limited, so we drove down out of the park in flurries, warming up in the car, toward Diamond Lake.  At this location there were plenty of available campsites, and no wonder, as the spring midges had just hatched out.  The swarms of bugs were unprecedented! After dinner in the tent we fell asleep to the sound of rain.

If you look carefully you can see the bugs!

They are a bit more obvious in this one!

Redwood National and State Parks

Elk!

Redwood National and State Parks are vast, and we only saw a portion. It was our first close-up elk sighting at Elk Meadow, but we couldn’t watch at leisure as it was late afternoon and campgrounds were full.  It felt like a race to get to an available campground up the road aways which included a long drive through the woods and a sprint to claim a site.  It was a beautiful walk-in campsite though where the girls made fairy houses and we listened to a little waterfall in the stream. The girls also researched nursery logs and redwoods for their Jr Ranger Books. We even practiced the banana slug rap from the ranger book in the morning then it was off to the ocean to work on a weather report activity.  The girls got their ranger badges and took the oath and we all explored Crescent City including a tasty lunch at a Hawaiian BBQ place.  The playground at the waterfront park gave Isa and Addy enough energy for us to drive off east saying goodbye to the shoreline and so long to the Pacific Ocean. Oregon, here we come!

Ocean Art

A last look at the Pacific

Avenue of the Giants

Avenue of the Giants

Is that a tourist trap or a tree?

Is that a house or a tree?

Driving through the redwoods all day long with the sunshine filtering through the foliage was beautiful and a lush difference from the southwest.  The roads were quite narrow at times, and some trees had disconcerting gouges on them likely from driving mishaps. We succumbed to the Drive-Through Tree tourist trap in Myers Flat, where the tree is trussed up with wires to prevent it falling on paying customers.  Our favorite parts there were the two story tree houses where we had a picnic, and then a stop later where we used trees as bridges (since the regular bridges got washed out) to see the biggest redwood in Rockefeller forest. Then it was back to Route 101 up the coast in the sunshine and wind and 59 degrees.  It was all rugged coastline to Redwood National Park. The views were gorgeous though we kept telling Jud not to look at them as the driving was tricky.

A natural bridge

Tree huggers!

Petaluma

Petting Zoo at Petaluma KOA

Once in awhile, a KOA campground is just the ticket and though Petaluma was expensive for a KOA (at $60), its pool, cooking pavilion, Internet, playground and petting zoo made up for it. As Jud cooked corn on the cob for supper, Isa and Addy worked on creating corn husks dolls stuffed with cottonwood fluff (it’s blowing everywhere right now), we listened to the cows in the adjoining field, and then tucked in for the night. A bright day dawned and we managed to play at the KOA for a couple hours before driving through wine country to Santa Rosa.

Mural made of comic strips!

Santa Rosa is the location of the Charles Schultz Museum and Ice Rink. With Isa’s and Addy’s interests in drawing and Isa’s interest in particular in cartoon style drawings, this was an obvious way to spend the afternoon. The Peanuts characters here were beyond life sized, the exhibits were interactive and great for kids and adults, and we all enjoyed the experience.  Isa’s favorite was the giant character statues, Addy liked the kite eating tree, Jud admired Sparkie’s (Schultz’s) regular breakfast routine, and I loved the huge mural of Charlie Brown and Lucy made up of comic strip tiles.

Charles Shultz Museum

Our team photographer is still with us!

Artists at work!

Snoopy

After that angle on art and sophistication, we drove to the Francis Ford Coppola Vineyard for a wine (and juice) tasting, a look at movie memorabilia (including the Godfather desk and chair), and a great conversation with our server who had worked in Freeport, Maine recently.  What a fun, small world it is! Our server was so sweet, giving the girls juice and stickers while we all chatted.  An evening of camping at Richardson State Forest among the redwood trees that were wider than the car was a calm and picturesque way to end the day.

Home sweet home!

San Jose

Is this normal in San Francisco?!

The classic song, “Do you Know the Way to San Jose?” was playing in the car as we rolled into San Jose, capitol of Silicon Valley. We were there to visit our friend Michaela who taught Math in Vinalhaven for a couple years, her husband Andrew, and their little boy Francis.  It was great to reconnect, check out their town, walk to Japan Town for soba noodles and miso soup, and chat about education as they are both in that line of work. Our first day of exploring from their house took us to San Francisco where my well laid plans to go to Fisherman’s Wharf were derailed by some sort of odd traffic/parade which caused a detour.  Once we managed to park near Golden Gate Park and determined it was not a Comic Con Conference, we wandered toward the hubbub and saw numbers on folks’ shirts indicating a race…what was going on? There were folks in sumo outfits, huge dinosaurs, a rabbit chasing a carrot, more tutus than we’d ever seen….and then as I read one lady’s shirt, it all became clear. This was the annual Bay To Breakers famous San Fran running race with 70,000 registered runners, many more just joining the fun, and thousands of folks watching and enjoying the festive atmosphere.  We watched for ages, then followed the insanity to the park, explored the park for the day, went to a wonderful playground, rode the carousel, ate divine Mediterranean food, watched folks rollerskating, smelled the flowers at the Rose Garden, and got out of town before the festivities devolved into madness. Oh, and the girls are telling me not to forget the wonderful Jamba Juice smoothies we enjoyed on the drive home. (Home is where your sleeping bag is!)

This is normal in San Francisco!

San Jose Library

A lovely day in San Jose followed where the city library wowed us with their selection of children’s books, their library lobby cafe, and the ability to borrow books. We spent an idyllic afternoon reading and exploring at the nearby Japanese Friendship garden. Topping the day with Thai food, we went to bed happy in mind and body.

A perfect spot for a book!

Another perfect spot for a book!

Sea Lions

Saying goodbyes to Michaela and her family we took off for a day in San Francisco and this time made it to Fishermen’s Wharf to see the sea lions and their antics, spend quarters at the Musee Mechanique  (with player pianos, antique arcade games, and my favorite game: whack-a-mole), eat at In-N-Out Burger, walk to Lombard Street, see a trolley on the turntable, have the best ice cream and chocolate at Ghiradelli Square after learning about the chocolate process,  check out Fort Mason and the youth hostel I stayed in there just weeks before Jud and I met, walk to the palace of Fine arts in the Presidio park, check out the Yoda fountain and other cool stuff at Lucas films, and walk all the way back to our parking at pier 39. We were exhausted!!! I’m tired just thinking about it.

More American Culture

Yum!

Can we stop now?!

That said, I loved it, and would have made folks walk hours more if they hadn’t stopped me as walking San Fran is such a delight. At 6pm it was certainly time to drive out of town through the Golden Gate Bridge and to a KOA in Petaluma for the night.

Golden Gate Bridge

Enjoying the carousel

Yosemite National Park

Enough said!

Yosemite National Park is a sight to behold, and it was obvious we weren’t the only ones who had heard of it’s wonders.  It was absolutely crawling with people!  Upon entry to the park we found out that all of the campgrounds were either full, or closed due to snow at high elevations.  Not wanting to despair and give up on Yosemite, we went to the Wilderness Office where we were well taken care of by the enthusiastic folks there who outfitted Isa as the trip leader and gave us a bear canister and directed us towards the backpackers’ camp. It turns out we could stay at the backpackers’ camp the night before and the night after our backcountry wilderness experience.  

Our leader!

Backpackers camp in Yosemite

Jud and I are confident backpackers having done the 100 mile wilderness on the Appalachian Trail in Maine as well as other trails, but the girls had never backpacked.  Why not start in Yosemite?!  So we drove to the backpackers’ parking lot and started organizing our gear.  With the L.L. Bean backpacks the girls got for the trip, we were all able to carry enough gear to hike the mile to the gorgeous campground along the river with views of Half Dome.  There we explored and had dinner and studied our maps for our backpacking trip to and beyond Inspiration Point.  

View from backpackers’ campground

Our hike began at  the Inspiration Point parking lot where tour busses and cars choked the roadway and it felt wonderful to hike up and away from it all.  Granted, there were some moans and groans along the way, but soon we got into storytelling and singing songs, and being proud of ourselves for carrying all we needed for a night in the woods.  After 1000 feet plus of elevation gain we found a delightful spot with views off into the Yosemite Valley a perfect place for the girls to make fairy houses, and we settled in.  With time to chat and appreciate the surroundings it made us wish we could do this forever!  Soon after the exhaustion of the hike wore off the girls they were singing the praises of backpacking and are determined to do it again someday. Hiking down in the morning was a mixture of relief (we did it!) and sadness (it’s almost over!).  One unexpected adventure is over with surely more to come.  

The hikers!

Our hero…John Muir!

There was enough time during the trip to explore Yosemite Falls (tallest in the country), Bridal Veil Falls, see the Ken Burns film on Yosemite in the visitor center, do Jr. Ranger Badge Workbooks, check out history, geology and ecology in the visitor center, tour the Indian Village and museum, sit and contemplate nature with John Muir, view the photography of Ansel Adams at the gallery, and survive the parking insanity.  We thought it was busy during our time, but as we were leaving the park, the line of cars coming in stretched for at least 5 miles, so we were glad we’d timed our visit mid-week!

Bridal Veil Falls

Now that is a tree!