3-Day Weekend -- Part 1

Clay and I were both excited about the 3-day weekend. With summer coming to an end soon, we know we will not have as many opportunities to take these fun daytrips that we have enjoyed so much the past couple of months. We considered going camping, but thought the campgrounds would probably be full. To our surprise, we noticed that there seemed to be plenty of places available at many of the campsites we passed. Oh well!

On Saturday, we headed for Cape Perpetua, which is a little ways north of the Heceta Head Lighthouse we visited recently. For a variation in scenery, we took a different route over to the coast, and still another route coming home (the sign said "one lane road with turnouts" which worried me a bit, but it turned out fine!)

Clay was anxious to try out his new camera. It has a 12x optical zoom, and he's excited to see if he can capture some interesting wildlife on his trip to Montana next week. To experiment, he took a picture of the lighthouse from the viewpoint at the normal (wide angle) setting.....





And then this one is taken from the same spot using full zoom.




This is part of the coast near Cape Perpetua. The tidepools are very interesting to explore, but unfortunately we arrived at high tide, so they were covered up.



But high tide is a great time to see some impressive splashing as the waves hit the rocks.




Enjoying the beauty of nature? Pondering the grandeur of the scenery? Thinking deep thoughts about my place in the universe? Well, yeah, but mostly pausing to catch my breath as we're hiking, because I'm really out of shape!




This is the Spouting Horn, which sends a great "poof" of water out the top when a wave comes up through a hole underneath. It makes a nice booming sound too. It was one of our favorite spots. (High tide was a great time to catch this).

Some pretty wildflowers along the trail -- a little flattened by the wind.

We had fun climbing out on the rocks. There were lots of signs posted warning people to never turn their back on the ocean, proceed with caution, enter at your own risk, etc.

We are now looking down from the top of the mountain (hill? whatever) at the places we had been hiking earlier. There's a trail that you can hike up to the top. Clay was ready to hike up it, but I voted for the alternate route driving up the road. You can see the zig-zagging path and the rocks we were on down in the bottom right of this picture.

This cute little rock shelter on the side of the cliff was very popular that day, especially with young couples. We only had a few minutes to ourselves, and then moved on so others could enjoy it. It had a great view.

Here is an explanation of why it's there. (You can click on the picture to enlarge it so you can read it).

Here is a view out one of its "windows."

A little ways past the rock shelter there was a break in the trees along the trail, and we could see the town of Yachats. Here is a picture I took with my camera.

And here is what Clay can get with his super zoom. He's having a lot of fun experimenting with it.

We spent a little while hanging out at a park near Yachats before heading home. Here Clay is trying out the lounge chair and pad that we found for a great clearance price at the Florence Fred Meyer when we stopped that morning to pick up some supplies for our trip.

The sound of the ocean is very relaxing!

Guess the Mystery Destination

In hopes of making this blog a little more interesting, I thought I'd try a guessing game as to where Clay and I went this past Saturday. Here are some picture clues (no scrolling ahead or you'll spoil the surprise!)

This wouldn't help me at all, but if you're good with a GPS, you could figure it out from this picture. Clay was excited by how many satellites he could access at our high altitude.






I'd take these signs seriously if I were you!





I promise this really is a clue.





Yes, it's a very long way down from all of the viewpoints we stopped at.






If you haven't guessed it by now, this picture will probably give it away. (Clay is comparing the reading on his GPS to an altitude marker set in the ground).





If you guessed Crater Lake, you're correct! (Sorry, no prizes for guessing correctly -- just the satisfaction that you know your geography will have to do).

The windblown hair look is really working for me, don't you think?

We're on the west side of the lake here.

We really enjoyed our trip, although it was a lot of driving time for a daytrip (3 hours each way). We probably should have made an overnighter out of it. Clay was tired today because he did all the driving and also had to watch very carefully on the way home in case a deer alongside the road decided to run out in front of us.

This is Wizard Island. (The tiny white speck in the water on the right side nearly level with the top of the island is one of the boats that takes people on a tour around the lake, if that helps you realize how big this lake really is!)

We saw quite a few deer, along with some well-fed chipmunks, lots of birds, a frog, and thousands of butterflies. We must have been in the middle of a butterfly migration of some kind -- unfortunately quite a few of them were ending up on the windshields of the cars driving through, which was not a pretty sight.

Here is a deer posing for a picture for us.

One of the hikes we went on was through a spring-fed meadow with tons of wildflowers. It was really beautiful (and an easy hike). I think we came at a really good time of year to see this. Clay was feeding the mosquitos quite a bit though!

Here is one of the springs coming down the hillside. The flowers and mosses were very pretty.

Sweet Creek & Heceta Head

Last Saturday's episode in the continuing adventures of "Clay and Cindy Explore Oregon" was a trip to Sweet Creek (near Mapleton) and then Heceta Head Lighthouse. We have been to both places before so this was not a new adventure, but we had a terrific time nevertheless. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful.

Sweet Creek is a pleasant little hike along a nice creek with a larger waterfall at the top and then multiple smaller falls as you head down the creek.

Here is Clay standing in the middle of the creek, "playing" with his GPS (I'm not sure why, because I'm pretty sure we weren't "lost" in the middle of the creek!)

We were not tempted to imitate this tricky stunt:

This pool of water (below) didn't look big enough to me, but he kept jumping over and over, so I guess he knew what he was doing?

After hiking Sweet Creek, we headed towards Heceta Head Lighthouse, arriving just after 5:00 p.m. (We were only at Sweet Creek for a couple of hours at the most, as we got a really late start from home due to Danica having a "sleepover" and we all stayed up too late Friday night).

It was a beautiful day at the coast -- not too hot, not too windy, not too cloudy -- just perfect. We walked up to the lighthouse first. Clay was saying "Go into the light, Cindy" as he was taking this picture. I told him I wasn't ready for the hereafter yet.

I asked Clay not to just "stand there" when I was taking his picture, so he waved. Looks a little fake to me.
Some pictures of the beautiful Oregon coast:

We parked so the back of the truck faced the ocean -- then got comfortable, watched the sunset, and listened to the sound of the ocean waves. It was very relaxing!

Then and Now

Danica turned 4 last Friday. She has brought a lot of joy into our lives. We love being grandparents -- it's much more fun than being a parent. We have had the opportunity to take time to enjoy every stage of her life, each new accomplishment and development, and kind of see through her eyes as she discovers the world we live in. We did not have the luxury of that extra time when our own children were young -- there was always too much that needed to be done.

It's fun to go back and look at the (many, many!) pictures we have of her. Here is a picture of her as a newborn:

Wasn't she sweet! And here are a few pictures from her birthday dinner, which was a BBQ at our house, as her favorite meal is steak (she has kind of expensive tastes for a 4-year-old!). Notice the A1 steak sauce on her face.

She had already opened most of her presents earlier in the day at home, but was happy to see some more. She doesn't understand the different denominations of cash yet, and calls all of it "a dollar" -- but she certainly understands the concept of shopping, thanks to her mother!

Waterfalls

Koosah Falls

Sahalie Falls.

Beautiful McKenzie River

The water was incredibly blue.

Sahalie Falls again.

We're excited about having a truck to go camping in.

Now this is what I call roughing it.

Looking up at the mountain from near Proxy Falls.

Clay's had lots of experience setting up tents.

Clay's GPS is his favorite "toy".

Clay was really enjoying himself, even though he had to "hold back" on my account.

Lovely wildflowers!