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Our Adventures in Oregon

The weather was perfect; A balmy 85 degrees, a little cloud cover but mostly sunny. We had a marvelous time golfing, going to the Coast, seeing the Red Woods, and touring CP my “home town” (also known as Central Point, not to be confused with Clayton Paul). Our first stop was my old house (houses) and then Bear Creek Park. It is a wooden maze castle. I LOVE IT! Clayton thinks he would like designing play grounds like this!

Saturday: We went golfing with my two soccer buddies, Ryan & Nick. It was a lot of fun. I actually made contact and was hitting ok. There were a few holes I was a little over par—but mostly I didn’t keep score. Clayton enjoyed the nice green course and one he had not played before.

We also visited a cute historical town called Jacksonville. It is a fun place to walk thru and visit a couple of shops.

That evening we met up with Ashlee. She is my best friend in Oregon and we were staying with her. However she had just returned from a Trip to Alaska with her boyfriend. So—they took a nap while we were golfing and met up with us for dinner along with an old friend of mine (Amber and her husband Mike). We ate at the Roadhouse which was delicious!!!

Mike & Amber

Ashlee

After dinner we went to see Chuck & Larry with Amber & Mike. While waiting for the movie to start we played scrabble in a coffee shop (just sippin’ our Italian soda’s). I did not really like the movie. I was a little disappointed but I should have guessed that. By the way, we saw 2 LDS churches the whole trip and about 1 million Dutch Bros' (coffee shop). They are like drive thrus all over the place!

Sunday: We drove around to see the Rouge River (got lost on our way there and made a short detour). We went to the House of Mystery (http://www.oregonvortex.com/). Check out the photographs on their page and you will see how interesting it is. The tour was not super great or anything—but it is a very intriguing place. Later in the evening we were going to have a BBQ with friends, but when that fell through, we went to dinner with my friend Tom and his girlfriend Kayla. Tom and I have been best buddies since I was in the 6th grade. It was really nice to see him! We saw their condo and their puppy (shih tzu and Maltese mix). We took pictures of him to show Chloe her new boyfriend. Tom is a cop in Medford (town adjacent to CP). It was fun to hear some of his work stories. After dinner we went to see Transformers (for our second time; highly recommend this movie).

Chloe's Boyfriend! Hopefully their long distance relationship will pan out.

(I love the look of "WOW")

Monday: We visited the Coast. We drove to the Red Woods and walked thru the enormous trees. I believe in giants after seeing these huge trees! The pictures do not display how big they really are. It is amazing!

THESE ARE THE ROOTS OF A FALLEN OVER TREE. JUST THE ROOTS!

We also drove over to Battery Point Light House. When the tide is out you walk across the bottom of the ocean to get to it. We missed a tour but we took pictures of the lighthouse and the view of the ocean.

Finally, we took a drive over to the harbor. I had so much fun getting my feet wet. As a kid I went to the coast every weekend, but my step Dad did not allow us to get wet “if you get wet you go home”; we played on the beach a lot, but never enjoyed the water. So, Clayton and I let the waves crash against our calves. We did not swim, because there are so many rocks on the bottom that it isn’t too safe—but just getting our toes in was great!

Tuesday: Our long drive home. I got a little teary leaving (as usual). I sometimes miss certain things about Oregon but I would miss my family here more--so it is always sad to leave but so nice to visit! We stopped and saw the Smith River, the Rouge Gorge and Crater Lake. It is absolutely beautiful. It looks like a fake background in the pictures, but it is not! We were standing right there!!!!

Smith River

The Rouge Gorge is awesome. Enough water flows through here to fill an OLYMPIC POOL in one minute (over 400 gallons!)

And, there you have it!