McCloud, trains, and home

Our final B&B with a stop to see a Shay steam engine.  We’re home!

A very nice B&B and you can see our trusty steed parked and resting

no elevator

A Shay steam train engine...one of five remaining

Lava Beds National Monument



Mom and the Chimneys



Lava Beds has been a favorite of the kids and I…Mom endures it.  We drove from Crater Lake to Lava Beds, lunched at the chimneys, and began our explorations of caves.  Of course three of us had to re-enter the tiny hole of Painted Cave to get a picture.  Time and population have degraded the ice.  Fifteen years ago we clamored around pristine ice, careful not to touch the ice lake, then holding the flashlight so to aim the camera…a picture of the girls in an ice cave.  Today the ice lake is strewn with dirt and rocks from the curiosity of visitors; “Gee, I wonder if I can break this 100,000 year-old ice?”  We located pictographs at Symbol Bridge, disturbed a bat, photographed wild flowers and with one, small, LED flashlight the three of us negotiated the stairways to the bottom of Skull Cave.  The ice of Skull Cave has also been barred from the public’s prying eyes…too much damage.  Lynn joined us for our visit to Mushroom Cave and Valentine Cave.  Our day was ending and we had to make our way across the Cascades to our final B&B in McCloud.



We hung the camera in the tree, set the timer, and lunch!



The ice lake is to their left

the Public's damage

Climbing out!

Deciphered..."This way to McDonalds"

Indian Paintbrush

Skull Cave's ice is bared from entry

Damaged ice of Skull Cave

Entrance (and exit) of Mushroom Cave

Crater Lake

But this morning, with an east drift, the smoke had cleared and we were offered a brilliant day for our boat tour.  Wow!  A 45 minute hike in on seven switchbacks took us down to the mountain lake level and then I find out that I could have had my swimming suit.  Well, darn.  Waiting for our turn in the boats we watched trout jump and kids swim and relaxed on rocks which were covered with the white powder of decomposed pumice which seems to permanently be embedded into our clothes.  I could have stayed there forever.  And it seems that I can fish for free with no limits as the Park Service has pressed the public into their service because Mr. Steel (a well-meaning philanthropist and paramount shaker and mover, along with Theodore Roosevelt, established Crater Lake as a Federal Park) stocked the lake with 32 trout and steelhead and a number of crayfish to feed the trout.   After our time on the lake that we ascend the walls of the caldera…one hour and ten minutes with un-numbered rest stops we crested the rim…in need of lunch…a picnic.  Our car tour took us around the remaining drive around of the lake with a jaunt off to the left to see the pinnacles; towers welded in form by scalding fumerals buried within flows of pumice and finally eroded to exposure by an eroding creek of snowmelt.  Our day was ended with the onslaught of smoke.  We dined at Crater Lake Lodge for our 32^nd anniversary.  

hiking in

reflections...and the lake is more blue than pictured

Phantom Ship



Pinnacles...



...and pinnacles

Oregon Dunes to Crater Lake

We trekked through the ridges of Oregon Dunes seeking shells and rocks, the shaped wind currents and the singing sands…all of which we found. And from the chill of the ocean to the warmth of the afternoon on the rim of the caldera of Crater Lake…out of control fires were burning to the west, blanketing the chasm, diming and obscuring the hoped-for splendor…

beach combing

Finding the singing sands

wind sculpting

The smokey rim

Cannon Cove to Florence

Breakfast… Fruit on yoghurt with granola and honey, Quinoa and a perfect sausage with an oven baked, rolled omelet egg thing stuffed with garlic, sautéed mushrooms and spinach with roasted tomato halves. Then we had blackberry sorbet garnished with fresh strawberries and mint leaf. Coffee, orange juice, water and then trombone practice. We have a new bike to build! A front-wheel-drive, tilt-steering, single-speed. Dude, we can build this! Octopus tree, Sitka Spruce Meares Lighthouse. In 2010 three boys decided to have target practice on the lens…15 direct hits. A month later, after some bragging, they were arrested and sentenced; $100,000 fine, three years of serving jail time during their Christmas vacation and 500 hours of community service each. The $100,000 did not cover the cost of even one lens. Their sentences have been fulfilled but as one stands next to the damaged lenses…it is just a sad event.

Portland to Canon Cove What a beautiful drive (once we left Portland traffic)! We found the Seaside Brewing Co. and I’m pretty much done with beer. Bastian found a very fruity, dark beer that he believed was brewed with fruit…our server insisted that it was not; just the hops and stuff that made it as such.

Portland

Members of the Portland Opera, a string quartette, played for us while we had beer and dinner. Sweet. Having a music lesson from Bastian explaining that all music was either love songs or pirate music the conversation went on critiquing the performance. And we did hear the love songs. And we did hear the pirate music. But then it seemed that some pirate music had love songs and love song, pirate music. It was like, “This is where the pirate is in a fight…and his ship is sinking…and his truest love knows that there is a battle…”. And sometime later, “Well, this is a love song but is very sad because her lover is a pirate”. With more beer that lessons developed into a doctorial thesis. Coffee roster/bamboo store with funny bathroom indication. Hair of the Dog Mother Goose Beer place Rose garden

Minneapolis to Seattle



We’ve no picture of Bastian and I toasting whiskies for having survived Minneapolis however we did get to watch a vessel pass through the lock at St. Anthony Falls.

North Dakota is a place where church buildings retire…nothing more needs be said about North Dakota.

Montana has wheat, oil, and Glacier Park.  Pictured is the largest (and newest) wheat load-out facility of the state.  Carefully note the railcar for scale.  As I understand it, a fully loaded wheat train consists of 110 cars with each car carrying 110 tons.  The pictured facility stores a train load of wheat.  Montana wheat is shipped to the west coast for export to the Pacific Rim.  The newest boon of the state (and nation) is petroleum, produced by fracking.  Housing is bleak.  As one of our cuisine companions explained, Montana speed limits are very high, every Montanian has a gun and every-other-Montanian is drunk.  There are no Indian casinos as gambling is legal in the state.  I didn’t know that.

Seattle, WA. Is where the train stopped (before going into the ocean).  We toured the Farmer’s Market; fish throwing, beautiful flowers, and a very funny bathroom sign and found the poor.