June 2012 - Camping Trip - #1

Karen and I just recently returned from our third outing this year, and this time we stayed at a new location for us... Memaloose State Park in Oregon.  This park is one of three close State Parks located within the Columbia River Gorge area.  Memaloose SP is the largest of the Three (Viento & Ainsworth being the other two parks).  While being in a great location for some beautiful sightseeing... the exit into this park is a little interesting.  If you're heading East on I-84, you'll need to take the Rowena Exit at MP 76, do a turnaround, and head West on I-84 for 3 mile, exiting at the Rest Stop located at MP 73.  You have to drive through the Rest Stop to get to the Park Entrance!  Whenever you leave the park wanting to go in an easterly direction (say The Dalles), you'll have to go West on I-84 (One Way Exit), for 3 miles, until you get to the Mosier Exit (MP 70), turn around again there, and head East on I-84 to your destination.

Be advised that this park is located between the Interstate (I-84) and the Trains that follow the tracks along the Columbia River on both the Washington and Oregon sides.  If you're located at a camping site close to I-84, you will hear traffic noise.  If you're located in a campsite close to the Columbia River, you'll hear the train traffic from both sides that pass by frequently both day and night.  While this noise is most noticeable when sitting outside, it was much quieter inside our trailer, and I only heard the nighttime trains during the first night of our stay.  Plan accordingly.  We did have lots of tree shade, good Electric/Water/and Sewer connections, and the park hosts are very friendly and helpful.

 

Site B3

 While our arrival day edged up into the low 90's for temperatures, the next few days were met with high winds and rain showers.  We made the best of this situation by heading for the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Wasco County Historical Museum located in The Dalles, OR.  What a wonderful facility... with lots of things to see, touch, and explore.  They even have a live "Birds of Prey" exhibit, as well as walk through dioramas from the past to the present.

 Hey look... blue sky!

 Stuffed Mountain Lion display

 Great Horned Owl

 Red Tail Hawk

 Stuffed Snake and Coyote

 Karen giving a "Mammoth" hug to this display!  :-)

Wind Surfers

Not only is the Columbia Gorge filled with beautiful sights to visit, it also put on a show for us when the Sun set in the evenings.  

Sunset on the Columbia River

I also highly recommend driving the Old Historic Columbia River Highway (Hwy 30).  Be advised that this Highway is very narrow in spots, and I'd recommend NOT driving this highway with an attached trailer!!!  Both Karen and I had more than a few white-knuckle experiences, and were gasping every time we met up with another car while driving in our Dodge 1-Ton Truck!  Here are some of the sites along this awesome highway:

 Bridal Veil Falls

 Woman's Forum Overlook

 Horse Tail Falls

 Wahkeena Falls

Multnomah Falls

As always, we took a lot of hiking side trips, and I managed to capture a few flowers for you to enjoy as well. 

Hopefully... Summer and the warmer weather are finally here to stay, and we can all begin to have our own fun journeys no matter where they take us.  From Karen and I (and Abby Too), we wish you all Happy Trails!  Thanks for following along with us on our adventures.

Karen, Gary, and Abby Too!

September 2011 - Camping Trip - #1

With summer slowly coming to end, Karen and I headed off to Central Oregon, and camped at Tumalo State Park for the first time. We stayed in Site - 66C, which came with plenty of room and Full-Hookups, and also included a nice fire-ring for evening campfires. It was a bit dusty however, which is expected in this drier area of Oregon. Unfortunately, I never got a picture of our campsite (we ended up having to leave early for home), as poor Abby ended up with a ruptured anal sac on this trip, and after visiting the emergency vets in Bend, we decided she would be better off at home. She's is doing much better now, and has been on antibiotic's and pain meds. Her swelling is slowly going down, and she'll be good as new in another week or so.

During our short stay, we did manage to fit in a lot of fun things and visited with friends that were either camping or lived the area. One evening found us eating at a wonderful Bend, OR Brew-Pub called 10 - Barrel. I "highly recommend eating here"... only get there early, or you may find yourself waiting a while.

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Karen and I at "10 Barrel" - Note the size of our Steak & Cheese sandwiches! Yum!!!

Of course... Dave & Sandy helped Karen to find all the Sale items at a local "Quilt Store".

At our camping site, we happen to have a very curious Stellers Jay, that loved looking into the back trailer window while standing on the back ladder.

Our noisy Jay

With plenty of lakes and rivers nearby, Abby and Maggie got the chance to play one of their favorite games. We throw the stick way out into the water, and Abby swims out to get it. When she gets close to the shore, she drops the stick, and lets Maggie bring it in the rest of the way. They're great friends and buddies.

Abby & Maggie playing "fetch" together

Central Oregon has a lot of beautiful areas to see and explore. The Cascade Mountains seem close enough to reach out and touch them. On one of our daily trips, we drove the Cascade Lakes Highway. We stopped at several of these high lakes, and I spent some time enjoying my hobby of photography. Karen even jumped in by taking my picture with my cell-phone, as I was taking a pictures at Sparks Lake. I happen to miss a great shot of a Bald Eagle that flew right over our heads, as I was in the middle of changing lenses on my camera, but I didn't miss some other wildlife that waded out to the Sparks Lake island.

Karen took this picture of me with our cell phone

And here is the picture I took

As we were returning back to the cars, I happen to catch some other wildlife enjoying the day and beautiful scenery. Note where the arrow is pointing.

There is something at the far edge of the island. What could it be?

A close up of Mom and her Baby

Even though we had to cut our camping trip short, the incredible sights we saw during our stay will be remembered for a long time. Great food, Great Friends, and Beautiful scenery! It can't get any better than that. Thanks for coming along with us on this adventure.

A 5-Picture Panoramic (5 pictures were used to make this picture)

Happy Trails...

Gary, Karen, and Abby Too!

June 2011 - Camping Trip - #3

Karen, Sandy, Dave and I, just returned from our latest camping trip of the year. For Karen and I, it was our 3rd trip out this month. We did have much better weather this time, and didn't need to inflate a raft to get around the campsite. :-) We all ventured down to the southern Oregon coast (about a 4 hour drive), and stayed in Bandon, Oregon at Bullards Beach State Park. There is much to see and do down in this area of the coast, and we were able to take advantage of our good weather and spent each day touring and exploring. I've included more pictures in this edition than I normally do, because (as they say), "a picture is worth a thousand words", and it would be hard to capture all we did without some pictures.

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Site A48

Coquille River Lighthouse

Karen, Abby, and myself

The Southern Oregon Coastline

Some of the beach rock formations

Abby cooling off in a tidal pool

Looking out of a cave

Many of our daily outings, took us into the local features of this area. On one outing, we stopped by Floras Lake, where we watched the wind and kite surfers playing in the water. I also found some Foxgloves (flowers) growing nearby in bloom, and took a few moments to catch them in all their glory.

Foxgloves in bloom

A closer look

Floras Lake

Kite & Wind Surfers having fun

While on another trip, we happen to find these beautiful Tiger Lilies off to the side of the road, and I stopped to grab a few pictures of these as well.

Tiger Lilies

Tiger Lily closeup

For those of you who might drink cranberry juice, or have cranberry sauce with your Thanksgiving turkey, here is a look at where they may have come from. These are cranberry bogs where they grow the cranberry's, and when ready for picking, the bogs are flooded with water allowing the berries to float to the top of the surface, where a skimmer (picking machine) grabs them and sends them off for processing. There are a lot of cranberry farms located in this area of Oregon, and you may see them if you're driving down Hwy 101 along the coastline.

Cranberry Bogs

About 2 miles north of Bullards Beach State Park (along Hwy 101), is a golf area known as the "Bandon Dunes Golf Resort". I don't golf (except at Par 3 courses or Put-Put Golf), but I have to tell you that this is one classy course (actually 4 different courses). According to "Golf Magazine", the Bandon Dunes resort is the best public access golf course in the nation! Even beating out the Pebble Beach Golf course down in California (their words... not mine). While in Bandon, they were just starting the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships (both Men & Women). We were able to get a "Spectator" pass, and drove around the facilities to take a look. They were still practicing on Sunday, with the playoffs to begin on Monday June 27th for both the Men & Women's Championship.

The Leader Boards & Flags from several different countries

Both Men & Women practicing the day before the competition

During the last evening of camping, we always go out to dinner (so no one has to cook) at a local eatery somewhere. Dave had asked around for good eating establishments, and was told about one of those "Hole-In-The-Wall" places that you'll always find great food to eat. It's a good thing we arrived early (4:50PM) for dinner, as there were only two tables that sat 4 people, with seating available for 16 on the inside of "Tony's Crab Shack" (there is more outside seating than inside... but it had started to rain). I highly recommend this Seafood eatery if you're ever in this area!! Both Dave and I enjoyed the Smoked Salmon Alfredo (served with Ciabatta Garlic Bread), while Sandy had their famous Crab Sandwich, and Karen the Hot Crab & Shrimp sandwich. Yummy!!!

As always... I enjoy taking photographs of all the interesting places we visit, and with a last minute decision, we all ran down to the "Face Rock State Park" (a few minutes away), to watch the evening sunset. Below are just a few of the many pictures I took that night. The first photo shows "Face Rock" (for which this State Park was named) at the far left-hand side of the photograph. You can see a face looking skyward out of the water at an angle, and the forehead, eye, nose, lips, and chin are clearly visible. The second photo is a capture of the more interesting rock formations in this area, and their reflection on the wet sand. If you look close enough (just above the Sun), you'll see a wayward seagull passing through this beautiful sight.

Face Rock (far left) looking skyward

Sunset reflections

Thanks for following along with us on our most recent outing. May you all find your own adventures in life, enjoy beautiful sunsets, and share them together with close friends.

Happy Trails...

Gary, Karen, and Abby Too!

June 2011 - Camping Trip - #2

This past weekend, Karen and I ran up to McMinnville, Oregon to attend two family "Baby Showers" and Bar-B-Q's. Since we had stayed at the "Olde Stone Village RV Park" before in McMinnville, we knew what to expect when we returned to this very nice spot, and it was located within 10 minutes of Kevin & McKenzie's house. This made it much easier for us to attend the two different baby showers that were a day apart (Saturday & Sunday), instead of having to driving back and forth from Corvallis each day. Besides... we took long walks with Abby, looked around the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum buildings, and even walked into the NEW Evergreen "Wings & Waves" Water Park (which just opened June 6th), just to take a look. WOW!!! Karen and I will have to return this Fall or Winter when school is going on, so we can have a fighting chance at getting into water park for some adult fun! :-)

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Site #247


The NEW Evergreen Wings & Wave Water Park
(Yes... that's a real 747 Jet with water tubes coming out towards the rear of the jet)


Abby & I standing by an F-15


Is that Howard Hughes I see looking out of the cockpit window of the "Spruce Goose"?

We all had a wonderful time at McMinnville, and we can't wait to be grandparents in July! :-) I do recommend this RV Park if you plan to stay in the area. There is also a 1/4 mile paved walking path from the RV Park to the Evergreen Aviation Museum grounds. We watched remote controlled planes being flown behind the aviation museum (where they have their own paved runway), and there was a car show on Saturday in the back Evergreen parking lot. I got to see and drool over a lot of older cars restored into tip-top shape (especially a 1955 Chevy).

Until next time... Happy Trails.

Gary, Karen, and Abby Too!