Southern Oregon Family Adventures

Rafting The Rogue	Oregon Caves National Monument

My parents introduced us to Shady Cove Oregon a little community just North East of Medford in the Upper Rogue River area. It lies about an hour from the California border. It had become a new fishing spot for my Dad. My parents coaxed us to join them there for a week’s vacation. They promised there would be more to do than just fish. So we packed up and headed north. Our week was filled with plenty to do and more that we wanted to do but simply ran out of time. We’ve since spent 3 more vacations up there both during winter and summer. Here are some of our favorite experiences.

• River Rafting. Our family of six rented a raft from one of the local rafting companies. They supplied us with transportation to our drop off spot and from our ending location. They also gave us a dry bag and an ice chest for our picnic. We let them know we were all beginners and they gave us some simple instructions to follow. And then we were off including my Dad in his seventies, to my youngest child who was 5. The section is primarily class one and two waves. Perfect for beginners with enough white water to keep it exciting. There are places to stop and rest along the way and enjoy a picnic too.
• National Parks. Within a couple of hours drive from Shady Cove there are two National Parks to visit. Our first one was the Oregon Caves National Monument where we paid to take a two hour guided tour inside the cave. The tour boasted the climb and decent of steps that equaled a 23 story building. We weren’t sure we were up for the task but decided to “go for it” anyway. We found that the guide did an excellent job of taking us through the cave with plenty of resting locations where he would talk to us and explain what we were looking at. In this fashion we never once felt too tired to go on. In the Summer heat this is an excellent place to visit because no matter what the temperature outside, inside the cave it is always cool.
• We also visited Crater Lake National Park where even in summer there was still snow on the ground! After throwing a few snowballs we walked down to the Sinnott Memorial Overlook where we were able to view the exhibits and learn the history of the lake. The kids also took part in the Junior Ranger Program. As part of the program they were able to listen to a Park Ranger explain the lake formation and ask questions of the Ranger. They were able to touch some hands-on exhibits and in the end got a Junior Ranger Badge.

Crater Lake National Park	Oregon Caves National Monument

  
Both of these National Parks boast a historic Lodge. The Crater Lake Lodge sits right on the rim of the lake and has a magnificent view. The lodges have both casual and fine dining. They are adorned with period pieces, large stone fireplaces and log poles which bring back a feel of yesterday and our National Park history.

• Wilderness Areas. Some other wilderness areas worth mentioning are McGregor Park. Where the kids were able to visit the nature center and learn more about the local plants and wildlife. They even discovered a floating rock. Another stop we made was for ice cream was in Union Creek along the way to Crater Lake. We had heard they served huge portions for a great price and they lived up to their name. My children were fascinated with the Natural Bridge area along the way to Crater Lake. Here the Rogue River flows underground for a short distance in a lava tube. There is an excellent bridge to view this natural phenomena and a short hiking trail to explore. One more place that we were very enchanted with was Lake of the Woods. It was a great place to spend the day letting the kids swim. We also enjoyed nearby Lost Creek Lake and Joseph Stewart State Park for swimming and picnicking.
• Eagle Point Fourth of July.  There are many places in Southern Oregon to enjoy fireworks, but after experiencing Fourth of July in Eagle Point my family is convinced that Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Woebegone is in fact Eagle Point. Our day started with a small town parade and street faire. We posed for pictures under the covered bridge adorned with flags and visited the Butte Creek Mill where they still grind all their flour using the original mill with a stone shipped over from France in the 1800’s. That evening we went to the local high school football field and watched their fireworks. Before each firework is lit they proudly announce its hometown sponsor. You learn a lot about a place as you watch fireworks one by one with a particular community sponsor attached to it. We even met the Mayor’s wife who was seated next to us. The highlight of the evening though is the parachutists that float down over the football field with flags flying and fireworks blazing behind them. It was a proud moment for small-town America.
• The trip wouldn’t be complete without taking a day to visit Ashland Oregon’s Shakespeare Festival. Even at last minute tickets are able to be purchased for one of the many plays that are being performed. The clerks are always helpful to find an appropriate family friendly play. Before the play we always go early to explore the many boutiques in the town. We also make time to visit Lithia Park. It is a shady place with duck ponds and fountains along with a playground.

Butte Creek Mill in Eagle Point	Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Southern Oregon is filled with many places to visit. My kids have tasted blue cheese (and actually liked it) at one of the small cheese factories. We have visited chocolate factories, fish hatcheries, and old western towns. We’ve explored falls, and have gone on a jet boat excursion, all within a couple of hours from our Shady Cove starting point.

Photo Friday – View from the Swinging Bridge

We recently visited Yosemite National Park to check out the waterfalls.  This time of year they are usually gushing and raging full force.   The last time we visited the falls was June of 2010 at that time they were raging and gushing overflowing most of their natural streambeds. This year after 3 consecutive years of drought like conditions in California it is a good thing we went early in the year to view them.  They were magnificent but significantly less in velocity and power.  I imagine by June they will be down to mere trickles which is how they generally appear by late fall.  If you love to visit to see the falls I recommend you go now! 

Summer Vacation Is Almost Here And I’m Stressed Already!

It’s almost time for Summer Vacation and the famous question asked by all is “So, what are we gonna do today Ferb?”  Well, unlike Phineas and Ferb who supposedly have 104 days of Summer Vacation we have roughly 68 days and they go by fast.  It is hard to find the perfect balance of busy and lazy so that you feel your vacation was relaxing and yet creative and productive. 
I have tried many strategies to attempt to keep us busy with something to do and every year when it is time to go back to school it seems as though we barely had time to do the things we really wanted to.  I even have trouble comprising the list because I can’t decide how to prioritize the things I want to do. Does sleeping in trump getting up early to go the flea market, or playing with sidewalk chalk and the backyard hose beat out going to the movies and wearing 3D glasses?  Daytrips vs. parks and play dates which one comes first?  How can I have a perfect Summer Vacation when I can’t even come up with a plan?
Here are some of the places I would love to go for day trips this Summer:
1.  The San Francisco Ferry Building:  I have been wanting to go here for the past few years.  Every school vacation I say to myself wouldn't it be great to take the BART and go and check this place out yet, it never seems to happen.  One of the things that makes this trip so appealing to me is the ease in actually getting there.  This is an easy two block walk from the Embarcadero BART Station.  It is one of those hop on hop off kind of gems on the BART route.  There aren’t enough of those.  I think the experience of walking through the farmers market would be as close as I may ever come to walking through a farmers market in Southern France or some other exotic European Location.  I do remember walking through the farmers market in Germany with Mirja (my dear foreign exchange student sister) and her mom when I was 18 and boy do I wish I paid much more attention to what I was experiencing than I actually did.
2.  The California State Railroad Museum via Amtrak: This is a daytrip dreamt up by a mom with a little boy who loves Thomas The Tank Engine.  Of course my little boy is now nearly 12 and has pretty much out grown Thomas, but do you ever really out grow trains?  I still think we would all love this.  I have heard that you can take the train from Modesto and get off in Sacramento close to the train museum.  I’m not sure of all of the details but want to find out about how much this would cost and if it really is feasible.
3.  Lavender Hollow Farm: Here is another really simple and easy trip to fit in.  It really doesn’t even have to take a day since we are under 30 minutes from this place.  However, if you don’t act quickly you will loose your opportunity since it closes by the 4th of July.  I missed my opportunity last year.  I really want to take my new camera here and have fun just clicking away.  It might even be a better trip without the kids.  They used to serve a delicious lunch with every item featuring a lavender twist they no longer serve lunch but I hear you can still get their famous Lavender Lemonade.  A trip here was a birthday gift from Sister-in-law one year and I have always wanted to make it an annual trip.
4. San Francisco's Exploratorium, Presidio, and Fort Point: Steve of all people who only a few years ago told me he never wanted to go back to SF has expressed his desire to go back and explore these areas more.  Of course I am all for anything that let’s me explore and get to know SF a little bit more.  All of these places are in the same general vicinity and might make a great weekend trip too.  They are also a good fit for the age range of our kids right now.  A little bit of history, science, and beauty all wrapped up into one fabulous trip.
Those are on the top of my day trip list.  Maybe we will actually hit one or two of those.  The other things on my list include spending time with friends, camping in our trailer if possible, swimming in either my brother’s pool, bother-in-law’s pool, friend’s pool, community pool! Since we don’t have a pool we gotta take our opportunities when it comes to swimming too.  Play dates with some of my kids good friends would also be nice.  I need to encourage the friendships my kids are developing.  Finally, I do want to relax and have days filled with sewing, planting, and enjoying hanging out at home but the house needs to be clean first or maybe just maybe almost clean would be close enough, otherwise I might never enjoy those things.
What is on your Summer Vacation list?

Photo Friday–Yosemite National Park

In 2010 We took a day trip to the park on the first day of Summer Vacation.  The creeks were wild and rapid as the runoff from the melting snow had the falls at their peak performance.

Point Reyes Lighthouse & National Seashore

Back in February of 2010 we ended up here on the end of our spontaneous weekend adventure up the California Coast from the Monterey Peninsula.  We had meandered up the coast and stopped here only to find out at the visitors station that we were too late to see the lighthouse that day they would be closing soon.  The park ranger showed us everything she could in the visitors center and even gave the kids a free poster to take home and put on their wall if we promised to come back again another day.
Two years later we finally made the trip back.  The Point Reyes Lighthouse is one of the most picturesque which must be why 2.5 million visitors visit annually.  With the entire national park seashore it could easily be a weekend or summer vacation destination.  Although some of it’s peak seasons are January and March when whale watching is it at it’s prime season.  In January the whales are migrating south from Alaska to Cabo San Lucas.  In March they begin their journey back to Alaska.  From the observation deck we looked and looked for the misty spray that rises up from the sea which is the sure sign of whales, but were not lucky enough to catch to a glimpse.  There was plenty of other wildlife to see and we learned some interesting things about our early California history.

      Our overly friendly lunch guest                        Common Murres on the rocks

We got up close and personal with some Seagulls that were after Stuart’s lunch.  Since he happened to be the one most likely to leave a crumb trail.  There were also Murres, and we learned how the project at Point Reyes is helping to reestablish one of the largest colonies of Murres in North America.  We saw Northern Elephant Seals at Chimney Rock, the seals come to this beach semi annually to breed it is one of only eleven beaches in the world that they breed on.  The national park is also home to the Tomales Tule Elk Preserve.

The trip out to the lighthouse started with a shuttle from one of the visitor centers to the base of the lighthouse visitor area where we then walked up a paved road to get to the observation deck. This is where you can then decide to go down the steps to the lighthouse and explore some more.  There is a big warning sign that this can be a very strenuous climb back up, but who pays attention to warning signs.  The lighthouse was fun to see up close and I found it very interesting to see how small the new automated light and fog horn is in comparison to the grand old lighthouse.  However, on the way back up I realized that the warning sign was not kidding when it said strenuous.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it for awhile but alas embarrassment kicks in and you dig deep to find that all needed energy to make it to the top.  Did I mention that it is 308 steps the equivalent to a 30 story building.


   New Modern Mechanism                    308 Steps!                            The Climb Up
I was fascinated with the history of the Sir Francis Drake and how in 1579 during his trip to circumnavigate the globe he stopped in what is now Drakes Bay for 4-5 weeks to repair his ship and outfit it for the trip across the Pacific.  

                 Farallone Islands                                             Drake’s Bay
We also learned about the history of the Farallone Islands which sit just west of the lighthouse about 20 miles off shore.  You can see them on a clear sunny day.  These islands are much bigger than they appear and are a wildlife preserve for several species of birds and seal.  During the 1800’s San Franciscans used to go to these islands and collect the thousands of eggs that can be found here.  The residents were dinning on these delicacies and they soon became a very profitable commodity.  So much so that the wildlife was endanger.  A great controversy arose as to the collection and sale of these eggs even to the point of two men being killed.    Eventually Theodore Roosevelt had to step in and declare these islands a national wildlife reserve.

There was much to see and do at the national park and we didn’t have nearly enough time to see it all. 

 

Our day at Point Reyes and the climb back up with the kids

 

 

 

 

 

A Day in Yosemite

School is out and we needed a way to start our Summer off with a bang. So, we took off to spend the day in Yosemite. The falls are extraordinary this year due to the heavy rainfall and snow pack. Since we still have fairly young children we were looking for some falls that we could get up close to without having to worry about if our little ones were going to make it. We chose Bridal-Veil Falls and Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. Both of these hikes are well paved and easy to walk to. Bridal is slightly more steep but still under a mile. We started at Bridal-Veil. The path was partially overflowing due to flooding and we had to wade through it. The water was ice cold. Thank God we all had our water shoes on. I was amazed at the awesome power of the falls. We had to zip up our sweat shirts and wear our hoods to keep from getting completely soaked. The force of the wind felt like you were in a major hurricane when you were at the base of falls. Quite an experience. The day was sunny so we had plenty of opportunity to dry out as we hiked the easy trails around the base of the falls. Next up was Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. The hike to these falls is level and easy with plenty of picture opportunities. Once at the base they are equally as breathtaking and powerful as Bridal-Veil. The base of these falls makes a great picture stop if you can stand the winds and mist long enough to pose for one. We picnicked close enough to walk to the Indian museum and Curry village where we spent the rest of our afternoon stopping for ice cream before leaving the park.