A Full-time Life

A VISIT TO A MOUNTAINTOP (JUNE 2008) SUNDAY FAVORITES

I'm feeling a little sad because we won't get to visit Colorado on our delayed Fall roadtrip.  But our Colorado kids are hoping to visit us in Florida this Winter. 

So I am re-posting this -- one of my favorite posts about beautiful Colorado.   Click here to read all about our stays there.  Thanks to Chari for the  SUNDAY FAVORITES  meme, which gives us an excuse to share some older posts.  I loved getting a second look at beautiful Mt Evans -- hope everyone else does too.

(Visit  Skywatch Friday   for more views of beautiful skies.)  Here is the original post: 

Mount Evans is one of quite a few 14,000+ feet peaks near where our son Geoff and his wife Lisa live (and also near where we live when we're in Colorado).  But this Mountain is different from the rest because it has a paved road all the way to the top.  It is said to be the highest paved road in the world.

This is really a lucky break for us -- believe me, we're not going to be climbing anything that high ever.   Just getting out of Geoff's Jeep and walking around is enough high-altitude hiking for us. 

The wind was blowing very hard.  We really noticed the difference in altitude and temperature as we "climbed". 

We are glad that we got to experience a little bit of what it's like up on the top of the world.

Real climbers probably kind of hate that there is an easy way to get to the top of this mountain and I really couldn't blame them.  But this real mountain climber didn't seem to mind us being there as he looked down from his even higher perch.

The building on top of the peak (below), called Crest House, was built in 1939 and was the highest structure in the world at 14,260 feet.   It was destroyed in a propane explosion in 1979.  Only the outer walls remain; it's now an observation platform.  You can see for miles. 

Reading the warning sign actually made me feel good -- as if we were in pretty good shape just to stay alive up there!  (added note:  click on this picture or any other for a better view.)

WHAT'S ON YOUR KITCHEN COUNTER?

 

On  our kitchen counter after a trip to the produce market:  A honeydew melon, three kinds of winter squash, a couple of sweet potatoes, some miniature pumpkins, an assortment of apples, a basket of tomatoes, a couple of bananas (not local) AND

(not shown) ABOUT 900 FRUIT FLIES.

Where the heck do these things come from every Fall?  I know -- there's a whole encyclopedia or ten right here at my fingertips -- but I don't think I really want to know the answer to this one.  Happy Fall.  I'm going away now to put my produce in the refrigerator!

 

 

 

 

 

OH YEAH, I CAN DRIVE THAT (Remember Whensday)

  ( I haven't been sharing on ""Remember Whensday" lately because our scanner is not working. These are the last two pictures I managed to get done before the printer connection went gunnybags.  It's attached to the computer that will stay here when we go to Florida, so we're waiting till we get there to worry about it.  I'm taking photo albums with us.)

Those are 3/4 of our kids peeking out the window of our Greenbriar wagon -- sometime around 1968 or so.  This is the car we had when I first learned to drive.  I never saw much reason to learn before that and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into becoming a (semi)independent capable 1960s woman.  This was the year that Bill decided to go back to college and so if I were going to be able to go anywhere or do anything I pretty much had to get that license. 

This is me (not in the driver's seat yet) and our kids -- the oldest one, who wasn't in the top picture for some reason, is there this time too -- and a cousin or two and a passel of neighborhood friends.  We are heading off to the circus.  Remember when the grocery stores used to hand out free tickets?   The Greenbriar looked like a circus wagon itself!  And inside it probably sounded like one  -- full of noisy clowns.

This Wagon had standard transmission (remember those?) and I did learn to drive that without too many problems.  Except I could never put it into reverse gear.  (I borrowed a car from my parents in order to take my driver's test).  Now the funny part of this is that Bill thought, with good reason, that it was just me being a beginner.  Because he didn't have any trouble with it. 

Until one day we needed to borrow my father-in-law's pickup for some reason and so we traded cars for a day. When "Grandpa Al" brought it back he said quietly "Billy, there's something wrong with this (*&%) car.  It won't go into reverse gear."  Um --- let's just say that he didn't get quite the exact reaction from Bill that I did when I made the same complaint ;>))).   I guess the wagon was just a one-man car.  

I can't remember how we resolved this problem.  Bill probably fixed it -- as he has done pretty much every other thing that ever went wrong -- eventually!  The scanner's next on the list.

PUMPKIN WEEK

We went pretend pumpkin shopping at our local produce stand, Bush's Fern View Farms.  Just pretend because, although we certainly don't need a big Jack-O-Lantern in our small traveling home, it is still a lot of fun to look at a pumpkin field.   Remember trying to pick out the perfect one?

We followed the pumpkin trail from the stand out to the back field.  Here's one that would have made a good carver:

 

 

 

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The field itself was kind of weedy, but they sure had a lot of pumpkins.  I wonder what happens to all of them -- I don't think they are ever going to sell all of them. Mulch for next year's crop maybe?

It was fun and nostalgic walking around the field though.  We've been on our Fall roadtrip during this season for the last few years and only ever see pumpkin fields as we drive past.  So it was fun this year to admire them up close. I asked if they charged for looking and the owner just laughed. 

Here's some of what we did buy though (not all of them -- just a few from each of the boxes).  Yum.

 

    

We love to eat local.  And you've especially got to admire this family for taking time each year to plant and maintain  a whole bunch of beautiful hanging baskets around their stand.   

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  Bush's Farm is almost exactly between the side of the Lake where we stay and the other side where our daughter and son-in-law live.  So we get to enjoy the baskets even on the (few) times when we don't stop. 

Their season is almost over now though -- and we'll be leaving before too long anyway. 

Change happens (every season, every year). 

WORK AND PLAY AT WINCHESTER BAY

Fishing isn't much good on the Oregon Central Coast anymore for reasons that I don't fully understand.  But crabbing seems to be going okay, at least for amateurs.  When we were there last week, there were quite a few crabbers out on the Bay.  These guys getting ready to pull their pots are not very far out, right in front of the RV Park. 

This old crab pier is within walking distance.  You can see the ropes dangling down to the pots below. It's pretty gnarly off the end.

 

When we used to spend summers at WB, we did a lot of crabbing and we were pretty good at catching these "sea spiders." 

They aren't very pretty and preparing them isn't exactly a lovely process.  But fresh-caught Dungeness Crab are some of the best eating inthe world.  And it's good to catch and cook your own dinner -- and good for us to be reminded of where our food actually comes from.  (This picture is from 2005, the last year we crabbed.  The rest of the pictures are from our visit this month.)

Oysters are another delicious Winchester Bay seafood product.  These are cultivated commercially and are not available for amateurs to catch.  This is the Triangle, where the cultivation takes place.  It's about a mile from the RV Park. 

This trailer is full of oysters that have just been harvested.  Several times a day, it carries a load down the road to the processing plant, where you can buy them fresh (although it is mostly a wholesale place).  Crows are keeping watch on this huge pile of shells out in back of the Oyster plant. 

We love oysters and have eaten them all over the country, but these ones are especially good. 

Winchester Bay is a great place to spend time -- lots to do, see and eat.

FALL DAY AT FERN RIDGE

This is what Fern Ridge Shores RV Park looked like one morning last week. It had rained all night and was still gray and cloudy in the morning.  The Lake (Reservoir, really) is receding several feet per day.  Boating is over for the season.

  

Small summer pleasures, like sitting, swinging, and enjoying the view are over until next year too.  Now it's way too damp, cool and gray.

Fall brings its own kind of beauty, but it's hard to let go of summer.  So, it made me happy to see this in a neighbor's yard just before the end of the walk.  The last rosebud of summer?

A little bit of color means a lot on this kind of a day.  

  

WINCHESTER BAY

Salmon Harbor RV at Winchester Bay is where we stayed when we went to the Coast last week.  Over all the years we've visited the Oregon Coast, this is the place where we've probably spent the most time.  It's between Reedsport and Coos Bay (and about 30 minutes from Bandon where we drove for the day while we stayed here this time.)

Although smaller, Winchester Bay seems like a busier town than Bandon.  It is a fishing village (or used to be anyway -- commercial fishing isn't very good these days).  There are several good restaurants.  They aren't fancy, just good seafood, friendly people, the kind of places we like.   Most of them will close for the winter soon as the rainy season sets in -- we were just on time.   

We love the RV Park, because it has gorgeous views from anywhere you are parked.  Above is the boat basin and that's the view we had this time.  You can see some of the harbor shops as well.  The other reason we really like to stay here is that we can easily walk to the harbor shops and restaurants and into town for groceries.  Bill is resting stopping to watch the fisherman below the bridge on our way to grab a bite to eat.

We spent two summers at this RV Park while we were kind of making up our minds about whether or when to sell the house and become Full-Time RVers.  Well, Bill had his made up already; it took me a little longer.  And this beautiful spot helped me realize all of the advantages to living in a way that gives us more time to enjoy life.  

The picture on the right is half-moon bay looking toward the bay side of the RV Park (you can see some RVs parked there if you enlarge the picture).  

The sunset pictures were taken from that part of the RV Park, looking out at the bay and the ocean beyond.  There's really nothing not to love about Winchester Bay!

 
 SCENIC SUNDAY

 

   
 

LONG TOM COUNTRY TRAIL

 

These pictures are from a recent Saturday drive on the Long Tom Trail (in rural Lane County Oregon).  We went with our friends Donna and Sherm and had a lot of fun exploring a part of the Willamette Valley that we didn't know well at all. 

Even though we lived in this area for thirty years and still visit every summer, there are still new places to go right here at "home"!   This country trail covers some beautiful scenery and has a number of places to explore.  Some of these stops -- flower farms and fields, sheep and alpaca ranches -- might be best in the Spring, but there are several wineries on the trail.  Fall is a perfect time to visit those.

It was one of those Oregon days when the weather varied -- every few minutes -- from bright sun to clouds and spitting rain.  We were lucky because the sun came out each time we wanted to stop.  Our wine tasting was just meant to be!  

Grapes were heavy on the vines and harvesting and pressing were in various stages at each of the places.

  

We visited and tasted at High Pass Winery, Pfeiffer Vinyards, and Benton-Lane Winery. Pinot noir is the wine Oregon is most noted for.  All of these three also make good white wines.    

Another smaller vineyard, Rainsong, was closed to visitors because they were all busy with the fall press.    

The three wineries were quite different from each other in atmosphere as well as in the taste of their wines.  

High Pass is small and friendly, like visiting a neighbor and being offered a taste of their favorite wines -- which were really delicious.

Pfeiffer has a kind of dark formal tasting area, built like an Italian wine cellar/bistro.  Their wines are sold only on their premises.  And they charge for their tastings.  We know they do that now in California, but this is the first time we'd ever encountered tasting fees in Oregon.  

 Benton-Lane has a large bright and open tasting area, with a full wine bar.  Their pourers were friendly and very knowledgeable.  It is set up for parties and receptions, but is always open for drop-in visitors as well. 

(That's Bill and Donna & Sherm sampling the local products)

Good friends, good wine, pretty decent weather.  A fine Autumn weekend!

 

 Below are a couple of links for maps and more information about the trail:

Long Tom Country Trail

Travel Oregon

BANDON-BY-THE-SEA

 

Every Seacoast town where we've ever spent any time has its own special vibe.  Each is unique and each is a great place to spend a few hours of strolling time. Or just to sit and enjoy the view.     
 

Bandon is fairly quiet as far as touristy areas go and it has great ocean views. 

 

 

 

 

 

The town is surrounded on its non-ocean sides by farmland -- there used to be wonderful Bandon Cheese with a great factory tour.  But the brand was bought by one of the big-cheese conglomerates and the factory store sits empty now.  Sad -- we miss it! 

The crop Bandon is still well known for is cranberries.  You don't have to drive very far out of town to see the bogs.  And right in town is the Cranberry Sweets store.  This is a unique candy shop with plenty of free samples.   They didn't used to, but now the signs say "in anticipation of your purchase."  I guess they got tired of people just dropping in for a free lunch.  Not a problem in our case -- we always stock up.  It tastes sooo good!  

So we went to Bandon for the scenery and we left with memories -- and food. Our favorite kinds of souvenirs.  

   Boardwalk, Bandon-by-the-sea

OREGON ISLANDS at COQUILLE POINT

We went to the coast this week.    It is always a gift to have a few days to spend at the ocean.  Especially when it's October, and especially when the weather is like this.  These pictures are of the Oregon Islands Refuge.  It's at Coquille Point, just south of the town of Bandon.

   
 


All beaches on the Oregon Coast are open to the public, by law.  This one is a little bit harder to get to than some.  But well worth it! 

 

For more Water-related posts click here:Watery Wednesday meme

TWO CANALS

When we took our boat down the channel here on Fern Ridge Lake this past summer, it was easy to forget exactly where we were.  It's a day-dreamy kind of thing to do anyway and sometimes it reminded us a lot of when we were out on the water last Winter in Florida.  There really are some similarities.    

And a lot of differences.

 FLORIDA ALLIGATOR

 OREGON (not an) ALLIGATOR
 
And here is one of the differences:  We could tie our boat up to the "alligator" in the bottom picture.  Not advised for the one on the top.  

 

Click here for more water views (usually without alligators):  Watery Wednesday

CHACO CANYON REVISITED (Sunday Favorites)

 

Click here for more Sunday Favorites.  Thank you to Chari for providing this sharing site. 

 

 

This is a re-run for Sunday favorites.  It's about our 2006 trip to the ancient Pueblo culture center of Chaco Canyon.  This National Monument is in New Mexico, near the beautiful Four Corners area.  Since most of our recent posts have been about watery places, I thought it would be fun to see something from the dry part of the country, with its very different beauty and history.  We still hope, just as we stated in the original post, that we can spend some more time in this area sometime.  

 

Chaco Canyon was the first place to be made a National Monument (not a National Park).  We just learned about that from the PBS series.  I'm sure that bit of history was mentioned in the Monument's visitor center.    But there is so much to look at and so much to learn in these beautiful places that it takes more than one exposure to get it all.  Here's the original post:

  
 
The Four Corners area is high on our list of places to go back to, because we didn’t see nearly enough of the area during our first visit.    We did get to explore Chaco Canyon, a National Cultural-Historical Park. 

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The Chaco buildings were a center for Pueblo cultures  about 850 to 1250 A.D.  It was during that time that the Anasazi (ancient ones) began to settle into a more urban culture after what had been a nomadic existence.  Tree-ring dating establishes that there was a severe drought in the area beginning in 1150; by 1250 the buildings and area were abandoned.  Nobody knows for sure what happened to the Chacoan people, but Pueblo Indian people of today trace part of their ancestry to Chaco.  The area is a spiritual center for Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, Zia, and other Rio Grande Pueblo people.

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In the visitor center, we learned that archaeologists working in the Chaco buildings have uncovered evidence of advanced engineering and astronomy projects as well as artistic and architectural achievements. 

We toured Pueblo Bonito, a 600 room Kiva (ceremonial structure).   All of the rooms were for public use.  It was built over the course of 300 years.  Nobody really knows where their homes were or where the people went when the area was abandoned. 

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Some of the doorways that we went through were very small, so exploring the Kiva can be a little bit daunting.

 

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Here are some close-ups of the Kiva construction.

OCTOBER SKY

Just look at this!  Only two days after I posted about the drizzly rain, this is what greeted us today.  Sometimes they say if you don't like Oregon's Fall Weather, just wait a couple of days and it will change. 

But it is just about time to take the boat out anyway.  Fern Ridge Lake is a reservoir and the Army Corps of Engineers has already begun the process of drawing it down for the Winter. 

So we took full advantage of the perfect day for an end-

of-the-season afternoon on the boat.      

 

Click here:  Skywatch Friday for skyviews from other places all over the world.