Vacation 2012 Returned Home

We have just returned from ten wonderful days of vacation in Northern California and Southern Oregon. I kept a daily art journal filling 25 pages of painted drawings.

I enjoyed drawing and painting what we did each day and writing my thoughts and feelings.

I will share the journal with you over the next couple of days.

We left after dropping Henry V off at Pampered Pets. He was not at all happy to find himself in a three shelf Condo with windows, even though we got him a deluxe room. You can see his reaction hanging onto the V in vacation!

 I think the pages tell the story: Lunch in Dunsmuir outside on a picnic table under a bridge...

 First stop in Ashland, Oregon where we had a day and night with my dear cousin Betsy, who is 89 years young. I kid you not, she can out-hike me easily and did! She is my father's niece and only one of a few remaining relatives on that side of my family. She has a great sense of humor and we enjoy talking and laughing with her. That's DH's reflection in a mirror behind her as she answered a phone call.

We left Betsy, but knew we'd visit again on our way back. We headed to our next stop at
 Crater Lake.

This is truly one of the most beautiful wonders of the world. Mt. Mazama once stood 10,000-12,000 feet tall. When 7,700 years ago a volcano erupted and left this amazing crater. The crater was filled with 4.6 trillion gallons of water from rain and snow. My humble rendering from the view from the lodge.

We drove around 3/4ths of the rim of the crater. Part was closed by snow still. There was some snow on the ground, which was pretty, but did not get in the way of walking comfortably around the outer rim. Nor was it cold. I will post some of the hundreds of photos I took later.

We spent one night in a cabin there. Ate breakfast and lunch at the big lodge with its rustic heavy furniture. Sat in the big rocking chairs on the outer deck overlooking the lake. It was nice to be there for a full 24 hours seeing mist in the morning cover the lake and sun come out later allowing all to glow in it's shine.

The next day we left for Roseburg to visit our friends there. Tune in tomorrow for more of our trip!
Now to catch up on all I missed on your blogs while we were gone!
Oh, and DH has gone to pick up Henry at his pet condo. I hope he's still speaking to me when he gets home. (The cat, not the husband, I know he'll talk to me) :-) We had such a fun and relaxing time together! Traveling with a retired husband is a lot of fun!