The past two days have been all about California’s northern national parks. On Tuesday, we explored a bit of Redwoods National and State Parks. We hiked the Karl Knapp and Foothills Trail loop which led us down an easy, 2-mile path that meandered through groves of massive redwood trees. Coastal Redwoods are the tallest trees in the nation! Below the towering canopy was a plethora of large ferns and some trickling creeks. It was a…
Today we left the sheep farm in Oregon to head to our next stop in California, but not before exploring the coast. Saturday we met up with AC’s friend Joy. You may remember from a previous post we met her for lunch the same day we arrived at our Oregon Workaway. Anyway, we met Joy at her apartment complex, jumped in her car and headed west to the coast. Our first stop was in Newport…
This past Sunday was sheep shearing day! It was an adventure, to say the least. After AC and I got back from church, Andy (sheep shearer extraordinaire) arrived and we geared up to help wrangle sheep. Andy set up shop on some plywood that we put down under the lean-to end of the barn. He hung his shearing rig, which was surprisingly small, from a hook on the wall. Meanwhile, Samantha and I got to…
It was another fun-filled weekend in Oregon! The week was pretty typical with the exception of AC’s run-in with a yellow jacket nest as she was cutting down blackberry bushes. She got stung on the finger and one arm before she made out of the berry patch. Then, when she got to the yurt, one got her on the other arm. As she was heading to the main house for ointment, one got in her…
The drive to Crater Lake National Park, through the Umpqua National Forest, is beautiful! We followed the crystal clear North Umpqua River and the Clearwater River through a meandering path lined with tall fir trees. We arrived at the park pretty late on Friday, but we were greeted by a wonderful sunset over the mountains. After a few stops to soak in the pink and orange sky, we got our campsite assignment and slept in…
Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel, went to mass and then headed to Albany, OR for lunch with one of AC’s former Texas colleagues, Joy, who now works at Oregon State. Albany had a cute little downtown with restaurants, shops and boutiques. We wandered around for a bit while we waited for our table. We spent several hours visiting with Joy and discussing national parks. Joy, like us, loves traveling and hiking, especially…
Yesterday, we made it to Portland, met my boss for brunch at Jam on Hawthorn (really tasty!), then peeked downtown. We’ve realized that, with our limited time in these big cities, there’s so much to do that we feel overwhelmed. At least that’s the issue for me. AC just doesn’t like people so she hates cities 😉 We walked inside Powell’s Books – a massive bookstore – where I felt even more overwhelmed with too…
Today begins with a shoutout to Stefani D. who left us a comment a while back recommending a Planet Fitness membership if, for no other reason, to use their showers. That was genius, Stefanie! We did, indeed, get a membership a few days ago and it came in handy after two days of camping without showers! If anyone else has thoughts, suggestions, silly jokes, etc. that might make our adventure even better, we’d love to…
I had a beautiful 7-mile hike picked out for North Cascades National Park, but Mother Nature said, “nope!” Re-route! Due to some wildfire activity in the Lake Chelan region of the park, Maple Pass Loop was closed. Consequently, all my back-up hikes were nestled in the same region so those were off limits, too! So our first stop was the Visitors Center where we asked a Park Ranger for plan C. This particular park ranger…
Our first farm stay has come to a close and we could not have asked for a better experience. The Paradise Valley families welcomed us with open arms and taught us so much. From answering our endless questions to letting us join in on valuable hands-on experiences, Karla, Olivier, Paul, and Hiedi were patient and good-humored throughout our stay. Here’s a recap and some of the highlights from our stay at Paradise Valley Ranch:-AC got…