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…
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…
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…
Spokane After Missoula, we had big plans for Spokane. Unfortunately, the 107 degree heat wave put a damper on most of those plans. Our Hipcamp was interesting, though! We stayed at Hidden Acres Orchard and nestled our tent among a grove of mulberry trees. This was the first night we actually had the time and energy to set up our full camp, complete with our table and chairs. We used our camp stove to cook…
This is a longer update than usual because I’m combining two posts! I drafted the first portion of this post on May 26, 2023. “Dreamsearcher” Let me start this post off by self-identifying as a researcher. When I have a dream, vision, or idea I research the heck out of it so that I can bring it to life. I research my dreams–I’m a “dreamsearcher”, if you will. For example: Anywho, since we’ve been talking…
On our last day in South Dakota we explored three more sites: Wind Cave National Park, Mt. Rushmore National Monument, and Custer State Park. Here’s my quick opinion of each: Wind Cave National Park If you’re not on a mission set foot in every National Park, skip this one. It’s small and the namesake cave is not always accessible–during our visit, the elevator was broken so we could not visit the cave. Since we were…