Vegas, Baby!

On By stefrobrtsIn travelLeave a comment

June ’23

In June my company, which is entirely remote, had a get together so everyone could meet and get to know each other in Vegas. They had a bunch of fun activities arranged, I picked a couple of the tamer ones – escape room, and the Pinball Museum. I was so excited to see the three pinball machines I used to own, even though none of them were actually on to play that day.

Oh, X Files, I missed you!!

The work field trip was fun, and it was great to meet my coworkers. The last day of the work party we all went to see the Cirque du Soleil water show ‘O’ at the Belagio, which was AMAZING! After the party was over Dave and I stayed a few extra days to get in a little more touristy stuff.

I took him to the Pinball Museum so he could enjoy it too. Here he is playing Wacky Gator

We had stayed at Planet Hollywood for the work event, but switched and moved over to The Plaza on Fremont Street for the last couple days. I really enjoyed Freemont Street when we had been there about ten twenty years before. It really still had a Rat Pack vibe going on that I loved. Quiet card table games, where Dave had been able to find an empty table and a dealer who took the time to show him the ropes of how to play Blackjack at a table. But wow, Fremont Street was not like that now. Every casino had the same personality, nothing unique about any of them. You could walk from one to the next and not even know you had changed casinos.

Dave found the shortest couch ever in our hotel room.

We went and wandered through the casinos and played some slots, and watched some shows out on Fremont Street. It was just a flurry of crazy aactivity. I did like how the buskers had designated areas they had to stay in, so they weren’t getting in people’s face as you walked by.

We went and had dinner in the Stratosphere Resteraunt one night. Dave does not like heights.

The food was kind of foofy for me, and huge portions, which we had to throw away because we wouldn’t use leftovers on a trip like this. It was worth it for the view. I love rotating resteraunts!

The next morning we got up early for a bus trip to the Grand Canyon. I wanted to get in an outdoorsy adventure while we were down here. I had looked into photographing Antelope Canyon (a famous place for photographers) but after reading the stories about people basically lining up to all get the exact same shot, I passed on the idea, and boy am I glad I did – it turned out to be a crazy lightning and rain storm!

So we were outside a casino waiting for our bus, and we were already annoyed because they had said they would pick up at the Plaza, but they changed to a casino on the strip so we had to Uber over there at 5 in the morning. While waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the bus, we got to talking with some folks who were also waiting, one of who was a lady from Italy who had done the trip we were signed up for the day before and said it was not great. Primarily because this went to a view of the Canyon where there is a big glass bridge, and it costs to go on the bridge, and you can’t take your own pictures, you have to leave your stuff behind and pay for them to take a picture of you on the bridge. Plus it’s an ALL DAY trip, longer even then we were expecting. And it was raining a monsoon. These were all signs. We got another Uber back to The Plaza and went back to bed until a decent time.

We spent the day be-boping around the casinos, haveing fun losing money on slots, and playing this cool old horse racing game with mechanical ponies.

We finished off our evening by taking an Uber over to the Neon Museum. I’m sure there’s lots of pictures online, but here’s a few, because it sure was neat, and of course everything was bigger than you expect!

The guide doing the tour was funny, and sprinkled lots of history tidbits in his stories. It was great! It will be so cool someday if they get the signs all restored and lit up!

And that was the big finale for us, so we were homeward bound the next day. It was great to meet my coworkers, and Dave and I had fun on our own, but I am definitly an outdoors girl, noisy crowds and buskers and slots and confusion and activity everywhere is definitly not my gig. I was happy to get home!

Crown Point

On By stefrobrtsIn camera, outdoors, photographyLeave a comment

May, 23

One afternoon in May we decided to grab the camera and go for a drive somewhere where I could get a scenic shot, and have some dinner with a view. We headed over to Gresham, Oregon, and swung by Abby’s Pizza, got a pizza to go, and then continued on to the Portland Women’s Forum Overlook – a beautiful viewpoint on the Historic Columbia River Highway. It has a lovely view of the Gorge all the way to Beacon Rock, and particularly nearby Crown Point, with it’s little gem the Vista House.

It was relatively busy at the overlook. Other picnicers and photographers were hanging around to see the view. I set up my camera and tripod pointed at the view, and waited for the sun to break out of the clouds and light things up. Things were pretty dull at first.

However, by the time we’d finished our pizza, things started to jazz up a little.

That’s more like it. The light on the wall of Crown Point really makes it pop out of the background.

Next we headed over to Crown Point ourselves to check out the Vista House. The sunset was pretty, but I couldn’t get the sunset and Vista House at the same time, and there were a ton of people around. Dave walked around to the other side to check out the view from there.

While I was waiting for him to come back, I realized the battery in the camera had died! That’s annoying. My Sony A7II DSLR really eats batteries compared to the little a6000 I used to shoot with, so I hadn’t stuck any extra in my pocket before we left.

Right about then the light got low enough to shine through the art-deco stained glass windows of the Vista House, so I grabbed my cell phone to get the shot.

It actually did a nice job! This is why on vacations I just use my phone instead of dragging a DSLR around anymore.

So I went home feeling accomplished, with a couple nice pictures, and a dinner our favorite pizza, eaten in one of the prettiest spots in the area.

Red Breasted Sap Sucker

On By stefrobrtsIn birds, photography, TheRancho, wildlife1 Comment

May 2023

This guy showed up in my backyard and I got a few shots of him. Apparently they drill holes in a tree, and then lick up the sap that runs out. So I don’t know if they are bad for trees (this guy was on my neighbor’s Birch Tree. I hope not! Cute little bird though, and he didn’t seem to mind me coming out into the yard to get closer for a picture.

Bird Photography at Ridgefield NWR

On By stefrobrtsIn birds, photographyLeave a comment

March 2023

One of my goals for this year is to spend more time photographing birds. I only have a 200mm lens right now for my camera, which is a bit small, but I think I can get close enough to get a few good shots, and that will keep it interesting to get started. For a target rich environment, around here there is nothing better than Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, and the auto loop. You get to drive a couple mile loop around the refuge, with room to pull over to spend more time if you want to, and photograph birds and animals that are so used to the cars, they will wander pretty close by.

Lots of waterfowl. This is a great opportunity to just enjoy them at the refuge, and come home and spend some time looking up what they are and learning about them.

Lots of birds coming and going. I love these geese against the puffy clouds.

You have to stay on the loop, and stay in your car! Or the little adorable birds will get you!

The refuge is also just a beautiful place to visit, with lovely scenic views and a quiet, peaceful atmosphere, broken up only by the occasional Amtrak train zipping by on the east end of it, and the quiet sounds of birds.

The stars of this visit were the Trumpeter Swans. They migrate through here. They are so beautiful and dignified – well, most of the time.

What’s up, swan butt?

Red-winged Black Birds hide in the reeds.

And Raptors hide in the trees – in this case a juvinile Bald Eagle.

Little black Coots.

A Great Egret

There’s always at least one good opportunity to capture a Great Blue Heron.

Red Tailed Hawk. They sit high up in the trees and watch over the wetlands.

And the big surprise on this trip:

An American Bittern, hiding in the tall reeds right close to the road, making a weird ‘buh loop’ kind of sound. Look them up on Youtube, they are really cool!

This guy says STAY ON THE ROAD and I think he means it!

A trip around Ridgefield is always a good use of time, you just never know what you will see!

Smelt Run on the Lewis River

On By stefrobrtsIn outdoors, photographyLeave a comment

March 26, 2023

Smelt are a kind of small, greasy fish, which people catch by dipping nets in the water as huge schools of them travel down the river by the thousands. People literally scoop up their limit of ten pounds in minutes and get out of the way for the next person to dip a net in. I have not tried it, as crowds are not my thing, and I don’t know what I’d do with ten pounds of fish!

But, as much as people love catching smelt, animals love it even more, because it’s a moving feast swimming slowly upstream. I heard from other fishermen that the smelt run was about to enter the Lewis River, near Woodland, WA, where it empties into the Columbia, and so we headed up there on a cold, rainy day in late March to see what we could see.

To my surprise, we saw: Pelicans!

Just like the humans enjoy scooping up the smelt, these guys do too, and they were built for it!

We also saw Bald Eagles!

When I was a kid in the 70s they told us the eagles were all going to go extinct from DDT poisoning. So even though the eagles have recovered and are not too hard to find, I still get really excited to see them.

And the biggest surprise – sea lions!

Look at those fat boys, feasting on the smelt!

So that was a pretty successful visit. I didn’t realize such a variety of critters would be hanging out waiting for the fish! I can’t wait to make this an annual trip!

Snow Day ’23

On By stefrobrtsIn navi, snow, TheRanchoLeave a comment

I fell behind a little bit in blogging – well, a year behind actually! So I am sitting here waiting for the first blizzard of ’24, and finally posting about the snowstorm of 23!

At the end of February we returned from our blissful Hawaiian paradise, to about 6 inches of snow. Welcome back!

I finally had a reason to try out my Wellies! We just don’t get a lot of winter weather, so the Wellies have mostly been for muddy garden chores. They did a good job though, kept my feet dry. It would have taken a lot of snow to get over the top of these!

Snow Dog enjoys snow!

The Rancho looks pretty dressed up for winter!

It blew so much that it coated the Airstream under its cover, and left icecycles hanging all over it!

Even our greek godess got a coat of snow. It didn’t stay long though, as usual around here.

Honolulu in February!

On By stefrobrtsIn travelLeave a comment

We were suffering through the winter blahs, as the Pacific NW winter dragged on, grey skies, soggy days, me complaining about work, Dave complaining about the theater. One day I said ‘I think you haven’t said a thing today that wasn’t related to theater work!’, and he agreed. And then he did something about it. A couple weeks later we went to have dinner with our friends, and he surprised me with a trip to Hawaii! Leaving the next day!

I love spontaneous trips! We always have so much fun! He had even gone behind my back and asked a coworker to warn my boss I’d be taking off for a week! He had plotted with our friends to figure out where to go! So all I had to do was wrap my head around packing summer clothes:

Me: So I should take a sweater?
Dave: No, it’s going to be 80 degrees!
Me: But it will be cold at night right?
Dave: Do you remember what 80 degrees feels like?

Narrator: She did not remember what 80 degrees felt like. Everything she packed was too warm.

So we headed to the airport, and we are sitting in the waiting area, and I can hear the neighboring gate calling out ‘First boarding special needs, families with children, veterans, first class…’ and I said to Dave ‘First class, I’d like to know what that’s like someday!’ Just then our gate called for First Class and Dave stood up and grabbed our bags and said ‘let’s go’, and I’m like ‘Whaaaa?’ He said ‘I got us first class for the flight over’!!!

Check out all that legroom! Big comfy chairs with tons of room to stretch out!

And fancy breakfast!!

What a great start!

When we got there we got a shuttle bus to take us to Waikiki, to check in at the rental which was right on the beach! Looking right down the beach you can see Diamond Head. And of course it was warm and beautiful, just like you expect Hawaii to be!

And the view from our condo 9 floors up – perfect!

Making ourselves at home

That evening there were fireworks over the beach, easily viewed while chilling on the balcony

The next morning we took a city bus to Pearl Harbor. This was one of the more confusing places I’ve visited, because you need to have tickets for all the different areas, and catch a bus to get to the other half of the displays which are on the military base. We were very confused about how to get to the Arizona, because there were reserved times, we had a ticket for the afternoon, and we were trying to determine if we could go see the Air Museum first, but when we asked a park ranger they advised us to get in line then, because the previous day high winds had cancelled all the afternoon visits to the Memorial. So we did that, and ended up going over there early.

It was a beautiful memorial, and very humbling to be standing directly over the sunken ship. It was also VERY WINDY and when we left, they got everyone on board and left the memorial empty, and I heard from someone later that they had had a power outage that afternoon, so we were lucky to get to see it when we did.

Then we caught the bus over to the Mighty Mo, and wandered around there admiring all the big guns above decks, the place where they signed the paperwork to end the war, and wandered around below decks until my claustrophobia said enough was enough of that.

Then we headed over to the Air Museum. I did not take a lot of pictures, but I did take one of the restored airfield tower, and cleaned it up for a nice peiece of art:

After a hot bus ride home we discovered Shave Ice – Dave may never be the same.

And of course every night we ate like kings. Calories don’t count on vacation!

Every night while looking for food we wandered through this really fancy shopping area with places like Rolex and Tiffany and a Tesla store. There was this cool shopping center built around a HUGE tree with walkways for the upper floor winding between the trunks.

Dave found a shirt he really liked there on one of our evening wanders but the store was closed because it was so late.

We went to the Aquarium the next morning, which was a nice walk along the beach, counting ABC Stores every block, and watching the surfers on the beach. The Aquarium was small but they had a really cool display of Sea Dragons. Apparently this is a Common Sea Dragon! Pretty spectacular for a ‘common’!

The Zoo was pretty nice (though I’m biased because I think the Oregon Zoo has spoiled me, and is the best!) and it had a big central courtyard with a GIANT TREE in the middle of it. Me for scale.

After wandering the zoo we stopped for lunch and were harassed by peacocks.

Designer chickens!

One last bus ride, where we got to chatting with a nice older lady from Florida who said the zoo was fun, but she got lost in the winding paths. We thought it wasn’t that complicated, but then she mentioned she stopped at the convinience store and pre-gamed her visit with a little liquor! Lady, it’s barely even noon! Boy did we all have a laugh at that! I guess that’s what retirement is like!

Then we picked up our transportation for the second half of the trip. Time to explore the island!

I would have preferred a Mustang, but it was this or BWM. Oh well, convertible is convertible!

First stop was a Buddhist temple in the hills above Honolulu.

I loved this place, I thought it was beautiful, and really peaceful.

We stopped at McDonalds for a Teri-Mac burger, possibly the messiest burger ever created. I did my best not to leave any evidence in the Merc.

The balcony had a view of the beach, a museum with an attack helicopter on the roof, and pickleball courts, which were pickleballing at all hours. It was so much fun to watch the ships coming and going.

If we were awake, we were on the balcony. They could have just rented us a balcony. What a view!

The next morning, a breakfast whale-watching cruise! I was not sure about this whole concept, because I have never been on a boat bouncing around on the sea, and certainly not with a belly-full of breakfast, and neither has Dave.

The captains of all the whale watching boats worked together to spot the whales and direct each other to them. We got to see quite a few whales, including a mother and calf! Hard to get pictures of them though! I was even more surprised by the flying fish! I thought that was super cool!

And we had breakfast and nobody got seasick, even though it was like riding a roller coaster sometimes. Pretty exciting! Oh, and Dave lost his hat. So long, hat!

When we went back to our car we realized we had forgotten to pay for parking in our excitement to get to the boat, so we got to figure out how to pay a parking ticket! After that exciting morning we headed up to see the Macadamia farm, and the beaches on the north side of the island. I cannot get over how pretty it is here, every curve led us to more beautiful places!

After lunch we finally found a nearly empty beach to stretch out and enjoy the waves for a bit and have a nap.

Dave picked up a new hat to replace the one lost at sea, only to have the new one blow off out of the convertible! His third hat of the day had a chinstrap!

Man, look at this scenery!

We ended up at this beautful beach at the end of the day. Blue skies, puffy clouds, blue water. Paradise!

The next day was a short hike at Diamond Head

The Pineapple Farm, Where we stood in line for longer than a Disney ride to take a little train ride around the farm. My feet hurt so bad from walking everywhere all week I was just in incredible pain standing there, then when I finally got on the train I just dozed off for the whole ride.

and driving out to the far end of the island to see what was there (lots of homeless people living on the beaches).

Saw a Jollibee and had to try it. I feel like their mid-afternoon offerings may not have been at the peak of quality.

Also – Hawaii traffic! Well, isn’t that fun?

Feet are so very tired…

We finally spotted a break in the people on the beach below our hotel and grabbed our towels and ran down to play in the water. He did wade out into the ocean, but it was too cold for me, I stayed on the beach.

For our last day Dave went back and got that expensive shirt he liked from the shopping center with the tree in it.

We drove around and had a view of Honolulu

Back at the airport, dropped off the Mercedes, and ready to fly home

Not in first class anymore

This was a classic Dave Vacation, non stop go go go, we can sleep when we’re dead! We had a great time, and really enjoyed the break from PNW winter. It made the next 4 months of winter go by a little more tolerably.

October in Ashland

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, dave, travelLeave a comment

Yeah, I’m really behind on my blogging. Must be because I’ve been distracted with SO MUCH COOL STUFF! No, It’s because winter has been really boring and I’ve spent so much time playing video games. It’s like spring will never come! But that’s a perfect time to look back at our last trip of last season, to Ashland Oregon, where we had tickets to see a few plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

We used to go to Ashland every year, sometimes in the spring and again in the fall, so we could see all the plays. Plus, it was a great vacation, we can drive there in a day without rushing, we camp at a nice county park, and it’s just an easy drive into town to see the plays, and then drive back out to our quiet park on the lake and our cozy trailer. Before we had the trailer we would go down and stay in a hotel, and it was so expensive to stay in a hotel and eat out the whole time, staying in the trailer is a big cost savings! Still, we went through some tight times after the 2008 recession and weren’t able to go for a while. Then they had focused more on musicals, which weren’t our thing, then we had the pandemic. We decided this was the year to get back down there.

The trailer had it’s new tires, and since I wanted to tighten the lug nuts a couple times during this first trip, I just ditched the hub caps entirely. Looking good! The Flex tows it like it’s not even there. Here we were stopping at Roth’s for some doughnuts for the road. Gotta have road trip snacks!

We got our trailer all settled into its spot at Emmigrant Lake, and headed down to the hardware store in town to find a few parts I needed. Because we switched to a composting toilet, I was happy to leave the black tank supplies like gloves out of the trailer, and I had fixed the trailer side connection for the grey water drain, but forgot to put a matching connector on the slinky – and this was the first time we had had a hookup this summer and needed to use it! So we headed down to the hardware store, following Google Maps, and it took us on a strange roundabout path into a part of town we were not familiar with, then around behind an apartment complex, then just stopped, leaving us looking across a field and railroad tracks at the back of the hardware store.

Google: Nailed it! You’re welcome!

So we drove around the block and found our way to the actual parking lot of the hardware store. Luckily we found what we needed so we could go back and finish hooking up the slinky.

The water in the lake was low – really LOW, here is a side by side comparison from almost the same camp spots, the left side is the mid-2000’s – definitly before 2013. The right side is now. You can see that’s the same mountain in the distance. Wow, that lake water was way way down there. We used to like to sit in our lawn chairs and watch the antics as the boaters put their boats in at the ramp. None of that now. There no water at the ramps!

That first night we went and saw a Shakespeare play that was very good, as always, they always put on quite a show there. We decided to spend the next day on a little road trip out to the Lave Beds National Monument in Northern California. We used to spend time there when we were in college at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, OR. So we thought it would be fun to cruise by the campus and see what had changed, and then go poke our head in a few caves.

On the drive from Ashland to Klamath Falls we took a backroad to enjoy a bit of scenery, and we not only got to see some roadside history, but we saw a flock of wild turkeys, and COWS! Yes, it’s open rangeland out there, so the cows have right of way, and you need to keep your eyes out for them.

We got to the campus and boy had it changed a lot. It was barely recognizable. We went down and took a picture at the fountain, definitly remembered that.

Walked by the dorms, they looked the same, but they had added more. Wandered through the student union until we were about to have cafeteria flashbacks. Decided we didn’t need that kind of trauma. Stopped in the bookstore for a souvineer for the trailer’s sticker wall.

Hustlin’ Owls!

We headed over to Abbys Pizza which was the hangout in college, it looked just the same, had some pizza and nostalgia before doing a quick tour of downtown and heading for the caves.

The drive out to the lava bades was down a dry and lonely road. It’s pretty amazing out there, it’s very very quiet. There isn’t much going on anywhere near there. It’s just wind and birds and the sound of tourists cars.

We went to the visitors center and checked out a couple flashlights, picked up a map, and went for a wander in a few of the easier caves. The caves here are from an ancient lava flow, which left tubes of lava as it flowed away. So many of them are big enough to stand up in, some are big enough to fit a house in, some you would need to crawl through.

One of the big ones

BIG entrance to this cave! See me in there?!

We should definitely come back and camp here and take our time poking around. We only had so much time before we had to get the flashlights back and head back to see the evening play in Ashland. The drive back was long and uneventful, except Google took us over a different highway that had a bit of snow at the top. No issues, but it was worrying us for a bit.

Ashland was pretty in its fall colors.

We saw three plays, they were all excellent. We spent a little time exploring. Had some nice dinners, and had some easy meals in the trailer. All in all, a good time was had. It was nice to get back to our old stomping grounds. Maybe we will get back to doing this more often again.

New shoes for the Airstream

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream2 Comments

I replace the tires on the Airstream every 5-7 years, because it doesn’t get used enough to worry about wearing down the tread. My only concern is sun damage and just plain deterioration from age. I’m pretty serious about this, because with a dual axel trailer, you can have a tire go flat and still limp to someplace where you can get it fixed, but a flat on a single axel trailer will be a much bigger deal, and a blowout on an Airstream has the potential for a lot of damage. I’ve seen people sustain serious damage to the aluminum sides and the underside of their Airstreams from a blowout. And as Dave likes to say, as long as the Airstream is rolling along behind us, we can make a good trip out of anything else that goes wrong, so we’ve got to keep it rolling!

It was time to get new shoes this year, but my usual tire guys were not much help. I wanted to replace my old steel wheels and go to something powdercoated, with trim rings and hubcaps, but they said they couldn’t get the right wheels. I tried the biggest tire place around, and after spending an hour waiting to talk to someone and explaining everything I wanted to do, in person, they never called me back, even after I tried to contact them again several times. So I finally turned to mail order, and found exactly what I needed on https://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/

15 x 6 black powder coated wheels with new tires mounted and balanced, and dome hubcaps.

They arrived all aired up and ready to roll!

The dome hubcaps are nice and shiny, but very thin.

My friend Scott came over and helped me install them. We moved it to the driveway so we’d have a solid place to jack it up. You have to be really careful when jacking up these old Airstreams and only jack from the approved spot which is on the frame behind the wheels, or the axel mounting plate. I always go for the mounting plate, because the old frame doesn’t need any extra stress put on it if I can help it!

And, tah-dah, the new wheels and tires look great, and I love the hubcap. The only downside is that hubcap is so fragile it got dented just from popping it on by hand. Anyway, it looks better than the old set, so I’m happy for now. And now I can swap one of the old wheels onto the spare carrier on the front, because the current spare is from 2004 and I really wouldn’t want to rely on it in a pinch!

Airstreaming at the beach

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, travelLeave a comment

For my next trip of the season, I headed out all by myself for the first time ever! Dave was doing a play, and I already had this club rally scheduled, and I wanted to go. I feel like it’s not fair to make Dave feel bad because I have to just sit home when he’s in a play, and it’s not fair for me to have to skip doing things I want to do while he does his stuff. So he gave me some lessons on backing up the little beast, and I packed up and headed out on my own.

First stop was in Newport, Oregon for lunch where it was so foggy I couldn’t even see the sea!

I had planned my trip to take this little break, stretch my legs and have lunch at our favorite spot at Nye Beach. I was a little nervous leaving the trailer parked over by the performing arts center, but it looked like the easiest place to park a trailer. Luckily it was still there when I got back.

I got to the park in Florence, OR, and the hosts had warned us all the night before that a scheduling mix up had changed us from each having our own spot, to sharing a big parking lot. This actually worked really well. All the tow vehicles were parked over in a corner, and we got to camp in a semi-wagon-wheel formation. It was great! The host helped me back into my spot, and we were all set!

I was the oldest trailer there by far that weekend. The whole point was to be a boondocking rally, which was more nerve wracking for some of the campers with new trailers who were used to having hookups. I was used to boondocking anyway, and have very simple needs, so it was no biggie for me. It got a little warm one day, but I popped open the windows and put on the awnings, and it was cool and comfy inside.

I went South on the first day and explored the dunes a little bit. I huffed and puffed my way to the top of a dune for a view up and down the coast, and even saw whales spouting not too far out to sea!

Then I headed down to the marina for lunch at a chowder shack on the marina, which was delicious, and walked around on the docks looking at the cool boats.

Also watched this bird successfully catching it’s lunch.

I have this plan in the back of my head that someday I am going to do a photography project where I go photograph all the arch bridges in Oregon, particularly up and down the coast.

I finished up my day at an overlook near my campground, and you can just see the dunes stretching off into the distance. What a unique part of the beach! This is very different from the Northern Oregon beaches that I am used to!

The next morning I headed out early to visit Heceta Head Lighthouse. I wanted to beat the weekend crowds, and it worked, there were very few people at the beach. I wasn’t expecting this, but there were tidepools to visit, and a couple volunteer rangers hanging out to answer questions.

A few years ago we heard a lot about the starfish suffering from a wasting disease that was destroying the populations off the Oregon coast, so it was nice to see these big healthy specimens. These were quite large, bigger than my hand! The rangers said they are recovering nicely.

I think they are really cool looking!

I hiked up the short path to the lighthouse. First you come to the old keepers house, which is run as a B & B now. It was a really cute house.

And then finally to the lighthouse, which wasn’t open yet because I was too early! I saw the ranger going up the hill as I was going back down!

I headed up to Yachats to visit a popular bakery (the line was out to the street!), had lunch in a historic pub, and then drove back towards camp, stopping at every wayside along the way. The clouds parted and it was beautiful! Also, the crowds weren’t nearly as bad here as they are on the Northern beaches. I think it’s worth the extra drive to have a little more solitude! This was on a beautiful summer Saturday!

Almost back to camp, I parked on this overlook and just relaxed in the car watching for whales. It was really peaceful.

That was the whole adventure. Every evening we had Happy Hour back at camp, played some cornhole, and sat around the fire after dinner chatting. The next morning folks started heading out and I headed out fairly early too, just so I wouldn’t feel like I had to rush. I stopped at a rest stop along the way, and another random Airstreamer pulled in after me and just waved to check and make sure I was ok with my little vintage trailer! Very kind! Later I stopped at another rest stop to cook some lunch in the trailer, and one of my fellow campers stopped right after me and said hello.

Finally I made it home and backed the trailer into the driveway all by myself, and it only took 3 tries! My first solo trip was over. It’s always more fun if Dave comes along, but it’s nice to know I can go out on my own if I have to also!