Oregon in October

One of the best aspects of our trip so far is the number of wonderful family and friends we have been able to see on our trip and Oregon perhaps wins the prize for most number of friends seen from the different chapters of our life.  Within the first few minutes of driving across the border from Washington we had a delicious Thai meal and very sweet reunion in Portland with friends from Malaysia (Scott and Jamie Muir) and Dubai (Matt and Karen Stevens and their two boys) all in a brief couple of hours.  

We then drove to Bend, Oregon where we happily stayed several days with Margo MacDonald, another dear friend from camp, and enjoyed the close vicinity to Smith Rock State Park.  While we had seen some spectacular pictures of Smith Rock State Park before our visit, mountain biking around the park gave us a completely new appreciation of the terrain from a variety of different perspectives.  Ethan in particular enjoyed riding along the narrow path close to the river and if you know Ethan, you also know that when he enjoys something there are these wonderful shrieks of hooting and hollering that emanate from his body which somehow makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable.  Once we hit the back side of Smith Rock, all of us had to use every bit of our energy to bike up, (and admittedly also walk the bike up), the 1000’ of switchbacks to then see the entirety of the park from above, difficult but worth it in the end.  The next day we were back for more at Smith Rock and spent the whole day finding a variety of different ways to climb up the face of Smith Rock. Grant challenged himself with some more difficult lead climbing and Ethan really became more confident with each climb, so we maximized the day -something that seems to happen quite regularly when you spend your day with Ryan Carey - and hiked the steep path out of the park as the sun was setting, enjoying another beautiful vantage point of the park.  ​

After Bend, we spent several days in Corvallis with Shannon Finley, one of my closest childhood friends, and her beautiful family.  Our children had’t seen each other in several years and had never really gotten to know each other during our previous short visits, but you would have never known it.  Grant, Ash, Ethan and Ayla palled on up and had the best time all weekend from mountain biking at the terrain park, playing ‘Bloody Wolf’ in the dark of the night (with their parents might I add), bouncing on the trampoline, hiking, and just simply playing outside with the neighborhood kids. Delicious food, wonderful connections with Shannon and Geoff, and especially finally seeing where Shannon and Geoff live in Oregon made the weekend so very enjoyable.  ​

Our next destination was to the southern Oregon coast, and while Crater Lake National Park wasn’t quite on the way, we still made it a priority to get there.  While it was the boys and my first trip to the park, Ryan had been there years earlier when working at Klamath Falls and had visited the park when there was over 270 inches of snow on the ground in early December.  Situated at over 7000 feet in elevation, Crater Lake is a natural snow magnet accumulating regularly more than eleven feet a year.  While the lake had not received any snow yet, the water looked spectacularly beautiful with it’s bluish green color somehow magnifying the crisp, cold fall day. It’s hard to imagine what the Klamath Native Americans must have thought when they witnessed the original volcano exploding a little over 6000 years ago, but needless to say the end results are truly a wonder to the eye today.  Grant, Ryan, and Ethan decided to end their visit to Crater Lake by biking down from the rim and I happily obliged them by driving the car in the 42 degree weather, picking them up several miles down the road slightly chilled but happy nonetheless.   ​

Leaving Crater Lake late in the afternoon meant that we did not get to the coastline until after dark, however, we had heard some great things about the little town of Bandon and were ever hopeful to get some fresh seafood for dinner.  As luck would have it, we pulled into town at 6:56 PM and when most everything seemed to have already shut down, Ethan and I made it to the only crab shack that still had lights on by 6:58 and successfully got our order in before they closed at 7:00.  We hungrily devoured some delicious clam chowder, crab cakes and fish tacos at Tony’s Crab Shack- a cute little restaurant/shop located right by the harbor that I highly recommend to anyone visiting there.  This day could be the longest day yet of the whole trip as we still hadn’t made it to our final destination of Cape Blanco State Park, the furthest most western point of the continental USA, so we loaded back into the Bumble, started driving further south and a couple of hours later, well into the sleeping hours of the night, finally heard and saw the Cape Blanco lighthouse.  Playing in the sand, biking to the lighthouse, walking/running/biking on the beach, searching for salmon, watching the waves roll in, basking in the fall sun, and finding whales right off the coast was a magical way to end our last few days in Oregon.   I would happily come back for more when we can.   ​