back home

[jinian]

Monday: Much driving: I-90 to Yakima, then south. Shopping for groceries. (Hosting uncle has very little spare money, so we ate in on our own provisions and subtly fed him too.) Grilled chicken, steamed corn, s'mores. Crummy sleep for all due to elynne's cold.

Tuesday: Toured giant obsidian flow and ate lunch, arriving at a mutual-entertainment pact with various chipmunkoids. Not only was the obsidian tremendously nifty, massive, and beautiful, there were natural bonsai trees growing all over it and frogs that apaprently migrate up the flow starting in August -- no one knows why.
We then found Lava River Cave closed for the season, argh, and it was agreed to do something else.
Sunriver's tiny nature conservatory was nearby (highlights: the "Whose Scat is That?" game; disabled but beautiful raptors).
Then we wound up driving on little gravel Forest-Service roads for hours on a dubious tip from nature center staff. We did find South Ice Cave and foolishly threw stones into the deep darkness enveloping the ex-ice. (Also foolishly, we had left the lantern at the house.)

Wednesday: Our plans to go to private land for rockhounding having fallen through due to date confusion, we went to Richardson's Rock Ranch as usual. Found lots of really nice-looking thundereggs in the Blue Bed, my uncle's favorite spot; I got several of mine cut and a couple are way over baseline nifty. Remind me to track down lapidary facilities in Seattle, though, okay?
On the way back to La Pine from Madras, actually a pretty long trip, we kids stopped at the Ogden Lookout, which is a viewing area with historical information about the train bridge, the first highway bridge, and the current highway bridge over a very big canyon. Signs reminding visitors of the 300-foot cliff abounded, and we found lots of great geological stuff to admire in the canyon walls, though we were disappointed that there wasn't any natural history of the canyon posted.
I had gotten people to explicitly agree to walking into the closed area by now, so we tried to find Lava River Cave, but the signs had been covered or removed on the southbound highway and we weren't certain enough of where it was to realize until we were way past it. Frustrating, but we were actually pretty tired by that point. More grilling, more s'mores, loud loud television. (hattifattener and I agree that if we watched tv we'd probably watch Lost.)

Thursday: Much driving: Hwy 97 north, west on 20 at Sisters, 22? to Salem after the pass, north on 5 but bypassing Portland. Mom would not be convinced to start down the Lush-to-Powell's-to-friends-and-relations path, alas. Carrots helped our ears pop. Fortuitous (it had never worked out for us in La Pine) and canny (signage starting at the highway led us three miles through town) A&W in Stayton, OR. Blackberry control and attempted river trails at rest stops. Then home! Yay! More driving soon: must pick bird up from Dad and will probably acquire food as well.