Coming Home

We left Newport Friday morning, and headed down Hwy 101 South, before cutting inland at Florence. We drove to Yachats (don't you pity new-comers that have to pronounce our place names?) and stopped at this day-use State Park.

There was a pair of seagulls on the rocks above the beach, and I got a picture of the male as well as the two of them. His feathers were the prettiest silver-gray in the sunlight.

The female was roosting, with the male keeping guard. She was much whiter, with almost all white feathers.

There was a good view of the little town from this park, as well as good views up and down the coastline.

We also stopped by this bridge to view the rocks and breaking waves. Now I have to say that bridges have never been something I've especially noticed before. When you are in the car and driving along the road over the bridge you miss the whole view of the span and amazing work that went into it. Every little while there was a bridge and I got to noticing that. There are so many little rivers, and gorges that the highway could not have been completed without many bridges. In the museum we went to in Newport, they had displays of the bridges and info. Before Hwy 101 was completed, visitors to the coast had to travel North and South by coach or wagon, and wait for low tide to get around these obstacles by crossing on the sand. It didn't always work of course. So, that gave me a new appreciation of the bridges, what went into the making of them, and how important these are and how I have been taking them for granted. Sounds all too familiar. It is nice to have time to stop, think and appreciate the little things.

We drove to Roseburg, where we spent the night, then continued home Saturday by way of the Diamond Lake Pass. I wanted to pull off the highway to take a photo of Mt. Thielsen, but this is what the side roads looked like. There was still a lot of snow up there. Our late season snows are still on the Cascade Mountains, and the run-off will be later than usual.

As always, it was good to get home. I was delighted to see that my tulips were at their prime, and I had not missed them.

They made a real show against our back deck, and we enjoyed them for several days. After a week of 80+ degrees, they are gone now, but many other flowers have popped out to enjoy. We are going from winter right into summer it seems, and I'm ready!

The next day we hooked up our travel trailer and pulled it to Mt. Hood. I took this picture of the mountain for my grandson William, who told me that he couldn't remember what our mountains looked like. Yes, there is still a lot of snow up there.

We met our daughter Joy, husband Kirk and daughter Macy at Government Camp on the mountain. We unhooked and they hooked up to borrow our trailer for their annual Memorial Day rafting trip. Macy has learned how to 'smile pretty' for the camera! When we got back from that trip, we were finally home to stay...and came home refreshed and relaxed from a wonderful vacation. A vacation in every sense of the word. Thanks for joining me on our vacation too.