Azalea Park, Harris Beach

Mon June 7
Azalea Park in Brookings, Oregon, was our first stop back in Oregon again. We missed the Azalea blossoms, but enjoyed speculating about the gopher holes in their lawn. You see gopher mounds all over the place on the west coast, almost as common as liberal Democrats. But we both laughed when we saw a man with a metal detector digging up the lawn and realized some of the mounds might be from two legged gophers.

Harris Beach State Park in Brookings, Oregon has a beautiful beach and outlying rocks as is typical of the entire Oregon Coast. We set up camp and then strolled down to the beach to take pictures. A youth group arrived and it was fun watching them play in the chilly ocean waves. We even had to time it just right between waves to get around a large rock to a different beach. (Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amanderson/2587433312/)

Stout Grove, Trees of Mystery

Sun June 6
There is a tourist trap called the Trees of Mystery store-museum, in Kalamath, California. You can visit their Indian artifacts museum in their gift shop for free and it has a lot of interesting things about several different Indian cultures. There is a talking statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe his blue ox—actually, only Paul converses with you—and it is not a recording. Ever talk to a giant statue before? But the most impressive giants in these parts are the trees.

The road to Stout's Grove is gravel and this time of year pave with many potholes. The Stout Grove is an old-growth (unlogged) stand of redwood trees in extreme northern California. These sequoia are taller than any other living beings. Their cousins farther south grow bigger in circumference, but this species grows tallest in Redwoods State and National Park near Hiouchi, California. BJ and I hiked several hundren yards along a path called "Scout Trail" in a very wet and foggy forest. We also took a loop trail down by the river named after the logger who preserved this stand of sequoias. It sure rains and fogs a lot on the west coast this time of year.

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sapphir3blu3/3366260854/)

Glass blowing, great cats, Oregon Caves

Sat June 5
We visited a Glass Factory, in Grants Pass, Oregon, where we learned that glass is both a great temperature insulator and expands and contracts quickly which makes it break if cooled or heated too fast. I had not known glass blowers have kilns to keep their work warm and let it cool slowly.

The Great Cats World Park teaches that cats can purr or roar but not both because they have bone or cartilage in their throat. They also said different varieties like or dislike water. They claimed ocelots do not like water.

Oregon Caves was found by a hunting dog chasing a bear. I've never been in a cave where they failed to turn off the lights to prove how dark it is. The Oregon caves are different because they are mostly the metomorphic rock of limestone called marble. But there were two spots in the cave that also had igneous and sedimentary at the same time.

The park has a cool old log lodge you see in the picture. But all you see is the top half because the bottom three stories are below the bottom of the picture. (Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grampymoose/3036746628/)

Crater Lake, Rock Museum, Shakespeare

Fri June 4
Every time I've been to Crater Lake, Oregon, it has been beautiful and snow packed. This time was no exception, and included some fog. It was so cold up there I just had more fun watching a pair of scantily clad young women pretend they were not cold as they clambered about on ten foot snow drifts, and I admired their endurance. (Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobrpics/3121273475/)

Crater Rock Museum, in Central Point, Oregon bragged about their thunder eggs (geode-the official state rock) but I was more impressed by the room full of petrified wood types. They identified petrified palms, oaks, willow, fig and many other tree types. I was also impressed that they encouraged and taught school groups about rock collecting.

The Shakespeare Festival, in Ashland, Oregon was going and we saw Twelfth Night (or As You Like It) Apparently the "Twelfth Night of Advent" is a Saturnalia in which servants become slaves and vice versa so all society is confused. In the play the upper class are foolish or fanciful and the lower classes mostly are genuine and wiser. The line about some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them has a much different kind of meaning than I would have supposed. The wisest in the play is the fool, and the steward is the bad guy. It was comical and enjoyable, and boy oh boy did Shakespeare have different ideas about sexual innuendos than we allow today.

Chinese Garden

We went back to Fort Stevens this morning to look for the fire control hill which we missed last night. It was about 150 meters farther down the trail. It consisted of one main taller bunker, and three smaller ones to the side. There were also some concrete living quarters back behind the bunkers. The main bunker still had its top and you could see the columns where the telescopes or triangulation instruments were once mounted. I went inside to get a feel for the view. There were trees between us and the beach so we could not see the ocean from the fire control hill. BJ and I concluded the trees must have grown after the battery was de-commissioned.

In Portland, Oregon, we stopped to see the Chinese Garden on Everett and 3rd Avenue. It was the most beautiful work of art I have ever seen anywhere, anytime. It took up a small city block and was surrounded with a white wall about 2 ½ meters high with frequent square window openings about one meter wide. Each opening had a different simple but intricate fill pattern wide enough to see the outside city, but too small to allow intruders entrance. From the beautiful tile roofs and eaves with oriental pointed corners, to the geometric shaped tiles actually made of scores of thin pebble disks packed tightly sideways within differing patterns of border rocks forming the alternating geometric patterns for the floors every square inch was beautiful, simple and intricate all at once. Every building, every rock (large river carved stones full of holes and gouges), every green plant, every flowering plant, every border, every window, every path, every courtyard, every opening, every gate, and every fragrance was chosen for its simple and elegant quiet beauty combined other elements to also make it intricately interesting and peaceful at the same time. Whether as a whole or just a few square inches at a time on every scale everything was gorgeous. The scholars' study room with its artistic calligraphy and pictured hanging scrolls and elegant but simple furniture including goldfinch birdcage was wonderful. The shallow central lake with coy and two mallard ducks was bridged twice. Bridges were formed in many beautiful varieties. Gorgeous carved wooden Chinese art panels of gardens like you might see on blue Chinese porcelain adorned two areas in particular, but everywhere most walls had beautiful carved geometric panels. The tea room was filled with oriental smells and music. The whole was shady and cool, but had open areas where the sun and sky and surrounding skyscrapers were also beautiful. Even a pair of ospreys soared overhead to entertain bird lovers. When God commanded us to dress and beautify the garden, I know about no better fulfillment done anywhere than here in Chinatown in Portland, Oregon. (Image sources: Top http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktylerconk/2944215821/ Middle http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdsworld/2272118222/ Bottom http://www.flickr.com/photos/awarmplace/1805793410/)

I'll start adding some old installments of events from earlier in the trip:

Wed June 1, 2010
When I think Nevada I think desert and casinos. Dry, and gaudy bright lights are what I think. But this trip started with a surprise. Just north of Winnemuca I discovered the amazing Humboldt River. I expected a dry arroyo bed, or at most something like the two inch deep Rio Grande. What I saw was a wide meandering green strip of flowing water at least 100 meters wide. And most of all lush greenness as it lazily meandered below the dunes. It was my first insight into what an oasis might be.

Thu June 2, 2010
Northern Nevada is much greener than expected. It was southwest Oregon that seemed dry to me. But Kalamath Falls is in the mountains and very wet indeed. The Kalamath County Museum discussed the Modoc War in which General Canby was killed (assassinated) by Indians at a peace parley. They retreated to lava bed strongholds and a few held off a much larger army for a long time before they gave up and were hanged for their troubles.

The Favell Museum of Western Art and Artifacts, Klamath Falls, Oregon boasts an arrowhead carved of opal long ago by Indians. It is about ¾ of an inch log and beautiful. I was also impressed with the oldest atl-atl ever found in North America with a seven-inch long rock weight tied to the handle for balance and heft. The museum had many beautiful paintings, many miniatures and many arrowhead displays. BJ particularly liked a painting of a fox in the snow. The collection seemed to boast one or two paintings or sculptures from almost every western artist of any note (and there were probably about 40 of them).

Lewis and Clark, Maritime Museum, WWII in Oregon

We tried to see the annual sand sculpting contest at Cannon Beach, Oregon, but all we could find was cold mist and windswept beach without any contestants. So on the way north I saw a sign that said Lewis and Clark Salt Works. I remembered from Fort Clatsop years ago with the kids that some of the men in the Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery had boiled sea water to get salt. So when we followed the tourist signs through the middle of a modern town named Seaside we found a recreated oven where three men kept five kettles boiling night and day for about a month in order to get several bushels of salt. They needed the salt to cure meat (mostly elk). The recreation was a tube of rocks about a meter high and about ten or twelve feet long. It had five pots on top. I wondered if the original tube would have been oriented to the wind to help stoke the fires even hotter. An old Indian had shown his granddaughter where the saltwork was at because he had seen the men working there. The granddaughter grew up and in 1905 showed the historians where he pointed.

We then moved on to Fort Clatsop itself. I had not realized they were not exactly sure where it was but could guess it must have been nearby. I enjoyed visiting the spring and the river landing. I was surprized to learn that a beached whale had been found on the very beach where we had looked for a sand sculpting contents in vain and the Corp of Discovery traded the Indians for some of the blubber. It was interesting to see the list of Clark's descendants and to see how quickly after the expedition most of the participants died.

The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon, was amazingly good. The most dramatic exhibit is a Coast Guard motorized rescue boat used for many years in heavy surf around the Columbia River mouth (graveyard of the Pacific). By volume the Columbia is second largest river in North America and its mouth where ocean current and river current meet is unusually treacherous. The boat is shown tilted on a wave with manakins for crew. This tilt is about 30 degrees and you can walk right up and touch it. Standing there seeing this at such a steep angle on the wave MAKES you think about how brave the Coast Guard must be when rescuing people. We have often seen and heard Coast Guard planes and helicopters the last few days here on the Oregon Coast. The museum also told the story of the WWII ship Astoria sunk in action off Savo Island near Guadalcanal. And I also enjoyed the light ship (a lighthouse boat) we got to board and see inside and out at the museum.

Finally, from the museum we learned about many shipwrecks and one was just across the street from where we camped at Fort Stevens, Oregon. We went to see the wreck of the Iredale a large steel ship on the beach. On the way back to camp I saw a sign for Battery Russell and got to wondering if that wasn't the place the Japanese submarine shelled in WWII. Sure enough it was. At war the sub got off 17 rounds but the battery commanders decided not to return fire so as not to give away their position. They have added a nice peace memorial to the old cement battlements. It was so far from the beach it is hard to imagine how they could see it because of the dunes and the trees in the way. But it turns out their fire directing hill was away from the battlements we saw. My face is sunbured. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cavalierco/2966089246/

If you liked this post, please comment and let me know. I'll try to keep you up-to-date on our vacation if you seem interested.

Witnesses of Resurrection

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Romans 8:16

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the Word

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the One Light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

by Eleanor Farjeon