Monday, July 20, 2020 (I have to remind myself of the year since I'm posting over a year later), we did a river float in Ashland. I realized that I didn't have any shorts I could float in, so we scrambled to find someplace where I could pick up a pair on the way. We tried a Walmart, and the only option was bike shorts. Sick. I got them despite knowing I would never wear them again. The crazy part is that bike shorts made a comeback and have become all the rage, despite being one of the dorkiest and least flattering clothing creations of all time. Anyway Jim had to take a picture of me to send to Coco, in honor of her years-long bike shorts obsession as a child.
Wrenzy, in her white-face sunscreen, did some of her own scary posing.
The river float wasn't the most exciting, and the water was so cold that nobody jumped in as we imagined. The girls waded when we stopped for lunch. The guide brought hummus and other dips, watermelon, etc. He brought enough for a small army, and I was highly concerned that whatever we didn't eat was going to get dumped. Waste not, want not, and all that. But despite my best efforts, we didn't make much of a dent.
I believe Jim, Ever, and I did jump in the water at the taking-out point.
Tiny was very into the Bible she found in our hotel room and did a lot of fake reading. That night:
(Note: we were planning to camp throughout this trip, but since I had forgotten my sleeping bag and it was unusually hot, we just found cheap motels all along the way.)
The girls wanted Mexican for dinner, so we had asked the tour guide for a Mexican restaurant recommendation. He told us the name of a place. We went there. It was absolutely terrible, although Ever somehow liked her meal. There was a weird old bouncy house outside, so that was a bonus.
Tuesday, July 21, we got up early and hit the Mill Creek Falls trail. Oregon was experiencing freakishly hot weather while we were there, so we started getting up in the five o'clock hour to hike early and beat the heat. It's awfully nice hiking when it's cool and no one else is out yet.
It was a little chilly when we started. First we went to the right to see some falls, and then we went to the left to see the giant boulders.
My sweet Bear.
Wrenzy brainstormed her future babies' names. The top three: Fern, Rose, and Mary.
On how big she thought the giant boulders were going to be, and playing her little stick flute while impersonating an old person:
More flute playing (with Tiny joining in) and hunched walking:
We had a snack in the giant boulders area.
Jim scrambled up to explore. Then he took Ever with him, which was much sketchier than I would have liked. I was relieved when they made it back safely.
On the way back, Tiny collected every stick she saw.
Bear Bear pointed out all the ferns.
I didn't get "fern" videos until later in the day. She soon expanded to "leaf," however, and I caught a halfhearted rendition of that.
Back at the trailhead, we asked Bear to show us her "leaf" thing. The exhibition ended with her spotting an old piece of candy in the dirt, which she promptly ran to and tried to throw in her mouth.
Tiny, meanwhile, had hauled all the wood all the way out to the trailhead. She wanted to take it with us. Jim finally got her to part with it by telling her she could add it to the giant wood pile across the street. Somehow that was acceptable to her.
We made a quick stop at Rogue Gorge.
Then we drove around Crater Lake.
Next was National Creek Falls.
Tiny's face.
Ferns by Bear.
That night we stayed at a weird summer camp-type place that reminded me of Dirty Dancing for some reason. It seemed like an old-timey place where families would go for a week in the summer. The on-site restaurant was the only food option in the area. Not a bad view.
We read while we waited for our food.
Our room was not very nice, but it worked.
