May 17-22, 2024 Eugene, Oregon

 72 and partly cloudy with wind.

We had dinner with Scott and Leslie. Happy hour in front of the Hip Hop house in the backyard. Leslie made yummy enchiladas. It was great to see them.  Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds near sunset. They are like ocean waves. 

Sunsets.

Sunset Weds. Mostly it has been raining since, so no sunsets. Another masterpiece. This one is made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and the center is a piece of glass I fused. The center has a tiny dichroic paw print on it. It is 10 1/2 x 2 inches. 

The RV spent the week getting maintenance. Not sure when it will be done. It is third from the left. Kind of dwarfed by the much larger newer coaches. It cleared up this afternoon, so we took a nice walk. Field by the airport. 

Sunset tonight. 

Sunset the next night. Friends with Rhody at the Hip Hop House. 

Mural of Ken Kesey in Springfield. Simpson's mural in Springfield. 

My angel husband.  John and Leslie on the yellow brick road. 

Sunset Tues night. The bus at Oregon Motorcoach. It is almost done! We are going to stay here over the  weekend, we would not be able to find a place to stay over the holiday weekend.

The shop dogs at Oregon Motor Coach. Roxy, Rip and Lillie. Sunset. 

May 8-9, 2025 Honeyman State Park, Florence to Eugene, Oregon

 62 and mostly sunny.

Sunset last night. I climbed the dune by the campground and got a marginal view of it. We went for a hike in the Oregon dunes behind the park. Oregon dunes national recreation area. The dunes are one of the largest expanses of temperate  coastal sand dunes in the world. The scotch broom bushes are stunning.

 A small lake in the dunes with more yellow scotch broom. Looking back at Cleawox lake and the small dune lake.

 

John on the dunes. The wind was blowing pretty hard and peppering us with sand. The soft  sand in areas makes it real work to climb the dunes. You can drive on the dunes. Lots of ATV's and tracks on the sand. The wind covered most of the tracks, but some were still visible.  

Beautiful Oregon Dunes.  ATV on the dunes. You can see the ocean in the distance over the trees. There is really dense forests and marshes between the dunes and the ocean. 

 Heading back to camp. John on the way back. 

The yellow scotch broom and the blue sky were spectacular.  Cleawox lake. 

Sunset over Cleawox lake. The ATV's are no allowed in the campground yet. Later in the year they open up an access to the dunes from the park and some loops allow ATV's. Huckleberry blooms, water lily on Lily lake, strawberry and scotch broom flowers, raven and some tiny 3 inch lily pads riding the waves. 

Cleawox lake after sunset. Gibbous moon. 

The trail back to our campsite. I finished this basket. It is made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass and stone beads. The center is a piece of slate that I sandblasted and painted a raven on. There is a tiny raven charm over the left blue bead. It is 13 x 10 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. 

We are now parked at Oregon Motor Coach in Eugene, Oregon. We are going to get maintenance done next week. We saw our friends Leslie and Theo- Epiphonic perform tonight.

Leslie and Theo. They were wonderful as usual. Had a nice dinner and saw lots of friends. Sunset tonight.

May 4-6, 2025 Cape Blanco to Honeyman State park, California

 55 and sunny,

We hiked on a horse trail I found. We walked along a wooded ridge, got a nice view of the ocean. 

The trail headed down from there. John with iris. The trail came out right on the beach. 

Tide was low, so we walked awhile on the beach. The road to the right goes up to the campground. Water left by the receding tide on the beach

Lot of warnings and things you can't do on the beach. Sunset. 

I was standing near the cliff lining up  a photo and this deer jumped up from below the cliff right in front of me and ran off. You can see it under the sun. Sunset. 

Coastal iris, silky beach pea, spring pea vetch, dwarf strawberries and a weird cloud from sunset. High of 61 and sunny.  Lilly Lake at Honeyman State Park.

Cleawox Lake. Sand dunes at the end of the lake. John on the nature trail around the lake. 

The RV at Honeyman State Park. Notice there is a big rhododendron bush beside the bus. We went to Homegrown Pubic house and brewery for dinner. Ends up they no longer brew bear, their brewer left. Oh well they had good beer and wine and dinner.

68 degrees and mostly sunny. We boated the Siltcoos river to the ocean. John in the wooded part of the river. 

John approaching the beach. John paddling in the river on the beach.

Really pretty paddling in the meandering river on the beach. Birds on shore. We could not go ashore past the wet sand, it is plover mating season. 

The tide was still going out and it current got really strong. I decided to head to the shore so I would not be washed out into the ocean, It was only about 6 inches deep, so as soon as I turned the boat it kept catching on the bottom , would not head to shore and I was afraid it was going to tip over. So I got out of the boat with one leg, the current turned the boat so my other leg was stuck in it, dragging along in the sand. I had to tip the boat so water started going in to get out. Once I got to shore I dumped all the water out. My boat with the ocean downriver.

It was too shallow to paddle and the current was so strong we had to walk the boats upriver till it was deep enough to paddle. John dragging his  boat. He is fuzzy because the wind was blowing sand. We had to paddle the whole way back against the current.