Crescent City

We had a beautiful drive from Florence today, stopping several times to explore. The sand dunes were amazing! Also toured a light house and hiked quite a bit. And ate fudge! We're staying in Healdsburg an extra night and will be home Tuesday instead of Monday.
Love,
Lisa and kids

Fun Day and Horses

Having a great time in Florence! We are all fine, but haven't been able to access the internet due to bad connection. We went horse riding today - even the boys! Lots of fun. Tomorrow we will rent ATVs and ride on the huge sand dunes in Winchester Bay. I'll try to post pictures soon.
Love,
Lisa and kids

No internet!

Hey, this is Caleb. I'm making this quick because I'm at a coffee shop to access the internet. (Ours is broken, and the shop is closing.) See y'all lata!

Newport

Had a beautiful hike with views of the Willamette Valley before we left Eugene this morning. Emily and I had a blast shopping at Title Nine and NOT paying taxes. :) We skipped visiting Oregon State as Elliot felt he could visit engineering departments of colleges closer to home. We had fantastic gelatos in Corvallis, and arrived in beautiful Newport late this afternoon. Enjoyed clam chowder and Elliot had a HUGE bowl of clams at Nye Beach, and then we had a lovely walk on the beach. The sand SQUEAKS here!
Tomorrow we'll see a lighthouse, the aquarium, and hike at Cape Perpetua on the way to Florence. It's so beautiful here!
Love,
Lisa and kids
P.S. pics later.
P.P.S. We loved Gutenberg College. Emily may want to go there.

Roseburg and Eugene

Had a fun drive through the Wildlife Safari in Roseburg. This hilarious bird stalked curiously all the way around our van towards the end:

I think he was looking for a handout!
We also saw elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, bears, and more.

George treated us to a fantastic late lunch - best meal we'd ever eaten!
Mother's Day was wonderful. We visited a nice church and George treated us again to a wonderful brunch. I am so blessed!
Then George left for Santa Rosa and we headed north to Eugene. This morning, we're going to visit Gutenberg College. Last night, in preparation for the class we'll be sitting in on, we read some of Erasmus's In Praise of Folly. I'm going to try to arrange a visit to Oregon State in Corvallis tomorrow morning. It is on our way to Newport. They have a good engineering department that Elliot wants to see.
Love,
Lisa and kids
Emily made a daisy chain at the rest stop:

Last night we shopped for clothes at the mall. It felt exhilarating to not pay any taxes on clothes! I want to shop in Oregon every  year!

Hi there! We drove north to meet George at Patty and Jeff's horse ranch in Trail on Thursday. What a beautiful place they have! They had planned a wonderful day for the kids and me. We began by mining tiny rubies and garnets in their creek, which we then viewed under a microscope. We hiked through their property, which has views you can't believe.

Patty and Jeff showed us how to mine in their creek.

Elliot enjoyed riding the ATV through the hills. Caleb meanwhile took some beautiful panorama shots.

Emily and I brushed two of their eight wonderful Arabian horses, which was Emily's highlight, of course. After that, we played croquet!

We slept at the Edgewater Inn. Here's the view from our room. We could hear the Rogue River.

I forgot Caleb's diabetes bag, so George made an extra trip from his sister's to deliver it. So far I have also forgotten my purse and my credit card. (I retrieved them both.) Seem to be a theme on this trip! The irony of watching King Lear, a play about an aging parent losing his wits, was not lost on any of us.

Yesterday, George drove us to the Oregon Caves National Monument:

We walked a mile through the cave system. It was unforgettable.

The kids are still asleep at the Best Western in Grants Pass. We had a good night's sleep. I told George he could bang on the wall if we kept him awake, but apparently we were quiet.
George is going to drive us to Roseburg today, where we will visit the Wildlife Safari. More later. Thanks for your prayers!
Love,
Lisa and kids

Ashland

Hi! We've had a wonderful time in Ashland. We LOVED The Taming of the Shrew, which we saw yesterday. The direction really helped us understand one interpretation of Shakespeare's meaning, which was an uplifting message. We had some great discussion about it. Today we had the backstage tour and learned about the history of the Shakespeare festival, and also a lot about a stage actor's life. Ashland actors are hired for ten months at a time. If they aren't needed for the next season, they travel around the country to wherever they can find work. Not an easy life! You have to love acting. Caleb and Emily were both inspired to act. Elliot not so much, but he enjoyed it. This afternoon we watched a three + hour rendition of King Lear. It too was amazingly well done. It was performed in the smaller Thomas theater, with lots of audience interaction. The scene where the Earl of Cornwall stabs out the Earl of Glocestershire's eyes was really graphic, and the actor spent the rest of the play walking around with his face covered in blood. Ugh! Good thing we took the backstage tour first, so we felt "in the know."
Here are some pictures from the past couple days. We also enjoyed a beautiful hike yesterday morning. Our hotel is beautiful. I would move to Ashland/southern Oregon tomorrow if I could! It reminds me of Yorkshire in some ways. We saw a gorgeous sunset tonight.
Love,
Lisa and kids