Here we go again! Yahoo!

Our Sprinter van parked on a Baja Peninsula beach in January 2019 represents 
our last serious road trip taking us from our home in Southern Oregon. 

It's time for one more significant road trip adventure before we get too old to drive thousands of miles! And too cranky. 

After a few years of enjoying only quick trips to Reno to see our grandkids growing up, to the Olympic Penisula to witness our son milling lumber to build, with his wife, their home in the forest. And to Bellingham, WA, to visit my elderly aunt and uncle, who, deep into their eighties, are not doing well.

Speaking of the elderly, PK and I are bona fide seniors. PK is on the countdown to 75. Me? Shhh. I have only 18 months before stepping into my eighth decade. Our coming three-months-or-more road trip in our old but spunky 2010 Sprinter van could be the last of our lengthy road trips. 

Where are we going? 

On July 23, we'll begin to eat at least 3,007 miles from Oregon to NEWFOUNDLAND, the island off Canada's East Coast that beckons us.  

How do you eat miles? You chew on everything that pleases you along the way. And lick your chops for more.  

Stay tuned! 

A POST ABOUT OUR LAST  ROAD TRIP

BAJA PENINSULA, 2019

Nova Scotia's Musical Cape Breton - Wish I'd been born there!

September 12 - 17, 2016

It isn't correct to say I wish I could live on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. That would mean I'd have to relocate and be an outsider, an elderly one at that. I'd be an old wannabe.

What I wish is that I'd been born there.  I wish I'd grown up immersed in Celtic music and dance, as it seems a good percentage of the natives are, to one degree or another. And, at the same time, lived close to the land and the sea depending not too much on the outside world for entertainment. Living close to nature but never far from robust music that permeates the culture, makes dancing irresistible, and is my idea of heaven.

On top of everything else, Nova Scotia offers one year of free university education for welfare recipients! http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/welfare-assistance-university-community-college-books-tuition-aid-community-services-1.3825959

 I've traveled far and wide during the past decade, experienced many countries and a few continents, and I've never felt such a visceral response to a place.
Well, except for Africa. But I never saw myself living there.

I'm embarrassed to admit that it only took a few days on Cape Breton for me to achieve a state of longing and regret, longing for the simple, beautiful music and dance-centric life I believe exists there, and regret that I discovered too late this model of living. My assessment is based entirely on my subjective responses to the island's largely unblemished beauty and a pervasive musical presence that does not depend upon going to a bar or a concert.

These symbols, which were part of a campground's signage, pretty much sum up the island's priorities: music first, then hiking, camping, boating, and, oh ya, connectivity.  Although Cape Breton seems to be a place unto itself. 

What's the deal? Nova Scotia is beautiful, but I live in southern Oregon, and several places within a couple hours of home rival anything I've seen anywhere.

On September 17 we woke up on a pristine beach a few miles outside the village of Mabou, Cape Breton, along the Ceilidhs (sounds like Keelee) Trail in Nova Scotia. The night before, we'd feasted and fested in an unassuming restaurant/bar in Mabou called The Red Shoe. We were thinking about "camping" in the big parking lot of the community center across the street.

A young couple from Montreal, who we'd been hopscotching with along the Cabot Trail, said, OH NO! Don't stay there. Then told us about the beach, part of a provincial park. No campground per se, but a Canadian provincial park

It had been a big day, really.

When we'd entered Cape Breton about a week earlier, a Visitors' Center employee got all worked up when we expressed an interest in the island's music scene and circled a half dozen specific restaurants, bars, or clubs on the map where we'd be sure to hear live music

I stretched and smiled at the sunrise and said, as Paul is my witness, I wish I'd been born here.

Not on the beach, but one of the magical places on earth where music and dancing, family and community, create a universe. I know there must be many cultural pockets like this around the world, but I am happy to have encountered this one.

New Orleans, which we've visited numerous times, is another music culture but has some serious problems, like one of the highest murder rates in the nation. We were made aware of that one night walking, with another couple, from the popular French Quarter to our hotel a couple miles away. It was about 2 a.m. We took a shortcut, remarking that "this is really a dead neighborhood." Not a person or vehicle was to be seen until a compact car drove slowly by, then backed up, and through a crack in the window, a young (white) woman said, "Run! Don't walk! You're in a kill zone!"

What? We're rural Oregon hicks. We don't know about "kill zones."

I was born in Iowa and grew up in Minnesota and North Dakota.  And then lived in the Midwest until my mid-twenties, when I ended up on the Oregon coast. I know that Iowa, the Midwest, and Oregon have changed immensely in 70(!) years. But what about the Kayla coast of Cape Breton? How long has music been central to its culture? I recall polkas and square dances in towns where we lived, but my family wasn't part of that. 

Beatty sisters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2j8f7H2WY

Change is Strange

Dear Readers,

And I do mean dear. Thank you for sticking with me and my Ordinary Life blog, which I have been posting on Google's free Blogger platform sporadically since my first entry on June 2, 2009.*

 

Lost in techie wilderness!

The freaking tech giant (Google) announced a couple months ago that it would be discontinuing emailing posts to blog subscribers as of July 1, 2021. They suggested bloggers find some other way to get their posts to subscribers. 

What was a techie dunce to do?  The answer arrived in a timely email targeting bloggers left in the lurch. A company called follow.it offered to take on the subscription task and extended technical help to install a new subscription "gadget" on blogs and to import existing email subscribers at no charge. I did end up paying someone to help me, but I appreciated follow.it for their gesture. 

Perhaps you'll notice on this post the new email subscription form on the right, which is larger than before. If you got this post via email, no need to reenter your email address. (If you have a minute, though, I'd appreciate knowing that this post arrived in your mailbox, even if you're reading it on Facebook.)

How and why you subscribed to my blog (thank you again!) is a mystery. Except for family and friends, drawing new readers is a challenge. You might notice in coming posts invitations to "share."  Please consider doing that. 

*That first post in 2009 was titled Another Day, Another Storm.  I accidentally discovered much later that Blogger tracks readership stats for every post. NO ONE READ IT.  Here's a screenshot of my first attempt at blogging 🤪. Probably best it wasn't seen.

G-Pa and G-ma Summer Camp 2019

Childhood passes all too quickly. 

We have only two grandkids and we don't see them often enough. They are ages 9 and 6. We miss them. We love them. Knowing how years flash by and children disappear into adults, we decided we needed to do something while they're still kids.

We reside six hours from Reno, where they live. When we see them there, we're usually squeezed into a short weekend. 
Once we recover from how much they've grown since our previous visit, we've hardly had time to get reacquainted.

Short of relocating to Reno, we decided in 2018 to try hosting an annual five-day G-pa and G-ma Camp. 

Here they are at ages 2 and 5. We did not consider hosting a camp then. It wore us out just to watch them!

But in 2018, Noah, then 8, ventured north solo to assess conditions and entertainment at our first camp. We passed his test. Hadley, then 5, hung behind in Reno, not quite ready to leave her parents. 

This year she made a personal growth decision and joined the party. Yay Hadley! 

G-pa PK drove to their Reno home and returned with both kids on a Monday afternoon. Camp started during the drive.

En route, they listened to NPR's Wow in the World podcasts.  They snacked. They also stopped for an hour at Burney Falls not far from Mt. Shasta. Great stop for anyone. They snacked.

The moment they arrived at our home camp, it was  GO time! It was also snack time, which continued throughout their waking hours for the entire time they were with us. 

Here we are now. And we're hungry. Almond flour bread and homegrown blueberries on the table. Noah consumed about a pint of blueberries daily. The Almond bread is grain-free, protein-rich and delicious. Kids can't tell it's healthy. With a little maple syrup and strawberries, they loved it. Recipe here, thanks to Erin at Well Plated blog.

A to-do list for short list of grandparent camp activities ends this post.

Here's what we did this year.

MONDAY
Exploring our 3.5 acres of orchard,  garden, and pasture created some happy moments. They discovered a ping pong table, new since they were here last November. They visited the miniature horses across the road, and the rescued horses around the corner. They ate.

Noah climbed apple trees as his father did.

They played in the hot tub every night.

Noah reads to Hadley at bedtime. One child sleeps in the bed, the other on the floor. Taking turns. So sweet. They are great companions. Such a gift. We were so impressed by Noah's care for his little sister.

TUESDAY

PK and I kept to our Tuesday schedule of classes (me) and machine workouts (him) at Club Northwest in Grants Pass and the kids spent two hours at the club's KidZone. 

The kids' KZ verdict: Fun!

We had lunch at Circle J in downtown Grants Pass, just a few steps from the Grants Pass Museum of Art where I'd signed them up for a kids' drawing workshop, the first of a summer series.

Two hours of drawing seems long, but both said they'd do it again. I wish they could! There's still time to sign kids up for additional classes.

Artist and museum employee, Kristen O'Neill, shows aspiring young artists paintings by master graphic artist M.C. Escher. Noah is all eyes and ears.

The class ended at 3 p.m. but one little student persisted.

WEDNESDAY

We started the day at the Wildlife Images Rehabilitation and Education Center, a popular community and tourism fixture that has made numerous improvements since we last visited a couple decades ago. 

They scampered forth eager to see black and

grizzly bears, a cougar, wolves, birds of prey

and many other rescued animals, incapable of

living in the wild. 

Afterward, I took them up a mile of our rural road to visit a friend who'd invited us to frolic a bit with her baby goats.

Entertaining kids doesn't have to be complicated.

Every creature was happy.

Next, we visited the thrift shop at the Rogue River Community Center.  This was not on the entertainment roster, but Noah hadn't packed long pants and the next day we would be touring the Oregon Caves.

The caves are a constant 44 degrees Fahrenheit. The kid needed long pants. The community thrift shop is in an old one-story house staffed by volunteers. Prices are very good.  

The thrift shop quickly became "entertainment."

Noah and Hadley searched the entire space, ferreting out a cardboard box filled with small items. mostly toys, priced at 50 cents each, and another box priced at 25 cents.

After an hour or so, I spent $13.50 on items such as a vintage Barbie doll, a fishing tackle box, a pair of shoes for Hadley (the blue ones above), and various and sundry items. 

No pants. But we were able to borrow some from a neighbor. 

A thrift shop visit will be part of the itinerary next year as grandparents camp continues. 

We'll carry on as long as they want, and we have the energy

Another adorable bedtime story scenario. Hadley loses a tooth during this time. See the envelope in her hand? It's a note to the tooth fairy requesting $20. I could have cried "inflation!" But the tooth fairy came through with the cash.

THURSDAY - Best Day Ever!

In the morning, PK took the kids to tour the Oregon Vortex, AKA the World Famous House of Mystery, the "famous circular area with its unique phenomena." It is notable that the kid on the left is taller than Noah, on the right, by several inches. Many other optical illusions can be experienced.

Then it was on to It's a Burl!, a not-to-be-missed-outrageous-local-color Southern Oregon art attraction. We were en route to mid-afternoon reservations to tour the Oregon Caves

Here they are at It's a Burl in Kerby, OR, an enchanting conglomeration of whimsical, fantastical wooden furniture and art pieces. Including four climbable treehouses. 

It's a Burl's outside tree houses are crack for kids, although they're as steep and rugged as they are irresistible, and adult supervision is recommended, especially for younger children.

PK keeps vigil below while I'm occupied above in
a tree house with Noah and Hadley.

I don't how many times over the decades we snubbed It's a Burl going to the Oregon coast and back. We dismissed it as a trashy tourist trap. We were so wrong!  If you're traveling Hwy. 99 between Grants Pass and the Oregon Coast, treat yourself to a visit. Kids love it as well as adults.

This is our Caves guide, Neil, a retired geologist who led a group of 11 on an educational and entertaining 90-minute tour of the Oregon Caves. Part scholar, part comedian he initiated selfies with everyone when the tour ended.

Noah loved the caves. Hadley was not as enthusiastic. She declined to be in the selfie.  I was unable to get any decent cave photos, but this site has em.

After the up-and-down caves tour, we took the somewhat longer route back to the parking lot that included an overlook of the Siskiyou Mountains and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. 

Several trails start at the visitors'
center. Next time we'll plan more hiking.

The friendly Caves visitors' center offered coffee and hot chocolate, which we accepted with gratitude. Hot chocolate put the kids in the mood for a nap on the way home.

It was almost 7 p.m. when we got back to "camp." We took the easy way out for dinner and drove a mile to a super little Mexican restaurant, Taqueria La Guacamaya, in Rogue River. They list dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and French fries on their Kid's Menu. Clean plates!

FRIDAY
Their parents will arrive mid-afternoon, and we didn't plan any morning excursions. So we made stuff.

Brother and sister love art projects. G-ma made a still life arrangement and both were happy with what they created. Then they helped  G-pa with preparations for an early afternoon fishing float in the wooden driftboat G-Pa built years ago.

This fuzzy photo is G-pa with kids in his driftboat preparing to put-in at the boat ramp in Rogue River after the fishing trip. Noah even caught a fish! The photo is a screenshot from a video taken by the kids' mom, Heather. She and our son, Quinn, surprised them at the boat ramp.

With parents' arrival and camp officially over, we reveled in having both of our sons and their loved ones with us for the next couple days.

Heather shows Hadley how to make a friendship bracelet.

Noah doesn't need a lot of help putting together a motorcycle, but Dad (Quinn) is there for him. 

Playing with sand, water, rocks, and sticks at a safe beach along the Rogue River entertains them for hours.

A challenging log accumulation task for a young man with only one supervisor.

Hadley has her own project.

• 

  Noah and Hadley at the center of our family. Chris on the left with Chelsea, Quinn with Heather, G-ma and G-pa. 

PARTIAL LIST OF WHAT TO DO WITH KIDS- ROGUE VALLEY SPECIFIC
*places we've been with g-kids

• Hike Waters Creek Interpretive Trail - near Grants Pass
• Hike to Rainie Falls - Along the Rogue River Trail from Grave Creek
• Hike, hike, hike. Trails are endless.
• Family Fun Center  - Central Point
• Riverside Park Spray Park - Grants Pass
• Mill Creek Falls hike with a stop for pie at Beckie's Cafe
• Kerbyville Museum 
• It's a Burl* - Selma/Kerby
• Crater Rock Museum* Central Point
• Grants Pass Museum of Art kids classes*
• Hellgate Jetboat ride - Grants Pass
• Touvelle Jetboat Ride
• Oregon Caves* Cave Junction, closest town
• Cole H.Rivers Fish Hatchery* - Prospect area
• Oregon Vortex* - near Gold Hill
• Science Works Museum - Ashland
• Railroad Park - Medford
• Cat Park - Cave Junction
• Glass Forge - Grants Pass
• Sanctuary One - animal rescue - Applegate Valley
• Rooster Crow in Rogue River *- last weekend in June
• Numerous community celebrations and festivals throughout the summer and fall.

WHAT TO DO WITH GRANDKIDS ANYWHERE

Playing with sand, water, rocks, and sticks entertains children for hours. Clean water and sand just about anywhere will do. As would swimming pools, public spray parks, and other water-play features.

• Arts and crafts such as tie-dying, rock painting, beading 
• Scavenger hunts 
• Cooking/baking with G-ma or G-pa 
• Construction projects
• Public library activities or just browsing
• Fishing, hiking, swimming, bike riding
• Visiting the Oregon Coast and/or Redwoods