On Weds., March 10, in a light dusting of snow, we left our cozy neighborhood for another trip on the road. We headed to our old stomping ground of Lodi, CA. to visit with Terri, Robert’s coworker, and to eat at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, Habaneros Hots. After a wonderful meal and visit we continued on to our favorite wide spot on the road, that’s Nacimiento Road, overlooking Highway 1 on the central California coast south of Big Sur. To our relief we found the spot unoccupied and set up for a week.

Looking north on the California coast

We hiked several times along Mill Creek into the cool redwood forest. We were searching for the chair fashioned from a log overlooking the creek. But time has passed and forces of nature have rechannelled the creek and the chair is relegated to our memories (and photos from many years ago).

The 'woodland chair' as we found it in Nov. 2002.

We took a motorcycle ride up Nacimiento Road to Prewitt Ridge, marveling at the views of the Pacific below us. We parked under a huge oak tree and walked up the hills for a great view.

We passed a patch of forget-me-not, to insure that we won’t forget our experience!

Since we’ve spent the winter here in Oregon so far, we might as well join in on the winter recreation opportunities available. With some fun-loving friends we headed up to Santiam Pass out of Sisters and enjoyed the Hoodoo Ski Area Winterfest! There were pie-eating contests for the kids, snow sculptures to admire and climb on, and a Dummies Ski Jump Event (not that anyone jumping over a berm on skies isn’t a dummy, these were non-living dummies attached to skies and pushed towards the jump). It was a great chance to start a snowball fight too!

We took a drive towards Portland to visit the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge. We haven’t hiked in the area for about 25 years, but that’s not even a second in geological time! This winter season ensured that the falls would be dramatic with the recent snow melt.

The Dalles downtown is decorated with murals depicting the long history of the area. We enjoyed a walking tour to view them as well as other interesting sites.

We have spent 2 weeks in The Dalles, Oregon, on the banks of the mighty Columbia River, house- and pet-sitting for friends. I’ve gotten inquiries as to the origin and meaning of the name “The Dalles” and finally looked it up. “The name of the city comes from the French word dalle (meaning either “sluice” or “flagstone” and referring to the columnar basalt rocks carved by the river), what the French-Canadian employees of the North West Company called the now-inundated rapids of the Columbia River between the present-day city and Celilo Falls.” as per Wikipedia. We enjoyed hiking into and around town and along the Lewis and Clark River Trail that meanders from downtown along the river to the excellent Discovery Center Museum.