Emma and I went to church to participate in a workday on Saturday, 4/1.  We started by refreshing story-boards for the church’s 65^th anniversary “homecoming” celebration tomorrow and stuffing plastic Easter eggs for the hunt scheduled for next Saturday.  Then we went to visit Dad in Sun City where we learned that his memory center has recently put four chickens in a pen on the down-stairs patio.  As we walked around the pen looking at the four chickens, this black and white speckled hen followed Emma everywhere she went.  I have a feeling we might have to visit the chickens every time we see Dad.

On, Sunday, 4/2, Emma’s friend, Brooke, joined us for Sunday school, church, and “dinner on the grounds” (pot-luck lunch) in the new pavilion after the service.

On Tuesday, 4/4, I met Jackie for lunch at the Anna Maria Oyster Bar (www.oysterbar.net) at 1525 51st Ave E, Ellenton, FL 34222, for a delicious lunch.  Wednesday, 4/5, found me on the road heading north to Sun City Center (about 20 miles from my home) to visit Dad.  Then I went south to Palmetto to give Jackie some papers that I forgot to bring to lunch yesterday before returning home.  Later, I went to church and choir practice to be ready to sing on Easter Sunday morning.  Thursday, 4/6, was a work-day-at-home for me.  My task list included:  laundry & ironing; slice strawberries, peel and boil 3 lbs. of potatoes, boil half dozen eggs, make potato salad and pre-prep mashed potatoes for Sunday when I will be feeding my immediate family with ages ranging from 9 to 93.  I began my work at 9 a.m. and finished all tasks at 4 p.m. with multiple rest stops in between.  Emma didn’t have school on Good Friday, so she joined me again volunteering at the church’s food bank.  Then on Saturday, I took her and her friend, Brooke, to church for the annual Easter Egg Hunt which also included some crafting, a movie (see below) and lunch.

The girls helped with cleanup before we returned home and they immediately went with Brooke’s mother to our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.

Easter Sunday, 4/9, Emma and I attended Sunday school and church before driving up to Sun City, through some pouring rain, to pick up Dad to bring him home to share our Easter feast with the family.  I surprised everyone with a small Easter basket as a place card at the table.  In addition to candy, there were other things that everyone enjoyed.  Our meal consisted of ham, potato salad, asparagus, macaroni and cheese, and crescent rolls.

Before and After – back corner of property next to preserve

Before and After – front corner of property next to preserve.

After a walk outside to check out the lot clearing that J.P. and a couple of his friends accomplished yesterday, we had desert of angel food cake with sliced fruit and whipped cream before taking Dad back to his memory care center to spend the evening with his friends there.

While I was at an appointment on Monday, 4/10, my phone rang and went to voice mail.  When I checked my message, I heard that, although not an emergency, Dad wasn’t feeling well and his blood pressure was off.  He had told the nurse that he wanted to go to the hospital and she was sending him.  I drove to his facility and learned that he had been taken to a stand-alone emergency room associated with Manatee Memorial Hospital.  They had run a number of tests and found nothing wrong.  I was able to go pick him up and bring him back to the facility to eat his supper.

I went to visit Dad Wednesday morning, 4/12, to check to see how he was doing.  Today would have been Rick’s sister’s 77^th birthday.  I met Eileen four years before meeting my husband when I worked a summer job at the phone company.  Pictured below from right to left are:  Rick, his mother, Eileen and her son, Mat, and Edward (Rick and Eileen’s younger brother).  The picture was taken in the fall of 2013.  Sadly, Eileen passed away the next Spring.

Edward and I are going out to Oregon to visit Mat at the end of this month.

April seems to be a very popular for birthdays in my family.  Thursday, 4/13, was my youngest great-niece’s 2^nd birthday.  I had the pleasure of meeting Elodie last year when I visited Nebraska.

Monday, 4/17, is my brother-in-law, Edward’s, birthday.  He was 7 years old when I married his brother.  The picture below is of Edward signing the guest book (with his cousin looking on) at our wedding.

Today would have also been my grandmother’s, Dad’s mother, Juanita McGatlin Cambre Hunter (we called her G.G.), birthday.

Wednesday, 4/19 is my niece, Christina Cambre de Boeck’s (Elodie’s Mom) birthday and her father’s birthday (my brother Bill Cambre) is 4/20.  The picture below is Christina and Bill taken at a family wedding reception 25 years ago.  Christina is now expecting her second child.

Oregon Vacation

On Thursday, 4/20, I left the house before 7 a.m. to take my car for some last-minute service and saw the morning sunrise as I was leaving the neighborhood.

When the car service was done, I made my way north to Sun City Center for a brief visit with Dad and to let him know that I’d be back to see him on May 2^nd.  I left Sun City heading east; stopped for lunch along the way and arrived in Ormond Beach mid-afternoon.  My husband’s brother, Edward, continues to live in the family home here.  We went out for a bite to eat before going to bed around 8 p.m. with the hopes of getting a little sleep before we planned to arise at 2 a.m.

Friday, 4/21, was a very long day.  We left Ormond Beach (in the Daytona area), drove to an off-site parking lot for the Orlando International Airport, shuttled to the airport; started the tedious check in/security process and were happy to board the 7 a.m. flight for the first leg of our trip, a six-and-a-half-hour ride from Orlando to Seattle (gaining three hours along the way with time changes).  In Seattle, we had to go to a different terminal to take our next flight (31 minutes) to Portland, Oregon.  We picked up the mid-size SUV we had reserved and left the airport asking for the closest place to eat.  The attendant recommended Cascade Station so that was our next stop.  We left the restaurant around 3 p.m. Pacific Time and drove on a road that followed the Old Oregon Trail through a pass near Mt. Hood stopping at a rest stop along the way where I was surprised to see people skiing.

At 7 p.m., we pulled into our home for the next week (via RCI Timeshare swap) WorldMark Seventh Mountain Resort – Bend, OR – Official Site (wyndhamdestinations.com)

Our nephew, Robert Mathew Butler (known to the family as Mat and to the art world as Robmat), and his fiancé Lindsay came out to the resort to welcome us to Bend and make some preliminary plans for the coming week.  I got to bed about 24 hours after rising this morning.

Saturday, 4/22 – Since Lindsay had to work this week, Mat came out to our place where we talked about what we were going to do and where we could go to eat, etc. etc. In the afternoon, the three of us started walking the nature trail that goes behind the condo complex, we were a little surprised to see snow on the ground and ice in the path along our way.

Near the end of our hike, we saw a nice pond with some geese swimming in it. We finished the hike around 3. Then Mat took us into Bend to meet up with Lindsay. The four of us took a drive around town seeing the sites and stopped to have supper at the Grove Market Hall www.grovebend.com that houses nine locally-owned restaurants, bars, and coffee shops to eat supper. Edward and I ordered from an Italian place while Mat and Lindsay got Thai food. There was also a visit to the ice cream place before we left. After a short trip to the Safeway grocery store, we were home and ready for bed.

Sunday, 4/23 – Mat took us to see two small waterfalls today – Lava Rock and Dillon Falls (shown below).
Then we returned to town to pick up Lindsay after she got off work and headed to the town of Sisters to begin the McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass scenic byway. Along the way we stopped at the Suttle Lodge on Suttle Lake which was carved by glaciers.
It was too windy for us to walk along the shore of the lake, so we went into the lodge and had a drink. Another customer at the bar was kind enough to take our picture.

The picture below shows the view of the lake from inside the lodge.
When we got back into Bend, we stopped at the Black Bear Diner Bend | Black Bear Diner for supper.

Monday, 4/24 – Mat, Edward and I headed out east of Bend to follow part of the National Scenic Byway called the Oregon Outback Scenic Byway. We started by heading south from Bend on Highway 97, then taking OR 31 and following the signs from La Pine to Fort Rock.

Fort Rock rises 325 out of the high-desert plain. It is a National Natural Landmark that takes its name from the fortress-like rock walls that form a near circle. There is evidence of human occupation dating back more than 10,000 years. In nearby Rock Cave, archeologists have found a pair of sandals made from sagebrush bark which have been carbon-dated to be at least 9,300 years old, making them the oldest known shoes in the world.

Tuesday, 4/25 – We saw the most spectacular scenery today when Mat drove us about three hours south of Bend to Crater Lake.

The deepest part of this lake is 1,943 feet below the surface. It is the deepest lake in the US (300 feet deeper than Lake Tahoe). About 83% of the water in the lake comes from rain and snow falling directly on the surface. The balance of the water comes from runoff from the slopes around the lake. Crater Lake occupies the shell of Mount Mazama, a collapsed volcano. The volcano once stood 12,000 feet tall, but its summit imploded about 7,700 years ago.

When we arrived at the south entrance to the park (the only one open this time of year), we took the opportunity to use the restrooms. In the picture below, notice the roof compared to the door of the ladies’ room.

Immediately across the parking lot from the restrooms was a not-so-gradual snow ramp up to the rim of the lake. (This is pretty much the only thing accessible at this time of year other than a gift shop and small café.)

In the picture below, you see Mat looking over the lake from the rim. According to the Park Service, the color of the water varies from bright blue to slate gray, with hues of red, orange, and purple at sunrise and sunset. As you can tell from the picture below, today the water was reflecting a brilliantly blue sky.

Wizard Island is a newer volcano (a cinder cone) that erupted out of the lake about 7,300 years ago. Even though the National Parks Service said that the average temperature for April is 42 degrees, we had cloudless, sunny skies with a temperature around 60 degrees. Below is a picture of Wizard Island. You might be able to tell that there is ice to the left of it and below is its reflection in the water. (You can click on any picture to enlarge it.  You may have to hit the “back” button to return to the text.)

Wednesday, 4/26 and Thursday, 4/27 – Mat and Lindsay worked both of these days so Edward and I were on our own. We decided to take it easy exploring the town of Bend and the resort where we are staying. I attended a WorldMark properties presentation Thursday morning before doing our laundry and then packing and organizing as much as possible to be ready for our departure from Bend tomorrow morning.

We had to check out of our timeshare by 10 a.m. on Friday, 4/28. Our plan was to meet Mat and Lindsay at one of their favorite breakfast places in Bend, The Original Pancake House originalpancakehousebend.com. But, as plans do, this one did not come to fruition. Lindsay wasn’t feeling well and needed a little more time to get going, so Edward and I ate breakfast there before starting our journey. I had some delicious pumpkin pancakes (chosen from their healthy menu). Lindsay likes this restaurant because they offer glutton-free pancakes among many other things. After breakfast, it was decided that Edward and I would start out alone and Mat and Lindsay would come later in the day. We traveled again to the town of Sisters to begin the McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass scenic byway. When this by-way turned south, we continued west on US 20, passing through some beautiful forests with trees covered in a yellow-green moss.

We turned north onto US Highway 101 (the Pacific Coast Highway) in the town of Newport, Oregon. Newport seemed like a typical coastal town very busy with visitors. We stopped along the highway, just outside of Newport to take this picture.

From Newport, we continued to travel north along the Pacific Coast Highway until we reached the seaside town of Netarts, Oregon, where we had a 3-bedroom Air B & B rented for two nights. Mat and Lindsay arrived about an hour after us. This is a beautiful home with unbelievable views of the coast. We hope to make the most of our day here tomorrow.

Saturday, 4/29 – We left the house in Netarts around 11 in the morning and returned just after 5 p.m. Our first stop was at nearby Jacobsen’s Salt Company. Mat says using this salt on anything you cook makes it taste better.
They process salt from seawater brought up to the cooking vats in the small white pipe in the picture above. From here we traveled north on the Pacific Coast Highway to Cannon Beach. This is another quaint seaside town with lots to offer. After having brunch, we walked down to see the beach and then went through some shops and art galleries.

As we were leaving town, we drove by Haystack Rock. This basalt seastack rises 235 feet from the shoreline and was featured in the movie, The Goonies. If you click on the photo, you might see the many people at the base of the rock.

On our way home, we made a brief stop at the Tillamook Creamery. They produce a lot of cheese and other dairy products that are widely sold throughout the northwest.

Sunday, 4/30 – We chose to head towards Portland on the Trees to Seas scenic byway, a 68-mile byway that takes travelers through the Tillamook State Forest. Before reaching Portland, we turned south to go to the Stoller Family Estate and Vineyard, https://www.stollerfamilyestate.com. This was a beautiful location for us to have a bite to eat for lunch. This was our view from the Heritage Tasting Room.

Our waitress was kind enough to take our picture outside on the patio.

After lunch, we drove to Portland where we checked into the Hyatt Place in the Cascade Station area. We will say goodbye to Mat and Lindsay in the morning and Edward and I will fly from Portland to Orlando and then drive to the family home in Ormond Beach, Florida. I will continue my journey home on Tuesday.