Brookings to Medford to Eugene to Portland to Denver to Westcliffe to Kansas.

So we drove the Kia back to Medford, where we picked up miss Anna from JEO's house. You can see what they did together by clicking here and here. After a heated discussion between the children about the proper name of a particular cartoon vehicle (below), we took off for Eugene.
Chelsea picked us up at the Hertz in Eugene and we went over to her friends' house for a barbecue and badminton. Barbecues are a much more complicated affair in Oregon than in Kansas because one first has to determine what the guests have moral objection to eating. We got it sorted out, though, and had a lovely time.



We spent the night at Chelsea's and got up the next morning to catch our train, er, bus back to Portland. You may be under the impression that a bus would be just as comfortable as a train, but you are wrong.

Once back in Portland Anna played on a playground,

found an elephant,

and we went to a really, really big bookstore which had an appalling lack of books on agriculture. Then we went to a sushi restaurant where Betsy and Anna ate lunch while I observed my moral obligations.
The food came out on a carousel, and there were all sorts of different dishes. I waited a long time, but nothing containing meat and/or potatoes came out.

Then we picked up our loot at the train station and geared up for our march to the light rail.


We were tired when we got there.

A few hours later, and we landed safely in Denver.

Then, all we had to do before we, er, I could get some sleep was to find a shuttle bus, find our car, and drive all the way to the Alsop cabin just southeast of Westcliffe, CO.

The next morning, er, afternoon I left Anna and Betsy there and drove home alone back to Ingleside.

Farewell to the Sea.

SO we got up on our final morning and took in the view,


walked down the stairs,

and onto the beach.
Our little sand creature friends were there to greet us,


and we took some pictures.



It was low(ish) tide, which we were excited to see.

We made lots of new friends:



And took some more pictures.


Then we had another yummy breakfast as the clouds rolled in. We climbed into the Kia,

and the Kia climbed the hill,

and climbed some more,

up out of the tsunami hazard zone,
and up the rest of the drive to Highway 101.

Swimming and Trees.

So on Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast with the B&B (retired farmers) owners and fellow guests (a mother and daughter from Michigan) and then we went down to the pier to look at the boats.


Then we went to mass at the Star of the Sea. The web site doesn't show the cool sea-scape stained glass.

Then we went back down to the harbor to the Southern Oregon Kite Festival. There were lots of kites.


Here is a video of the festival's founder doing his solo kite routine:



We unfortunately did not get to see any synchronized kite flying :(

Then we went and ate and then it was off to the trees. We decided, in order to leave as much time (and energy) as we wanted for swimming, to just do a few easy trails through the trees rather than one big one. The first place we stopped was right on Hwy 199:


Then we headed over to the "second bridge" swimming hole on the Smith River.It was fun.


Then we had to hit the Stout grove:


Where we hiked a couple more easy trails, including this one which brought us back to the Smith River...

And where we came across this singular family out for a stroll with their goats:
We finished with a sunset drive on Howland Hill Road, where we were obliged to stop for a picture in front of the picture stump:

Then we went back to Brookings for a nice meal at the Italian restaurant.