USA 2013 (8)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yesterday (Thursday), Jo and I took the boys on a drive to try and escape the smoke. First stop was Medford to buy some stuff for Cade's birthday, and we then drove on to pretty Ashland to enjoy a walk in Lithia Park, where the smoke was a little less intense.

The boys enjoyed playing on what they called the Eiffel Tower:

We walked up one of the trails but got to a spot where there were 2 warning notices:

We'd heard about the cougar sighting on the news but we didn't realise there was a bear sighting a few days earlier. This was more than enough to freak out Braeden but we managed to force him on the trail a bit further, where we came across 3 deers.

We stopped at the Shakespeare Festival Theatre and I took this photo:

We wandered around the town centre and came across a wishing well in one of the precincts:

Next stop was beside the river at Bluebell Park:

Lunch at the Standing Stones brewpub then back to Lithia Park for some climbing and the by now traditional dunk in the creek:

On the way home, we stopped off at Harry & David's in Medford for some of their famous Moose Munch. Jo posed at the entrance:

A bit more sunshine today (Friday) so maybe we won't have to run for cover after all.

As an aside, one of Jo's favourite adverts on local TV is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2UUcXCo9g

USA 2013 (7)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Day 3 of our indoor confinement and things aren't improving. The smoke is getting denser and covering most of Southern Oregon and Northern California now and there doesn't seem to be anything in the forecast for the next few days - wind or rain - that could change that. The air quality is now officially hazardous to health and Grants Pass is beginning to look like Hong Kong, with all its citizens running around with little face masks on.

There is talk of which type of face mask is best - how many microns required to keep out the small particulates of ash. Thankfully, no talk yet of any flight problems - hopefully all will be well for our scheduled departure on Sunday evening - Medford-Portland-Las Vegas, then overnight in Sin City before catching the big bird on Monday afternoon. We fly in to Gatwick, so have to get ourselves from there to Heathrow for the flight north.

For those that didn't see the photo on FaceBook, this was the view from Lucy's front room this morning as the sun tried to peer through the smoke:

I drove Lucy's car in to town twice today - once to buy some clothes and the second time to pick her up from work - and I noticed the veneer of ash on her car, which was sitting outside, instead of in the garage:

Yesterday, we broke the tedium by taking the boys to see the relatively newly released RIPD - like a cross between Ghostbusters and some kind of kid-friendly Alien - it was 2 hours out of my life that I will never get back. Star cast - Kevin Bacon and Jeff Bridges, to name but two - and big budget too, much of it probably CGI. I must be getting old .........

We've ordered Cade's birthday cake this afternoon and are starting to draw up Plans A, B & C for Saturday's party. Depending on the weather, we may stay here and have a pool party, or perhaps go indoor karting down at Medford, or, if it's still really bad here, perhaps head to the coast and hold the party in Crescent City.

In any event, we're heading out of here tomorrow morning and heading towards Ashland, where we believe there may be a pocket where the air quality is good.

USA 2013 (6)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We're temporarily confined to quarters today (Monday) as the smoke from the mountain fires descends on Grants Pass. Our plans to head for a short hike yesterday had to be altered at the last minute, also because of the fires, which have closed the Illinois Valley Road. Instead we headed up Applegate Valley instead and went a short hike along the Collings Mountain Trail, in search of Bigfoot's cabin. We found it eventually. Amazing really that somebody went to all the bother of building this cabin, off the beaten track, complete with trapdoor to capture the Yeti:

After that, we went for a swim in the Applegate Lake - or, at least, Cade and Braeden did:

The day before, we went to the Farmer's Market in GP and I filled our "Growler" with beer from the little local microbrewery that had just started when we were here last year. Unfortunately, he hasn't made as much progress as he thought he would, mostly because his partner got engaged and went to Portland.

We had lunch at our favourite pizza spot - Kaleidoscope. Their Mozarella bread sticks are to die for.

So that's about it. Must go and check outside for the smoke.