Aloha!

It's Friday afternoon here in Maui - but early Saturday morning back in the UK - and the Lesinas are doing their final packing before heading for the airport - they're on an overnight flight back to Oregon, via San Francisco, whereas Jo and I are not leaving until tomorrow (Saturday) morning for our flight back to Portland.

I haven't done a blog posting for over a week, but I've tried to keep the photo album up to date on Facebook, although there are a few unpublished ones I can use here.

First things first, however. Before we left Oregon, I paid my final visit to the dentist to get my crown fitted - and pay the bill - $2.5K in case you wondered. I'll start the fight with the insurance company when I get back. On Friday morning, Jo and I drove up to Portland and checked in to our overnight hotel, then called a Lyft (Uber "rival") to take us downtown to the Oregon Brewers' Festival. Nice location on the banks of the Columbia River and we had fun trying a few of the beers out - and some food too:

The following day's flight to Maui was OK - almost 6 hours long, but 3 hours of time difference "gained". We picked up our rental car - after the usual hassle - and drove over from the east side of the island to the west, where most of the big resorts are based. It's much drier on this side - the south east of the island in particular is much wetter - almost rain forest like - and yet the two coasts are less than an hour's drive apart at the narrow point of the island. I remember a similar experience when Jo, Kelly and I went to Kauai many years ago.

Day 1 (Sunday) in Hawaii we spent walking north along the beach to Black Rock, where rock jumping is the big thing. In the afternoon, we drove in to the nearest main town - Lahaina - and completed their various walking trails round this charming old town, including the Banyan Tree which takes over the whole of the village square:

You can only see a small part of the Banyan Tree - and already Jo's an expert on this strange growth and its air roots as she goes in to full teacher mode.

Day 2 (Monday) - Jo and I drove back over towards the east side of the island, stopping off at Iao Valley State Park, where we knew there were some scenic walks - and very nice they were too, despite the initial rather modest appearance:

Jo thought I only took this picture of her so I could get in the rather voluptuous young girl behind who was throwing poses as her partner kept photographing her.

The trail upstream became rather jungle-like.

No doubting this was the end of the trail.

After lunch at Marco's Italian restaurant, we took a short drive along to Kanaha Beach Park, where the wind was really blowing and the gaggle of windsurfers and kite surfers were having a ball:

Next stop was Maui Tropical Plantation, where we were initially slightly disappointed that the next two trolley tours were fully booked, but, in the end, we were quite happy just to take a walk around:

Lucy had booked a snorkel trip on Tuesday for all bar me - I'm not a good swimmer and have a bit of a fear of the ocean - so I was on my own for most of the day. What to do then? Initially, I thought of hiring a bike, so I headed down to the bike shop in Lahaina and spoke to the guy in charge there. It turns out I would need to hire the bike for a full day rather than a few hours - added to which there were no real trails nearby - I would have to cycle along the main coastal highway. No thanks.

I went back to our resort and dumped the car so I could walk to nearby Whaler's Village to pick up the bus service that would take me further north to Maui Brewing Co for a spot of lunch. By the time I got back, everyone had returned from their snorkelling trip and they seemed to have had a great time - especially judging by Lucy's photos.

I had a plan for Wednesday - a couple more trails for Jo and I to do. A few miles north is the Kapalua resort, another former plantation (ours is Kaanapali). Both have 2 high quality golf courses and umpteen hotel resorts. The first walk was short, but we should have taken note of its name - Cardio Loop. Yes, it was pretty hilly. Most of it was on former golf course buggy paths, but it wasn't too well signposted and there were lots of options on to other trails, so we got a bit lost and cut short our plans and headed for the next adventure along the Coastal Trail, which turned out to be really nice - especially at the rocky outcrop, where the wind nearly blew us in to the sea:

Walks over, we drove a couple of miles further to Honolua Bay, which was where everyone was snorkelling the day before:

The Lesinas had been at the luau at the Sheraton on Monday and had booked Jo and I in tonight. It was good fun - there was a ritual performed on distant Black Rock at sunset, and dancers and singers galore:

Thursday was time for Jo and I to head to the south east of the island to see the "other side". First stop was Twin Falls, which was mobbed, even at 10:30 am, so we didn't hang around long - a quick walk to the first falls, a few photos, then move on:

The next target - just 8 miles away - was the Garden of Eden, but little did we realise it would take us almost 40 minutes to get there along the narrow twisty road with lots of single track bridges. It was worth the effort, however. Lots of trails and viewpoints there:

We couldn't figure out what these strange blue fruits were.

So, the Lesinas are now on their way to the airport and Jo and I have been tasked with eating the remains of the various fridges etc in this 3 room villa - a tall order, I'll tell you!

We went out for a mid-morning breakfast today, after which Lucy took the boys to the store to stock up with foods for the journey, whilst Scott and I wandered over to the golf course and hit some balls on the range. Jo and I sat in the shade for a while and I jumped in the beautifully warm ocean for the last time this holiday.

That's the end of this massive missive. 

Smokey!

The wildfires in this area of Southern Oregon (Josephine County) are continuing to affect visibility and air quality. Normally, when we get smoke here, it's usually from fires in California or sometimes other parts of Oregon, but this year they're all around Grants Pass, viz. this map:

Grants Pass is just 30 miles west of Medford.

The smoke blocks out the sun for most of the day and they're handing out free breathing masks in Grants Pass now. When we get up in the morning, the particles of soot etc are on most of the surfaces in the garden - they were even landing on me when I was lazing in the pool yesterday.

Jo and I were planning an away day on Monday and Klamath Falls was our planned destination, but the morning air quality reports on the TV showed that it was pretty bad there, so we decided instead to head a little further north to Crater Lake. Good decision - the air was clear there, although we could see the smoke approaching at the end of the day on our way back to GP.

We had a nice day at Crater Lake - the altitude meant the temperature was much more to our liking as well. No fear of triple digits there - high 70's, low 80's - perfect!

We started our day on the Discovery Point Trail, just to get a view of the deep blue lake:

We were never going to walk too far on this trail - we only had our flip-flops on and it was a little precarious and precipitous, so then we headed over to nearby Rim Village to grab a spot of lunch, after which we strolled eastwards down the pathway heading towards Crater Lake Lodge. It was at this point that we remembered where we'd been when we came to visit many years ago.

This time around, we wanted to see a bit more of the park. We didn't really have time to drive right around the crater - we knew there were roadworks going on anyway - and we wanted to see some of the regular stopping points and stretch our legs a little, so we decided to drive east, where our first port of call was Vidae Falls:

When we first parked the car there, we were immediately hit by mossie bites. A lady, spotting our predicament, immediately came to our rescue and offered us some bug spray. Too late for some, but gratefully received anyway.

Driving on, the next stop was Sun Notch, where we could stretch our legs a little to the top of the hill and look down at the "phantom ship" below:

That was two stops ticked off - next was the Phantom Ship Overlook, where you could view it from the other side. From there, it was a short drive down to the trail that led to Plaikni Falls, which we both thought was one of the most beautiful spots we'd seen:

 

and that was pretty much that - it was time to head back now, but here's an overview of the park, with the various stopping points marked:

 So, having driven for 4 hours on Monday, we were never going to go far on Tuesday. In fact, we just stayed in Grants Pass, did a bit of (unsuccessful) shopping for replacement flip-flops for Jo, then took the festival chairs down to a shady spot beside the Rogue River, after which we popped in to Cade's new place of work - https://www.truejuiceorganic.com/ - for a couple of smoothies.

When we got home, the newly shorn Buster, following his morning at the dog groomers, was waiting to greet us. He looks tiny now - especially next to Shelby, who has grown enormously in the last year. Poor old Holly is getting greyer by the day - and Tina is now indeed a (very) fat cat!

It's Wednesday morning now and I'm feeling a little delicate, so I don't think we'll be going anywhere today - not until this evening anyway, when we're heading over to Medford and a meal at Kaleidoscope.

Tomorrow, I go back to the dentist to have my temporary crown removed and the new one fitted. I'm still suffering pain in my gums and struggling to open my jaw wide enough to eat properly - a result, I suspect, of all of the injections I had to have in my 3 sessions there.

On Friday, Jo and I head to Portland and the Oregon Brewers' Festival. Then we overnight there and catch the plane to Maui on Saturday. Hope there's no smoke there! The weather there looks fine for next week:

 The big difference from here in Oregon is the range of temperatures. There it only seems to vary 12/13 degrees day to overnight, whereas here we can awaken to temperatures as low as the 50's, before peaking mid-afternoon almost 50 degrees higher!

Fire season!

Yes, it's that time of year again, when the West Coast fire season is in full swing - forest fires all through California and Oregon. The primary danger here in Grants Pass is smoke - and that totally depends on the wind direction. We'd managed to avoid it all until the last few days. The sudden thunderstorm last Sunday morning, when there were over 1,000 lightning strikes locally, started 67 separate forest fires in this area of Southern Oregon and the smoke now surrounds Grants Pass, where visibility has substantially diminished, but thankfully, the air quality is not critical yet - although you can see, smell and taste the smoke in the air.

The other threat from the forest fires is transportation - roads being closed by the fires and the firefighters' attempts to douse them. Last week, the I5 - the huge freeway that passes through here on its long journey all the way from Mexico to Canada - was closed for a while. Lucy just posted this extract from the local radio station:

"Riverbanks Road is now closed to everyone except for residents and emergency vehicles. Blockades have been set up on Riverbanks at Redwood Highway and at Robertson Bridge. Please see previous post for upgraded evacuation notices. West Pickett Creek, Shan Creek and Limpy Creek roads are now on Level 3 "Go" evacuation notices. Dutcher Creek Road has been upgraded to a Level 2 "Be Set" evacuation notice. Shelters are available at Grants Pass High School and Redwood Christian Church. Please share this info with family and friends immediately."

(Robertson Bridge is one of my cycling loops and it's where we launched the Englands' boat last Saturday.) Hope everything's OK for our trip to Portland on Friday.

We've had a fairly quiet time this last week after our trip to the coast on Monday, judging by the few photos on my camera. The most exciting time was when Jo and I went trail walking the other day. It's not far from here and I've been walking and cycling these trails in previous years, but my memory must be failing me because I thought that one of the trails we did was a circular one that went up the hill at the end of Elk Lane and came back round to where we started. Well, we got lost, didn't we, and ended up on the other side of the hill/mountain, where thankfully we met a guy laying chuckies on the trail. He told us the only way back to our car was to retrace our steps and climb the hill again and go back down the other side. Of course, by now, we'd already been walking for a couple of hours and had used up all of our water. He came to our rescue and gave us a couple of bottles of water he had in his road-roller. This was a huge help, but Jo was still distressed about having to climb up the trail again in the mid-day heat.

Of course, we did eventually make it, but that was the second major dehydration episode for Jo this holiday. I doubt if she'll ever go back trail walking with me again. Anyway, this was the view from the top of the hill:

Scott travelled over to Crescent City for a family commemoration ceremony this weekend, so Lucy took Jo and I round a couple of wineries just outside Medford - and very nice they were too. We had lunch at the second one - Paschal:

So that's all for now. More adventures to follow this week, no doubt.

Dog days of summer

In more ways than one .... it's been triple digit temperatures here in Southern Oregon the last few days and it's forecast to remain high for a while yet - and this houseful of dogs - Holly, Buster and Shelby - has been suffering too. We had a surprise thunderstorm on Sunday morning while Scott, Lucy and Jo were over in Medford doing the big weekly shop at Costco. I had just returned from an early morning bike ride, so opted to stay at home. When the thunder started rumbling, Holly dashed over to me and absolutely insisted on jumping up on my knee. She trembled her way through the next hour until the rumbles finally stopped.

Bringing my blog up to date, I got my temporary crown fitted, as planned, on Thursday, but not before suffering another hour and a half of drilling to get my tooth in to shape. that's 7 hours in the chair so far. The final crown will be delivered a week on Thursday - the day before Jo and I head to Portland, and 2 days before we go to Hawaii - and hopefully that will be that.

After my crown fitting last Thursday, Jo and I decided we had to get out and do some exercise, so we drove south west towards Cave Junction and the nature interpretive trail and boardwalk there. It was very short but we spotted other trails just across the road and decided to try them out. They, in turn, led to the "Little Falls Trail", so we decided to follow that. We had fluids with us but it was very hot and the falls didn't seem to be getting any nearer, so we thought it best to head back. Parts of the trail were a little precarious and Jo was a bit fearful of taking another tumble:

Jo struggled on the way back - I think she was dehydrated and suffering from a bit of heatstroke. It took her quite a while to get back up the hill where I could drive her to Cave Junction to get some food and fluids in to her.

Despite this fright, we liked the area and decided to make a quick return the following day - suitably armed this time with a picnic lunch. We attacked the Little Falls trail again from a different approach, but were disappointed that the trail didn't afford very good views of the falls, so we moved on to another spot beside a bridge over the Illinois for lunch:

On Saturday, it was back to the water again - this time, the Rogue River. Scott and Lucy's friends, the Englands, had invited us to join them on their boat for a short ride up the river and a picnic and some beers. The ride itself had to be curtailed a little, as the Rogue, like the Dee back home, is running very low and the channels are narrowing daily.

The flat-bottomed jetboats that do the Hellgate ride can go a lot further and they passed our picnic spot a few times. In between, it was like a scene from Deliverance. I swear if I'd heard any banjos, I was off! It did feel like we were in the wilderness but it was wonderful to see some of the large birds around - buzzards and ospreys in particular, and one spectacular viewing of a golden eagle chasing an osprey back to its nest.

I must have applied sunscreen 5 or 6 times that afternoon as the scorching sun beat down on us. The only way to keep cool was to go in the river - even our chairs were parked there so we could wallow in the cool(er) water:

On Sunday afternoon, we were "despatched" by Lucy to the new local "Double Taps" bar on the pretext of using up a $2 voucher she had, thus also giving her a chance to clean the floors.

With my dental work mostly finished - it took up 3 days of last week - Jo and I took the opportunity yesterday (Monday) to make our long-promised escape to the coast. We drove over the mountains through Northern California (briefly) - we lied again when we were asked if we had any produce at the border - then back in to the port of Brookings in Oregon.

Spotting some short coastal trails leading down to the beach, we parked up the car just north of the town and wandered along the beach for a while. We couldn't believe how much debris there was - huge, bleached timber logs had been washed up everywhere:

The offshore rocks and mini islands are very attractive visually, although they are mostly seabird colonies and you're not meant to climb on them unfortunately. The whole of that coastline is like that - especially between Brookings and Gold Beach, which was our next stop.

At the Gold Beach Visitors Centre, one of the maps showed that the Arch Rock Brewery was very close at hand, so we headed there. As it happened, they only had a Tap Room and it is closed on Mondays anyway, but the adjacent "Tav" had food and stocked Arch Rock's beers so we lunched there, after which we took a look around the small town before heading for the beach for a quick kip:

Our car thermostat still only read 62 F, but it seemed much warmer than that in the blazing sun - how else would we have fallen asleep on the beach?

On our return journey, we stopped off at the Arch Rock viewpoint and took a few photos there:

We stopped off in Brookings again, this time heading to the lovely port area where we feasted on ice creams in the evening sun.

The lady at the Gold Beach Visitors Centre, on hearing that we were returning to Grants Pass, advised us to try a small detour through Crescent City and up through what she described as a beautiful drive - a place where they had filmed the Return of the Jedi. We found the road OK but it was very narrow and windy and after a few hundred yards it changed from a tarmac surface to a rough road covered in chippings and holes, so we decided to turn back. No - we didn't see any EWOKs, but Jo described the dark, dense trees as "needing a good dusting"!

So today (Tuesday) is a down day - I've done the morning runs to and from football training for Braeden and I've just listened to my fellow Headbangers' new show on River Dee Radio - and now I'm updating my blog. Time for lunch, I think.

Dental days

It's Wednesday morning here in Oregon - on the brink of the England - Croatia World Cup semi-final, but all I can think of is my poor teeth and gums which have been taking a pounding the last two days. My toothache was reviewed by Lucy's dentist on Monday morning and his analysis of the situation was that, to relieve the pain I was experiencing, either extraction or root canal work was required.

Extraction would create difficulties given where the problem tooth is and its key role in chewing and the fact that it would leave the adjacent tooth exposed and unsupported, so I opted for his recommendation of root canal work.

The dentist re-organised his daily schedule and started work later on Monday morning. He had to have three attempts at numbing me up and then I spent another couple of hours in his chair as he worked away on the root canals. He put in a temporary filling overnight and I was to come back first thing on Tuesday morning to have the rest done.

Tuesday brought more of the same - this time it took him 4 attempts to get my mouth sufficiently numb for him to start work. By now, I reckoned he must have injected me with Novocaine (or equivalent) more than 30 times in all. My gums must have seemed like a pin cushion.

Anyway, the root canal work was finished on Tuesday but I have to go back tomorrow (Thursday) morning to have the fitting for a crown. The results will then go to the lab and the completed crown should be back in a week or so.

Goodness knows what all this is going to cost - and our travel insurer has already refused to pay for it all - apparently all I'm entitled to is emergency pain relief. I'll keep arguing my case.

With all this going on, our plans to have some away days this week have been scuppered for the time being. I'm still popping Tylenol for pain relief, but hope to be better by the end of the week.

Sorry - nothing much else to report for now.

First full week at GP

It's Sunday morning here in Grants Pass and I'm feeling sorry for myself - I've got toothache and it looks like I'll have to go to the local dentist in the morning - bummer.

Anyway, here's what we've been up to since my last blog post:

Did I forget to show you the Lesinas' new BBQ - a Traeger?

It got its first serious outing on Wednesday - US Independence Day. It operates more like an oven and cooks using wood pellets, creating smoke. Scott's Mum and Dad, and sister Laramie and her partner Rick all came over for dinner, but we had to wait a bit for our pulled pork as it was a huge portion and took 10 hours to cook, but it was well worth the wait.

Once it was dark, we went to the front of the house and the boys let off the fireworks in the middle of the street:

It looks like the neighbourhood was aflame in this photo - but it was all under control.

On Wednesday morning, Jo and I had taken a short walk in Reinhart Volunteer Park, and on Thursday, with everyone back at work, we took a longer one, driving down to Rogue River to try out the relatively recently completed stretch of the Rogue River Greenway, which eventually is planned to go all the way from Grants Pass to Medford. This section is 4 miles long and it was out and back for us, so 8 miles in all - not bad in the heat of the midday sun. Here we are at the start, crossing the Rogue River bridge:

Friday was a quiet day for us - just some local shopping - but on Saturday we all went to the Farmers' market and then climbed up Dollar Mountain. Despite her fears, Jo managed fine:

We went to Judy's to pick blueberries after this and we now have 6 pounds of them in the fridge!

Temperatures picking up this week:

GP, Or

Greetings from Grants Pass, Oregon. All went well with the series of events prior to our departure to USA last Wednesday (as recorded in my last blog posting)  - including Jo's Endoscopy. Nothing was seen on the camera so apparently the next stage is an ultrasound scan. I have to say though, that Jo seems to be getting better - not quite back to her normal eating/drinking diet - still no coffee, for instance - but she's quite happy to have a glass - or two - of wine again.

Our journey over to USA went pretty well really, but it's always tricky when you have to go through Heathrow if you have to change terminals - as we did, from 5 to 3. We got off the Aberdeen plane and walked for maybe 10 minutes to get to the departure point for the transit buses that take you to T3, but there was a seething mass of people waiting there when we arrived, We had to wait for 5 or 6 busloads before we managed to get on one - and then it's about a 15 minute ride, so that's an hour gone already since we got off the plane in T5.

Stress levels were rising - particularly when we saw the lines at T3 security. Another half hour passed. The moral is simple - never arrange a tight connection at Heathrow unless you're arriving at and departing from the same terminal.

There was a bit of a delay in the plane departing as well - technical problem with one of the door's automatic locking systems apparently, but, apart from that, the flight went well. It was our first return to cattle class for many years and I have to say it wasn't too unpleasant at all. The service was very good - lots of regular food and drinks supplied, although it's all very cramped for eating and drinking as we had booked seats at the front of the cabin next to the emergency doors - it meant nobody was sitting beside us and we had tons of legroom, but the pop-up tray table is tiny.

We smoothed our way through US Immigration at Denver and it didn't take too long for our bags to arrive and then we jumped on our (free) hotel shuttle and very soon we had checked in to the Residence Inn - in a lovely big suite. There was a full service Marriott across the road so we popped over there for a couple of local beers and shared a cheese and meat platter. By now, it was nearing 10 pm local time but our body clocks were at 5 am the following morning so it was time for some shut-eye.

We could have flown directly to Medford from Denver but it would have meant a fairly early start in the morning so we had elected instead to take our time and leave at lunchtime, going via Seattle, but it meant we arrived in Oregon in the early evening and Lucy was there waiting to take us to Grants Pass - and she'd managed a full day's work and hadn't had to take any time off to pick up her old folks.

Lucy and Scott were working on Friday of course, so Jo and I decided we needed to stretch our legs a bit. We took the Jeep and headed up to the familiar territory of the Cathedral Hills trail system and chose a couple of trails that would give us, roughly, a 5 mile loop. It's well shaded and it wasn't ridiculously hot so we coped OK - well, I did anyway - but it may have been too soon after the journey for Jo, who said the undulations nearly killed her!

On Saturday, it was Open Day at Solero Winery, a lovely little place in the Applegate Valley that we had visited last year - Scott and Lucy were now Wine Club members there. Early afternoon wine drinking in the sun seems lovely at the time, but it has a hugely soporific effect later on - particularly as Scott took us to a new brewpub afterwards - via a coffee and cake stop at Pennington Farms. We managed some takeaway pizza in the evening but were happy to tumble in to bed fairly early on.

On Sunday morning, I felt sufficiently revived to venture out on a short bike ride around the town - nothing substantial and certainly no hills - it had been a while since I'd been in the saddle, so I took it very easy. Braeden was staying at a friend's house, but Cade had two of his buddies at home with him and they wanted to go boating/surfing on the lake so Scott, being the only duly licensed adult available, took them to Galesville reservoir, whilst Lucy, Jo and I drove over to Medford to do the Costco weekly food shop - plus a visit to Barnes & Noble's excellent book store.

One of the upshots of our trip is that the Lesinas now have a brand new, super-duper BBQ/grille - or they will have when Scott has finished assembling it. The old one had served them well, but it's now time to move on. Food quality reports will follow over the next few weeks.

Now you may be wondering why all this narrative and no photos? Well, most of them have already appeared on Facebook, but I've kept a couple back for this blog. I have two new pairs of swim shorts - Lucy bought me one with a definite Hawaii'an theme in mind, in view of our trip there in a few weeks' time:

To continue with my modelling of the Stewart range of swimshorts, here's what Jo bought me in M & S before we left:

The last photo was taken on my cycle ride this morning (Sunday). Every year, Grants Pass erects in the downtown area several bears, each with a different theme - here's one of them:

(New top also supplied by Lucy)

That's all for now folks.