First week home

We've been back a week now and, thankfully, we're finally re-establishing our sleep patterns after several fitful nights. The journey home went as planned, but it did involve 4 flights and 2 long layovers after an extremely early departure from Grants Pass on Friday morning, arriving back in Banchory about 9 pm on Saturday night, so it wasn't an easy trip. We've travelled home from Australia in less time.

Anyway, our experience in Oregon this year is making us re-think our usual holiday plans for next year. The West Coast fires arrive every summer and with them comes the smoke - some years worse than others. We certainly think mid-summer (July/August) may not be the best time to go. It's also my 70th next year (and Kelly's 40th) and we may do something completely different - watch this space.

We have a bunch of BA Air Miles and a Companion Voucher to be used next year, however - we usually use these for our American summer trip - but we weren't particularly impressed with BA this time - it feels like they are cutting back on everything.

Plenty to ponder.

I have managed one short cycle and a round of golf this week - and a monumental hill-walk on Thursday - Lochnagar - my first official Munro in my 70th year. We did the circular loop from Glen Muick and it took seven and a half hours and a record number of steps:

We also had our second Headbang of the year on Friday night and Jo and I have both had trips to our local medical practice. Jo had her ultrasound scan on Thursday - all looks well, but she awaits the official follow-up with our GP. I was back at the Dermatology Clinic on Friday and got another nitro freeze on the bridge of my nose, with another follow-up in 6 weeks.

Today (Sunday) we have Luca staying with us overnight - it's the last day of his summer holidays tomorrow (Monday).

Nothing much else to report for now, other than the fact that, after a week of relative peace and quiet at home, we have another very busy period coming up, including a trip to the Fringe in Edinburgh next weekend.

Does anyone else remember the old flower displays on the embankment at the corner of Corsee Road? I've finally managed to track down a few old photos (thanks to Jo and the Heritage Society). I had always thought they said Bonnie Banchory, but it seems they changed all the time:

This area is now just overgrown:

Do you think I should start a campaign to bring it back to its former glory?

Last full day in Oregon

Still confined to quarters here - no sign of this smoke moving soon. Here's this morning's Air Quality Index for this region:

The red "181" index (Unhealthy) is sitting right on top of Grants Pass.

Never mind - need some time to pack. Got to squeeze some additional stuff in - 2 new pairs of shoes,  3 books and a few second hand vinyl albums - it's going to be tight. Jo's got the Moose Munch and t-shirts as extras so it'll be tight for her too.

We've had two family birthdays in the last week. Last Friday, Cade turned 18 and as soon as he got back to Oregon on Saturday, he dashed off to the tattooist and got what he says is going to be the first of many "tats". Look out for photos - to be fair, it's fairly tasteful and it's on his collar bone so not generally visible when he's fully dressed. (18 is the minimum age for getting a tattoo here, in case you wondered).

On Sunday, it was Miller's 5th birthday. When Jo and I got to our hotel room in Portland on Saturday night (Sunday in Oz), Jo and I made up a quick "happy birthday" greeting for him. We got it wrong a couple of times:

https://youtu.be/5ueqZGcjDeo

before finally getting it right:

https://youtu.be/3YoISFikwZY

Feeling a bit frustrated from lack of any kind of outdoor activity recently, I decided to risk a very short afternoon ride yesterday (Wednesday), but I took the precaution of wearing a face mask that Lucy provided:

Hot and smokey

Now that we're back in Grants Pass and on the last few days of our holiday, we have triple digits heat to face and poor air quality from the smoke that still covers hundreds of miles of Northern California and Southern Oregon. Everyone will have seen the particularly devastating fire that hit Redding, where Scott and Lucy used to live - in fact, where Lucy was is now completely burnt out.

The result of all this is that we can't really spend much time outdoors and cycling and hiking opportunities are limited unless we travel much further afield.

Anyway, our journey back from Hawaii went smoothly enough and Jo and I spent another night at an airport hotel in Portland before driving Lucy's car back down to Grants Pass on Sunday. Scott had the Traeger on since early morning to cook a lovely pork side so that was a nice welcome back.

Scott and Lucy had booked yesterday (Monday) off work as well, so Scott and I took the opportunity to drive up to Myrtle Creek, where it was less smokey, for a quick round of golf. Lucy and Jo had a decadent lunch of cocktails and churros at the Haul.

Today (Tuesday), we're taking Braeden to his football practice (they bus them north to get away from the air quality here), then we'll head down to Medford and do our annual Harry and David's shop. Look out for some Moose Munch heading to the UK!

To close, here's a few more photos from Maui:

Friday morning we walked across the road to hit a few balls on the range at Kaanapali GC

I finished before Scott so could sit and admire!

Beach stroll Friday evening

View of the hills from our apartment

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.