I've been looking forward to this summer's trip to Brookings ever since we returned from
last year's trip. Yes, we were just there in July (well 5 out of 6 Ws were), but that time was devoted entirely to
class reunion fun. This trip, on the other hand, was solely for hanging out as a family.
The trip was filled with frustrations and stress from the moment we started trying to pick travel dates through the drive back home. I think I shed at least a few tears all but one day we were gone and declared at one point that I'm never going on another family camping trip again. Because making bold declarations with words like "never" is always a super mature thing to do when one is unhappy. Right?
That being said, our days were jam-packed with doing fun things and seeing people we love. I'm more objective as I look through pictures than I was in the tense moments and can see what a great trip it was. We live in a beautiful part of the world, had the time and resources we needed to make the trip, and have great people in our lives that we enjoy spending time with. All good things for a camping trip! Life goes on and I'm slowly getting over my disappointment about the trip not being all I'd hoped for, so I'm sure there will be more camping trips in the future.
We left town after Tim got off work on Friday evening, so I snapped a picture of a few Ws in the van as we waited for everyone else to load up.
We decided to make a short stop to see family and do a hike in Medford on our way this year, so we drove down to
Valley of the Rogue State Park, where we set up camp and promptly went to bed. The next morning we'd planned on climbing
Lower Table Rock and had invited all local friends and family to join us. Two families accepted our invitation, but one had to bail at the last minute. Tim and I hadn't done the hike since before kids and none of the little Ws had ever made the trek. We posed in front of the mountain while we waited for our friends.
Michael was my hiking partner for much of the time and he requested a few pictures along the way, starting with this tree that made a perfect seat.
Naomi decided she wanted in on the tree fun and struck a pose of her own.
Michael thought this little area next to the trail that was encased by roots looked like a haunted house, so we took a picture of him in it to show people later on.
Silence. That's what this picture reminds me of. Just silence. No sound at all as you summit the mountain, pause to look around, then start working your way across the top.
Finally made it to the other end and enjoyed a gorgeous view of the Rogue Valley. This angle has I-5 off to the right.
This angle shows
Mt. McLoughlin just off center in the distance and Upper Table Rock on the left.
We took some family shots before we headed back down. First, Shon, Devry, and Michael.
Then all 6 Ws.
Here's Upper Table Rock as seen while descending Lower Table Rock, a picture requested by Michael.
The other five kids all ran way ahead of everyone as we descended the mountain, Tim and Shon got some time to chat, and I told my hiking partner we needed a picture together.
We had time to kill after the hike, so we picked up Shon's mom, Cindy, for some fun. In the 27 years I've known their family, I've never met Cindy's parents. What a treat it was to hang out in their home for a while and get to know them a little when we picked her up! Then both families headed to
Bear Creek Park for a few hours of running around a playground, checking out a skate park, chatting about all sorts of things, and eating ice cream.
Cindy is one of my favorite people and I don't have any pictures of us together, so I made sure to get one this trip.
Last year Tim, Shon, and I took a shot of the three of us for Alex, so we took another one this year.
And a group shot, of course, before we went our separate ways.
Next up? Family time! I'd asked if everyone was free Saturday evening, then my sister generously offered to host the whole crew.
A year or so ago I started updating my contact list to include pictures of me with the people on my list, which means sometimes I have to be intentional about getting pictures with them. After this family gathering, four family members' contact pictures are all of us together. Score!
Ashley's day was busy, so I thought it was sweet that she sacrificed some time at a different gathering to spent part of her evening with us.
It would have been nice to see her if she'd come empty-handed, but Debra brought a delicious macaroni salad. So good!
One person had already left and more came later, but we got a group shot of some parts of the Perkins family. This picture has two Perkins (my dad, his wife), three Moffits (my sister, her husband, one of their kids), and six Weathersbys.
Daisy is the first kid to reach adulthood in her generation of our family. I'm glad she was able to come over to her parents' place and hang out with our family!
Ally had other things going on during our gathering, but she popped in for a few minutes between other commitments. Long enough to get a picture!
Tim and Josh took off to shoot pool for a couple hours after everyone else had left and that was the end of our first full day on the road.
Sunday morning I snuck out for a quick walk while everyone else was still asleep. The park is right next to the freeway, but it's also right next to the Rogue River. A short stop at the water, a few deep breaths, a picture that left only the reflection of the home on the opposite bank instead of the house itself, then back to camp and tackling another day.
We tore down camp, then headed to Brookings with a stop at
Oregon Caves. I hadn't been there in 30 years and none of the other Ws had ever gone, so we went on a 90 minute underground tour. My pictures aren't particularly striking, but it's a neat experience and I'm glad we were able to do the tour.
Our tour guide offered to take everyone's pictures on their own cameras after we exited the cave, which was more convenient than asking other people to do it for us. Not that I've ever hesitated to ask a stranger for that favor, but whatever.
The guide photobombed everyone's pictures, of course.
As everyone finished taking pictures, we were told there were two trails back to the lodge. One was short and direct. The other was about half a mile long and went up a little higher on the mountain for a good view before leading back down to the lodge. We opted for the scenic route and I'm so glad we did. Pretty trees on the way up.
Then this stunning view from the top. Mountains as far as the I can see. Absolutely gorgeous!!
I offered to take a picture of a father and son that were also up there, then they offered to take one of us.
With that adventure done, we headed to the
Harris Beach State Park. As did the rain, which came and left with us. I was already grouchy because of other stuff, so the rain, which we knew was in the forecast, just added insult to injury. I put myself in a little time out and tried to find something good about the unwanted water. Like reflections in puddles.
We headed to
Azalea Park after our tents were pitched for the picnic dinner we'd invited local friends to join us for, but ended up eating in the the van. Without friends. Because, rain.
It let up for a little while around the time we finished eating, so the kids played games in the playground, Tim joined them for a bit, and I walked around trying to find more positive spins to the situation. Like water on flowers.
I was super frustrated with everything and everyone by the time we got back to camp and had told Tim I just couldn't do it. We either needed to fork out money for three nights in a hotel or accept defeat and just drive home that night. We hadn't planned for a hotel stay and you know how I feel about sticking with a budget, so my suggestion tells you how desperate I was. I also said I couldn't make any more decisions because I'd lost my ability to be rational.
Tim said we should stay that night, as we'd already had a full day and our tents were up, and then re-evaluate the next day. Three kids took off to the playground, the other headed to the store with Tim to buy more tarps, and I played with fire in a campsite by myself.
They're barely visible here, but there were six pairs of shoes around this campfire. A little bit of time with everyone gathered in the drizzle to pretend like we were having a good time. Or maybe I was the only one pretending.
I'm glad we stayed. That wasn't the end of the rain, but the pros of our time outweighed the cons. As I did four of the five mornings we were gone, I went for a walk early Monday morning and went down to the beach. Sometimes it's good to look out at the grandeur of nature to put things into perspective, if only for a few minutes.
And sometimes looking at the minutia has the same effect.
Our next adventure was heading to
Stout Memorial Grove, an area of redwoods that's part of
Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. This is another place I went to as a kid, but hadn't visited in decades. The kids told me later they weren't expecting to enjoy this particular outing, but they all had a great time and would have stayed longer if we'd let them. The foot bridge that connects the Jed Smith campground to Stout Grove closed for the summer about a week before we arrived, so we just drove straight to the grove.
The kids slid (surf/skate style) down fallen trees, climbed under hollow trees, and pointed out various things they thought looked cool, while Tim climbed the side of a hollow tree to take an overhead picture of the kids (we forgot to take a picture of that three from the outside).
We took a little side trail off the main loop trail and then found our way down to the Smith River. We ended up staying there for well over an hour before traipsing back to finish walking through Stout Grove. Such a pretty place!
I killed time (and possibly ... maybe ... perhaps worked through some of my bad mood) by building a rock tower. Random, I know.
You can't see it without enlarging the picture, but my tower is sticking up at the line where the rocks meet the trees, dead center in the picture, as we left the river for the woods.
It wasn't the biggest redwood, but it's not exactly small.
We'd originally planned on having Johnny's ice cream s'mores at his and Mandie's place after our Sunday night picnic, but the rain, scheduling conflicts, and two grumpy moms negated that plan. They suggested trying again Monday afternoon. The weather was perfect right up until we arrived at their place. Knowing the weather can change every five minutes, we sat out in the rain for a bit. Then we retreated to sheltered spots in the yard. Then we pulled out a canopy.
Then the rain stopped and our families enjoyed a few hours together, making ice cream s'mores, grilling hot dogs, and eating chips.
Evidently this marshmallow wasn't happy about being touched by a hot roaster.
In fact, he got all fired up about it.
Ha! I love faces that show up in random places.
Couldn't end the night without picture proof that it happened, so we got a shot of the little Ws with Cort and Ty.
And one of me and Tim with Johnny and Mandie.
Tuesday morning I went for another walk, but this time I went up to Harris Butte instead of down to the beach. I love this spot! The rising sun shining on the rocks was pretty. That morning I was struck for the gazillionth time with how lucky I was to grow up in a place where mountains, forests, rivers, and the ocean are just ordinary parts of every day.
A selfie. Why? Because sometimes you need to remember arriving at a viewpoint 10 minutes after waking up makes you happy, hopefully making you more likely to get outside when you're crabby in the future.
After three days with scheduled activities, Tuesday was all about unstructured time at the beach. Given freedom to choose where we went, the little Ws voted unanimously to stay at Harris. They played football, built sand snakes, collected seaweed, dug tunnels, constructed forts and moats, and had a blast. The weather was perfect, too. No wind, blue skies at the start, then fog that rolled in and kept us from overheating as the day warmed up.
This peak is Harris Butte, the top of which is the spot I took the overhead view of the beach from earlier.
All 6 Ws enjoying time at the beach.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love my hometown? Countless times? Hmmm ... well, I really do love it.
Tim and I ditched the kids for a bit to go for a walk.
Then we came back and hung out with them some more.
We couldn't have a vacation at the beach without taking a family picture on the beach, so here's proof we were all there together.
We weren't the only ones there, though. I'm not sure if you can see the other guy we found, but he's in the center of this picture.
Now you know where Waldo is!
Mandie had invited us to join their family for ice cream after they all got out of school and off work. So we all cleaned up after our time at the beach, then headed off to
Wildwood and
Semi Aquatic, two stores we'd planned on buying things at while we were in town, before we met their family. Those two stops completed, and with time to kill, we decided to walk down the road and see what other businesses we wanted to visit.
Goldilocks Antiques was a neat store with cheerful employees and a bunch of really fun decorative pillowcases.
Forecastle Books intrigued some of the little Ws, including one who bought a book.
True Elegance gave Naomi two dolls for free when she asked how much they cost because they didn't have price tags.
Just as we started to head back toward our van, I saw an Aveda sign hanging outside of
Salon Dolce and thought it's where Diana works. I walked over to ask inside and she was sitting right inside the door! I was thrilled about the chance encounter with this girl who was such an integral part of my teen years. And, yes, I said girl. She's in her 30s now - wife, mother, career woman - but in some ways she'll always be a girl to me.
She asked when we were leaving town (the next morning) and what our plans for the evening were (eating at Pizza Deli), which led to her family joining us for dinner a couple hours later.
But first we swung by
Beachfront Gifts for some Ws to buy cinnamon roasted cashews and various kinds of fudge, then met up with Johnny, Mandie, and their boys for ice cream. We didn't take any pictures, but we all had fun chatting, playing checkers, answering Trivial Pursuit questions at
Slugs 'n Stones. Dessert before dinner isn't normal around here, but our families managed to do it together two days in a row. Between staying with them during the class reunion weekend and hanging out twice on this trip, we've been able to spend quite a bit of time with them this summer. So fun!
Then off to
Pizza Deli for the meal we'd all been waiting for. Tasty, as always, but even better with friends. The last time I saw Kallen he was just a snuggly two month old baby. Now he's a cute one year old who'd much rather move around than be held by me, but I was able to get some time with him in my arms. Such a cutie!
Not only did I get to see Diana and hold Kallen again, but our family got to meet her husband and step-son, Nick and Diego. I thanked Nick for coming out to have dinner with a bunch of strangers and he said when Diana explained who I was, he knew it was important to her and agreed to come. I love that!
Now to meet Diana's challenge of finding a picture of the two of us from way back when I was a high school senior and she was in fourth grade, or maybe even earlier than that.
We headed back to camp after dinner and spent a rain-free evening around the campfire before we all hit the sack.
Wednesday was time to head home, but we got everything loaded up quickly enough that we were able to stop at
Chetco Point Park before we left town. Beauty all around!
Then our time in Brookings was done.
We had one more planned stop, though. Lunch at
Bobbalou's in Cave Junction. We'd heard about it from a friend whose cousin is the owner, but weren't able eat there the other times we drove through over the summer. Good gravy, it was delicious! We ordered five different kinds of burgers - bacon cheese, triple bacon cheese (x2), Hawaiian, jalapeno, and mushroom Swiss - and every W was happy with their choice. Me being me, I had to get a picture taken to show our friend.
And just like that (which I say like the whole thing was a breeze), another camping trip was in the books. Only time will tell if all the positive camping trips trump one that was more challenging than usual and we end up going again. I bet we will, but with some lessons learned from this trip.
Meanwhile, I'm thankful for the time spent writing up this blog post because it's allowed me to just savor all the good parts of the trip.
