What's next???

I've had a few phone calls and emails in the last couple of days from friends asking what we are up to and what our plan is...where are we going next? As far as what we've been up to, well, that's pretty easy to answer. We've been skiing, we've been exploring the area and seeing cool stuff, and we've been having fun. As far as what we are doing next, well, that's a pretty complicated question. The short answer is that we are going to see more stuff and we are going to have more fun. The long answer is where the complication comes in.

We have 2 more weeks booked at the RV park in Bend. We are having a hard time coming up with a firm plan for the next 2 weeks so you can only imagine the difficulty we are having in firming up a plan that lasts longer than the next 2 weeks. We are currently having so much fun here in Bend that it is really going to be difficult to leave...especially if the snow keeps falling. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this to you before but skiing is quite possibly my favorite thing on this beautiful Earth (disclaimer here: my wife is my favorite thing...I think I have to say that, right???). And skiing is good right now. I'm talking really good. And the forecast is calling for more snow and cold temperatures for the next 10 days. Not a lot of snow but snow nonetheless. This extra snow not only begs for us to be at Mt. Bachelor but it also opens up a few of the nearby peaks for us to climb up and ski down. There are a few mountains here that we stare at on a daily basis that have been hinting to us that we need to climb them. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been on our side this winter for much in the mountaineering department. Until now. So for the next 2 weeks, we have a few peaks that we should reach the top of, we will spend some more time at the Mt. Bachelor ski resort, and we are hoping to do some more rock climbing at Smith Rock.

After those 2 weeks is where we are really having difficulty coming up with a plan. At some point we are going to be back on the boat so we can sail north again this summer. I am hoping to be saying a loud “Aaaaaaaarrrggg!!!” in my best pirate voice as we sail away from Anacortes sometime near the beginning of June. What that means is that after we leave Bend, we have about 6 weeks of time to fill up with adventure, fun, and amazing sites before we are boat people again. What to do with 6 weeks???

We have lots of ideas and everyday those ideas seem to change. Most of our big ideas involve long hikes and national parks and wonders of nature. The problem that we have is that there are about 12 million of those things out there and which ones should we see? For the last couple of weeks, the only place that we seem to be stuck on for the very near future is Yosemite National Park. Since it is a constant, we are going to shoot for that and try to fill in the blanks on the way down to the park and then probably head up the coast on our way back up to the boat. We can see a lot of stuff in 6 weeks and we will do our best to see as much is as humanly possible.

Until I have more exciting things to report, here are some photos of recent adventures.

This is called being smothered by my wife in the backcountry.
A beautiful lake in the 3 Sisters Wilderness Area with our good friend Gigi and her smelly dog Coco
This is an amazing spring on the side of the Metolius River.  I am told that 50,000 gallons of water flows out of this spring every minute...that's a lot of water!
Another day of rock climbing at Smith Rock and another day of Brenda showing off her skills.



Comments

  1. Larry_and_KarenApril 5, 2015 at 11:07 PM

    Never leave fun to find fun! Take the time to enjoy what you have. And always be safe.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Double Birthday and the Italian Connection

Image
There is an interesting thing that happens on this side of the world. When we left Seattle, we crossed the international date line which puts us one whole day ahead of where we came from. Basically, we lost a day. Because we lost a day, Brenda turned the ripe old age of 40 one day sooner than she would have if we were in Seattle. On September the 12 th in Vanuatu, we got to celebrate her big day. But since she says her home is in Seattle, we also got to celebrate her 40 th birthday when September 12 th happened on that side of the world. Basically, she got the longest birthday known to mankind...2 big days long. There is another interesting thing that happens when you are cruising the world on a sailboat. You run into other cruisers that come from all parts of the world and all backgrounds. Where we are currently moored on Aore Island in Vanuatu, there are 4 boats that are from 4 different countries. It's an international coalition. Our newest neighbors jus...
Read more

The Garnet Ghost Town

Image
For years before we left, I had always told people that we were going to sail around the world. Now that we've been out for a few years, I still tell people the same thing. It's a concept that makes sense to the average Joe – a circle around the globe. A start and an end. One complete lap. When a random stranger we meet on the road asks what we are doing, I still answer with, “we are sailing around the world.” But that explanation is and has always been just a quick way to put into words a concept that still doesn't make sense to most people. Because in reality, we aren't going to sail around the world. One big lap of the globe doesn't really have any appeal to us. Although we aren't realistically going to make a big giant loop – with a beginning and an end – we are doing our best to see the world, and we'll be doing it for as long as it takes. So, I think the proper way to explain what we are doing, is to just say that we are out here to see the ...
Read more

A Crossroads

Image
There comes a time in every sailor's life when some hard decisions have to be made. We are at that point. We are currently in a little town on the Baja called Santa Rosalia. It's amazingly different than any other place we've seen so far in Mexico, and after 9 months in the country, we've seen a lot of places. Santa Rosalia is a mining town. Copper was discovered here in the 1860's, and after a few change of hands and some tax breaks and incentives, a French company took over the mines and the town took off. They imported wood from Oregon and Canada, and with that wood, they did something that we haven't seen anywhere else in Mexico. They built stuff...using wood. Nearly everything in Mexico is built from concrete, steel, and cinder blocks, so, without having to use too much brainpower, it's pretty easy to see that this place is different. No hard math or powers of deduction are needed - it's staring us right in the face in the f...
Read more