VACATION

Having a MIL with a Worldmark ownership is beyond awesome! This last week it was three nights in Redmond Oregon. We wanted to be close to Bend so we could hit our favorite museum. The High Desert Museum is a deceptive title. There is not much "museum" about it! Along with a replica of a dark mine (only a few feet long and INSIDE) they have ANIMALS! Turtles, fish, scorpions, Gila monsters, lizards and snakes, a lynx and bobcat, bald eagle, owls, fox, etc! Its like a zoo of all the animals found on the high desert! The kids love it too. It takes a bit out of the wallet ($15 each adult and $9 for children 5 and up) so its a once a year thing. This year we found we went a bit early for the high desert weather and it RAINED!! ALOT!

We left Tuesday. As usual after packing and such I was a grouch and Matt was avoiding me enough to be missing the instructions I was barking. I am surprised he actually WANTS to go on vacation considering the nut I turn into on pack day. But we finally got on the road about 1:30 pm. Oh, see I was supposed to pack Monday but it was Memorial Day and Mom and Dad were having a BBQ so Matt got off work early and we headed out to that instead. Dad was smokin meat so of course we HAD to go. You haven't eaten till you have tried his home made BBQ chicken smoked on his smoker. mmmmm heaven. It was actually sunny too! And got to go shooting again YAY.  We stayed till past bedtime like always and got home about ten and went to bed.

Back to Tuesday, we drove the three hours to our Eagle Crest Resort with only a bit of trouble. Heading down the hwy Matt all of a sudden takes a hard right and pulls off onto this side country road in the middle of nowhere. He starts bookin it up a side street saying that the cop we passed (he had someone pulled over) was coming up way too fast in the far distance and Matt was sure he was coming for us. We weren't speeding but it was scary because we had misplaced our registration and insurance envelope a while back and haven't paid to replace it yet (the registration). So we drove up this country road and turned around after a bit and headed back, just in time to see the cop who HAD followed us turn around behind us. When we pulled back onto the highway he lit us up. Said our tail light was out, and when Matt had pulled back into traffic he was supposed to yield to the guy across the way going straight. Luckily for us when Matt handed his licence he also handed his concealed handgun permit (strongly suggested to do so the cop knows) and with that the cop knew Matt had been thoroughly checked out and finger printed and found to be a decent citizen. We were let go with a warning to fix the light and get our registration. FEWF! We stopped in the next small town Napa to fix the light.

Brittney, James, and Violet were joining us at the resort. You cant really call it a hotel because these rooms are like small apartments. Full kitchen, two bath, two bedroom. Poor James had worked a swing and then four hours of training in the morning and was running on just an hour or so of sleep. He hit the sack as soon as we got to the rooms. Matt BBQed hamburgers and hotdogs. He got the idea to put BBQ sauce on the hotdogs and they were SO GOOD, though Matthew thought them too spicy so we wiped his off. It took till 11pm to get the kids to sleep excited as they were, and then they were up at first light, which was SIX AM!! I was so tired! But we got out the door about 10am and headed to the High Desert Museum. It rained. Not just rained, but POURED and the wind was blowing it sideways and it was big fat drops that soaked after only a moment. Perhaps you are thinking "who cares, its a museum so you were only going from car to building" which would be true if it was a typical museum but like I have mentioned, its not. There are paths outside that go to an otter house, the birds of prey building, reproductions of a cabin from the early 1800's and and old saw mill. Plus, we had packed a lunch and ended up eating in the car expect I was not about to try to get back in and then out so I sat in my wheelchair under the open back door of the van (lifts up) but with the wind blowing the rain sideways it was a soaking experience. Needless to say we ate fast. It was super fun despite the wet. Thomas the Otter was by far the favorite attraction. He did big circles in his pool coming right up against the underwater window where we watched over and over again and looking a bit confused and disgruntled when we finally left the window. Violet would shake with excitement at each pass.

After the museum we hit the resort pool. This resort is HUGE and takes up space on both sides of the main road. It has several golf courses (Matt wanted to go golfing but with the rain and lack of time it didn't happen) so we had to drive to the indoor pool. There was an outdoor pool just across from our rooms and Jams and Brittney used its hot tub one night, but it was too wet and rainy and cold for swimming. They had a lift so I could go swimming. It was an...interesting...experience. Their "lift" was an old rusted hand pump thing with a sling that was intended to just be sat on, but was folded and hooked together and very difficult to get into. The chain hooking it to the lift was obviously not intended for this lift as it was a bit fat and did not fit securely onto the hooks. THEN after I get in and am dangling (with the sling cutting painfully into the backs of my thighs) we find that it does not swing (to get me over the water) without extreme (talking two guys with their weight into it) difficulty, squeaking, and jerking (while I hang for all to see in a SWIMSUIT) we managed it though, and I do love swimming. The only place movement comes easy, and weight is not a problem, and there is less pain and more freedom.  There was a kiddy pool for the kids that was warmer then the big pool and Matthews favorite place. Rachel had a swimsuit with foam floaty blocks and then a little dollarstore ring over that and was very happy kicking around the big pool with the adults though she also played in the little one. One time after swiming with me in the big pool she said she was going to the "cat pool" took me a few minutes to see the connection (kitty/cat, kiddy pool) Violet loved the swimming too. She would smack the water over and over until she splashed her face then gasp and looked shocked before breaking into a grin. After swimming Matt and I took a trip to walmart sans kids. The GPS led us to a closed and empty walmart, then we googled it on our phone and that led us to an industrial area there it clearly wasn't. FINALLY Matt followed the directions of Brittney and James who had gone before getting to the hotel the day before. We shopped ammo mostly. Got earplugs and more .22 and shotgun ammo though once again there was no .45 ammo (every time we go to a walmart we ask and they sell out within a week of getting it and we have yet to be in that week). Came back to the hotel to find yummy grilled BBQ chicken (they have a grill there) and kids in bed but of course not asleep. Actually, Matthew had been asleep and then was woke up by Rachel. When Rachel went to sleep I came out to visit with Brittney (guys had gone for a drive). I have to sit in there while they are going to sleep or they bug each other or get rowdy playing. I caught movement through the half open blinds in the front of our hotel and WOW A DEER! Walking right by. We open the door to see two of them mowing the lawn. I go get Matthew (still not asleep) to show him. Brittney walks out and gets close enough to touch them, in fact, they are used to being fed so came to see if she and Matthew had any food for them. She handed Matthew a leafy branch which it took. It was amazing to see them so close! HUGE EARS! After they rambled off we found more out the back patio. They neighbors were feeding them tortillas (do not approve). The group of rowdy, noisy, giggly girls (like 18ish) finally scared them off. One tried to feed a deer by whistling at it like it was a dog and yelling she had food. I wonder how you get that old without common sense, but then again, I am pretty sure they were inebriated.

The next day was a trip to the Lava flow visitors center south of Bend and the observatory/nature center in Sunriver. Of course it had to be raining again, and not only that but we found ourselves with a bunch of ten year olds on a field trip. The center was small but interesting and had an awesome video of lava taken mostly in Hawaii if I had to guess (no sound). Then we drove up to the top of the large cinder cone. It was POURING again, only it was colder and wetter (if possible) then the day before. The trail leading to the lookout was paved, though steep, and the steepest part was the last stretch. I made it up but just barely and scared Matt as my chair flipped itself off at one point jerking me to a stop and he thought I was going to go sliding down, slam into a railing, hurt myself and flatten him on the way. I made it to the top though....and then realized I would have to go back down. LOL. It was an experience to say the least. I made it though and only slid a bit on the steepest bit. We were going to check out the lava tubes but we found the school kids and a van full of hillbillies who liked to cuss at their kids and needed a shower, had followed us so we headed to the observatory. Supposedly you can look at the sun and its spots and flairs, if the clouds weren't blocking the view. But the Nature center was really neat and fun for the kids. It had microscopes and stuff to look at under them, lots of hands on stuff, a drawer full of wings, one of nests, and one of bones, to examine. It reminded me of the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Visitors Center in Hillsboro. We were there for almost two hours and only left because of closing time. It is a small area but what they have held my kids interest. Oh, and they had a snake who was moving and looking at us through the glass. Violet got VERY excited about the snake. You couldn't help but laugh at her as she shrieked and put her hands on the glass of its tank only a few centimeters away from its head that stared back at her. Matthew was most fascinated by these pictures of animals and people. One side was a picture of them, and on the other the bones. When placed on a light board the bones shone through the picture giving an x-ray look to them. Rachel flitted from one thing to another but the microscope held her interest the longest, especially when mom looked with her.

After a yummy dinner of taco salad (thank you Brittney) MORE SWIMMING.

The next day we had to be packed and out of there by noon. We barely made it, tired as everyone was. We went swimming then showered and headed out. Brittney and James, not used to the early mornings were ready to head home. We were so excited about a day with NO RAIN and not ready to be done with vacation. Plus Matt wanted to head out to Prineville, the home of the very first Les Schwab store and still where their factory is. It was a beautiful day for the drive. We made it out there and got new tired put on the front in the Prineville store, droving past the massive factory building with all the trucks and shipping containers out front on the way. We then drove out to the Prineville reservoir state park and played a few games of backgammon while the kids threw rocks in the lake. It was very windy but otherwise a nice day. If the cabins had not all been taken we may have just decided to stay. We then hit McDonalds and went to a HUGE wooden playground to eat it as the sun started setting. We drove home as the sun went down on the desert. Wonderful day, great week (except for the rain). For more photos visit http://picasaweb.google.com/Jenster6605/BendVacation2010#