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Had to squeeze in one more wine tasting, this time at a winery run by Trappist monks and an olive and olive oil tasting in Corning, where the whole town and area is olive trees and related processing.

Then home, and back to real life. This is the last post for this blog/trip. Thanks for joining us!

Lassen

Whole day at Mt. Lassen National Park. ranger talks, hikes, roadside stops to learn about various features, etc. You can't smell it on the blog, but... definite sulfur smell at our first stop. The mudpot in the photo is moving down the hill, and they've rebuilt the road so it can cross underneath. Mt. Lassen is just quietly (for the moment) overseeing everything and waiting.

Back to California

Before leaving Oregon, one more street sculpture and one more stop for a food-related tour: Harry and David's. Interesting tour: they produce 800 lbs of mouse munch (popcorn with caramel, nuts, etc.) an hour! We didn't like it that much, but the production was interesting--and very labor intensive.

Then to Mt. Lassen, with spectacular views of Mt. Shasta on the way.

Rafting on the Rogue

Another fabulous day. Mostly spent rafting on the Rogue River. Weather was perfect, and the rapids just exciting enough. Love their slogan, too, though we actually do like banjo music.

Stopped at the Rogue Creamery on the way home, and got a lesson on different types of blue cheeses (and tasting). We restrained ourselves and only bought chunks of two of them.

Dinner at Immortal Spirits. Food was good, too... Really fun to taste, especially since we don't know much about distilled liquor. We tried the single barrel whiskey, rum, nocino (a green walnut and other stuff), absinthe, pear eau de vie and blackberry eau de vie.

Onward to Medford

Today was basically a driving day. Good thing, as we got rained on quite a bit. Stopped for more berries though we didn't pick them ourselves this time. Beautiful scenery, but between the long drive and the somewhat cold (as well as wet) weather, other than to get the berries, we didn't try to stop along the way.

Silverton

Another great day. Started with a walk to get garlic blue cheese bread, quick before they sold out. The bread shop was already out, but luckily someone at the farmer's market still had a few loaves.

Walked home along the river to check out the community project to build a mosaic for a children's wading pool. Hard to tell in the picture, but it will be spectacular.

Then--short driving tour past a church of the Old Believers, a group of Russians who split from the Russian Orthodox Church in the middle ages, and eventually wound up in Oregon. It's a complicated and very interesting story!

And then waterfalls, at Silver Falls State Park. Beautiful walk through temperate rain forest plus the trail goes behind the waterfall, which is always fun. It was Silverton history day at the park, so they had log sawing demos, storytelling, music, historic games for the kids, etc.

Home for a nap, and then to the local wine bar for wine and jazz.

Silverton

Now staying with our friend Eva in Silverton. She took us on a lovely drive to Salem: beautiful farm country including fields of flowers being grown for seeds. Then to the Oregon Garden, an enormous and beautiful botanical garden (even in the rain). Home for a yummy dinner, and lots of talking.