Hoerman's House

Did I get any on my face?

Fresh pineapple is pretty hard to resist. (Sorry the picture is a little blurry.)

The best chocolate

Yeah, I am still talking about my vacation.  But I have to share with you the chocolates I bought at Lillie Bell Farms.  I got the lavender fleur de sel caramels.  They are the bomb!!  I love salted caramels anyway, but add in some lavender and it takes it to a whole new stratosphere.

The day I didn’t post about

I didn’t make a post last Sunday so thought I would post about it now.  Glen and I went to Crater Lake last Sunday.  If you have never been, all I have to say is go.  It is absolutely one of the most beautiful places to see.  Since it had snowed up there only a couple of days before we went, about 90% of the rim was closed.  We were told that if we parked at Discovery Point we could walk as far as our hearts desired.  We strapped on camel backs that were packed with all kinds of survival things…..most importantly food and we walked to The Watchman.  Let me say, it was about 2 miles from Discovery Point to The Watchman and it was all friggen up hill.  It was so worth it though.  Walking the rim you get to see so much more of the beauty than if you drive it.  It was an amazing experience.

When we reached The Watchman, I told Glen I didn’t want to walk on any further.  I was pretty beat and just wanted to walk back down to the car.  Besides, going on meant trekking over mounds of snow.  On the way back down we stopped a couple of times to admire the views.  It is so amazing to look at snow that is undisturbed by people.  On one such stop, as I was admiring the view, Glen managed to get a jewelry box out of his camel back and presented to me.  He opened it up and there to my HUGE surprise was a diamond engagement ring.  As I stood there making the “I can’t believe this is happening” face he asked me to marry him.  Of course I said yes :o)  This probably isn’t the exact view, but very close to where he asked me…….who could ask for a more romantic spot for such an occasion?

One of my favorite pictures of the day is this one taken by a fellow traveler.  He was Japanese and he offered to take our picture.  He had a nice face and looked like such a nice man that I consented to hand over Glen’s camera :o)  He did a magnificent job!

Oh yeah……here is the ring that Glen picked out.  He did a good job, it is very pretty.

Home again, home again

As fun as vacation is, it is always good to get home.  Our plane landed at 11:23pm last night and we didn’t get home until about 1:30 because the stupid shuttle service at the airport not only was slow, but passed us by once……just drove right on by like we weren’t there.  Bad words were said.  Today we got Petey and Lilly out of jail (boarding).  They were both very happy to see us.  Not enough sleep caused us to forget to take any pictures of our reunion.  After running a few errands everyone settled in and naps were taken.  Much needed naps.  After resting, Lilly was nice and wound up.  What would you expect from a spastic kitty?  Why kitty fishing of course.

It’s good to be home.

Food and Wine Lovers Day

Today is the last day of vacation, which is a bit sad.  However, we ended it in style by doing a wine tour in the Rogue Valley.  The wine tour included four wineries, The Rogue Creamery and Lillie Bell Chocolates.  In all we bought 18 bottles of wine, some wonderful cheeses and a nice variety of chocolates.  After the tour we went to Gary West Meats where they have artisan smoked meats.  So of course we bought some of that too.  We have lots of goodies to remember vacation by.

This is a view of one of the wineries we visited.  Gotta love those grapes!

This little fella perched to say hello to us as we were leaving the last winery of the day.

Finally, at Lillie Bell Chocolates, it was so hard to decide what we wanted.  I opted for Polish Vodka chocolate covered cherry.  Glen got the Markers Mark chocolate.  There is just something wonderful about combining liquor and chocolate :o)  The pictures we took were of the novelty chocolates…..chocolate covered bacon….which we also bought some of.

Lazy Day

Today Glen and I had a day in which nothing was scheduled until 4pm.  We perused the internet to see what our options were.  In the end we decided to take a nap.  We we very lazy and it was much needed.  The last few days involved a lot of physical activity and we were both pretty worn out.  At 4pm we had massages scheduled.  It was wonderful and made my lower back feel so much better.  It was Glen’s first massage.  He said he liked it…..will maybe have to schedule more in our future.   Since we didn’t do anything today, we didn’t take any pictures.  So I will share last nights sunset from our deck.

Lava Bed National Monument

Today Glen and I went to the Lava Bed National Monument in California.  It was the first time I have ever seen the results of volcanic activity.  It is amazing to me how old the area is and still very little plant life exists.  It was like being on a totally different planet.  The cool part of the monument is Captain Jack’s Stronghold.  This is where the Modoc Indians withstood the U.S. Army for almost five months.  There is also some very cool petroglyphs. 

This picture is me walking the trail along Captain Jack’s Stronghold.

This is a lava flow.  It is thousands of years old but still looks like this….

This is a picture from Petroglyph Point.

There were also caves/lava tubes that we got to trek through. The only light in the caves were the flashlights that we took with us.  It was a lot of fun.

Canoe Trail

Today Glen and I ventured out onto the Upper Klamath Lake for a nice canoe ride.  One of the resorts has a nice trail especially for canoes.  There was spectacular views and we got to watch a lot of birds.

Museum Day

After getting a good 10 hours of sleep, we felt human again.  Since it snowed yesterday and there was a chance of rain up at Crater Lake we did the museum thing today.  First on the list was Favell Museum.  We looked it up on the internet and got there when it said they opened at 10:00.  Turns out they didn’t open until 11:00.  As luck would have it there was a trail right by the museum, so we took a walk and killed some time.  It wasn’t that great of a trail….no good views of anything.  The one thing we managed to get a picture of was this fella as he was fishing.

After the walk we went through the Favell Museum.  It is a western/Indian artifact museum.  They have the largest arrowhead collection.  I have no pictures because they don’t allow anyone to take them.  Next, we drove to Klamath Fort.  The fort is no longer there but they have a nice little museum there.  The significance of this fort is Captain Jack along with 3 others of the Modoc tribe were hung and buried there.

After lunch we decided a nice hike was in order so we set about trying to find a good place.  We we unsuccessful.  We tried, honestly…..but a lot of the trails are in the upper elevations and are still closed due to snow. We were afraid we would high center the car and we had no cell phone service….bad combination.

We did walk around our resort though.  We got in about 2 miles, so we didn’t do too bad.  This is a picture of chipmunks/ground squirrel…not exactly sure what it is.  They burrow in the ground and bark like prairie dogs, but they are definitely not those.  They are cute, whatever species they happen to be.

So now we are chilling with local beverages.  Glen got Widmer Brothers Brewing Drop Top Amber Ale….tastes just like beer (guess that is a good thing).  I got a bottle of Passive Agressive 2009 Tempranillo made in the Rogue Valley.  The name of the wine made us chuckle and it is mighty tasty!  We tried to get a picture of the bottle but the lighting was bad no matter where we tried so I just picked the best one of me.

Day one of vacation

Glen and I started our day at 4am central standard time so that we could hurry up and get to the airport to sit and wait.  We finally managed to get to our hotel at 4pm pacific time.  After getting checked in we went to the local Wal Mart to get food and we discovered that no matter where you are, the folks at Wal Mart never cease to shock and amaze. Anyway, I digress.  The one photo that was taken today is of the view from our deck.