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Well, today was the girls’ big birthday with their friends from school and scouts. Yes, 12 overexcited girls (and 1 boy) running amok hopped up on pop, pizza, and cake. What a shame I have to stay off my feet.

Today started with my making them sit down with me and plot out a schedule for the party, and figure out what still needed to be done. This was when I discovered that when they did the party shopping last night they didn’t get any drinks or paper goods. Because I hadn’t put them on the list, you see. No problem, though, since Jim was coming home early and had to stop at the store to pick up the cake anyway.

So I spent the rest of the day giving the girls small tasks to do to get ready. They assured me everything I asked was done. Things started to get iffy when Jim called to say the bakery had got the cake wrong, and he had to wait for them to come up with a substitute. So he got home about 20 minutes after the guests started to arrive.

So the schedule went out the window and 2 of the games didn’t work right, but they all ran around and had fun, I think. Again, there was that one moment when one of the guests tried to convince everyone it would be fun to sit in the middle of the street and make cars go around them, but Jim sorted that out.

Still, hats were decorated, marshmallow snowmen created, pizza inhaled and gifts opened to general delight, it sounded like. The singing was especially tuneful. And we only had to chase after one guest to give her a goody bag.

And although I’m still waiting for my piece of cake, it seems that the whole thing went pretty well.

We packed up and left today with the idea of driving up to Bend, checking out a spectacular museum, then taking a designated scenic drive back down to Ashland where we could check into our hotel, have dinner, and then see A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I think you can see where this is going. When by lunch we weren’t even halfway to the museum, we decided to skip it and go for the drive instead. We stopped at the lava beds visitor center to get a map of the scenic drive. It turns out that the map was more impressionist than actually representative. Not only did it not have all the roads on it, but many of the alleged attractions weren’t even there. Apparently there’s also a shortage of signmakers. And people to maintain the trails. Plus the forest came right to the edge of the road, so it was hard to see any of the scenic lava beds. Don’t even ask about the alleged wildlife viewing areas.

But we finally made it out of the park and headed back to Ashland. We picked a road that on paper was fairly direct and major. On paper. In reality, it was a two-lane road winding through the mountains. The girls were going crazy with panic in the backseat as curtain time got closer and closer.

We ended up missing the first scene completely, and sitting in the wrong seats until intermission, but the production was fantastic! It was easily the funniest and most musical version of the play I’ve ever seen. The girls both loved it. They want to buy it on DVD and don’t seem to get that it won’t be available. They also want to go back and see it again. So I guess they liked it. I know I really did.

On Segways! We decided to take a segway tour of Jacksonville, Or. Honestly, we didn’t get overly much history, but we did get to follow a guide around for a couple of hours with 10 other people. Two members of the tour actually fell off theirs, but happily it wasn’t me! I just got a blister on my steering thumb I guess maybe you’re not supposed to keep a death grip on it for 2 hours. Of course the girls were naturals, and technically they weren’t even supposed to be riding. But once the people in charge saw that they were taller than a couple of the adults and we signed papers saying we wouldn’t sue if they got hurt doing something stupid, and they passed the safety check out, everyone was good to go. And now guess what they want for their birthday. Or failing that, Christmas.

Well here we are at Lava Beds National Monument. The main feature here is caves. There are well over 500 of them, and around two dozen you can go in, although a few are closed because they are bat maternity caves So far, I’ve managed 2 1/2. As one might suspect, the caves are mostly underground. Some are way underground. Which would be all right except for this pesky bone spur in my hip.

Thus I am forced to wait in the visitors center in a large comfy chair while everyone else goes on a ranger-led hike through Sunshine Cave, “a moderately challenging cave” where “stooping is required in the main passage, and the back section has floors that are steep and sometimes wet, or very rough”. Oh, well.

Everyone was all excited to swim in the crater of a volcano. Right up until they found out that the water is 44 degrees, and you have to hike down a steep 700 feet to get there. And then back. Plus, there are big patches of snow all along the shore. Suddenly the pool at the hotel seems much more attractive.

But there was almost a crisis there too. We had decided to stay at a Holiday Inn Express. It was just newly opened, and it lured us with free wireless Internet. But its pool was closed. So we wandered across the parking lot to a Comfort Inn, where the pool is open 24 hours. It turns out that this used to be the Holiday Inn Express until they built the new one. This seemed unimportant until we went down for breakfast to find a few stale muffins and pastries and a severe shortage of condiments. When Jim asked about it, they said that the new hotel had taken all the good stuff.

And then Stephanie got banned from the water by the lifeguard for pushing her sister off the diving raft. So we left. Well, we were leaving anyway ..,

Today we are at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in the Lake Shasta Area. So far we are two for two in our park visits. Yesterday much of the park was closed by construction. Today all the trails are closed due to fires. Still, we managed to walk in to Crystal Creek Falls for a nice picnic. The girls opted to do a little wading with their shoes on, “by accident”. Then after the obligatory walk to read some historic plaques, we ended up at a beach. We think it’s called Brandy something. So while the girls are playing in the water, I’m writing this note. If it weren’t 100 degrees, it would just about be perfect.

We just went to Lassen National Park. It was a fun day and we took a half mile hike in a place called Devastated Plains. We then did the junior ranger program. It was fun and we got badges and patches. On the way back we saw an amazing sight! We saw four baby deer and two sets of parents! Sorry no pictures but we did get good pictures of the volcanos.

Hi, it’s our first official day of vacation. We have traveled about 200 miles so far. We have stopped in a small town called Red Bluff for the night. We are now eating at a restaurant called Riverside Bar and Grill. We will get back to you today or tomorrow.
See ya!

As you can see by the previous post we are going to try something new this trip, iphone-micro-photo-blogging-children. Yes, rather than spending time writing actual content about our travels that might seem interesting or humorous, we’re going to turn over our iphones to the kids in the back seat on a regular basis to keep them entertained, err post stuff to our web site. The result should be a more up-to-date travelog but perhaps with an 11 year old bent.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully from time-to-time Joanne and I will also feel motivated to write something up. I’m sure there will be days so messed up it will be impossible not to write about them, and other days we might even have some fun to write about. Keep an eye on the photo gallery too. We’ll try to upload snapshots most evenings so you can follow along at home.

Tomorrow we’re off.