Mom is 98 years old!

It was nearly 70 degrees yesterday afternoon so I took Mom on a little outing to the sculpture park -- it's just a block away from the nursing home. I told her it was her birthday photoshoot. So as we went around the park we stopped now and then for her "portrait." I printed an 8x10 collage of some of the pictures so she can experience the outing again and again and again ...that's one of the only advantages I know of dementia -- you can't remember what you've heard or seen so the world is new every few minutes. A lady saw me taking pics of Mom and offered to take one of us together -- people really are nice (most of the time).

Redwoods

One of the main reasons we wanted to drive to California was to see the Redwoods. Chuck pointed out to me that we had seen them before -- 43 years ago to be exact -- on our honeymoon trip. Who could remember THAT??? The trees are close to the northern CA coast and the state and national parks have combined to provide good viewing for them. They are indeed HUGE. We had to wait out some stormy weather to see the ones in the Humboldt Redwood state park, but it was well worth the wait. It was difficult to get good pics in these forests, as it was really dark below these towering giants.

Oregon and California Coasts

The good news is that our trip home is safely completed and the bad news is that the house is totally "trashed" with everything we unloaded from the motor home. I have to get busy and get everything sorted, put away, laundered, etc. and Chuck has to winterize the motor home. I will admit I have been finding it very easy to play slide shows of photos of our trip home and my photos of the "grands" (grandchildren)to avoid the work that needs to be done!

We decided to take the scenic route back to Colorado by avoiding interstate highways and driving down the coast of southern Oregon and northern California. We did start out on I-5 but went over to the coast at Reedsport. Gary worked down in this area a few(?) years ago. I'll post a photo of one of the sand dunes from that area. We saw lots of sea stacks -- they have always been one of my favorite coastal views in central Oregon coastal locations -- but the ones in southern Oregon and especially northern California are absolutely spectacular. I will never tire of watching the ocean waves pounding over and around those stacks. Mini-water falls burst forth over some of the flatter ones. I just wanted to sit and watch the waves for a couple of weeks -- I don't think I would ever tire of watching Mother Nature do Her thing on the coast.

Heading Home

I know I have not been posting since last week, but I have a good reason (excuse?) No WiFi. We have been staying in state parks and lucky to have even electricity, much less WiFi. But OH THE SCENERY! Who cares about anything else
So in the next few days I may be able to post some photos. However, our connection tonight is SO SLOW it won't load my pics.
Suffice it to say that the southern Oregon and northern California coastlines are absolutely spectacular --more sea stacks then I could wish for combined with the season's first rain/wind storm made for a very exciting first few days of our trip back to Colorado. More to come ...