Ashland, Oregon - 2015

7-17-15

Yesterday we had a busy day. The house is full to capacity. Scip is still with us. He seems to be the Public Relations Man for the Golden Rule. He has been at the house the last two months. When we are traveling he takes care of the cats and watering of the house plants. I fixed the sprinkler system and the outdoor plants and the little vegetable garden are taken care off.

Two members of the five man crew are staying with us too. They had planned to start their journey to San Diego on Sunday, but they encountered problems on the boat.

Yesterday afternoon Mary Beth from Fairfield arrived. She will be staying for a week at the house.

Doris cooked dinner for the whole bunch. She prepared the dinner and then we and Mary Beth drove to the board walk where the Veterans for Peace held a Memorial Service in remembrance of the first atomic bomb explosion in New Mexico.

After the service we went home to eat dinner.

So did our three house guests.

Doris and I slept in the motorhome last night. Our bedroom is used by one of our guests.

This morning Doris cooked breakfast for seven people. After breakfast we cleaned up and at 9:45 AM we were on the road. We arrived at a RV Park in Ashland five hours later. We are here for the Shakespeare Festival.

After a nap we went into town to check out the parking around the Shakespeare Theaters. As we were warned all the parking spots up to several blocks from the theater complex were taken.

Since we wanted to walk anyway we parked somewhere and walked to Lithia Park where the theaters are. A man had two sheep on leashes and they were feeding on the grass in the park.

Near the theaters are many outdoor cafes. Ashland is a beautiful city. Down Town is very clean.

7-18-15.

This morning we drove to Jacksonville, an old mining town, founded in 1852. It has over one hundred pioneer buildings.

It is now a tourist town. They have a trolley and a Segway tour.

We toured the Antique Stores. Doris bought some stuff.

Late afternoon we went to the Shakespeare Theater Complex and found a spot for our car. There was a space available right across from the theater, and it had a four hour limit which was fine for us.

It paid that we did a dry run yesterday.

After parking the car we went to a book store where Doris bought some books on tape. Then we went to a restaurant, located next to Ashland River, and had a leisurely dinner.  

The theater has a free Green Show before the main performance. Tonight a high school mariachi band was performing.

The main performance was: “Much Ado about nothing”.  It was a modern version of Shakespeare’s play.

We enjoyed the performance very much.

7-19-15.

In the morning we did a lot of driving and accomplished nothing. First we drove up to the Ski Area at Mount Ashland. The lodge was closed.

Then we went to the old mining town of Yreka, California. Since it was Sunday all the stores in Old Town were closed.

On the way home Doris decided that we drive to Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath River. When we got there we saw the dam from a distance. The access was closed.

After a long nap we did our Shakespeare Festival routine. We arrived at the Theater complex at 5:00 PM and we were lucky and found again a single parking spot near the entrance.

We visited another book store and a shoe store. Doris bought some books and a pair of shoes. Then we went to a restaurant and ordered a pizza with a salad. After the meal I took the bag with books, shoes, and leftover pizza to the car while Doris went to the ice cream parlor for some sweets.

The last few days we had ice cream and chocolates every day. I am at my best right now weight wise and want to stay that way. Doris is worse than I am with ice cream and chocolates.

We got together again at the Green Show. The Mariachi band was on stage again.

Antony and Cleopatra started at 8:00 PM and lasted three hours. It was performed at the outdoor theater. We had brought warm clothing but did not need it. It did not cool off that much.

The house was sold out again and the acting was terrific.

7-20-15.

Today we visited Crater Lake National Park, one of my favorite places. The color of the lake is a deep blue. Since the lake gets it water only from rain and snow it is one of the cleanest lakes.

Wizard Island can be visited by tour boat.

At Watchman Overlook we saw people hiking up the mountain to a building. It is a three hour round trip.

Since this area had a mild winter and less snow than usual the East Rim Drive was open. We started with the West Rim Drive and drove both drives. This was my first time completely driving around the lake.

A lonely boat tours the lake.

Phantom Ship Island is very small.

Videa Falls is only a trickle water.

We stopped at the Visitor Center and enjoyed the movie about the lake.

Then we drove to the lodge and checked it out. We had our picture taken at small building which had a lot of information about the lake.

Wizard Island is the dominant feature of the lake.

We also stopped at the store.

On the way home we stopped at the Rogue River Gorge. The sign says that the gorge was not cut by the river, it was formed when a lava tube collapsed.

The Living Stump is very unusual.