Oregon - a Whole New Backyard Adventure!

We crossed the border into Oregon and discovered a whole new world awaited us, gas was a little cheaper (which is a good thing), people pump your gas here (by law) and the people are very very friendly! Our first stop was Diamond Lake which is 3 miles north of Crater Lake.  Crater Lake can only be described as ..... WOW! Breath taking views, the bluest water and the majestic peaks form what can only be described as God's picture perfect landscape.  Did you know that Crater Lake was not formed by a meteor, it was a volcano that fell into itself and formed the bowl for the lake.  We are so fortunate to be able to travel to these natural gems in America's backyard.  We spent three days at Crater Lake but could have stayed the summer, it is that beautiful.  The pictures we will post of this place can not do it justices.  After Crater Lake we drove back to the Oregon Coast and was not disappointed in the views along the coast.  We plan on stopping at Sunset State Park, South Beach State Park and Fort Stevens State Park each for three days and take in the views.  Our first stop was a little different for us, we pulled in and set up the motorhome to find that we did not have satellite service, no cell phone service, and no internet.....OMG how will we survive? Well,  one of us did really well and one of us needs a hobby besides something to do with electronics!  Pat caught up on her reading while George moped around for three days.  In his defense, he was also trying to get rid of a lingering cold.  The state park was beautiful but there was a canopy of huge trees hanging over the entire park and every morning we were blessed with a cold fog coming from the ocean. The locals around Coos Bay call it "the  Gloom until noon", but we did get out and see some very beautiful beaches, gardens and a lighthouse.  Leaving Sunset Beach we travelled north for a couple hours and pulled into South Beach.  The views from US 101 going north were amazing, Pat took hundreds of pictures.  The town of Newport is a quite little fishing village with two lighthouses, beautiful sandy beaches and it has internet, satellite reception and cell phone service so we are now all happy!  Feeling better we left South Beach and drove to the northwestern most point of Oregon.  It is the land of Lewis and Clark, where the Columbia River and meets the picturesque seacoast.  We did not see all of Oregon but what we did see left a lifetime of memories.

We camped at Diamond Lake and this was our front yard!

 Diamond Lake is 3 miles north of Crater Lake - awesome!

 

Sunrise over Crater Lakle

Is it chilly Pat?

This picture does not do Crater Lake any justice - it has is the bluest water we have ever seen

 

 

The Oregon coast was amazing

Our hook ups at Sunset Beach on the Oregon coast

Lighthouse near Coos Bay, Oregon

 

 

 

Devil's Punch Bowl on the Oregon Coast

Just us on the Oregon Coast

Another coast shot for your enjoyment

Rugged beauty

Interesting house on US 101

Old shipwreck at the mouth of the Columbia river

Replica of Lewis and Clark fort at Warrenton, Oregon

 

This our first trip to Oregon and it did not disappoint us.  From Crater Lake to the Oregon Coast this is a beautiful state.  We are driving to Washington state, another state that offers new and exciting opportunities to discover America's backyards.  After Washington we will start our trek back to Colorado with stops in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.  Stay tune for more amazing pictures(we hope) and our trials and tribulations along the way.  Enjoy your summer!

Southern California - Friends and Sites!

 

We left Tucson and headed west to the Pacific Ocean, Southern California and long but not lost friends. Sorry we missed a few as our schedules were just out of snyc.   Our first stop was Camp Pendleton Marine Base but we did notice driving into the base the gas was $4.00 a gallon, quite different from the $2.17 a gallon in Tucson.  But we settled in and made some calls to friends in the area.  Since we been in this area a few times, sightseeing is not high on our agenda.  Pat and Domnique Shores actually accepted our call and we made plans to meet the following day in Dana Point.  We were all stationed at Ramstein AB, Germany from 1983 to 1986 and travelled to the ski slopes in Austria together.  Pat ad Domnique were perfect hosts, we enjoyed breakfast an toured the harbor at Dana Point while we caught up with each other.  As always with good friends,  it seemed that we had been together just a couple months ago had a wonderful time visiting.  We left Pendleton we drove up the coast and stopped at Seal Beach and Port Hueneme naval stations before visiting our friends Frank and Alberta Rock.  Frank and George were stationed together in the early 70s at Ramstein and it has a few years since we connected when we spent a year in the Mojave Desert while George worked on the B-2 project..  It was great seeing them and they are looking pretty good for some old timers.  Continuing up the coast we stopped at San Luis Obispo so we could visit the famous Hearst Castle and Moro Rock.  We can tell you that Mr. Hearst spent millions of dollars on this little abode and it rivals any castle in Europe.  The architecture, paintings, furniture, fountains etc. are really something to see if you are out this way.  We changed plans at this point and decided that we should do something for Amy....so we drove to Travis AFB to do some wine probing in the NAPA valley.  We found a vineyard not far from the base and stopped in... what do you know...it is owned by Coors and ran by the sister that Kris works for in Colorado.  So now Amy will get some wine from the Coors family...hope she likes it!  We detoured again to do some family history in Humboldt County, California the ancestry home of Pat's great grandfather John Hiram Rease.   Now it was time to leave California and drive to Crater Lake, Oregon but that is a backyard story for another blog.  Hope you enjoyed our adventures in California, we did find out that not all of California is like Southern California which is a very good thing!

 

 

Dana Beach, the ocean views were remarkable!

George, Pat, Dominique and Pat Shores having breakfast overlooking the ocean

 

George, Pat, Alberta, and Frank Rock good friends for many years!

The mission at San Luis Obispo

Ronald Regan's Presidential library, Simi Valley California

 

Hearst Castle entrance

The heated swimming pool

How is this for a dining room?

 

We really enjoyed California this time around, the weather was great,  and the scenery was just beautiful.  However, it was the friends we connected with that we will remember the most of our swing through the Golden Bear State.  It is on to Oregon, which is one of the few states that we have never visited so our backyard exploring will all be new.  Stay tuned the summer has just began!

Starting our Western Swing with Friends

We have left Colorado and started our swing through New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington, Idaho, Wyoming before coming back to Colorado.  Our plans include visiting friends and seeing this country's beautiful backyards in our western states.  The first part of our adventure will be visiting with friends we have known for a very long time.  We started our journey on May 1st driving to one of our favorite cities, Albuquerque, home of the world's most photographed event, the Annual Balloon festival and our friends Mike and Rita Kavanaugh.  As with so many of our friends, Mike and Rita welcome us as part of their family.  We have known them since 1986 and surprisingly we are still very close.  Our next stop, Tucson, usually a late fall destination, to visit with Tom and Maryann Graue.  We all met in Germany where Kris was born back in 1978.  If you follow our blog, you might remember that we mentioned that it was Maryann (now a retired nurse)  who was responsible for sending George to the doctor for his sleep apnea which was the catalyst for discovering his throat cancer back in 2003.  We treasure all of our friends and enjoy every minute we get to spend with each and everyone of them.   We will be leaving Tucson on May 16th and drive to the San Diego area to see several friends including a young lady who was stationed with Pat in Turkey in the early '70s, a fellow firefighter from our time in Germany who also vacationed with us on the ski slopes of Austria in the mid '80s , and we hope to get together with George's classmate from high school who is RV camping near San Diego.  After San Diego we will venture into the Mojave Desert to visit two other long time firefighter friends also from Germany in the 70s and 80s.  We plan on posting our blog as we progress up California, Oregon and Washington's coastlines and the side trips into some of the natural wonders of this beautiful land.

 

 

Mike and Rita with Pat in Old Town Albuquerque

Rita always cooks a great breakfast and always smiles

Mike is not saluting he thinks he is sweating while he watches Rita do all the work...Ok Mike did make the coffee!

Outside of the old church in old town Albuquerque with Mike. Rita and Pat

This park is just outside of old town Albuquerque and commemorates the cattle drives of 

 early New Mexico 

Not a bad landing spot for our Tucson visit, the desert flowers are still in bloom.  The weather has been great for our visit with temps in the low 80s (the average is in the 90s for this time of year).  Pat is taking advantage of the sunshine to enhance her tan.

Seems Tom likes to cook breakfast so we let him cook breakfast twice for us.  Are we just moochers?

One of the best things about visiting Tucson, we get to see Tom and Maryann's miracle baby, Emme.  She was a preemie and at two years old still weighs less than 20 pounds.  As you can see she is already a Buckeye fan even though her granddad is an Arizona Wildcat season ticket holder.

 

Oh, Thanks Maryann!!!!! 

 I am sure you can think of a few captions for this photo but Tom and I really were fixing his door sweep. 

This might be a fitting picture to say "The End"

 

Our newest trip has just started and we will be on the road for a least two and half months visiting the backyards of the west coast but we already know that if the rest of our trip is like the first couple of weeks.....we are going to have some fun!  Although we will miss our Holly, Kasey, Karsten and their parents; we also know that we are a phone call, Skype, or Facetime away from talking and/or seeing them.  We hope all of our friends and family have a wonderful and safe summer.  If you live on the west coast be very careful we might be pointing our motorhome in your direction just to stop in and say "hello"! 

Leaving Colorado and Headed to the West Coast!

We have been in Colorado since March and now as May approaches we will leave our family and friends here and start our trip to the West Coast!  Words can not express how much we have enjoyed our family, it is so special as grandparents to see Holly grow and develop her own personality, seeing the Super Ks expand their world and grow into outstanding young boys.  We are so proud of all of them and their parents, who it appears have a pretty good handle on this parenting thing.  Of course we try to add our grandparent's worldly knowledge to help the parents but they must be hard of hearing because they think they know more about raising kids and follow their own mind and heart.  Go figure, they think they are the bosses!

After we arrived in Colorado, we settled into Chatfield State Park where we volunteered to get the park ready for the upcoming camping season.  George did his treatments in March and all is Ok for another six months.  We celebrated both Kris' 37th birthday and George's birthday with family.  We  

 were able to babysit Holly a couple of times and she is no longer a preemie and has grown into a beautiful baby girl with eyes that melt your heart.  The Super Ks are all boys, rough and tumble, sweet and cuddly, inquisitive, and into everything at once.  It seems they followed in their parents' footsteps because they have so many activities that they have not slowed down since we arrived back in Colorado.  The old saying ...."they stuff 10#s of flour in a 5# bag" describes the entire family now.

We have enjoyed our 2 months here from having the Super Ks overnight to cuddling with Holly, but we also met new friends at the State Park.  We will be coming back to Chatfield in late July or early August to volunteer with the new camp hosts and our staff friends.

 

 

One of the many hot air balloons that lift off at the balloon airfield on the other side of the lake, this one landed just south of our motorhome in the campground...short flight!

 

 

 

Kasey and Karsten easting Grandpa's molten cake on his birthday!  They think that is funny!

Holly was watching the kites at the kite feast!  I don't think she really liked the wind!

 

Mom I have a big plate and high chair, I am waiting for my real food!

Look grandma, we can climb trees and ride the branches like horses!

Of course Grandpa is her biggest fan...but she is so cute we are sure everyone is in her fanbase!

April and David, just in case you have not met Holly's mother and our newest daughter in law!

It is mutton busting time, the Super Ks rode the sheep like real cowboys at the Great Western complex during the All star Professional Bull Riding rodeo!

 

Kasey and Karsten are getting bigger and cuter!

Pat with our newest camp host, Mook!  No he is not a coyote, he is an American Indian! 

 

We could have posted a lot more pictures but we know you get tired of seeing pictures of our grandkids.  Of course we never get tired of taking and looking at their beautiful faces and remembering when we were with them and what we were doing with them.  If you are not a grandparent you might not appreciate the above statement but we guarantee once you have grandchildren you know what unconditional love is and the joy you get just watching them or seeing their pictures.   So parents....enjoy your children but remember to share them with your parents they are God's gift for us teaching you how to be responsible adults. 

Love you all and if you are on the west coast, be aware that we are headed you way and our GPS will find you!  Our plans are to drive through Albuquerque to Tucson.  After Tucson it is on to San Diego and up the coast to Seattle.  Side trips to friends are a must and the backyards of California, Oregon, and Washington state will be visited over the next three months.  We are looing forward to a great summer and hope you have one also!

Catch Up Again!

The last time we posted our blog we said we would do better...we didn't!   We were told today that we were woefully behind and we should post a blog soon since not everyone is on Facebook and they would like to see what we are up to as we travel around this great country.  But in our defense...Ok we don't have a defense! 
We last posted about three months ago and shortly thereafter our life was changed with the addition of a tiny  4# 14 oz baby girl who showed up a month early, David and April's beautiful baby wrapped herself around our hearts and we have not been the same since.   We have been  truly blessed with the Super Ks, Kasey and Karsten and we have shared our friends' grandsons and granddaughters over the years but now we have Holly Marie to spoil (and we will April and David)!  We could end this blog with just pictures of Holly but since we have been so lazy about posting, we will continue to catch you up on out trails and tribulation.  After we came back from Arizona for Holly's birth we spent Thanksgiving with Kris, Amy and the Super Ks at their house, we celebrated Kasey's 5th birthday and gathered as a family to celebrate Christmas before heading east and south in search of warm weather.  We saw spent a few weeks in Ohio with family and than headed south to visit with Pat's sister's family in Tennessee before driving to Florida.  We drove to the Florida panhandle to reunite with Pat Henry, a friend from Pat's early days in the Air Force, and with our friend from our days in Germany, Ann O Connor.  Did we mention that we were looking for warmer weather.... long story short...it was warmer in Colorado than in Florida.  We joined Dick and Karen, George's brother and sister in law and Pat's brother and sister in law, Chas and Sharon in central Florida.  The weather was not like New England but it was in the 60s and rained more than we wanted.  We also drove down to Key West with Chas and Sharon for a few days (still warmer in Colorado).  We were also fortunate to visit our friends, Doug and April Almond in Port Charlotte.  But the biggest news from our time in Florida was we (George) blew the engine in our Jeep and now we have a new Ford Edge to pull behind the motorhome.  In George's defense. the Jeep was an 04 with 275000 plus miles so it might have been time.  On to the pictures... we know that is what you all really want to see!

 

Presenting our granddaughter... the very perfect ....Holly Marie Cannode

You think David is on Cloud 9?

April and Holly... two beautiful young ladies!

The crazy Cannode's...

featuring the upside down Super K's, the adults making weird faces and

 Holly just being beautiful!

Did we mention that the Buckeyes are National Champions?  Might have forgot to tell Adam and Tami (Alabama), Kendra (Auburn), and Ann O Connor (Florida State)... btw Adam did you say that tOSU would never beat Oregon?  OH...IO!!!!!

Our friend Ann O Connor with George wearing his CSU sweatshirt (didn't want to rub it in that FSU lost to Oregon) -- Go Rams!

Karen, Pat, Minnie, Dick and Steve sitting around the pool while their friends in Ohio are enjoying sub zero weather! 

Sharon, Chas and Pat (I told you to smile) at the Navy Gateway Hotel in Key West

Sunset at Key West -- they really do have beautiful sunsets!

Pat (George was sitting in the space between April and Pat), April and Doug at Pounce de Leon park in Port Charlotte

The Cousins

Visiting Pat's Aunt Marie and her two daughters, Lynn and Kay with Mildred (next to Pat)

Pat and Aunt Betty

Aunt Ruby chatting with Pat

Cousin Melanie with two of her grandsons

Charleston AFB ...our new ride is in front of the motorhome

 

We know we skipped some of our adventures and did not include the hundred of pictures we had of family and friends but we finally got off our behinds and posted the highlights of our last three months.  We will be heading back to Colorado for George's maintenance treatments in March, to see Holly, Kasey, Karsten and of course Kris, Amy, David and April...hope the weather is warmer.  Just so our friends in upstate New York and in Ohio know we are not complaining about our weather since you have had a winter for the decades.  You should all wear T shirts that states... "I survived the winter of 2015", if you ever get to shovel out and get to a store.  In Colorado we will get our share of snow but will be warmed by being with family.