The Emersons and the Thompsons parted ways on day 5 -- the Emersons headed back to Grandview, while Justin's parents and bro headed back to Aberdeen. Justin and I stayed an extra day and night because vacation was planned before Joe and Brianna set a wedding date...and as luck would have it, the wedding was planned for the following weekend. A special thanks goes out to my boss who let me stay in OR/WA instead of going back to Cali to work and then fly back to WA for the wedding. He said I could work from home in between events!
With an extra day on our hands, we decided it was time to do what most grown ups do on vacation when they have a vacation house to themselves.
Went to town to watch the final Harry Potter movie.
It was glorious.
It was a blustery day in Bend, so we also went to the Columbia outlet store for new outerwear.
On the way back to Sunriver we stopped off to hike to Benham Falls. The clouds looked ominous, but we decided to proceed...our new Columbia outerwear made us feel invincible.
Mind you, it did rain. Oh, did it rain. But, the clouds did make for some beautiful pictures.
As luck would have it, we had a bottle of bug spray in the car and decided to take it with us. It seemed every mosquito was on the prowl that day, and they had it out for Justin. And Justin wasn't having it.
If he would stop for even 20 seconds, they would attack. Not even the bug spray could keep them away. We reached the falls, took a few pictures, felt the first of the rain drops and decided, "well, if you've seen one white-water water fall, you've seen them all," and bid Benham Falls adieu. We made it back to the car only half soaking wet.
Why do boys like to climb out on rock ledges? I took this picture just in case I needed to show the park ranger in the event Justin slipped and fell.
Closer to the resort I saw a sign for the Lava Cast Forest and asked to drive out to it. Remember...I was diggin' the lava on this trip, so having seen the signs up and down the highway for this Lava Cast Forest, I wanted to check it out. The rain had let up, so Justin agreed.
Now, usually, when driving a car, the driver reads signs around him to simply be informed and aware of their surroundings/location. At least to be aware of the distance between point A and point B. Well, my dear Justin is a different case. Signs mean nothing to him. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.
I, however, did see the sign after we exited from HWY 97, which read: Lava Cast Forest, 9 miles.
Knowing full well that Justin would have tried to convince me we didn't actually need to see the Lava Cast Forest, had he been privy to the distance, I decided to bite my tongue and enjoy the scenery.
Suddenly, the road went from smooth and paved to bumpy and unpaved. We slowed down. We slowed much. There was not a soul to be seen. Anywhere. Some deer ran in front of us a ways ahead, but that was it. Justin started to get visibly agitated, and it wasn't just because the road was bumpy and unpaved. A few more minutes went by and then...I saw it: a paper plate stapled to a tree, acting as a mile post marker. The number? Two. We'd gone just two miles.
Justin didn't see that "sign" either. If he had, I don't think he would have thought much of it because he didn't know the forest was nine miles off the freeway in the first place. Eventually he asked how far in this place was, so I told him...
...............silence................
Teehee.
We rounded a corner and saw the entrance sign. Again, not a single soul is out visiting this sight. Odd, I thought, for it being so well advertised along the highway. A small info sign at the entrance told us that along the trail there are trees that were surrounded by lava, but didn't burn immediately because the lava was pahoehoe so the trees eventually burned or died, leaving casts, or molds, of the trees behind. In other cases, the trees grew up out of the lava in weird ways, affected by the lava, like so:
I really thought...no, hoped...there would be more than just a few trees looking like that...simply for the sake of my husband who was a good sport and drove out to the middle of nowhere to appease his wife's temporary lava obsession.
I scooted ahead to see what else there was to see, leaving Justin behind to take pictures of the trees. I was soon out of Justin's sight when I heard it: a low, breathy growl. I stopped in my tracks and slowly looked over my shoulder, expecting to see a werewolf, an alien, a killer orca, a bear, a mountain lion.
I saw nothing. But I heard the breathy growl again.
I turned around and started to book it back down the trail, as fast as my poor-choice flip flops could carry me. I said to Justin, as I scurried past, that it was time to go. I noticed that he was taking his time, snapping a few more pictures, so I said louder, "It's time to GO!"
It is a lovely picture of the flowers...
He replied, "Oh, haha, do you have to go to the bathroom? Cuz it's about, haha, a thousand miles of gravel road away."
I opted to keep quiet. I dared not let the forest monster know where I was by following my voice.
Finally we got to the car, safe and sound, and I told him about the growl. He let out a nervous laugh, looked around, noting again how we're in the middle of nowhere with no one around, and then hit the gas.
Apparently we missed the best part of the trail...the actual lava casts...We only saw trees coming up through the lava...we saw no casts. Boo. Maybe someday we'll go back. Maybe.
We celebrated making it out alive by going to Goody's for ice cream where I ordered one of the biggest banana splits I've ever seen. I couldn't move after eating it. It was a good end to the day.
Also, and I'm not ashamed to point it out, but it's apparent my Oil of Olay night eye gel hasn't worked a wink, no pun intended, for the last three years. Perhaps I should look into a different brand. Any suggestions?
Mama mia. At least now my spiral macaroni gray hair won't seem so out of place.
I'll spare you a recap of Day 6 -- it was spent on HWY 97, where I fought with my wireless internet card, worked in the car, drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of white cheddar popcorn. We also stopped for a picture of this from the top of the Horse Heaven Hills.
The valley is a sight to behold.
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