Two great weeks with Albee family members

For the last two weeks we have been fortunate to have some Albee family visitors.  For the first week, recent graduate (and prom queen) Raquel joined us for a week of sightseeing and the beach.  Then her parents (Uncle Jeff and Aunt Roxane) along with Sister (Roslyn) joined us for another week of sightseeing and the beach.  Sound familiar anyone?  We were very fortunate to have some great weather for the beach both weekends.  80's and sunny.  Can't complain about that.  Raquel and I were also lucky to take the bus to NYC one day to enjoy all the sights of the Big Apple.  No pictures as we were traveling light.  I will tell you that we walked everywhere and Raquel is the only person who has out walked me.  We walked at least 12 miles around the city in a short amount of time.  My feet were a little sore the next couple days.

Lily and Raquel enjoying the beach at Rehoboth.  We got to see about 5 dolphins this morning.

 Lily now loves to dance!

 A little kayaking in our neighborhood development

A nice view of the river we kayak from that leads into the bay

 The bay beach in our neighborhood

Lily wanted to pose while standing on the sprinkler boxes

Lily wrote her own name in the sand.  I can't believe what a little lady she is already.

Searching for shells, crabs and anything else that moves

Back in DC taking the tourists to Mt. Vernon

Wild horse spotting in Assateague State Park

The beaches are really pretty at Assateague this time of year.  Especially because the horse flies haven't gotten too out of control yet this year.

Back at the wave pool... Lily must have wanted Uncle Jeff to pick her up

Yes, everyone loved the smoothies at the wave pool

Hanging out at the bay beach while we wait for our crab traps to collect something (this did not work for us by the way...no crabs...)

Back in Western Oregon

The last two days of our trip we spent a lot of time catching up with family and friends.  We also did a few more touristy things and had a great time.  The camp fire was going at the Cremers and we had a small family reunion complete with smores on the camp fire.  Not a bad gig.

More beautiful Oregon scenery

On our next to last day we spent more time metal detecting and just generally hanging around campsites.  Then on our way home the last day the sky finally opened up so I got some great pictures of the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington on our way home.

Paulina Lake

Top of an obsidian flow (thought to be the largest obsidian flow in the world).  See all the shiny black rocks...

MacKay Falls

View of the Three Sisters

Mt. Washington

Newberry Crater & High Desert Museum

On another day of being tourists around Bend, we got to go to the top of this little mountain and see Newberry Crater which erupted only 1300 years ago and spewed lava all over the valley below it (see the black rock in the second picture below).  You could actually down to the crater where the volcano erupted.  The top of the mountain was also a great place to view the surrounding mountains.  Beautiful country.

Top of Newberry Crater

See the black lava beds between the red crater and the tree line in the valley

The chipmunks were incredibly friendly on top of the crater.  This little guy ate Wheat Thins right out of Venita's hand and then waited until she gave him another.

Lily sitting on top a bronze elk in front of the high desert museum.  The museum was very cool (lots of birds of prey and even some cougars.

Lily (aka Daniel Boone)

Smith Rock and Crooked River Gorge

One day we headed an hour outside of Bend, past Redmond, and onto a Native American resort area called Kahneeta - complete with natural hot springs.  The resort used to have a casino and was a happening place, but sadly the casino moved closer into town and the resort is nearly vacant now.  Sad to see this happen.  We would have hit the hot springs but unfortunately it wasn't quite warm enough.  So instead we had some great Indian Fry Bread for lunch.  If you have never had fry bread... you really should seek it out sometime.  MMMMM.....

On the way to Kahneeta we stopped at Smith Rock park and hit Crooked River Gorge.  Some amazing scenery.  Lots of mountain climbers are usually on Smith Rock but on this particular day there were only but a few as the wind would have carried them away.

Smith Rock

Crooked River Bridge (about 10 years ago a lady shoved her children off this bridge because her boyfriend apparently didn't want them... it was all over the news)

 

 These deer continually found their way to the backyard of the house we were staying in.  They liked eating the leaves off the aspen trees.  

Metal Detecting (aka scour camp grounds for other people's lost change)

My family is very much into metal detecting.  Why is beyond me.  Moving some beeping thing across the ground with a beeper beeping at you constantly and then digging in the dirt to find pennies is not exactly my idea of excitement, however.... it did get us out to some wonderful campsites and scenery.  On this particular day we hit some camp sites on the Deschutes River, saw Wickiup Lake, and the "head" of the Fall River.  Yes, our second river that you could actually see where it originated.  Fall River was also the clearest river I have ever seen.  Wow, was it awesome.

Campgrounds along the Deschutes River 

Wickiup Lake

Head of the Fall River (look how clear that water is... wow!)