Shilo Inn - Grants Pass

... Views from the top floor were incredible. Next stop was a visit to the University of Washington. Situated on the water, it was an impressive campus.
We then took off for Pike Place Market. This was a huge open air market....fish, flowers, fruits, vegetables....you name it. The market itself was blocks long ...

... die Weinberge hoch Richtung Oregon nach Williams. Auf Grund eines technischen Fehlers sind wir dann mit reichlich Verspaetung in Williams angekommen. Heute haben wir dann eine Tagestour zum Crater Lake unternommen, dem tiefsten See der Staaten. Schaut euch einfach die Bilder der letzten Tage an. Viel Spass.

This was an unexpected highlight brought to me by Tamami, who found it on the web. An entire hotel and resort entirely in the trees. Well, sort of. Most of the rooms are up in the trees, some as much as 40 feet, and some even have water and bathroom facilities. The whole place has been around for over 20 years and they have been adding on rooms and things to do ever ...

... the fence a couple more times, so the horses weren't too happy until we moved on past the cow's territory. However, shortly after that, there were a couple of deer just down the road ahead, eating some apples from a tree, (that could have possibly been a problem...either by getting spooked or spooking the horses) so Jenny rode ahead to 'move' them along, etc. Never a dull moment.

For those of you whom might remember my Travel Pod about last year's visit at ...

... We walked around for a bit at Portland - not a whole lot there either. Decided not to stay there cos we had some time to make up so we kept driving - said we'd stop at 7pm wherever we were haha. So we ended up staying at a super 8 at Creswell about an hour south of Salem. The guy at the front desk was hilarious - he loved our accents so just kept on ...

... if you buy your beer at the distributors on the leeward side of the island. Wish Willy's is a great if not unique dining experience. Overall Caye Caulker is a little touristy but not too bad. Placencia is a nice "village" . The village label barely fits because it seems more like a town. The are more tourists there than in Caye Caulker thus more selections of restaurants and various services. You can walk anywhere in the "village". If taking the bus to ...

... Raggamuffin' Tours. 3 days 2 nights with snorkeling, fishing and camping out on a couple cayes along the way. Sounds just terrible but I think we can tough it out. Once in Placencia we will be staying at Harry's Cozy Cabanas for 6 nights. After that we haven't planned anything really. We are planning on seeing some Mayan Ruins but not sure which ones. Car rentals are way to spendy so we probably will take the bus alot. My (Jill's) dad left today for Hopkins Village, so ...

... will help with that as well. Quite the fuss and toss up as to how I will really get around and how I want to get around is quite another matter and the campervan/RV option was one consideration in helping me get around but basically I'd be driving a full size van with an extended top/side (not a full size RV, just an oversized van) so naturally larger vehicles are harder to negotiate when parking or turning and to be honest with you why drive when traveling when you're ...

So we head south to Brian's birth state, which makes him an Oregonian! There we find our long lost friends from Volcano the Neads and Brian's cousins. River rafting, flower shows, hiking, GIANT REDWOODS and seal watching are all highlights. Oh, and let's not forget the dune bashing on quads. Very eco-friendly....

... I don't think I shot). We continued down coast past the Umpqua dunes scenic area near Lakeside, through Coos Bay (51 ml) to an 1892 lighthouse and didn't have time to explore the formal gardens in Shore Acres park and onto the Coquille River lighthouse near. Bandon (72 miles) where there where supposed to be good sea stacks and a good place to find Japanese glass globe floats. We were too early in the season by about two weeks to see many migrating whales. (We ...