Dee Wright Observatory

On the second day of camping my older sister and I took our kids out to the Dee Wright Observatory which is just a short drive from Sisters, Oregon. From there you can see two of the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington and several of the major buttes and landmarks. It was a beautiful clear day and perfect for the views.

The building was made from the lava rocks at the site and the "castle look" got the kids excited to play Save the Princess and other sword fighting games. They all had a good time playing here.





Up on the top there is a dial to tell you which direction to look for each sight, how far and how tall they are.



The view for the North and Middle Sisters is always my favorite.



In the lower room of the observatory it's also fun to check the patterns of the water stains on the ceiling. It's not exactly one of the attractions but I think it's very cool.

Sahalie Falls

From Wednesday to Sunday the kids and I went camping in Oregon with my sisters and their families. On Thursday morning I took my kids down to Sahalie Falls and followed part of the trail down towards Koosah Falls (which we didn't quite make it to as the kids were wearing out).

This is beautiful Sahalie Falls from the viewpoint. There were several lovely rainbows when we got there in the morning.



This is from the viewpoint above the falls. This rainbow was actually a double but the second was faint and a little harder to catch.



From the waterfall we followed the lower trail towards Koosah Falls for a bit.



The boys LOVED this staircase and we spent a little extra time as they went up and down it. Erin stood with me and just watched as she was worried about falling off and into the river.



In a nice easy spot I freaked Erin out a bit when I went off the trail for a better picture and she was sure I'd fall in which would somehow make her fall in even though she stayed on the trail. I told her to look on the bright side: at least I wasn't standing in the river for the picture like my Dad used to when I was a kid. :)





Later in the week we took the kids out to the Dee Wright Observatory near Sisters, OR and then to Scout lake for a little swimming and hiking along the Metolious River and I'll have more pictures to come. I neglected to bring my camera to the lake but I do somewhere have a childhood picture from when my mom was about my age from that lake. I'll have to see if I can dig it up somewhere.

Animal Ark Wildlife Sanctuary

I have lived in Reno for 8 years-ish. When I first moved here I heard that there was a zoo and I took my kids out there. It was, um, well it was bad. The poor animals looked sad in little dinky squares with not much natural shade, plants etc. The kids didn't like it and we never went back. Not long after that I heard that there is also a wildlife sanctuary here but after my zoo experience I never went out there to have a look around. That was a mistake! We took all of the kids out to Animal Ark on Saturday and it was wonderful.

The viewing areas had a nice view of most of the animals and this big boy came right close up to see us.



The animals have nice big spaces to move around in, the big ones are rotated often so they aren't out all day and there is a lot of natural shade and interest in their homes.



We were there around the time that they were changing the bears around and the kids really enjoyed watching it. They placed fruits all around for Yogi (yes, the bear) to find and we were able to have the pleasure of watching it.





I tried to get a bears-eye view but Glenn caught me.



But after the bear was done I did round them all up for a silly face shot. Everyone tried something except I think K2 thought I told him to pick his nose...



And then they all ran away from me, haha. If you live in the Reno area and have thought about going to the Animal Ark I would certainly recommend it. We'll take the kids there again.



On Sunday we took the kids to my mom's house and just played around.









What did you do over the weekend?

Vintage Cameras and TtV

Road trip

This was shot from the car in motion. I took a lot of pictures out the driver window just to see what I might get on accident.



This was also taken from the driver window but I did stop the car to take it at least. This was in an area where there is nothing to stop the cow from walking up onto the road so you have to be careful driving though there (unless you want mass quantities of beef for dinner, I guess).



As I was just getting to the edge of Oregon (about 5 hours into the trip) the sun was setting over the irrigation canals. The next three hours were in the dark but, as the speed limit is lower in Oregon and I drive slower in the dark, this was good because it kept me from getting any tickets!