Smith River Weekend

This trip has been filled with wonderful family visits and reconnecting with old friends. We left Crescent City Friday afternoon and drove the 20 miles north to visit Lynn and Les Odom, friends from Shell Beach that we haven't seen in 10 years. The fog had cleared by the time we got there so we had a wonderful chance to see their new home in Smith River right along the coast. Absolutely stunning moorish architecture! Les is a master with tile, which is how he and Paul first met. He has really worked his magic on the walls and floors and columns of this new house.

After catching up on our new lives we had a tasty lasagna dinner with a fantastic ocean view. Saturday we took a ride up into Oregon to visit Gold Beach and do a little shopping at a huge Hospice resale store...Paul picked out a little Halloween decor for the MH. From there we stopped at a beautiful overlook at Natural Bridges Cove. So amazing to see the power of water which has carved both a natural bridge and an opening in the huge rock.

I did get a photo of Paul with Les and Lynn along the path.

Once we got back to the house we put on walking shoes and headed to the beach.

The sun was still showing slightly through the fog.

After the long walk on the beach we changed and went to dinner at a darling cafe:  The Art Grill Gallery
Wonderful dinner and lovely surroundings. A fun evening.

Sunday morning we were up early, leashed Foster and headed right back down to the beach for an early morning walk.





Wow...even prettier than the night before and the tide was out much further so we saw even more rock formations, large piles of drift wood and so many sea creatures.

After another wonderful breakfast at the Odom Kitchen Cafe we said good bye, loaded us up again and headed east to Medford. By accident we took an alternate route, Hwy 197 that was so beautiful and got us over to Hwy 199 very easily. Then we were following the Rogue River with fantastic scenery all the way to Grants Pass.The drive was windy and narrow but so beautiful and it only took us two and a half hours to

get all the way to Medford.

We had decided to try to stay as close to Medford as we could so we chose the Medford Elk's RV Park.  What a perfect place!!! It is about 7 miles outside of Medford near White City.  It was the Elk's Picnic Grounds and they've added the 10 RV parking spots.  Well, lucky for us...no one else is here! There is a care taker, Merle, who has lived out here for 30 years and is a sweetie pie. There is a river nearby but mostly all we hear are crickets at night and the cows mooing in the morning.  I never had any idea my new Elk's membership would be so fantastic!!! For $15 a night we have power, water and beautiful scenery all the while being only 15 minutes away from my Mom.

Once we got set up we headed into Medford to meet my brother Harry and his wife, Mary, for dinner.  Another fun night...they suggested "Shoji", a Japanese Tapenyaki Restaurant.  So fun!!! All the food was prepared with style right in front of us and was delicious!

We've been spending the last few days visiting my Mom and getting to see a little bit more of Medford.  We saw a play yesterday afternoon in Ashland's Shakespeare Theater, always a treat! Mom's doing well and we loved being here. Can't believe she'll be celebrating her 89th birthday in November!