Seeing the sights

Originally, I planned to fly out today. My wife and daughter took over and scheduled me for tomorrow instead. I think my wife appreciates one more day of calm around the house. This left me looking for things to do. I don’t want to blow off valuable time in such a rich area as this.

I had my daughter take me to Lexington & Concord. In my mind, this is hallowed ground and it was well worth visiting. I found it odd that the National Park Service doesn’t have anything open in the area. Apparently, they have big plans for what they call Patriots Day. (April 19th) There will be reenactors as both Minutemen and Redcoats. It sounds like a fife & drum good time… if only I had a few more days.

It is what it is, and we visited both sites along with the running battle area between the towns. The Lexington area is very small and surrounded by civilization. Concord has a slightly larger area, but you can hear the kids playing in their back yards from the battlefield.

We wandered another old cemetery and this one has men from the actual fighting buried there. Some local group puts out American flags to mark their graves, but they also put out British flags as well. (On that particular day we were all British when the sun came up.)

I have photos, but the tombstones are virtually illegible. 250 years in the weather has that effect on stone. What I found odd was the British markers were legible. I suspect they were thrown in holes and only marked 100 years or so after the fact. This is merely my supposition, though.

Here are some to compare. This couple died much later, but both succumbed to small pox.

Note how this fellow’s headstone is more square and seems as if it’s from a newer era. At least they had the good sense to lug him to a tavern.

Captain Parker’s quote above is in Lexington.

Minuteman bronze in Lexington. (I took one at Concord, too. I was shooting over school children and managed to cut off the top of his head.) So enjoy this fellow.

This is posted at the site where Revere was captured. He was carted back to Lexington and paroled after questioning. I like the way they capitalize the odd word here and there. Makes me feel better about my own typing.

Old North Bridge is where everything hit the fan in Concord. The British held one side of the bridge and were attempting to tear it up. These were hardened regulars, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. I don’t understand the value of the bridge in particular. I think the Colonials were looking for a fight and happened to find one here. You could throw a rock across it and the presence of a bridge wasn’t holding anyone back from crossing.

This placard is at Concord.

One of the things that stood out to me was the women in the cemetery. They are all noted as being Mrs. Somebody, wife and mother, those kind of things. They weren’t recognized for their own accomplishments, or even allowed their own names. Other than Mrs. they had their husbands’ first and last names on their tombstones. I think that’s kind of sad, but I’m glad I saw them like this before political correctness modifies everything.

I have more pictures, but I’m sure some of you are cussing how long this page is taking to load. The area is beautiful, and my daughter said she liked it more than Salem.

These towns are passing up good money. I had a fist full of dollars, but there wasn’t a tee-shirt shop in sight. I would have bought both a Lexington and a Concord shirt if only there had been one to buy.

Concord has a similar cemetery and it’s called Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. It’s not the right Sleepy Hollow, so we passed that one up. It might be sacrilege for an author, but I also passed up the Ralph Waldo Emerson House, the Henry David Thoreau House, and the Louisa May Alcott House.

I tried my level best to visit the Sue Coletta house, but it wasn’t meant to be. I was willing to drive an hour North to visit with one of my favorite fellow authors, but we never could put it together. I kind of wanted to meet Poe, too.

More touristy stuff

My brother-in-law had foot surgery right before our vacation. He was hurting, and it looked like we might stick around the campground. It was suggested that he might be able to rest his foot just as well if we went crabbing.

While everyone got ready, my daughter and I made a coffee and breakfast run. We pulled over at a beach that is a Poke-stop so she could collect a half dozen Pokemon before we went back to camp.

My brother-in-law and I drove through Depot Bay, and the resident pod of California Gray Whales were putting on a show. The girls all went to the outlet mall, so we called them. My daughter really wanted to spot a whale, so they drove the twenty miles to find us. They got to see them too.

We shot a ton of photos and videos, but they were all on my iPhone. That means dubious quality. I loaded one extremely short video on my Facebook page. These guys were right offshore, and in my younger days, I might have been able to throw a rock that far. We saw a lot of spouts, a few tails, and a lot of backs. That's kind of what you get with whales.

Just to prove they were there, here is one spout photo:

It really is the wrong time of year for crabbing. We knew that, but there are always a few around. We must have caught over a hundred, but they either fell under the size limit, or were females. You have to throw them back. Those limits are for Dungeness crab though, and not red rock crabs. We wound up with seven red rocks.

There isn't much meat on a red rock crab, but enough of them can make a meal. We have four adults who will eat crab. (It's my daughter, before anyone asks.) By adding a few steaks, and some salads and corn, we had a nice surf and turf under our awning last night.

Here's Otto proving we actually caught Dungeness crabs too. They were just tiny ones.

This is the same green platter as the photo from last year, but the red rock crabs are from last night's dinner.

Having a great time. Hope all of you are having a great week too.

I am such a tourist

We stuck both North and South of Lincoln City today. I don't know what it is about Oregon, but they don't seem very original here. We drove through Salem, Dallas, Detroit, and now we're in Lincoln County. They also have a Portland here. They need one of the fantasy authors to send them some original names.

We went to the aquarium in Newport. We went there years ago, but it's always fun. I wound up with a tee shirt that has a big octopus on it, because I'm a tourist. Here are some snaps.

I was too short to make my beard stick out.

I took quite a few photos, but won't bore you with more than a few.

Fly my minions, and turn everyone into zombies.

We hit the Tillamook cheese factory to the north of Lincoln City. We ate so much grilled cheese stuff, I may need to visit the bran factory tomorrow.

I'd love to get an interview with Bigfoot for this blog. He isn't responding to my emails… Yet.

Tomorrow we are heading for Astoria. My wife is a huge Goonies fan, and wants to see where it was filmed. Maybe she can order some Rocky Road ice cream while she's there. The girls went to the factory outlet mall, and I stayed behind to update the old blog. They promised to scope out someplace that sells chowder and craft beer.

Headed for home tomorrow

Our hotel, in Bend, is old and tired. If you decide to go, they have everything, but we asked the staff to let us in our room three times. They still use physical keys and the mechanisms are worn completely out. Imagine having to walk a block to the office when all you want to do is pee. You’ll have to decide what you want. It’s the Shiloh Inn, in Bend.

They are right on the river, and we even have a tiny patio right out back. I found these wild blackberries five feet from our back door,

Wild Blackberries

 The little beer event last night was pretty fun. It was a celebration of aging in oak. The outside was an acre or so of beer booths and food. The inside was dedicated to whiskey. The whiskey wasn’t anything special, and I didn’t want to waste my time sampling common everyday things. It’s ten bucks to walk in, (ten for my tea totaler wife too) they give you a cup full of wooden tokens which you exchange for beer samples. I thought, six tokens = six samples. I was wrong. The average sample was three tokens. Some were only two, but some were four. I bought another fifteen dollars worth. It was an event to raise money for the museum. How could I refuse? I sampled some wonderful beers. The best one was a barrel aged vanilla stout. I’ve never heard of the brewer, but the beer was named Muse. I couldn’t pass it up.

Over an acre of beer and food

Today we went tourist all the way. We drove about ninety minutes to have lunch at Crater Lake Lodge. I’ve been there multiple times, but the only time I took my wife the caldera was full of fog. Today was not like that.

Wizard Island

My wife took a pretty good selfie of us using the lake as a background. She doesn’t want to be on the blog, so I can’t show it to you. Tomorrow we have to pack up and go home, then it’s back to work for both of us.