The Rest of the June Traveling Story

After breakfast we knew we had some time to spare and still plenty that could be seen before we headed over to hub's family's for the afternoon.....so we looked on the trusty REI hiking map and discovered the Oregon Badlands walking trails....

 Now hub wasn't quite as impressed with this section cause he was already familiar with the Central Oregon terrain etc and the landscape didn't change the entire 7-8 mile round trip stretch that we walked.....but I enjoyed seeing something different and day dreamed about how easy it would be to lose track of location and one's mind when traveling these stretches 100-150 years ago. Lucky for us it wasn't too warm as we walked and there was a breeze blowing through, but there was no water source during the stretch we walked, junipers that had been struck by lightening during years past, and birds that had a call that sounded like mocking laughter. ;)

 Gorgeous contrasting wildflowers astounded in the badlands---these blues, bright pinks, and vivid yellows.

 I had no clue that junipers are actual trees! This was part of the "Ancient Juniper" trail.

 Another trail we walked along cut through an old homestead. I think this was the old well on the homestead but I couldn't find any remnants of the home's foundation or outbuildings.

 Old shooting targets:

And here's where most the photos stop ;) After our trek through the badlands, we headed over to hub's family's for the afternoon. After three days, we both showered and cleaned up. Hub, his dad, and his uncle started talking fishing and hunting goods, as part of the reason we'd headed over was to pick up the hunting guns that hub's dad had said he could have (and a gun safe---the compromise between us....). After cleaning up, we headed over to see one of my great gal pals for a BBQ dinner at her place, where we had the absolute pleasure of meeting her two adorably dirty faced children, who played wonderfully with our dogs in the backyard while hub sucked in the enjoyment of using their Traeger grill. After not seeing her for four years, it was great to catch up as much as we could in two hours, observe how good of a mama she is and how amazing her two kiddos are, and let her get to meet hub too. (Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures and her awesome hub happened to be gone for the weekend.) We ended up heading back over to hub's family's to spend the night and the next morning I sat and listened for hours hearing great work stories from hub's grandpa. It was incredible to hear him talk of working in a mining shaft, building roads, working on oil drills, and rounding up cattle on the family farm, along with panning for gold for fun in his "free" time. While grandpa and I chatted, hub loaded up the back cab with the "hunting gear." Between his new stuff, our backpacks and camping gear, and other random odds and ends in the back cab and our stack of camp wood, gun safe, and dogs in the truck bed, we sort of started looking like the hill billies! ;)

Hub and I headed out to come back to our place about 2pm but once we'd made it over the pass and were an hour from our home, we looked at each other and decided to make the three hour drive south for our hometown. A quick call to Mom and Dad for permission to bring the dogs (Dad's allergic and not a big dog fan....) which he readily gave, and then we headed south....and just in time for Father's Day. ;)

The bridge heading into our hometown on the coast:

 The dogs peeking out from under Mom and Dad's gate:

 Luckily the dogs did great settling into Mom and Dad's backyard during the day and sleeping in the bed of Dad's truck in the garage at night. We've been super impressed with them through all of our travels, and they did well enough that Dad gave the ok for them to come along anytime we want to come down--woohoo!

Going home allowed us to spend some moments with my parents, grab dinner with friends at two of our favorite spots, and take our dogs out to the beach for an afternoon with two separate friends and a couple of other dogs. The weather was drizzly but not too cold, and altogether the extra trip home was wonderful. Dad shared old backpacking photos with hub and the two of them talked for a couple hours about technology advancements, music, and sports---its always satisfying listening to the two of them engage in conversations about their similar interests. I also had the fun of running into one of my best gal's dad and (separately) her MIL while we were home, and we were able to share in the joy of the recently announced pregnancy of hub's best friends. Hub also was introduced to the show Extreme Couponing....and now I'm afraid there might be a new hobby in his life..... ;)

We split the four hour drive back up to our place and within two hours of being home had the truck unloaded, the mail opened and sorted, the gun safe installed and doing its job, the front entryway weeded, and the garden watered. An absolutely great trip through about half of our wonderful state, and we're looking forward to more trips to come!