After our trip to Harry and David we decided to head out to Jacksonville: a pretty historical town just outside of Medford where over 100 buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.
There was a neat museum there with an original Coleman stove... not that much different from the Coleman stove today!
The kids enjoyed playing the in the Children's museum
So did I :-) 
The vineyards and fruit orchards around Jacksonville were so pretty
Thursday night and Friday we took some time to do some back to school shopping atTHE MALL! Wahoo!
Ethan got fixated on buying this puppet with his birthday money 
"Burt" has since provided many hours of entertainment.
Friday morning we headed out for the Oregon Caves.
Friday morning we headed out for the Oregon Caves.We plugged the address into our trusty GPS and headed out. It was a beautiful trip into the valleys and farmlands, then up a mountain.... on a dirt road??? We ended up getting lost up on some Forest Road with no satellite service and crazy narrow dirt roads. Luckily we had a travelling companion we met along the way who was just as lost as we were, but he had better maps, so we DID eventually find our way after an extra hour of travel and some frustration.
The van was FILTHY from all the dust on the roads
The cave tour was really cool
It was a 90 minute tour, so we got to spend a LOT of time meandering through the underworld
We took the "scenic route" hike down from the caves and got this cool view of the Siskiyou mountain range
Needless to say, we took the highway home!Saturday we headed back home with a stop in Eagle Point to see the Butte Creek Mill.
This ended up being a fun stop. Here's a little info:
The mill began operation in 1872, built by the pioneers with double-bitted axes and hand saws felled trees that were already more than one hundred years old. Foundation pillars nearly two feet square, were hewn with broad axes; the beams were morticed together and secured to one another with hardwood pegs; boards for the walls were whipsawed from logs and nailed on with hand made square nails. The mill consists of a basement and three floors.
Water from the dam, a short walk upstream, flows in the millrace to the lower level of the mill where it turns a turbine that powers the wheels, pulleys, shafts, belts, and the millstones that power the whole milling process. Water returns to the creek through the tailrace.The stones (1,400 pounds each) that do the work were quarried in France, assembled in Illinois, shipped around the horn to Crescent City and then carried over the mountains by horse and wagon and put into service more than 134 years ago.
Here's Ethan letting the water in to start everything turning to grind the grain
At the mill was a cute little store where you could buy their products
and this super cool old refrigerator
Next door was one of the coolest antique stores I have ever seen as well. Well worth the stop.Great little Oregon vacation!
4 comments:
Man, I want you to be my tour guide! You find some cool stuff!
You need more pics of yourself, sister. One day you'll look back at these awesome outings and wonder where the heck you were!
What a fun little vacation. How do you find all of these things to do? And Tracey, you look SO good! All of your hard work has seriously paid off, you look amazing. I am so wishing I could come to your boot camp, too! It sounds like a lot of fun and you look great. Way to go, girl! :)
The trip was very fun though I did not personally think the car ride to the caves was very fun. The caves were amazing though so I guess it was worth it.
Post a Comment