Travels with Lolo & Lulu

Day Two began with us pooling our quarters, readying for the upcoming ::cue sad trombone:: TOLLS.  Jump ahead to several tolls later,  we’re  “out of quarters”, and approaching the next toll and all we have now is a $20 bill.  We hand it over to the jolly toll-taker, and as he’s making change, a whirling light goes off inside his booth, and he says, “Do you have a transponder in your car???”  “Uhhhh … yes, but we were told it’s not valid!”  “Oh, it’s VALID!!” says he, smiling and handing me back our 20 bucks.  D’oh!!  Ending this part of the story with the news that, YES the transponder now worked well, and continued to do so, and YES, Enterprise Rentals adjusted our final bill to our satisfaction.

And now to our destination du Jour:  WISCONSIN!!  (State #39!)

We crossed the state line from Illinois to Wisconsin in the morning, and found a WONDERFUL photo op:

The “Welcome to Wisconsin” sign is terrific, and I snapped a  truly “old school” photo, placing Lulu in the foreground, and framing the sign. 

Then Gerry … all GUNG HO! to participate in finding the perfect Lulu Photo Op, offered to climb up the embankment, AND scooch BEHIND the sign, to perch Lulu atop it.  Sure, why not?

And #FindLulu #FindGerryToo was born.  LOL  (I’m pretty sure you can find them both, yes?? 😉 )

Our final destination on Day 2 was the lovely city of Milwaukee.  We sure packed a LOT into the one day!

Thanks to our early start, we arrived at our very cool art deco inspired hotel, The Ambassador well before noon.

This is the lobby of the place … the rooms were lovely, too!  I believe our GREAT DEAL (and it really was!) is available due to one of their infamous former guests: Jeffrey Dahmer.  But, I digress ….

We had a 1:30 Tour of Milwaukee scheduled, and we hopped on the hotel’s COMPLIMENTARY shuttle.  (Let’s just say that adjective will pop up again before the day is done ….)  We were instructed to meet our tour at Milwaukee’s City Hall.  (Side note: we were dropped off of the full van first, and as the driver announced “City Hall!” and we disembarked, a few people on the van called out, “Are you getting married???!!??”   LOL  “Nope … that happened almost 32 years ago.”)  In front of City Hall was this odd yet beautiful sculpture … turns out that there was a city-wide sculpting contest & this was the winner.  An anonymous buyer purchased it, and then donated it to the city.  Our tour guide told us it has no name yet, and no one knows what it depicts.  Ahhhh, ART!  LOL

Speaking of Art … I was mildly disappointed when our tour guide told us that, due to city-wide construction, the tour bus would not be visiting a few attractions … including this:

The “Fonzie” statue.  This time I’ll have to settle for a Google image, but no matter!!  It was really great tour!!  One of the first stops was at an area on the east side of the city called Black Cat Alley, which is an “award winning outdoor art gallery”, and an ACTUAL alley.    There are currently 17 murals (by 18 different artists).  Here are a few photos I took.  (Lulu needed a nap, so she’s not in any!)

Welp … there is enough left from our day in Milwaukee that I believe I will end here, and let the next post take us on through!

Remember one thing: “COMPLIMENTARY” hotel shuttle.  See ya on the flip side, folks!

Well, hello!!

Actually …. Lulu & I (and our companion Gerry) have been BACK from our mini vacation for over 2 weeks now, but it’s time that I write the blog!!

This was a relatively SHORT trip … and we flew in & out of Midway Airport, just south of Chicago.  We rented our car (… and … side note: Are we the only people who think the Chicago / Illinois airport rental tax rate of 46% is ridiculously excessive???) and sprung for the express toll pass (EZ pass/transponder).

Our legal department suggests that we should NOT divulge the details of the “slight mishap” that occurred at one of the toll gates, but I can tell you this:

1. There was absolutely no damage done to the rental car, nor to the people/dolls inside the car.
2. This definitely did NOT happen: https://imgur.com/gallery/6cXaKzz
3. Neither did this: https://imgur.com/gallery/BAW9NHU
4. Somewhere in Indiana, there **MAY HAVE BEEN** a toll bar that needed to be reattached that day.

We discovered at a subsequent toll that our fabulous transponder was NOT VALID/ACTIVATED.  Ugh. (More to this story later.)

By 10:30 AM, we arrived at our first destination, and my 38th state visited!

The New Buffalo (Michigan) Railroad Museum!!!!  ……….::crickets::  Yup.  Closed.  Open on Saturdays & Sundays only (it was Thursday).  Way to do your research, Lolo!  All was well … our concensus was, none of us would want to pay admission for this (One of the TOP TEN THINGS TO DO!!!) attraction in New Buffalo, Michigan (!!)

Since it was still too early to check in to our hotel, we decided to visit the lovely New Buffalo marina and surrounding area.  That’s Lake Michigan at the end of the road.

Such a cute little town!! (ps~it is the FIRST town one comes to when traveling from Indiana to Michigan!)  Which reminds me … Lulu was where she oughta be when crossed into Michigan (#38)!

Lulu!  You travelin’ FOOL, you!!  (LOL)

We went down to the marina, and to the beach.  So pretty!  We had lunch at a funky (and VERY POPULAR!!) place called Stray Dog Grill — I love going to NON chain restaurants at every opportunity!

 

That’s the Stray Dog on the left.  And, although we did NOT indulge in any ice cream, we HAD to take advantage of the photo op at a food truck down by the waterfront:

Lulu:  Wow!  Who knew??

Later in the day, we traveled to the opposite end of New Buffalo … (about 2.5 miles away LOL), and visited the (quite lovely) Four Winds Casino & Resort.  We didn’t strike it rich, but enjoyed ourselves for a few hours!

We ended the day at an Italian restaurant (which shall remain nameless at this juncture due to the 90 minute wait), and walking back to the car, we saw this:

Well … it _was_ the fifth of July, after all!!!  All in all, a lovely trip to Michigan!!

Tomorrow, State #39!!!

 

Our flight was scheduled for 9:35 AM, so it meant a VERY early start to our day, even though we were only a 10 minute shuttle ride from our airport terminal.   At a little after 7 AM, we sat with our luggage just inside the door at the Bay Landing Hotel, awaiting the shuttle, when I got email notification that our flight would be delayed 2 hours, due to a weather issue. (Ugh.)

Nonetheless, we caught the shuttle to

checked our big bag, and took up residency at the Virgin America terminal for what wound up being 3+ hours, instead of merely 2.

Meanwhile, I had been keeping a pretty good secret.  Ummm … since FEBRUARY!    I’d thought about it … A LOT … and thought to myself:  We’re going to be in the car — and away from home! — for almost 2 weeks.   The flight from San Francisco to Newark is 6 hours.  Yeah … I’m going to get us First Class seats for the trip home. (!!!)  I saved my pennies for months (OK, my twenties  LOL) to pay for the car rental and the First Class plane tickets, and … was it worth it?

Virgin American First Class:

Welp … I did my best (and succeeded) in keeping the secret until we were actually on the plane.  I made NO MOVE for the gate when they finally announced boarding, and called for First Class passengers.  The list continued a few more groups, and got up to go when they announced “anyone with Priority boarding”. (Gerry: We do??  Me: Yup)

We stepped on to the plane, and I said, “Here we are!  1F and 1D.”

Gerry: This is us???!!!?

Me: Yes, it is.

Gerry: Isn’t this First Class?????

(I’m now holding my breath, because I’ve been thinking — since February — that this could REALLY go either way … either he’ll be completely thrilled, or pissed off that it cost more money.)

Me: Yes

Gerry:  Holy SHIT!!!  First Class are you sure?? …. HOLY SHIT!!!

We had become, at that moment, the Clampetts. 

He “Holy Shit”ted a few more times, and we settled in to our spacious, comfortable seats, and enjoyed amenities galore, including a full meal, free on-demand movies, hot towels, blanket & pillow … literally soup (gazpacho) to nuts (mixed)!

You might not be able to tell that he’s smiling, but … he IS, and he’s waving, and this is after the 2nd or 3rd Holy Shit.  🙂  Neither had ever flown First Class before … and I highly doubt we will again … but it seemed like a really great way to end a vacation such as the one we’d experienced.

Bottom line, it was worth it.  😀

Six hours later … our son John picked us up from the airport, and around 9 PM EDT on Friday, July 14, 2017, it was:

This brings our little Travel with Lolo, Lulu & Gerry to a close.  Thanks for following, viewing and reading, friends and followers!  Hope you’ve had as much fun reading as I have had writing!

Happy Traveling! 

We left AT&T Park after our wonderful tour, and traveled about 40 minutes south, to Menlo Park, CA.

We made plans to see my friend, Monique, who was my roommate during my first semester at Emerson College.  Although we were only roommates for a few months, our friendship has continued these many years.  I reconnected with her about 3 years ago, and finally saw her again last summer during my visit to San Francisco and the surrounding area.   Here she is with ol’ Lulu, in August of 2o16:

What an absolutely gorgeous woman, inside and out!  We had a wonderful weekend last summer, when I stayed at her lovely home in Los Altos, despite her working through a few of life’s “stumbles”.  She has managed to graciously RISE ABOVE, and has found new work as her own General Contractor!  We agreed to meet at a property she is currently renovating in Menlo Park, and then get some lunch together.  As Monique’s work made it difficult to make the trek up into San Francisco, this was the PERFECT solution!

The triplex that she is working on is nearly completed, and looks FABULOUS!  I regret that I took no pictures, but she and her crew (including her new boyfriend, Sean) are doing a wonderful job!  She hopes to have all three units in move-in condition before the end of the summer, and knowing Monique, she WILL meet that deadline!

After the tour of the triplex, we drove a few minutes away to a restaurant called The Left Bank, in adorable downtown Menlo Park.

As usual, I checked in on Facebook, and quipped, “So, in the end, we decided to go France.” (in reference to the French location for which the restaurant is named.  LOL)

Great lunch, great time, great meeting Sean, Monique’s boyfriend.  Even Gerry enjoyed the French food — his first experience in a French restaurant, so we went low key, and ordered him a croque monsieur (pretty much a ham & cheese sandwich) because they had no “le hamburger” on the menu.  LOL  And dear Monique … thank you again for the lunch!  It was much appreciated!

Gerry’s photography skills were put to the test once again, to snap one of Lo & Mo (myself & Monique), but … well …….

 

(Really??  LOL)

In the end, a selfie would have to do …

Oh, my goodness … MUUUUUUUUUUUCH better!!!  🙂

Big hugs, and bye, Monique!!  Hope to see you again very soon!!

It was then back north a bit, but not all the way back into the city.  We stayed our last night in Burlingame, CA, just about 2 miles from the airport.  As our hotel, the very lovely and comfortable Bay Landing

offered shuttle service to/from the airport, we decided to drop off our luggage, and … with many thanks and a small amount of melancholy … drop off “Bluey”, our ROCK STAR of a rental car, at Enterprise.

In dropping off a day early, not only did we save a fist full of cash, but we eliminated any stress about dropping off on the morning of our flight.  G’bye to you, too, Bluey … you made our travel luxurious! 🙂

Boarding passes printed, we settled in for the night before our journey home the following day!

Hey, friends & followers … only ONE MORE POST LEFT!!  Stay tuned …

(Well, not really, but I am running out of San Francisco songs … AND there is a pretty cool Tony Bennett connection to today, so … 🙂

We began our day at

Yep.  The explanation is much too long, so I shall skip it.  LOL  Just suffice it to say, our ghetto fabulous hotel’s “free breakfast” was prepackaged danish or cinnamon rolls and coffee with powdered Cremora. PERIOD. (hit the “NO” buzzer, Johnny!)

From there we walked several blocks to our obligatory stop at Ghiradelli Square.  Neither of us were really in the market for large chocolate purchases, but when you’re in SF, ya gotta go.

I know for a fact that this part of town is prettier at night, but our schedule only allowed for an early morning visit, before most shops were open.

Yep, there’s the bird (on the right) with which we arose to be here. 😉

We checked out of the Travelodge (g.f. edition) because we decided to stay our last night closer to the airport, due to our early scheduled flight.  Before we drove to our final San Francisco location, we did something COMPLETELY “GRISWALD”: We went to the curvy section of Lombard Street, and drove down it.  If you’ve never seen pictures, here’s a stock shot:

Here is just before we turned onto the curvy block … you can see a pack of tourists waiting to watch us drive it.  LOL

I manned the wheel … Gerry manned the camera (phone) and narrates (and you don’t really hear very many of my sarcastic asides LOL)  If you click on the link here, you’ll see our video on Youtube.  🙂

Lombard Street

We were then off to a tour of the home of the San Francisco Giants, AT & T Park. Located in the far south side of the city, ALMOST in South SF, it was about a 15 minute drive away.  If you’ll pardon the pun, this was another event that really hit it outta the park.  I’m perfectly happy watching a baseball game from time to time, but we all know that Gerry is a HUGE SPORTS FAN, and we both LOVED this tour!  I shall caption the following photos to tell the story:

with the Juan Marichal statue

with the Willie Mays statue

 “Now, Lulu, this is Willie Mays …”

Willie Mays Plaza, the main entrance to the ballpark.  There are 24 palm trees, representing Willie Mays’ number, 24. 🙂

Words to live by. 🙂

The tour begins on the 5th level … the “viewing deck”.  It’s a small park, relatively, seating 14,000.

Our tour guide … she & Gerry had lots to talk about.

 

 

No one has ever hit a home run (or any ball) INTO the giant glove in left field.  If anyone ever does, apparently it’s worth a million bucks!

There is a photo mural all along the outside of the upper deck.  Lots of New York Giants photos!

 

We then proceeded down a level … to the Suite Level, sponsored by Oracle.  Most of the suites are leased for years at a time, but we were told that a FEW could be purchased for one game.   We were allowed to visit one of them:

Yes!  The TONY BENNETT Suite! (and it was gorgeous!)

Happy as a clam!

 

 

Lots of fun to see inside the fancy suite!

The next level has the Museum, and many fun things to peruse …

A very large framed photo of “the shot heard ’round the world”

A photo of all of the Giants Hall of Famers together.

 

Lots of display cases, with LOADS of Giants artifacts!

When Gerry was a kid, and the Giants were still in NY, he attempted to get Juan Marichal’s autograph.  As he tells it, “I was calling his name for a half hour, and he just ignored me. :(”  Hopefully this does something to smooth that age-old sad memory.  😉

Pretty cool … all three World Series trophies!

 (and the bling! 😀

Next stop, the Visiting Team’s clubhouse!

 I had G. sit at #14, as his birthday is 8/14. 🙂

Nice digs!

 

The batting cages for the visting teams!

This is one happy bench sitter!

Even Lulu had a great time in the dugout!

When a hit goes over the right field wall, and into the bay, it’s called a “splash hit”.  Since the park opened in 2000, there have been 74. 🙂

So cool to be able to stand out on the field!

Just remember the only rule, Gerry:  Don’t walk on the grass!!  (Spoiler alert: He did.  For about 2 seconds — until the tour guide, and most of the people on the tour yelled at him to get off.  LOL  Poor Gerry … he was only trying to walk over to me without getting in anyone’s way…)  No damage done! 🙂

These words are a full wall mural as we exited the stadium.

What a great tour, and a wonderful day!   I will NOT impose the remainder of this day on you now, but will extend to an additional post very soon.

Happy traveling!

After hopping off the Movie Tours van, now back at Fisherman’s Wharf, we were off to Pier 39 in search of sights, sounds, … and lunch!  LOL

We settled on the fun 

Fun, indeed!

 

We located some sea lions on the pier … but MANY fewer than I expected to see.  Turns out, the seals (which have occupied this section of Pier 39 for many years now) migrate to Santa Barbara at this time of year for breeding purposes.  We were told that the seals return, and reach their peak occupancy by November.  Here’s a comparison of now and November:

So, at least we saw SOME.  LOL

Our next stop was Coit Tower … the highest lookout point in the city, and named for the socialite who financed its construction.

A little like Mt. Rushmore, if I may, in that you get to the top of the tower, look out the windows, and … you’re pretty much done.  🙂  But .. the views!

(exactly how many photos do I NEED of the prison in the bay??  LOL)

These are our “we’re exhausted, but we’re gonna smile anyway” smiles. 🙂

Christopher Columbus at the base of Coit Tower, looking out over the bay.

Next it was back to the hotel to spruce up a bit before we met my Emerson College pal, Pete Dragon (yes, that’s his REAL NAME!!!) for dinner.  Shame on me for not getting a picture of Pete & I … we met last summer, too, when I was in SF on my own.  Here’s Pete (from his Facebook page):

Sort of a combination of animation/photography, but I think it captures Pete’s fun personality.  Great to see you, Pete!  And the restaurant was terrific … Gerry will always appreciate Italian cuisine, and  Original Joe’s – GREAT choice!

After dinner it was time to gear up for our final day of San Francisco on Thursday, and traveling home on Friday!  Take heart, dear readers & followers: we’re ALMOST THERE!!!  😀

 

I forgot to mention why it was doubly OK that we ate Walgreen’s sandwiches on Day 9: Tuesday, 7/11, was the evening of the MLB All-Star game, and given that the only sports Gerry had watched in over a week was the Boise Hawks game, I thought it’d be a nice idea to kick back and watch the Big Game in the room.  It was a nice relaxing night, and the American League triumphed again!

Next morning, map in hand, we DID find Fisherman’s Wharf in short order!  I loved the architecture on the hill above our hotel (on Bay St.) — and happy to get a shot of Bluey, our ROCK STAR rental car! 🙂

Gerry looks like he’s part of the opening montage for “Gilligan’s Island”! 🙂

We arrived 45 minutes early for our tour this morning … we were taking a really wonderful sounding tour called

It sounded really great, and I had high hopes.   We got to the meeting spot, in front the iconic 

…but the van wasn’t showing up!  Finally, I crossed the street to look around, and see if I could find someone to ask — it was about 5 minutes before departure by that time — and D’oh!!  We were in the wrong place!!!  FORTUNATELY, the van was simply on the BAY SIDE of the same building, but we made a run for it!  (So much for being 45 minutes early!!)

The good news: We arrived at the van in time.

The better news: Our tour guide, Marie, was pleasant, informative, and understanding about our last moment arrival!

And our driver, Bryan, was awesome, as well!

Best news of all: This tour was EVEN BETTER THAN I HAD HOPED!!   The tour was 3 hours long (“a 3 hour tour” … LOL), and went LITERALLY all over the city.  The van was equipped with a video screen, all loaded up with dozens of clips of movies set in San Francisco, and as we approached each spot, we’d see a short clip, hear some (truly!) fascinating facts or history about the clip, and then arrive at the locale.  We. LOVED. IT!!!

Here is the comprehensive list of the clips and locations we visited on this tour: 

I was blown away by the sheer VOLUME of the stops!  I took many, many photos, … and here are some of the best ones (If I remembered what it was — LOL — I wrote captions.)

Birdman of Alcatraz

St. Peter & Paul Cathedral

 

        

Statue of Tony Bennett, next to the Fairmount Hotel

(They didn’t mention it, but the Fairmount was the real “Hotel” on ABC)

  

 Union Square is under construction!

City Hall

 

Alamo Square; part of the opening credits of “Full House”

Lulu finally gets into the act on this tour!

The VERY FOGGY Golden Gate Bridge!

Nope, Gerry didn’t fall into the bay … nature was calling! 😉

The High School in “The Princess Diaries”

The staircase in the car chase in “What’s Up Doc?”

The “Mrs. Doubtfire” house … without us ^^, and with us:

(They’ve planted a tree in front of it now, and it is currently owned by a doctor, who has his office on the property.  I didn’t recall until Marie told us, but they mention the ACTUAL ADDRESS in the film, which apparently brought a ridiculously high number of tourists on by!)

The “Party of Five” house. (I never watched one episode, but … LOL)

What a FABULOUS tour!!!!  Thanks, Marie & Bryan … best 3 hours in San Francisco I’ve ever spent!  Seriously, folks … if you want a more intimate tour, AND particularly, if you’re a movie buff … BOOK THIS TOUR!  www.SanFranciscoMovieTours.com    (I should be their agent! 🙂 )

The rest of our Wednesday will be continued in the next post.  Happy Traveling!

 

Time to say good-bye to the Turso & Mullaly clans, but we know that we’ll see you soon!  I asked Gerry to take a picture of Catherine & I (which I promised to send to another of our former choir alto friends!), and he snapped this:

D’oh!!!  So … he tried again … MUCH BETTER:

Catherine counseled us on three traveling points:

1.  She informed us of the Fruit Inspection stop on the Oregon/California border.  Transporting fruit in even moderate amounts is against the local law, which is in place to insure no transporting of disease or vermin.  Although I was surprised that they stop EVERY VEHICLE, Catherine assured us that it is perfunctory, and not to worry, just cheerfully say, “No fruit! :)”   She even reassured us further by saying that she & Carl, on their own recent jaunt to San Francisco, were simply waved through without even being stopped.  I sort of snarkily said, “So I guess I shouldn’t say, ‘You mean aside from the 4 bushels of cherries in the trunk??’ ?”, and Alice got fairly serious, and looked horrified that I’d even joke about it.  No fruit, check!  Sooooo … when we arrived at the inspection stop, the kind State Inspector asked Gerry (who was driving), “Do you have any fruit in the car?”  He panicked, blanched white, and looked over at me.   Lord, kill me now!!  LOL  I, as instructed, CHEERFULLY SAID, “Nope!  No fruit!!”  BY THE GRACE OF GOD, although she hesitated for a second, she waved us through.  When I asked G. why he reacted that way, he said he didn’t hear what she said.  ??????????  Didja think they were asking how many giraffes we have stuffed in the glove compartment?  All was well, and on we went.
2. Catherine also counseled us on the diceyness of attempting to get a photo of the Welcome to California sign.  “It’s near the bottom of this really steep hill,” she said, “and is also on a curve.  A lot of times the trucks are bearing down.  Also, the shoulder is pretty narrow.”   She also gave us the head’s up that there is a “OREGON THANKS YOU” sign about a hundred yards before the “WELCOME TO ..” sign.  Undaunted, and frankly, on a mission let’s face it LOL, it all came together, and we saw it in time to pull over.  I was smart enough NOT to get out of the car, and simply rolled down the window.  BUT WE GOT IT!!  
3. Catherine also made a great selection for us for a lunch / restroom stop:

It’s a combination shop with every conceivable olive product, and small cafe where we had nice sandwiches, quickly served, and we were on our way again!

I decided that our first stop would be just north of San Francisco, Muir Woods, the home of a beautiful redwood forest.  It’s often considered PART of San Francisco — many tours make their way up to the forest, and so as we were driving in from the north, it made total sense.

Lulu thought so, too.  🙂

Once again, it makes the most sense to allow the photographs of this lovely place tell the story of what we experienced.

  

  

  

Of course we had to make time for a few cuttin’ up with Lulu shots …

 

Don’t do it, Lulu!! (hee hee)

Time, now, to boogie on to THE CITY, to check in to our hotel, and hopefully get some dinner.

Yes, the “ghetto fabulous” Travelodge.  Pro: very close to Fisherman’s Wharf; Cons: Really tiny, 3rd floor room & no elevator, etc.  But, as DeMan said, “It’s a bed.”  True.

At this point, I will admit to being travel weary.  The lobby clerk was not very pleasant, and his English was marginal, and I really didn’t care to start reading maps.  I did KNOW that we were very close to Fisherman’s Wharf, so we dropped our luggage, and went for a walk to find someplace to eat.  We walked around for a while, in several directions, but

  couldn’t find Fisherman’s Wharf!  LOL We wandered into a place called Kennedy’s Irish Pub — actually sat down, and were given menus! — only to find out they served just Indian food.  I just wasn’t feeling that adventurous! So … in the end … we wound up getting some sandwiches from ::drumroll::

Yep.  Walgreens.  LOL  It’s OK … really.  We had two really busy days ahead of us in the city, and did some amazing sightseeing … but on this evening, it was turkey sandwiches from Walgreens.

And so … early to rise tomorrow!  Many fun San Francisco things on the agenda!

Monday!  We’d been away from home for over a week!

Crater Lake was one of the suggestions from the Ever Brilliant Catherine to which I said “Sure!”, but didn’t really know what I was agreeing to.  What a FANTASTIC blind yes that was!  It was another GORGEOUS day, and the drive from Catherine’s house was a little under 2 hours. (Yes, I drove. 🙂 )

It is best that I allow the experts to describe exactly what Crater Lake is: <<Crater Lake, formed by the now-collapsed volcano, Mount Mazama. Wizard Island is a cinder cone near the western edge of the lake. The Rim Drive, a road surrounding the lake, offers views of the park’s volcanic formations.>> And it was SO COOL!

Literally!  The air temperature was about 60 degrees at the Rim, which has an elevation of about 7,800 ft.  Whoo!  We began at the Visitor’s Center, after being admitted to this National Park FOR FREE, thanks to Miss Margaret’s admission card, and the promotion, 4th Graders everywhere in the country are admitted FREE (along with up to 4 adults!) to every National Park in the country!!  (Look into it, 4th graders & families!!) 🙂

In the Visitor’s Center there is a WONDERFUL bas relief map of the entire area:

And … there was SNOW up there on the rim!  We’d seen quite a bit of it on the last part of the drive up, but I was quite bowled over by its presence on July 10th!

Lulu enjoyed the snow bank!  (even after JUST drying out from the jet boat LOL)

We witnessed some kids having a snowball fight!  LOL

We saw a group of youngsters being instructed in how to become a Junior Ranger via a packet of activities.  Our Margaret completed the packet on her own (OK, we MAY have helped a tiny bit!), and earned her Crater Lake Junior Ranger badge, too! 😀

The scenery at Crater Lake is stunning at every turn.  I will let the photos speak for themselves:

Catherine packed a terrific picnic lunch of fried chicken, sandwiches, snacks & fruit.  Amazing!!  We enjoyed it while sitting on the wall at the rim, enjoying the scenery!  But … here’s my question: Why do so many people think it’s hilarious to stand on the wall (with a 700 foot drop directly behind them) and pretend to fall??  LOL  Thank you for the lunch, Catherine!!  It was delicious!

Catherine & Gerry hiked back to the car to put away the picnic fare, while Miss Margaret and I walked further around the rim to Alice Mullaly’s favorite spot, the porch of Crater Lake Lodge, a hotel located right there!  The porch has dozens of rocking chairs that they allow the general public to park it, and, if you wish order a cocktail. (I did not.  Neither did 9-year-old Margaret 😉 )  She looked pretty happy in her rocker, however!

We continued working on her Junior Ranger packet, and pretty soon Catherine & Gerry returned.

We asked a stranger to take our photo … she snapped this one, but insisted that we shift to our right, and into the sun, … with a MUCH more pleasing result:

Sunlight. Lake. Everybody. Lulu. Check!

What a truly wonderful remedy to the craziness of the jetboats, especially for Gerry.  It was beautiful and relaxing day!

Alice and Carl prepared dinner for us that evening, and after dinner, Gerry was asked to play piano, to which he was happy to oblige.  One of the sweetest moments I’ve witnessed in a very long time happened when Larry dug out a song he’d written for Alice for their wedding, and Gerry played it for them.  Not a dry eye in the house! 🙂

On our last evening in Oregon, we joined around the dining room table, and formed teams to play a fierce board game, called “Ticket to Ride” (“No matter where I go, I can’t get away from trains,” said NJ Transit employee, Gerry DeMan LOL):

This game is pretty intense, in which teams try to build railroad paths between cities.  There’s a whole lot more to it (and I don’t pretend to FULLY understand it LOL), but it was quite the competitive match!  I was teamed with Catherine’s dad, Larry, who was MORE than determined to win.  As part of the strategy is to try and figure out where other teams are going, and BLOCK them, the only way way to communicate ideas for moves/strategies was via paper & pencil.   Larry was fairly hilarious: Instead of writing something like, “Block by taking Dallas”, he’d write, “Well, I’m thinking that we should take into consideration that Catherine and Gerry must be going to Dallas, therefore we should try to block them there.”  LOLOL  Needless to say, we ran out of paper.  🙂

As much as I hated for our time in Oregon to end, it was time to hit the hay, and gear up for the next day, when we would embark on the last leg of our trip: San Francisco!

Kudos to Catherine!  Honestly, if the activities had ended at church, brunch and the Civil War, we would have been tickled pink.  But Catherine had called me about a week before our trip began, and asked what I thought about a river boat trip.  I thought it would be great fun!  And I was right! … well, mostly.  LOL

OK … time to answer the question in today’s title:  Meryl Streep stars in a movie called, “The River Wild”, which was partially filmed on Oregon’s Rogue River.  We experienced a combination jet boat ride on the Rogue River / dinner at the OK Corral run by a company called Hell Gate (LOL, I know) which launches out of the town of Grants Pass (named for General Grant’s victory at Vicksburg).  So, now you know! 🙂

These are aluminum jet boats, which hold about 60 people.  They take us 18 miles downriver from Grants Pass, to the “OK Corral” where dinner awaits.  After dinner, the same boat carts us back to where we began.

Here is a short video (lifted from Youtube) that shows pretty much what we experienced during our ride to the OK Corral!

Jet Boat ride video

Yes, as you can see, the boat does 180 degree turns, and splashes & sprays the passengers.  Gerry was kinda having NONE of the getting wet part of the journey … which is important information for later in this post.

Look at us … all DRY & HAPPY at the beginning of the trip:

 

LOL  It was, frankly, a BEAUTIFUL ride down river.

During one of our “about faces”, being shown where the Applegate River runs into the Rogue River.

It was about here that our guide mentioned “The River Wild” (and “Rooster Cogburn”) being filmed here.  I was just thinking to myself … do ALL of these rivers look the same??? thinking that it looked an awful lot like some scenes in “The River Wild”, which I’ve seen multiple times!

90 minutes from where we’d started, we arrived at the restaurant spot dubbed the OK Corral.

Well organized, cheerful service, very good food served family style — salads, veggies, bbq chicken and boneless ribs, pitchers of water, soda, ice tea, lemonade, beer & wine, and even a cute little marionberry cobbler — the dinner was absolutely wonderful!

Some very happy customers!

After dinner, and it was time to board the boat to return to Grants Pass.  Full tummies, and the sun going down, I don’t think any of us were anxiously looking forward to more 180 degree spins, or excessive splashing, and yet, Catherine seemed to think we’d surely be in for more.

On the trip back we saw some teens jumping off into the river to swim.  The poor guy on the left chickened out when he heard “Jump! Jump! Jump!” from tipsy bachelorette party also occupying our boat.

Well … about an hour in to our 90 minute return trip, our boat and the boat just ahead of us (there were a total of 6) decided to some double spins and tricks and splash each other.  Again … this would have been fine (particularly had it been on the WAY to dinner), but it had gotten a little chilly, and the splashing was a little much.  AND THEN … the other boat intentionally stopped short, and every person on our boat got DOUSED.  I mean DELUGED … this: Kermit gets drenched x 10!!  Lulu needed to lay out in the sun the entire next day, and Gerry’s wallet contents were still wet 6 days later.  The drenching bumped the experience from Fabulous to Very Good in my eyes … and, note to Hell Gate Jetboats: Sometime you’ve got play to the audience AND the time of day, dudes!

THANKFULLY, Catherine (the brilliant woman is always thinking!!) read over all the suggestions from Hell Gate before we left, and based on this, we all had a change of clothes waiting in the car upon our arrival back at Grants Pass.  All was well!!

Thank you again, Catherine & Carl … aside from the few uncomfortable moments, it was an unforgettable trip down the Rogue River, and we loved it!!!