Greetings from Autumnal Vacation-Land

It's so nice here in vacation-land and I never want to leave. But alas, vacation ends this week and in a couple weeks it will be holiday madness in the retail world. So let's reflect on the past week and a half, since it has been so wonderful, shall we?

My hubby Eek and I drove all the way from our little apartment in Irvine to
Ashland, Oregon in a day. It was about a 12 hour drive and not a very exciting one, since we took the I-5. We stayed the night in this quaint little town, famous for its annual Shakespeare festival. The following morning I had the most delicious mocha at a coffeehouse called Noble Coffee Roaster. It even looked beautiful too.

Noble Coffee in Ashland, OR

We had a cozy little breakfast of coffee and pastries and then decided to take another 4 hour drive up to Bend, which is a little mountain town in central Oregon. Bend is a outdoor enthusiast's dream town - there is plenty to do for the mountain biker, fisher, hiker, rock-climber, white-water rafter, and skier. Since I am basically none of these things besides a hiker, what I enjoyed most about this little town were all the trees. Here in Orange County and LA, you really don't see a lot of them. It was so nice to get away to another part of the country to really appreciate the simple things. The leaves on the trees were just starting to turn beautiful colors, too. I'm sure in another week or two they will be just gorgeous.

I loved the way the sun shined through the woods

We hiked up to Tumalo Falls in Bend, OR

Beautiful Homes on the pond in Bend

 On the way home, we stayed the night and camped in Redwood National Forest, aka the Ewok Forest....they filmed one of the Star Wars films here. Enter this forest and you literally feel like you are in a different time or world. Everything is so incredibly green and lush. Ferns and moss grow all over the place and the trees are prehistorically breathtaking.

Even leaves in the Redwood Forest change colors

Eek and a Redwood tree from my Instagram

Wild mushrooms growing on a moss-covered stump

We saw a few banana slugs

"Trees of Mystery" stop off of the 101 highway

Cheers! Sampler at Russian River

Happy Autumn.

We also had the opportunity to visit a few breweries on our trip. Deschutes in Bend, named after the river that runs through the city, and Russian River in Santa Rosa, CA, were the most note-worthy. Delicious craft beers and beautiful scenery, sounds like a pretty good time, don't you think?