Sidetrip to Crater Lake.

Today we walked thru the lavalands at Lava Butte south of Bend and thru a butterfly exhibit at the High Desert Museum. In the picture showing me at lava land you can see several mountains in the distance. Mt. Batchelor can be seen in the distance at the corner of the sign. Yesterday, we were on the other side of that mountain at Sparks Lake. Seeing the butterflies was fun and having them land was special. Tomorrow I head toward Reno.

Walked Ray Atkeson trail at Sparks Lake near Bend, OR today. Forest, lava, canyons, birds, views: lake, Mt. Batchelor, Broken Top, S. Sister.

Bought fresh green beans and head of Romanesque at Farmer's Market near Eugene.

Washington Park Glorious Color

Took a long walk thru Washington Park and the Rose Garden here in Portland. The roses were still in bloom and fragrant. The pink and yellow rose is named Double Delight. The red rose is Veteran's Honor. The fiery leaves are on a sumac.

Neahkahnie Treasure

A long ago memory nagged as I drove the Oregon Coast at Neahkahnie Mountain. The memory had me thinking of mystery and treasure. Was there really a story of buried treasure on Neahkahnie mountain or was it just a story from one of my Nancy Drew pre-teen mysteries? So, I asked around and "googled" and found this on Wikipedia: "A legend, dating back to the mid-1800s and the first Hudson's Bay Co. employees to arrive in the area, claim the mountain conceals a lost treasure, hidden by Spanish sailors in the late 16th century.[3] There are various versions of the legend, but the most common ones involve a group of sailors carrying a chest up the hillside, then digging a hole and lowering the treasure inside. As the story goes, one of the sailors then plunges his sword into one of the men with them, apparently an African slave, and his body was then thrown in on top of the treasure; the idea being, Native Americans would not disturb a man's grave, so keeping the treasure under a dead man would prevent the Native Americans—who, in most versions of the story were watching the activity closely from nearby—from digging it up."

Nehalem, Manzanita and Neahkahnie Mt.

The picture of me was taken on the road up on Neahkahnie Mt. As you can see I am at a turnout far above the beach. The beach and houses you see below are at Manzanita, OR. Off in the distance is what looks like a lake, but is Nehalem Bay. Unseasonably warm weather at the coast and little or no wind. Several surfers were in the water at Manzanita.