Feeding the animals from our car was the highlight of the safari. They crowd around the car to get to the feeding cups and even stick their heads through the windows. I had a close call with an emu at one point. I was frantically trying to roll up my window, as the emu's beak came very near my face. We were all screaming. I got it closed just in time. We laughed so hard. My screams startled Aubrey and made her dump the rest of her feed cup all over the inside of the van. I didn't get a photo of it, but that emu's gray head and pointy beak is a vivid up-close image in my head!
The Oregon Vortex was an interesting and weird little place. Things are backwards and contrary to what you think. A water bottle appeared to be rolling uphill and shorter people looked taller, depending on where they were standing. The house itself made me feel nauseous and motion-sick, so I didn't stay long in there.
We stayed at the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, and it worked out great for us. We played tennis, volleyball, pickleball (Kari and Joel were coerced into playing with some interesting people who were very excited about pickleball and teaching them the rules), and went swimming. We ran into the Riegelmann family there, which was fun. They were headed down to CA for water polo and stopped to see Crater Lake on their way.
Crater Lake was absolutely beautiful. We couldn't have asked for better weather. A few days after we left, we heard that wildfire smoke rolled in and visibility was poor. We were thankful it held off until after we left. Our drive from our condo to Crater Lake was the worst part of our trip. It was 45 minutes of grumpy, fighting kids. We didn't download any music to our phones, and there was no radio or cell service. Once we got to the lake, though, things got better. Well, until I tripped over a log and took a tumble (see the map for the label M.T.--stands for "Mom Tumble"). It was a major wipe-out. I was bruised and scraped and bleeding. But I didn't fall off the cliff, so it was ok!
We marked the map with our stops around the rim of the lake. First stop was Castle Crest Wildflower Trail. It was pretty early in the day, so it was a little chilly still,and the mosquitoes were so bad, we didn't stay long. We walked very quickly through and ended up going back there at the end of our day. We made the mistake of not bringing any bug repellent and some of us (Greg) had a lot of bug bites. They like him.
We drove to the Rim Village, bought some souvenirs at the gift shop and got our first looks at the beautiful Crater Lake. It truly is amazing how blue the water is. We got back in the car and headed up around the west side of the lake, stopping at viewpoints and trails along the way. Watchman Overlook was the trail I biffed it on. Grant held my hand on the way back down to help me down the hill. He was sweet. I was the one who ended up needing the first aid kit, not the kids. We stopped for lunch at a picnic area on the northern part of the rim and then headed over to the Cleatwood Trail to hike down to the lake. The hike down wasn't too bad but kinda steep. Took us 25 minutes to get down to the water. The kids and Greg all got in. I put my legs in, and that was enough for me. They all jumped off the rocks into the lake, too, which was so brave of them! They loved it. We played in the water for a while, and then we had to hike back up. The hike up was brutal! We were hiking at pretty rapid pace, too rapid for me. I had to take a couple extra breaks and was dying by the time we got back to the top. Greg timed it, and it only took 26 minutes to hike back up--one minute slower than going down. No wonder I was winded and tired! After that, we headed on over to the east side of the rim, stopped at various points to take photos. One last stop to see Castle Crest Wildflower Trail once more, and then we were done! We went to Abby's pizza for dinner and headed back to our condo to swim/hot tub and then watch a movie. We were all pretty tired from the day of exploring, but what a great day it had been--the best!
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