There seems to be a huge heat wave happening right now, and we are in the midst of it. For us that means activity ceases as much as possible, unless it’s about getting wet. We do take our walks, EARLY and LATE. Last evening it was still 96 degrees at 6pm, so we skipped our walk.
Happily we have a shady campsite , and shade makes all the difference, especially when accompanied by a soft breeze off the Columbia River.
We are here.
The Columbia River viewed from a little island within it.
**But before we go further into Washington, there are a few more Sisters related stories I want to tell you.
First, the mug…the one I bought from the artist in town. I wanted a taller mug, so I can froth the soy milk for my coffee! I got on this frothing kick after having lunch with Laura and Joel. You see, among his other talents as the Joel Pole creator and my computer guru, Joel has taught himself to be an excellent Barista. After lunch at their home, he made me probably the best Latte I’ve ever had the pleasure of slurping down. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture.
Now, not that frothing the milk will make my coffee that delicious, but it look good and it’s fun. So…I ordered a little battery frother from Amazon,
and promptly frothed milk all over the place in my not-tall-enough-mug. Now I’m doing better with the taller mug, and the help of a plastic cup, too.
I need practice.
In my new mug, the froth looks like more snow around The Three Sisters. 🙂
Also during our stay in Sisters, Joy, Shiloh and I visited Smith Rock State Park, about 25 miles to the northeast. As the brochure says, this “state park protects a sanctuary of majestic rock spires that rise above the winding Crooked River in central Oregon’s high desert. It is an internationally renowned destination for rock climbing.”
Rock climbing isn’t something I’d have ever considered doing in my wildest dreams, but there are a lot of brave souls out there who love it. I sat watching some of them with my binoculars.
Almost in the middle of this picture you can see two of them. It’s that little dot. You might want to click on the picture and enlarge it. Good Lord.
The bigger picture.
Primrose in the foreground I believe.
Even the dogs find it fascinating.
Then on one of Kerry’s days off, we piled all the dogs into the back seat of JR (Joy Ride) and drove to Bend, about 20 miles to the northwest of Sisters. After stopping at a park and taking a walk along the Dechutes River, we went to a totally vegan restaurant that Kerry knew about. It’s called Next Level. Wow, what a treat for me!
Yum.
And the dogs were welcome at the tables outside.
Maybe you can tell the dogs are wet, because they took a dip in the Dechutes River during our walk! Of course.
And back to the present again….
Today we leave Plymouth Park and head northeast to my friend Marsha’s house in Spangle, Washington, to visit for a couple of days. Until next time…we’ll be trying to keep our cool! Hope you are too!
Wandering Spirit 
Love your pictures of Sisters and was amazed the tiny spot on the rock were two rock climbers.Talk about the need for focus and concentration!!! I live on the Oregon coast and it is much cooler here today…thank goodness. Safe travels and I do enjoy your posts.
Hi Annie, yes west coast weather is usually sooo nice. I’m completely spoiled, having lived in the Monterey, CA area for so many years. I’m not fond of the heat and neither are Joy and Shiloh.
I’m glad you are enjoying these posts!
96 degrees at 6:00? Goodness, even for “dry heat” that’s too much for June. You need to get out of the desert girl. Seems like a nice place to camp however. Did the pups get a chance to swim in the lake?
Take care,
Yeah, not good, huh Rick? You can see that trying to ‘follow the weather’ doesn’t always work. No relief where I’m headed today either…up in the Spokane area. Here we’ve had an electric hook up, so we spent a good deal of time in the air conditioning, which I’m so thankful for!
The dogs did splash around in the Columbia River! I also wet them down a couple times from our water spigot.
Wow!! Love the pics..and Plymouth Park goes on my list of “must sees”. Is that Joy in the foreground of the one pic…think that’s my favorite. Sorry about your heat wave..it’s not even that hot in Texas..course it’s been raining like forever!! The latte looks amazing, too. Have you always eaten Vegan? The sandwich looks amazing…have thought about going Vegan myself…right now it’s just a thought, but meat has lost a lot of it’s appeal for me. Ya’ll be careful and enjoy your visit with your friend!
Pat
Yup, that’s Joy!
Well Pat, I went vegetarian about 7 years ago, and then vegan a year later. For me, it’s all about the animals, and treating others (animals included), like I would like to be treated. It’s something that society…culture…conveniently ignores. As part of the culture, we are taught from birth that it’s perfectly fine and normal that animals are our food. Certain animals. It took me 60 years to begin to diverge from that cultural belief. My only regret is that I didn’t figure it out sooner. What helped me a lot was a book written by Dr Will Tuttle called ‘The World Peace Diet’. I don’t wanna be preachy, but if you want to talk about it let me know and I’ll email you!
Love, love, love the photos of Smith Rock SP…definitely on our list of must see places!!
Yes, the heat is amazing ….here in the Portland area yesterday it was 100 degrees, and not a dry heat either. Fortunately, it does cool off nicely at night. We have no A/C at my son’s house, so we open all the windows at night to get the cool night air, and close them during the day.
Thanke for the info on Plymouth Park….I guess Lake Umatilla was created by damming the Columbia. In our experience, COE parks are the cadillac of public campgrounds…flush toilets, showers, electric hookups, and half price with the “geezer”card!
I agree about the COE parks Sharon! I’ve only been to 3 so far, one in CA, one in TX and this last one in OR, but I’ve enjoyed them all.
It cooled off here in Spangle WA last night too and made for very comfortable sleeping. It was in the mid 90’s here yesterday (supposed to be worse today), and Marsh welcomed us to sleep in the house. I was going to take her up on it, but then the evening cooled off so beautifully, and I did the same thing…opened all of WS’s windows and turned on the fan and by bed time it was about perfect.
Try to hit Smith Rock on a fairly cool day if you plan to do hiking. It does heat up!
I’m with you on the rock climbing! They can have it all!
Yes even watching them gives me an upset stomach! Yikes!