Vacation Days 3 & 4

I know this is being published a bit late, but we were without Internet access for a couple of days when we were at the Oregon Caves Chateau, and then by the time we got to Ashland, we were exhausted from heat and travel.

Day 3 we were leaving Grant’s Pass on our way to the Oregon Caves. Our big adventure for this day was to take a Hellgate Excursion on the Rouge River. I totally recommend this activity to everyone! It is a large jet boat that holds a couple dozen or so people and rides along the top of the water. Depending on the time of year, you go quite a distance down the river. The boat travels quite fast at top speed, but they idle through areas as necessary. There are lots of birds and animals along the ride that are pointed out by the boat’s pilot. Close to the turnaround point, there is a large restaurant built by the company who runs the boats. You disembark for a really wonderful lunch of salad, bbq chicken, potatoes and dessert, all while sitting on covered outdoor terraces with a view of the river. So wonderful!! Arguably the best part of the boat trip was their famous 360 spins where you get pretty darn wet. Just like a theme park ride. I had a really great time there and would do it again in a heartbeat. They have the lunch ride that we took and also dinner rides (which were sold out when we went) and also a Sunday brunch ride.




On our trip two years ago, we made our way across Southern Oregon, we took the tour of the caves, but didn’t realize that there was lodging there (the Oregon Caves Chateau). This time around, we thought it would be interesting to stay there for a couple of days. It is touted as being very quiet and tranquil, with no TV or phone in the room. Great! However, we found that being such an old building, the floors creaked and the walls were thin. Every footstep and voice could be heard. We could even hear the person upstairs snoring. That was fine until about 8 am when they started tearing the roof off of the building. We were not told that they were starting a very big renovation project on our very night there. Oh well, such is life. We took some trips out to the local wineries for more wine tasting. We also attempted to do some Geocaching, but did not fare well. We found our only cache of the trip along the winding road to the caves in a mile marker. Oh well, we got one at least!

That’s it for now. I’ll blog about Ashland next time!