I can honestly say that I have been busier than usual these last few weeks, and I look back and wonder where all the time went... It's hard to say, day to day things didn't seem all that busy, but there was a continuous feeling that there was always something on. So, let me think what was on...

The first thing that comes to mind is our trip to Oregon last weekend. It was American Labour Day on the Monday, and we thought that we should make the most of it and go on a trip. Ideally, we both wanted somewhere that we both hadn't been to before, but there wasn't going to be any states that we could drive to in time that neither of us had visited before. Jeremy had been to Oregon, a few years ago, and that was during the ski season, so Summer was going to be different.

We started planning maybe two weeks before we were due to leave. We looked on Google maps and found a place just a little north of California. Perfect. A little town called Medford, not even an hour out of Northern California, lots of hotels to choose from, with a website that listed a load of different places to see. Over a few days, we decided to check out a 'caldera' known as Crater Lake. A volcano that had exploded it's top off thousands and thousands of years ago, leaving a caldera. The lake is made from the snow left after the winter, and tops up the lake for summer. Apparently, it keeps the water level relatively steady.

All that was left, was to pick up the car on the Saturday morning. This meant that we both had to be up before 8am to get on the road, and hope to arrive in Medford at a decent hour with stops along the way. Over the Labour Day weekend, the Bay Bridge was closed east bound, the way we needed to head out. This added a half hour to our six hours worth of driving. The drive itself was easy (America sure has a lot of highways) double lanes the whole way, with a steady flow of traffic. We stopped at a truck stop for breakfast, didn't hang around too long in case of lost time.

Our second, and very notable stop, was at the Shasta Lake Dam. A very impressive lake system through massive mountains, and amazing scenery to boot. As soon as we got out of the car, the 100 degree heat made me almost pass out. I was dressed for San Francisco summer weather, not for anywhere else in the state. There was a little wind, but not enough to make a difference. We walked across the top of the dam, only to half way to take some photos, then headed back to the comfort of our air-conditioned car.

Our next, and possibly most amusing stop, was a town called 'Weed'. Yes, 'Weed'. Don't worry, I took a lot of photos from my passenger seat. We were a little bummed that the town didn't quite live up to our expectations, it was rather small, and I'm sure the people were sick of people (mainly out-of-towners) making fun of the name... Never the less, we had lunch there, took some more photos of signs and made our way back to highway. From Weed, it was only about two hours to our destination.

Medford turned out to be bigger than we both had first thought. Our hotel was at the end of the town, and for what we paid per night, I think we got a good deal. We ended up in Medford for dinner, and didn't have enough time to really see anything else. Ended up being an early night, we were both tired from the early start and long day.

On the Sunday, we headed out early for us, and we were on the road by eleven or so. The drive up to Crater Lake and was beautiful. There were thick forests, amazing river views and Crater Lake to forward to. And Crater Lake lived up to both of our expectations. Before we made it all the way up the mountain, we were hungry for lunch and stopped at the base at a restaurant. That turned out later to prove being worthwhile, we had no idea that the trip around the rim of the crater would take over three hours. There were so many tourists at the rim Visitor Centre, we didn't end up staying there for long at all. We jumped back in the car, and started to make our way around the 33mile rim road. There were photo opps every half mile or so, so I think that might be why it took us so long to get around the road. We met some chipmunks along the way, took photos of the crystal clear, deep blue water and saw a controlled fire making its way through the valley. I'll add a link to Jeremy's photo gallery, the photos are truly breathtaking!

The rest of Medford couldn't really compare after that. Don't get me wrong, the place was very scenic, in a valley surrounded by mountains. In winter, it would be a completely different city, I'm sure!

On the Monday, we were up early and out of the hotel by ten thirty, and on the road again. The drive back was a little quicker, we had an idea where to stop for lunch, and had seen most the scenic stops on the way up. We did however, stop in Weed again to get some stickers that said 'I (heart) Weed, CA'. Awesome.

Because of our speedy drive home, we were able to stop at a shopping mall about thirty miles or so out of San Francisco. It was a HUGE mall, on both sides of the freeway, and our main reason for shopping was a shop called 'BevMo'. Very exciting!! I still can't believe that I got a two litre bottle of Bacardi for $16.99. $16.99!! I was very happy with my purchases, not to mention Jeremy and his beers...

Getting back to San Francisco on the Monday evening, only to be leaving again tonight, for Las Vegas. WOW!! Another big weekend away for us both, staying at the Aladdin. Lots of cocktails, food and sightseeing coming my way all over again :-) Will keep you posted on that too!! Very interesting... And next weekend, Bruce arrives!!

To Jeremy's photo gallery of the trip... http://jeremy.burton.id.au/gallery/oregon_weekend