Holly, Jolly Christmas and a Happy New Year 2015

We wish you a holiday season that is full of life's simple pleasures and the joys of friends and family times.

May you open your arms wide to the gift of each new day,

follow the road to your dreams,

stand tall in the storms and bend gracefully,

let your 'little light shine',

and turn obstacles  (branches broken in the wind) into opportunities (a swag covering the kiwi vine at our door step).

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Willamette Mission State Park, Gervais, Oregon!

The River is Risin' Again!!!!

The peace at our 'almost Christmas' park has been a little jangled by the river rising rapidly today.

 The Park Office and shop where we are located is about a half mile from the entrance and the main part of the park borders the river about 1 and 1/2 miles away.  The entire area is called Mission Bottoms and floods every winter and spring.  The office is in the trees beyond the cars.  (Click on the picture and you can see our trailer beyond the flagpole.)

This field is down the hill from the office and parking area pictured above.  The Willamette River is just beyond the distant tree line.  In an extreme flood in 1996 the entire field was a lake.  Even then the Office and Shop stayed dry.  The road through the park winds along the field toward the river.

The low area at the sign and depth post will become a creek as the River floods back into it when it reaches the 24-26 foot level.  There's another dip at the end of the field which floods at 12 feet.  Prior to the 1861 Flood it was the original River channel.  We checked it at about 2pm and took this photo.

At the low point in the road the water pushes through with quite a current as it rushes past the boat ramp farther down the lake.  This 'old channel' is called Mission Lake.  The Methodist mission to the local Kalapooya tribe was built along what is now the Lake, but was the river in 1834.   Because of the constant flooding the 1834 mission families moved in 1841 to establish the town of Salem, about 10 miles south of the Park.  The edge of the Lake is normally out there at the boat launch deck.

The Lake cuts through the lower part of the park and rejoins the river at the Bike Trail Bridge.  The Bridge gets swamped by the merger of the Lake and the River frequently.   Terry helped remove the bridge rails about a month ago.   Tonight as the river continues to rise the bridge will be covered.

It has been amazing to watch all these changes today as Terry has monitored the river levels on the computer.  The river will continue to rise as the Cascade Mountains get more rain tonight.  These picnic tables might not be visible by morning.  It's a little wet for a picnic anyway!!!

More Medford and Ashland, OR

Susie was the best personal tour guide you can imagine!  She took me on a drive through the farm country where she grew up and showed me her favorite wander spot through the woods and hills.  We visited Harry and David's, a Medford fruit and gourmet food shipper since 1934.   (Remember those Christmas catalogs.)  Mike's mother helped publish the catalogs for many years.  We sampled a local chocolate makers offerings next to the Rogue Creamery and spent even more of the morning sampling cheese.  As I gazed at all the wonderful cheeses and their descriptions one marked 'Grayson' caught my eye.  Sure enough it was from Meadow Creek Dairy in Galax, VA.  (About 3 miles from the cabin).  After a long chat about the Galax area, the cheese buyer said he had discovered their cheese 10 years ago in NY and had ordered it ever since because of it's rich taste and golden color.  Handmade cheese is indeed a small world!

In the beautiful hills just south of Medford, the town of Ashland is like a tiny San Francisco.   It's major claim to fame is the Shakespeare Theater that has been there since 1935.  The outdoor Elizabethian theater sits on one of many little hills that the town covers.  Below it is the fantastic Lithia Park designed by the same architect who designed Golden Gate Park.

The roof of the theater is just above the trees.  The Park winds along the creek for a few miles and was decked out for us in fantastic colors.  Every curve along the walks gave a perfect view!

After a walk in the park, a gallery visit and some shopping we had supper at a Brew Pub before our theater show.  Our theater was in a restored church, the newest of 4 theaters in town.  It serves dinner before the show or dessert at intermission.  Our play was 'Dancing Backward in High Heels', the early life of Ginger Rogers.  The music and dance was wonderful and the dessert delicious!  What a fine afternoon and evening in a very unique town!!

Of note, Ginger Rogers retired on a ranch just north of Medford.  She said about her many movies with Fred Astaire,  " I did everything he did just dancing backward in high heels!"  Go, girl!!