Where in the US is Fire Team McBean? : Bend, OR to Albion, CA

We did it! We finally left the Pacific Northwest! We've been so busy that I haven't had time to update this blog, and I realized today that if I don't update it now then I'm going to fall far behind and never really catch up so here's a quick summary of our trip so far. (Disclaimer: this post is likely to have more photos than words, and I can't promise that those photos will be in chronological order, but please enjoy them anyway).

From Athena we made a pit stop in Shaniko, a tiny little ghost town on I97. It's just a little ghost own in the high desert, but it's the perfect place to stretch your legs.
We spent the night in Bend. When we first started planning this trip we decided that we didn't want to be driving more than about four hours a day and we chose to stop in Bend for no other reason than that we it is about four hours away from Athena. Everything we planned for Bend seemed to end up a bust. A couple of the things I wanted to do (Lava Caves and Newberry National Volcanic Monument) were closed for the season, and the chocolate shop we visited ended up not living up to their online reviews. We did fit in a trip to Barnes and Noble, though, and that always makes for a good day. It was a deflating start to the road trip, but it didn't take long for things to turn around.

The next day we visited Crater Lake National Park. If you've been there you know that there aren't many words that I could use that would do the lake justice and if you haven't been there, please promise yourself now that you'll put it on your to-see list because there really are no words. The lake was formed when Mount Mazama blew up, collapsed, and left the deepest lake in the United States where it stood. Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that, but you can find out all about it on your visit. The lake is a beautiful dark blue and we were fortunate to see against the backdrop of a beautiful blanket of snow which made for a really breathtaking view. Crater Lake is really secluded in the south central area of Oregon, so there's not much but for the lake and the expected outdoor activities, but even if that's not usually your thing, I promise you will not regret taking the time to visit.

After an unplanned stay in Cave Junction, Oregon, which might be the weirdest town I've ever been in, we finally crossed the state line into California!

We spent a night just over the border at the Panther Creek Campground before heading over to Crescent City and further down Hwy 101 to Trinidad. Crescent City was a wonderful beginning to California. We got lost on our way to Ocean World, an aquarium we planned on visiting to kick off our marine life unit study, and happened upon Battery Point Lighthouse. The lighthouse itself was closed because of the season, but we were still able to explore the grounds and take advantage of the gorgeous views. We realized quickly that getting lost that morning was the coolest thing that could have happened because we were able to watch a pod of grey whales migrating. None of us had ever seen whales before, so this was a super cool thing all of us.
Unfortunately, this is where my four day old camera decided that it was going to stop working, and so it's also where the pictures get a lot more sporadic and not quite as fun (at least for me).
We did finally make it to Ocean World that afternoon where we saw great examples of what lives in the Pacific Ocean, petted sharks, and discovered that Rogue Scout is deathly afraid of pirates. Even plastic ones that are missing a hand.
In Trinidad we had the first of our California reunions when Jay and James came to spend a couple of days exploring the local beaches and state parks with us. Before parting ways the eight of us made the short drive to Gold Bluffs State Beach where we hiked Fern Canyon.
When the Glenn boys headed back to Redding we headed further south, this time anchoring in my favorite little fishing village -- Fort Bragg. There are a lot of little towns on the California coast that are like Fort Bragg, but we have an emotional attachment to the little town where I vacationed in my youth and John and I spent each of the anniversaries that we lived in California. We spent five days there and most of that time we spent on the beach. We collected sea glass at Glass Beach, explored the tide pools at McKerricher State Beach, and threw out crab pots in Noyo Harbor.
Our time on the coast has been a great transition to life on the road, but we aren't going to get far if we don't pull anchor and leave, so we are spending one last night at our favorite camping spot in Albion (where John is currently boiling the fresh crab he caught this evening!) before heading on to Sacramento and so many reunions that we have been looking forward to!

(So, I wrote all of this last week intending to upload the pictures the same day. Obviously that didn't happen. We're in Sacramento now, enjoying the abundant sunshine and our awesome friends. We have some cool field trips planned for the next couple of weeks and I promise I'll try to post more regularly!)