David & Ann overlooking Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.
We split the remainder of our drive home from Conord into two days. I had a few plans to meet folks, but had to give up on them as we simply didn’t have much time on our return trip (Ann had a doc appt on Tuesday morning).
Our total mileage came in at just over 2000 miles, so it wasn’t too long of trip by our standards. We drove through four states, into three national parks, by two ordnance depots (Hawthorne, NV, and Concord, CA), and picked up one hood (thanks again Chuck). Best of all, we got to hang with my daughter Kasia! All-in-all a fine, if quick, trip.
I wish I could report on a thousand adventures from California to Washington, but apart from driving (without anything hitting us while driving), our only two adventures worth noting on our return home was our visit to the Harry and David store in Medford and our stop at Crater Lake National Park.
On Sunday we went out to breakfast with Kasia, then began our trek north. When we reached Medford, we were surprised to find out that there was a Harry and David Store right around the corner from our hotel. If you’ve never ordered food from Harry and David (they ship all over the word), you are missing out, especially with their pears. As my son put it, BEST PEARS EVER! Even a couple pears we bought from their store were excellent!
Naturally, we didn’t stop at pears. We also bought some cheese, some crackers and some unusual sausages made from ham and cheese (delicious). I can’t find them online, but they are really good. We munched on our food haul for dinner Sunday night.
On Monday morning, we left early, heading east for Crater Lake National Park. I’d never been there and Ann couldn’t remember being there, so it was a new experience for us both. The morning was beautiful and we made good time driving, until we ran up behind a couple school buses. After that, the going was slow, but the tree-lined two-land road was very relaxing none-the-less.
Our first stop at the National Park was the visitor’s center, where we learned there were three separate entrances to the park (we can in on the west side). We also learned we could circumvent Crater Lake using a national park road that had several beautiful vistas of the lake.
Soon, we were driving around the lake (while snacking on Harry & David food).
