View of sunset from the back porch

The image really says it all.  This is what we saw every evening that we were in Jackson CA.  Well, except the moon was slightly larger each time.  I was going to post many a fun photo from our western excursion, however I am having tech difficulties.  (The explanation I got is that our camera is high res and that the picture files have to be downsized before being able to be loaded on to Blogger...  This is a somewhat cumbersome process, so till I find a better solution, the other pix will have to wait.  Suggestions welcome!)

We began in Oregon in a lovely town called Talent.  I'm not sure if the name of the town attracted talented people, or if it was named that because of all the talented people drawn to it, but it is packed with artists and talent of all kinds.  It is very small town and we could walk everywhere unless we were going into Ashland.  In fact, we got a foot tour of the whole place in less than a half an our!! The mountains and trees and streams in this area are spectacular.   The air crisp and the sun warm, but NOTHING like FL.  In the shade, it was actually cool!  And the nights got down into the 50's.  I could get used to that.  

At this point I MUST mention that I got one of the greatest cups of coffee I've EVER  had in this town.  The place is called Downtowne Coffee Shoppe.  (See link for review) The coffee I ordered had a clever name, which I can't think of at the moment, but I'll use Miinted Chocolate for the sake of calling it something... Now, I'm not a fru fru coffee chick, but something told me to go a little off the board in this place and I'm glad I did.   The coffee is organic and freshly ground, of course!  BUT... here's the thing, they steamed REAL mint leaves to go into the coffee!!  And it WAS NOT TOO DAMN SWEET!!  It was without a doubt the most perfect coffee I've ever  tasted.  I want to tell ya chilluns, it was divinity in a go cup!

I will post a few photos of the Oregon leg on this post and then break up the rest of our adventure because I've just decided it's too much for one post.  Ok, so the best part of our stay was meeting/visiting with my aunt and uncle.  It's the hub's mom's bro, and his wife, Uncle Pete and Aunt Anita.  Uncle Pete is an artist in the truest sense of the word and his pieces and his process reflect that.  Pete and I had several great talks about philosophy, art and traditional healers and etc.... We saw a lot of his newer pieces hanging in their home and we also visited a few shows he's participating in in Ahsland.  Harley even got to name a few of his pieces.  He's a great namer!   Aunt Anita is also unbelievably talented.  Her specialty is cooking.  Oh my GOD can this woman cook and bake!  I don't remember exactly what we had, I just know it was incredible... and we had real fresh whipped cream and fruit for our waffles (Pete made the waffles), but Aunt Anita did everything else in the cooking department.  Our first meal there was an incredible fish dish with a yummy apple cake (from scratch) for dessert.  Anita was great to talk to also.  I learned a lot about the family from her and got to know HER some which was really cool.  And she enjoys the occasional smoke, like I do, so we'd slip off together to smoke on her front porch and talk and watch the world go by.  It was heavenly.

Their house is old.  Very old, like ours.  Actually, it's older.  It is a really beautiful space and they have kept in much better condition than we've managed to keep ours... sigh.  We really enjoyed being in the space they created and with them for two days.  We visited a beautiful park in Ashland while we were there and the trees are just so tall and magnificent, it's humbling just being in their presence.  Well, many of them are Redwoods, so... awe is to be expected, no?  

So, good family time, good eats, good coffee, good wine, good scenery, good time!

Uncle Pete about to squirt whip cream in Harley's mouth.  It's part of the Infidel Series...

Uncle Pete, Aunt Anita, PF and Harley.  This was just before Harley drank from the Lithium water fountain.... Lord help us, he liked it.  

Harry Potter enjoying what was left of the whipping cream.