Not so fun.

I don't go to zoos and I don't go to the circus, I just don't enjoy them, and I don't think it's right. I do, however, enjoy a good wildlife preserve, and I thought that this would be one. The write-ups and brochures made it look phenomenal, you'd think I would have known better. However, I had a sick feeling walking through this place like I was helping someone profit off the exploitation of animals. Had I felt like staff were raising these animals due to rescue purposes and to educate us I think I could have stomached the very small cages some of these animals were in.

Lions, tigers, cougars...all in small wire cages, no grass, some had virtually no shade. They just paced and paced and paced, it broke my heart and I had tears running down my face, I tried hard not to cry, but it chokes me up even now, writing about it. I only spotted one staff person around the whole time we were there (except when they were letting kids pets a tiger cub). No one was monitoring the people walking around the animals and how the animals were being treated (or the safety of the people interacting with the animals for that matter!). The chimpanzee was furious, screaming and throwing things, baring his teeth, the bears sat on their haunches and waved their paws for food that visitors were tossing at them, God only knows what they eat during the course of a day. I think people should think twice about what the true purpose of this attraction is. If you have no problem not questioning this, then you will probably enjoy it. Myself, I regret supporting this sort of business.

There were some free roaming animals, mostly the kind that are domesticated anyhow..llamas, goats, some peacocks and some deer. I don't think it's hypocritical to say that I enjoyed them, they could wander at will, they also had large pens they could go into if they chose, and basically, they are farm animals, and were living a "farm animal life". We left very quickly, I can only hope that my $30.00 admission fee went to a good cause.

If you double click on the picture below, you can see one of the cages in the background. The green grassy cages had, oddly enough, skunks, little wild pigs and some tiny deer.

After we came back from California, we decided to try and find an RV park that was right on the ocean. Up until this point we had stayed at State Parks and "regular" campgrounds, but we decided that sometimes an RV Park is exactly what you want. No sooner were we back in Oregon, at Brookings, when we saw a sign for this place, simply called Beach Front RV Park. We pulled in and were happy to find that they had a spot, overlooking the water, for only $27.00. There was a restaurant just a 3 minute walk away, which had a large TV, so we could even watch the hockey game. (Stanley Cup finals...no Canadian can miss it, even when you're in a non-hockey area) You can see from the above picture how close we were to the ocean.

Have to do the "write in the sand" thing.

I like this picture, he looks contemplative.

We treated ourselves to whole, fresh crab while we watched Game 6 at Sebastians-on-the-Sea. The Canucks lost, but it was OK...we were having too good of a time to really care.

Who knew?

I had no idea that Babe was a male. I just always thought that the name was feminine. The things you learn....

The Land of Giants

After leaving Florence, we headed down into Northern California. Seeing the Redwoods is one of the the things on my Bucket List, and I hadn't realized they were so close. It was a bit of a gloomy day, not really beach weather, so we decided to head down that way. I was in my most favorite $5.00 Wal-mart pyjama-type pants, and my Sit-Around-the-Campfire jacket, Steven was equally white trash, and sure enough, a kind hearted woman insisted on taking our picture in the middle of a Big Tree. She probably felt sorry for us...in our ratty, dirty clothes.

Even the clover is huge...the one closest to Stevens index finger was almost the size of my palm. It was lush, green, quiet and truely stupendous to walk amongst those giant trees.

Of course we had to take our pictures with Paul and Babe. It was sort of funny, there are speakers built into Paul's head area and I guess someone sits inside the building that is adjacent to Paul & Babe, and he watches the tourists do their thing, and then makes comments in a huge, booming Bunyan voice. Steven was having trouble with my camera and all of a sudden you hear: "Make it snappy...my foot is getting sore!" And if small kids are nearby, he'd shout out: "Come closer, I won't kick you." Talk about nightmares.

The above picture is the campground we stayed at in Florence, Jessie Honeyman State Park. It was extremely cozy, you can see how each site was surrounded by trees and huge rhododendron bushes, so it was almost as if you were all alone in the park.

As we drove south of Florence we stopped in Reedsport to see some Roosevelt Elk. They are much larger than "our" elk. There is a large no hunting area at reedsport, and the elk have congregated there for years. It was fun to be able to watch them, they weren't jumpy or nervous at all. There were 15 or 20 bulls, and about twice that many cows and calves.

Shortly after that it started to rain...and rain and rain and rain. We pulled into Coos Bay, there was an RV Park right at the Mill Casino (how fortuitous!) with a laundromat and phenomenal showers and bathrooms. We hooked up our little TV, did some laundry, had a long, hot shower and spent the evening at the Casino, where, as a matter of fact, Steven won $450.00 and I won $200.00. We had dinner at the restaurant there, I had a Sort of seafood Wellington, crab, scallops and shrimp wrapped in a crepe and covered with a sauce, and Steven had a Captain's Plate, which was all kinds of deep fried sea food. The rain was still thundering down when we went to sleep in our cozy little home on wheels.

For supper that night in Old Town we went to ICM (what an awful name for a restaurant, sounds like a computer corporation) but the food was fantastic! I had crab cakes, with 2 different sauces, a red pepper sauce and another one sort of lke tartar sauce. They were so light and fluffy that I could have eaten 4 more. Steven had a bouillabaisse with crab legs, scallops, clams and fish. Mighty good.

The section of Florence down by the water is called Old Town, and it's a very artsy and fun place. The street is narrow, and only about 3 blocks long, both sides chock full of interesting shops and galleries with fun names like The Wren's Nest, Divine Decadence and The Golden Goat. My favorite place was a second hand book store called Books 'n Bears, which sold all manner of books jammed in all willy nilly and little chairs tucked in corners so you could sit and read browse a book, and it also sold teddy bears. We had parked the motor home in a parking lot by the water, so I sent Steven back there for a nap while I spent a few hours checking out all the shops, from vintage clothes, candle shops, many art and glass galleries as well as bakeries and candy places. Lots of salt water taffy for sale.

Most of the shops had tables and/or chairs outside so you could rest and people watch. I liked the ones in the top picture, made out of old water ski's!

Florence, Oregon. I had no idea there were so many other "Florences", and they didn't include the one in Italy. Florence was our "home base" for a couple of days, and the weather was particularly sunny and warm.

We wanted to eat as much seafood as we could while on this trip, you can't get much fresher than "caught a few hours ago", so we made sure we tried "Mo's", which is apparently quite famous for its clam chowder. The restaurant is right on the water, and I do mean on the water. The clam chowder was delectable, and we also had three seafood sliders, a tuna, a crab and a shrimp. Mmmm, so tasty.