Round About Evanston

Anne and I had a really splendid day tootling around town, exploring beautiful neighborhoods, shopping areas, and parks. My feet tell me we covered a lot of ground and we had the most perfect weather this area has to offer--sunny 70 degree and breezy. I took lots of pictures of houses as we walked. Found a nice little 9,500 sq ft beauty for just $3 mill. And a more nodest 3 BR, 2 BA condo for just $500 K. 

We walked along the lakeshore abd you could see Chicago's skyline to the south.

Stopped for coffee/ tea and a donut at The Brothers K where we snagged an outside table to watch the people and the day go by. Could not resist taking pics of beautiful planted pots on our walk as well

We fondled sweaters at the Irish knits store and wonderful handmade goods from around the world at a store that supports indigenous artisans. Anne bought some nifty little bags for glasses, money and carrying things on the trip. We got a healthy lunch at Trader Joes (salad and Calif rolls) and headed to the Grosse Point lighthouse on the lakeshare for a picnic.

Then we drove a little further north to Wilmette where we saw the gorgeous Bahai temple.

Since Anne had to do a presentation for work, I wandered aroud the Northwestern campus. They are right on the lakeshore.

Some beautiful buildings and gardens and a small handful of trees starting to display autumn color.

Most my pics of the interior of the Deering Library did not come out well, but here is one.

Then we came into town again to look at shoes and socks with cats on them whick I did not take a picture of--drat!!! Then ambled over to the World of Beer where we chowed down on a giant German pretze with mustard and cheese sauce and, of course, some very tasty beer. Last but not least is a view from Anne's balcony looking dowm the train tracks towards Evanston.

Patjens Lakes Trail

Accessed by getting off the Santiam Highway and driving behind the Hoodoo ski area, you find the trailhead for Patjens Lakes on your right while the substantial Big Lake campground is on the left. Coming back from the 2011 Shadow Lake fire, the area is still largely burned out trees, which has its own stark beauty.
You initially walk along Big Lake and can see Hoodoo and Hayrick Bluff across the lake.

The only fall color for this October hike were some low-growing bushes.

There was lots of interesting dried foliage and arty shapes in the burned out trees.

In the sunlight, the burned logs had a silver sheen to them as you can somewhat tell from the log above, plus many of the remaining trees had slipped their bark and been polished to a lighter silver, so it was a very striking forest of black and white trees--all vaguely shining in the pale sunlight.
There are supposedly 3 or 4 small "Patjens Lakes" but one of them was completely dried while one still had water. Not a good year for lakes fed by snowmelt.

Unfortunately, we did not get to do entire loop trail. Fairly do-able hike with no demanding elevation gains, but there were a lot of ups and downs; it is about 6 miles long whether you do the loop or an out-and-back.

Oregon Coast

This is actually a test post to see if I can post to my travel blog using my ipad mini--the main reason I bought it. So I am putting up some photos from our short visit to the coast with Wendy Starkweather. This was the view from our room...

We spent one day cruising down the coast from where we stayed in Depot Bay, "the world's smallest harbor," to Newport,

We took a tour of Yaquina Head lighthouse, something neither of us had ever done before.

We finished the day with a wonderful dinner, complete with sunset and water view, at Tidal Raves in Depot Bay, a treat from Wendy!

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

We made the drive to Hilo on Tuesday (Feb. 24) in order to visit the botanical garden, which was well worth the trip! First we stopped at Onomea Bay overlook and then walked down to the bay itself.

Along the way, we met a friendly duck looking for a handout and then at the bottom of the trail found amazing trees and waterfalls that flowed out of a stream feeding into the bay.

We stopped for lunch at this amazing little place, called What's Shakin' that made fabulous smoothies and yummy sandwiches--most of the ingredients for these came from the farm directly surrounding. That is our crew sitting at the left-most table under the tent. It's for sale if you want to buy a nice little business 7 miles north of Hilo. We were joined by a red headed little bird for lunch!

Then on to the Botanical Garden itself

and here it's hard to pick photos because I took dozens....there were so many amazing and beautiful flowers--many varieties of heliconia (e.g.,lobster claw),

cats whiskers,

gingers,

tons of orchids,

giant bamboo,

and beautiful waterfalls to boot.

Last but not least, we stopped at Big Island Candies to grab some more Mika passion fruit creams--I am addicted!