SUMMER ESCAPES

Traveling to Oregon in July, we spent several days camping out in the woods with old friends. We passed Mt. Shasta on the way north, which was covered in smoke from the many fires but clear coming back which allowed for this beautiful shot my daughter took.

Another weekend was spent in Cambria with friends where we visited the beach and watched dolphins and sea otters playing in the surf.

I’d never seen dolphins off the California coast before and we spent hours watching them playfully leap out of the water as they herded fish back and

forth (sea gulls flew above the dolphins, swooping down for a fish now and again).

I wish I’d been able to snap a good picture of the dolphins but I would have needed more than my digital camera to catch them in mid-leap. All I’ve got are dozens of pictures of the splashes after they dived. This was the best I could do (you’ll need to click on the picture, making it larger for viewing).

I also had a grizzled old sea gull, too old to fly for his food, who patiently stared me into giving him some crumbs from my sandwich, then fought off all comers who wanted in on the action. (See him in the lower left of this picture)

Sometimes when you travel far and wide you forget the beautiful places close by home. I hadn’t visited Bass Lake in several years although I used to visit it fairly often every summer and sometimes at other times of the year as well.

I’d gotten into a funk a few weeks back and needed to clear my head so I bugged Fred until we picked up and went to the lake for a day so relaxing and healing that we planned a second visit that same week.

We packed all our stuff –sandwiches, chips, drinks, and cookies so we wouldn’t have to stop for anything, plus a chair, a chaise and cushions for comfort while we read, swam and watched the boats.

It felt like we’d spent a week on holiday after we got home that

night. I was so laid back that I didn’t take many pictures. I will escape to Bass Lake again this summer, for sure.

Remember Dorothy’s mantra, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…”