Searching For Bigfoot

I went on my favorite weekend excursion: looking for Bigfoot. Not sure what I’m going to do when I find him.

Really we did a quick lap through Oregon. We went to Bend for a night to visit relatives and made a quick trip to the High Desert Museum which was awesome. They have Indian and pioneer exhibits AND animals and environmental exhibits. There was an indoor exhibit with turtles and lizards in a faux westerny setting with train tracks.

One of the turtles tried to crawl from between the train tracks and he couldn’t get his big boxy self over one of the rails. He stood on his back legs and strained while his front legs windmilled around trying to push over. It was harrowing to watch. I thought we’d have to cancel the rest of the weekend so I could stand there until he made it over. He had his scrawny neck pushed out so far I though they might have to examine him for neck strain later. Finally I had to stop watching because I was getting neck strain standing in front of the glass trying to show him (or her, whatever, it’s so hard to tell with turtles) what to do.

Before we left we went back to check and he was doddering around another part of the exhibit. “Whew,” I said. “Now I can relax. Let’s go to the gift shop.”

Awesome gift shop. We almost got Aunt Janet a t-shirt that said, “Endangered Feces” and had drawings of different kinds of scat.

Also in Bend I had an Ocean Roll which is like a cinnamon roll only 1000 times better. It’s a flakey pastry roll with salt, sugar and cardamom. After every bite I said, “This is the best roll I’ve ever had.” I actually didn’t realize it was cardamom and kept saying it had a magical flavor that stayed in my mouth so that I kept saying, “Ocean Roll” long after we left Bend. When I got home I did a little poking around and found someone who adapted a recipe after trying the same roll. I’ll post when I try the recipe.

Meanwhile, at lunch we had a brisket sandwich that was like a rodeo in your mouth.. That was the end of the Ocean Roll but mmmm, brisket.

Eventually we ended up in Grants Pass, Oregon where I met my family and we did lots more eating and took a jetboat excursion on the Rogue River which was amazing. Bald eagles! Osprey! Lots of water soaking me because no one warned me I was sitting in the dunk seat.

I took a waterproof camera on the jetboat but I had to be all old timey and drop it off for processing and I haven’t had a chance to go pick it up. More photos to come.

One more story from the weekend: the motel in Bend had a loud mini-fridge and since I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, I decided to just unplug the dang thing so it wouldn’t disturb my sleep. I woke up at 3AM to DRIP DRIP DRIP. At first I thought it was raining but it sounded like it was inside. Then I realized CRAP! And while muttering, “I am so stupid,” under my breath I jumped up and had to move all our stuff near the fridge and grab a towel and clean up because the fridge was defrosting. Or defrosted, I should say, and got some clothes and papers wet. I remember thinking when I unplugged it that there was probably a good reason why I shouldn’t but I couldn’t possibly be the first person to do that.

Well, it was all nice and defrosted when we left in the morning.