This stop was serendipitous. My only note was Day 17: TBD, 11 hr drive from Olema to Cannon Beach.
But as we neared the Oregon border, I remembered how much I enjoyed a short weekend at the Shakespeare Festival decades ago with my Aunt Janet, and so I pulled out the phone and quickly found us an RV site outside of town.
It was our first park that had a pool open! It was reservable for an hour, one family at a time. They kindly opened it for us when we arrived that evening before they closed up for the night.
We enjoyed the campground very much, and after a morning swim, we headed off to explore Ashland for an hour or two before spending the rest of the day at Crator Lake.
We never made it to Crator Lake.
Oh, we loved Ashland! Of course, being the year it is, there were no plays being produced, but we still found plenty to do, all centered on Lithia Park.
Before we even parked, Dwayne was itching to see where a certain staircase led–his instincts are unfailing, because it featured an antique Italian fountain from Ashland’s European sister city. If you know Dwayne at all, you can tell by his body language that he is madly making plans 1) to improve this setting, 2) to create this same thing at home, and 3) to visit Italy again soon.
A creek ran the length of the park, and one of my favorite things to do is see the kids do their favorite thing–poke around and be delighted with nature and each other.
This had been a great enough day already, and hungry kids were beginning to drag when we found ourselves stumbling from park into town, where we found creekside dining along a walkable alley that can only be described as European. Dwayne and I could not have designed a better date location, and we plied the kids with mocktails and cribbage while we acknowledged our good fortune to find such a spot on such a day. Fully drugged on European dining, we made it a very long and pleasurable lunch, but American-style, filled the last nooks and crannies with dessert.
Yet another place we will need to return someday!
Needopedia 