The rental house we stayed at in Crescent City was so beautiful. It was a little ways outside of town, by a lake, and there were chickens and lambs and a frog pond and a big deck out back overlooking the lake. We saw a beaver working on his dam in the pond, and one night we heard a great horned owl hooting at us from one of the trees.
It was only a few hours' drive from Coos Bay down across the California border to Crescent City. Gus slept peacefully with his "Caw" in the car.
Sam had much to say about this "Elk Crossing" sign. Mostly because the pose of the elk is ambiguous…is he facing toward us, head turning sideways to look back over his shoulder? Or is he looking away from us and we're staring at his hindquarters? Apparently it is the strange positioning of his feet that makes it unclear.
The lady that owned the house was SO NICE. She met us there and walked us all around the property to make sure we knew we could play all over and explore everything. She told us to feel free to gather eggs from the chickens (Goldie LOVED doing that) and she kept stepping back to look at us and exclaim, "Oh, you are such a nice big family!" Eventually she took this picture of us, to remember us by, I suppose. :) She said, "I assume you are Mormons?" and I sadly missed the perfect opportunity to say, as President Nelson said we ought to, "If you mean, are we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints…then yes!"
She and her husband were Catholic and had a big family of their own (six children)…and they also had this beautiful Last Supper carving in their dining room. She got it when her children's Catholic School (where she was once the principal) closed.
Once we got settled in the house, Ziggy and Gus took the opportunity to run and run and run in this long sunroom at the back of the house.
There was a little apartment in what I think used to be the garage. Abe and Malachi slept there, along with St. Francis or whoever that is. It was really nice!
The lane to the barn, where they hold weddings and events sometimes
A little redwood grove
Walking back to the house from the barn
There was a whole big flock of lambs that lived by the house, and they were guarded by a faithful watch-donkey, Fresca. She was VERY vigilant and never took her eyes off us when we walked by!
The daisies were out everywhere in Oregon and California too, all along the roadsides and in every grassy field. We had a huge field of them growing by our house too. They were so beautiful! I wish they would grow wild like this in Utah! I wonder why they don't—too dry?
Back deck and lake. We saw elk out by the water sometimes.
And it was a beautiful place to eat lunch!
Fresh eggs!
We had a campfire and roasted hot dogs one evening.
And there was a hot tub! It felt SO NICE to sit in it after our long hike in the redwoods.
Or to sit outside in the dusk and listen to the croaking of the IMPOSSIBLY LOUD frogs. Hundreds of them!
My favorite part of the whole property was this long, tree-lined drive up to the house. It was beautiful at every time of day!
And we loved this big sunny room inside, too. Everyone gravitated there to curl up and read.
The girls slept in the same bed again…and somehow Goldie ended up like this.
And the boys, on the air mattress, ended up like this! Hmmm.
Ten minutes down the road, just on the other side of the lake, was the beach. The lady who owned our rental house had told us it was a good place to find agates, so we went to check it out one afternoon.
It was beautiful! And there were so many beautifully smooth rocks washed up by the waves! We found agates, but also all kinds of other rocks. We couldn't stop gathering them! We love to bring rocks home from places we travel and polish them in our tumbler, but these were already mostly polished by the waves and the sand. They were so smooth and round!
The colors were amazing when they were wet!
And some of them had really beautiful sparkly crystals in them!
Sam and I went on a walk down by the pond to see if we could see any frogs. We saw a beaver gnawing on a stump, but no frogs…at first.
Then these two little fairy-sprites joined us in the gathering dusk.
When we walked close to the water, we suddenly heard a series of tiny rustlings and ploppings as many, many frogs jumped into the pond away from our footsteps. They were SO TINY we could not see them at all for awhile! Finally our eyes adjusted and we started seeing them everywhere!
After we found all the frogs our hearts desired, Sam and I walked over to the barn and turned on the lights in the little courtyard. Wouldn't this be a pretty place for a wedding reception?
It was so hard to leave this beautiful place when it was time to go home—especially because we had to get up at 4 am to start the drive, and we knew it was going to be a lonnnnnnng day.
The drive home was not too bad, though. We stopped at a few parks along the way to eat our meals.
This one had exercise equipment that the kids had fun playing on.
But the strangest part of the drive was driving past some of the Oregon wildfires! We got within a few miles of one of them, and it felt so scary and apocalyptic! It definitely seemed like we should be driving the OTHER way, OUT of the fire area!
The smoke was so thick we could hardly see the road in front of us, and it smelled horrible even inside the car! Then when we finally got home to Utah, the smoke had followed us home, too! We had gloomy, smoky, red-sunset days for the next few weeks!
But I can't end with that. So I will end with a picture of this beautiful tree-lined lane at sunset, and think about what an idyllic place this was during the few days we "lived" here. This trip was such a blessing to us, and we will always remember it!
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