Oregon

Eric and I flew to Souther Oregon for a couple of days so he could interview with a group there. Ken and Natalie (Eric's Dad and Stepmom) were nice enough to take care of our girls while we were gone.  

I did not realize that we would be flying on a 50 person plane to San Francisco and then a 30 person prop plain to Medford.  When I saw the prop plane I just froze staring at it, until the employees started telling me I had to keep moving. I pulled out my camera to take a photo of the plane and I could hear the airline people laughing behind me. 

Holy cow. It was like being in your soon to be coffin with 30 other people. They had to ask people to change seats in order to balance the plane.  One we took off I seriously was trying not to have a panic attack. Fortunately I have the ability to sleep anywhere, so I forced myself to fall asleep.

I was still smiling in this photo because it was the 50 person plane- I thought was small, I had no idea what was coming next.

While in OR Eric left for his interview and I was picked up by the wife of one of the group members. She was super nice and drove me all over Ashland and told me all the wonderful things that area had to offer.  While we were driving around she asked how our hotel was. I said it was fine, but a little loud as there were 2 school busses of high school kids staying on our floor. She apologized and said that because the Shakespeare Festival was going on it was the only vacancy they could find. I assured her was not a problem at all and it was nice to be so close to the main street.  

After she dropped me back at my hotel I realized I left my jacket in her car so I called to see if I could drive out to her house and get it. She assured me that she needed to come back to town for something and would bring it to my hotel in about 30 min. About 45 min later the front desk called me to the lobby, that nice women was standing there with my coat and said "I have called all over to try to find another hotel for you and everything is booked- but I was able to find a suite for you at the Inn on the Creek in Ashford". I assured that we were fine in our hotel and there was no need to move us and she insisted that she help me move, so we did.  I am soo glad that we did. Here are some photos of our awesome Normany suite:

Out our bedroom french doors we had our own private patio... literally on the creek. I was so beautiful.  We could hear the creek all night!

That afternoon I was also driven around for several hours by a Realtor that showed me Medford and Jacksonville.  I loved both areas and should have taken more photos, but this historic house (in Jacksonville) was a mail order house from the Sears Catalog.  She said she thought it just sold for around 3 mil. 

After I got back to my room and was looking through a magazine on local art museums I found an add for a quilt gallery called Fourth Corner.

It was 4:50 pm and they closed at 5 pm. It was only about 8 blocks away from our "suite" but it was raining and I knew I couldn't make it there in time. 

After Eric got home we went out to dinner and drove by the quilt shop on our way home.  He stayed in the car and I took like 20 photos, zooming in on details and everything I could see. AMAZING!

I was so bummed to have to leave. It was so beautiful and smog, traffic, cranky people free and I knew I had to get back on a prop plane to get back to my girls.

If you click on this photo you can see the Golden gate bridge.  I couldn't help but think how my Grandmother was one of the original 99 women pilots and flew with Amelia Earhart. She actually got her nurses license taken away for flying under the Golden Gate bridge upside down- because it was un-ladylike. I'm sure she was looking down at me sweating and freaking out about this little plane and thinking "how is this girl a descendant of mine?".