Hello, Friend!

The sun has come back out to play! YEAH! I was getting worried that it had made it's exit for the summer. It's always around in the winter, but it's not so warm, just bright and shiny.

Curtis and I had a great time this weekend at Belknap Springs Resort. We both took off work on Friday so we could take out time getting over there. It's only about 100 miles from our house to the resort, so it was a quick drive. We were going to take highway 242 out of Sisters (the "scenic route") but we saw a sign that said that the highway was closed 20 miles ahead. But, before we turned around, we stopped by the nature preserve because there was a HUGE herd of cow Elk! One had even wandered over to the sprinklers to get herself a drinky!
So, instead of driving the 20 miles to see if it really was closed, we decided to take highway 20 over the Santiam Pass to highway 126.

Once we arrived and got checked in in, we decided to wander through the beautiful gardens.

There are so many flowers all over the place and I'm sure Curtis was delighted that I kept naming all the ones I knew (which was quite a few, thanks to my mom, the gardner).


Here are some shots from the Secret Garden:




Here is Curtis in the "Heart Garden" being goofy:



Saturday we decided to go for a hike, so we drove to the nearby Ranger Station to get a recommendation from the experts. The very cute ranger man suggested we hike up to "Blue Pool." He explained that about 6 miles above the Blue Pool, the McKenzie river was diverted into the Smith Reservior for the Eugene Power and Water Board (something to do with electricity). Then, it gets dumped back into the Trail Bridge Reservior. However, downstream from the Smith Res., the McKenzie river suddenly bubbles back up out of the earth about 2.5 miles above Trail Bridge Res. Cute Ranger Man (CRM) said it is the most clear-blue water you'll ever see. So, armed with a map and some water, we drove up to the trail head and started out. It was fun for a while, until we stared meeting mountain bikers coming down the trail. I serously don't know how they were biking on that trail, it was very rocky. After about 2 miles, we come upon the pool. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.




I think there might be forest fairies that color the pond blue every morning :) It sure was worth the 4 mile round trip hike. We live in such a beautiful world. Sometimes I can't believe how creative the Lord is. People diverted His river, so He created something amazing!

Once back at the resort, we hopped into the hot spring pool. There are two pools at the resort and both are heated by the hot springs. Kind of like a gigantic hot tub, except with lots of little kids yelling about how hot the pool is. After dinner, we just laid around the pool some more. There aren't TVs or phones in the rooms (which was actually very nice), so we spent more time talking and laughing. Here is the view from our room: it looks out over one of the pools and over the McKenzie River



Curtis and I figured we haven't been this relaxed since going to Hawaii 3 years ago and, we are definatly going back! There is so much to do and see and explore!

Now, it's back to reality. I think the laundry is calling my name :)