Weekend in Oregon

A change of plans this weekend, and we drove to Pendleton to spend a couple of days with my folks. Surprisingly, we had wonderful weather, so we took everyone on a picnic......4 hours one way! Ugh! But the scenery was worth it. We traveled down to central eastern Oregon to visit the John Day Fossil Bed Monument, and saw the Painted Hills. They were very unique and very beautiful. It literally looked like someone had taken a paint brush and spashed color on them.

Not only was the color interesting, but the shape of the hills were very unusual, to say the least.

We stopped and had lunch on the way, and my mother (Thelma Lindsay) just had to climb the old wooden fence to have her picture taken.......she's 80 years old, but she thinks that she still 25.

Ron and I, in central Oregon. We loved seeing all the old barns, and hope that someday we can go back and take some really good photographs of them.

My parents, Derrell and Thelma Lindsay. Still good sports about having a new adventure. I hope that Ron and I will be so ambitious when we get to be their age.

A close up shot of some dry grass at the side of the road.

The next day, we decided to go on another little outing, and drove north this time, across the Washington border. We drove north of Walla Walla for about an hour, to Palouse Falls. This falls is about 2 miles from where the river dumps into the Snake River. It's quite impressive to see this massive amount of water out in the middle of desert plains.

Ron and my mother, with Palouse Falls in the background.

This is a woodrat that I was able to get a telephoto shot of. He's so cute! I can't believe that he is a rat! He looks more like a marmot to me. He was totally oblivious to the height of the cliff he was scurrying around on. It made me dizzy!

Our short trip to central Oregon and the Palouse in Washington, made Ron and I want to go back again, this time with photography in mind. I just love the diversity of this beautiful earth that we live on. There's always something beautiful around the next bend in the road.