Where in the World was Deb?

Deb:

I posted about the first week I was gone from home to the PNW Children's Book Conference in Portland, so here's the scoop about the second week that I was gone.

My husband and I drove down to the very southern part of Oregon to the Oregon Caves National Monument. They were celebrating their 100th anniversary as a national monument (we didn't know that when we decided to go there.) They were actually discovered much earlier in 1874 by Elijah Davidson and his dog while chasing a bear during a hunting trip.

The Oregon Caves consist of a system of connected caves that people can tour. The tour has 576 steps, mostly going up and mostly uneven and wet.

It is beautiful inside the caves. I've included a couple of pictures, but they can't capture the magnificent shapes and colors of the nooks and crannies that greet you throughout.

One extra adventure we had: the website and the articles we read in preparation told us that the last 20 miles on the road to the caves is winding. What they don't tell you is that the road goes up, up, up and has a dinky shoulder with a steep drop off and no guardrail on most of the route.

But we survived the road and the tour of the caves (huff puff!) It's a wonderful place to visit, if you're ever in that part of the country.

(Sorry about the blocks of text in this post. Blogger is being stubborn today and won't let me put blank lines between my paragraphs or indent with blank spaces at the beginning of my paragraphs!)