Sister's Quilt Show, Crater Lake and Some Caching

I woke up several times to the noises dad made while getting ready to go on his motorcycle ride with Ron.  He probably got up around 5 or so.  We slept in until about 7.  I heard mom getting ready in the bathroom so I got up and got my clothes on and grabbed the necessary stuff we would need that day. 

I haven't been to Crater Lake since 2003, when we headed down that summer after my first year at college.  Doug just got done with his junior year and Erika finished her freshman year in high school.  Erika couldn't go with us because she got a summer job working at a day camp in Lacey.  Mom, dad, Doug and I jumped into the Suburban with the jet boat attached and headed down to Lost Creek.  I was in awe when I first stepped out to the edge to see this magnificent geological creation.

But first we had to go into Sisters to see the outdoor quilt show.  The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is internationally recognized as the world's largest outdoor quilt show and quilt sale displaying more than 1300 quilts representing fiber artists from around the world.  More than 10,000 visitors from all 50 states and 27 foreign countries flock to Sisters on the second Saturday in July. Master quilt makers teach classes and workshops during Quilt Week and exhibit their quilts at our annual Quilt Show. In addition, hundreds of quilts are displayed in our "show-and-tell" exhibits - first time quilters, youth, quilts made by men - throughout the town of Sisters. Quilt exhibitors range in age from 10-92.

We headed out and Ben misinformed us to where the gas was so we went clear into Bend to fill up for the day.  We took Hwy 20 and everyone and their dog were going into Sisters from that road.  It was stop and go for at least three miles.  Those three miles took a long time and I am not a patient person when it comes to driving and trying to get somewhere at a certain time.  Once we got to a point where we could turn off I took it.  We drove through a camp ground onto the back side of town.  It took us a while to find a parking spot.  Once we did we memorized the street signs because there were buttloads of people everywhere. 

We used the restrooms and then walked down the street to see what the town offered plus admired the work that went into all of the quilts on display.  Ben met up with us soon after.  I went into a T-shirt/Sweatshirt shop and bought myself a Bend sweatshirt.  I wanted to get at least one cache in Sisters.  The closest one was You've Got Mail 3 (GCNYW2) and it was rather difficult to obtain with all the people walking around.  Somehow we grabbed it, signed it and put it back without being seen. 

We spent the next hour looking at shops and quilts.  Mom finally got her fix in and told us it was time to head to Crater Lake.  We drove back into Bend (this time it didn't take as long) got onto US 97 and drove the hour and a half down there.  It was fun to see towns, or signs of towns, that my dad talked about often such as La Pine, the Road to Wickiup and signs for eastern Oregon.

When we got to the turn off, I was amazed on how long that road seemed.  You could see probably close to 5 miles up the road with tons of cars coming and going to the national park.  When we finally got to the gate, we paid our fee and she handed us our receipt and map.  I had a list of virtuals and earthcaches I wanted to do while I was here.  I knew a lot about Crater Lake already but for some reason the geocaches enhance that knowledge plus they are fun to find.

Our first one was an earthcache, The Pumice Desert of Crater Lake (GC14YZM) and as luck would have it there was a legit parking lot to pull into.  I read the information we had to answer while we were here and found out there used to be a sign we had to read information off of it but it had been ripped off.  We wrong down our answers and took a group picture to prove we were there and that the sign was gone.

We moved on to the rim of the crater.  Ben had never been here before so he was in for a real treat.  Even though I've been here before the view was still awe inspiring.  Absolutely gorgeous!  There were still a few large snow drifts that were constantly melting into the lake.  It was a stunning blue color and there were a ton of tourists.  For some reason no one would honor the stay back behind the fence warning.  Earlier this week some guy from Florida died here from not listening to the warnings.  I guess they might have to learn the hard way.  We took a few pictures from this spot.

We got back in the Escape and moved onto the next spot with geocaches.  This one had a virtual and an earthcache.  We did both as the same time.  The virtual, Watching for Wizardy (GC6F85) was basically asking us to tell him why this island was here and to take a picture of our group.  The earthcache, Mt. Mazama (GC124H6) asked us to figure out the elevation of where we were and the top of Wizard Island along with how far we thought the other side of the rim was and of course taking a picture with your group.

From there, we headed towards the lodge and visitor's center.  There were so many people here today which made looking for a parking place kinda rough.  Some how we managed to find one quickly, park and secured the stuff we weren't going to bring with us.  There were several buildings to go into and learn about everything we chose the visitor's center first.  There, I found some postcards, stickers and a sweatshirt because I've always wanted a sweatshirt from there.  Last time I was here I didn't have the money for it.  We had no idea where to look for the next virtual, Ode to a Lake (GCJTMG) so we investigated it and turns out it was in the lodge after asking a few of the people who worked there.  We walked into the lodge and there it was.  It was a sheet of music and we had to fill in the blank with the correct lyrics.

We walked back to the Escape and got back on the road and went to our last two virtuals, Love for the Virgin Wilderness (GCGBTR) and Pumice Castle and the Old Man of the Lake (GCH6Z5).  Both we had to answer questions.  One was a small trail that took us to a sculpture of a naked lady and the other one took us to a look out and we had to answer the questions off of a sign.  Both were pretty easy.

We turned around and started back around the crater.  When we got to the entrance I decided to stop and get a picture of the sign since I didn't do it on the way in.  There were some bikers parked on the side of the road taking a break.  They asked me if I wanted a picture with it and I kindly declined their invite.  I just wanted a picture of the sign.  I was in and out in less than a minute.

We got onto the main road and had to find a few more on our way back to Bend/Redmond.  We stopped at a camping/hiking area just off the road.  Because it was an offline map list I could not see the hints but could see how close I was.  The coords kept on bouncing everywhere but it eventually zeroed in on an area I could search.  The mosquitos got so bad Ben went back to the Escape while I found North Crater (GC2CPKX), signed our names and put it back.

We stopped for one more off of the highway just because we could.  Myles and Myles (GC1X87X) was more than a short distance from the road.  We parked and looked for it but found out it was further down the dirt road towards the forest.  I told everyone to stay in the Escape while I went and got it.  I jogged down, found the ammo box, signed our names, took a picture of Mount Thielsen from this spot and jogged back.  They started backing the Escape down the road so I basically met them   half way.

We got back on the road and turned onto Hwy 97 and went north towards Bend.  When we got into LaPine, I really wanted a cache here since my family has roots here and mom wanted a cold drink at the Wickiup Junction Grocery Store, Deli & Gas Station.  I was really happy a cache was within walking distance of the store.  I ran and grabbed Welcome to LaPine (GC1P8C9) and then ran back to join them inside the store.  We all grabbed a drink and headed outside to go see the Wickiup lunch bus.

We got back in the Escape and headed into Bend.  I saw the Goodwill from the highway and had to stop.  Some woman tried to hit me as I was merging off the highway but luckily we didn't get hit.  I always like to see what kinds of treasures each town has.  Bend should have some good stuff.  We went inside and I started browsing my usual areas...sports stuff, decorations, books, etc.  I found an Oregon Duck jersey for $10 of course I had to buy it.  I found a Deschutes Brewing Company wall mirror and bought it for less than $10 and a Gonzaga shirt for $3.  I thought I made out of there pretty good.  We got back on the highway and drove to Redmond.

When we got back to the hotel, Ron wanted to go out to dinner with mom and dad.  Ben and I were on our own for dinner.  We called in an order to Abby's pizza and went and picked it up as mom and dad were leaving.  We took it back to our room and the pizza hit the spot as we watched the Mariners play on TV.  We got cleaned up, mom and dad got back about an hour later, they got cleaned up, we relaxed a bit and then went to bed.  We had a really long day and tomorrow was going to be just as long heading home.

Next Adventure:  Pilot Butte, Caching in Bend, Prineville Spires and Traveling Home