Alpine Lake Camping Trip

We arrived home from our 9 day camping trip last evening - I missed you all!  I will warn you, there are a lot of photos below, I hope you'll enjoy them.  This camping trip is also our family reunion and there were almost 30 of us there!!  When we arrived I walked down to our beloved bay and snapped this photo.  This lake is the 2nd largest natural lake in Oregon with a visibility depth of 115 feet, one of the purest lakes on the planet.  Every single day was this perfect!  Warm days and cold nights.  

Below is our first evening with the sun over the lake peeking through the woods... 

The Bear Grass was in full bloom this year.. many years the bloom is over, so I got some photos of it.  It's beautiful!

A close up of the Bear Grass bloom.

When we got set up, I shot some photos of the interior of our trailer, this is the dining table.

Buddy loves to sit on the back of the sofa to keep an eye on chipmunks and my brother's West Highland White Terrier, Tux.  He's sitting on my granny stripe blanket I made.

I crocheted 2 dish cloths the first few days with this lovely lime green cotton.  I'll try to share the pattern soon as I loved how it came out.

Here are our recliners.. now this is camping, I say! LOL

Our kitchen, with a watermelon in the sink!  Dayle cut it up and put it in the fridge, it was sweet!

Our comfy bedroom.. with Buddy scampering across the bed.

I love my Canon PowerShot SX200 IS with 12x zoom.. this Chipmunk photo was taken from the kitchen window!

Our first dinner, Dayle is the chef and made baked potatoes in the trailer oven, sauteed frozen green beans with bacon and onions and BBQ'ed filet mignon on the grill outside.

Our first night.. sunset on the point.  Not real colorful as there were no clouds, but pretty.  I got some pretty bad mosquito bites on the tops of my feet that night and had to put cool washcloths on my feet to settle down the itching.. but never had any more bites react much after that night.  The lake is known for it's mosquitos!

The full moon was up as we turned to leave the point that night.

The next day we launched our Sunfish sailboats and sailed to "Amy's Blue Lagoon" - my sister named this spot after our daughter and at least in our family, we call it that.  It's where we go to sit in the sun and swim - as it's protected from the wind by a pretty little island.. many people don't know this spot is there.

I took a photo of my foot hanging off the side of my boat to show you how clear the water is.

My sister and her husband kayaked over to the lagoon to meet us as we sailed in, that is Dayle and Buddy behind them.

I spotted this meadow full of my favorite wildflower, Shooting Star, in the spit of land where we make landfall at the lagoon.

Here is Dayle and Buddy the Cairn Terrier in his life-jacket.

Here's my Sunfish at rest while I was taking photos.

My favorite sailing photo this year.. Dayle at left and my older sister on the right.

D and older sis "posing" and my younger sis and her husband in kayaks.

Hubby took this photo of the protecting island and the lake beyond.

We arrived on Wednesday early afternoon and our daughter-in-law, Kristi, arrived with our 2 and 3 year old grandsons on Friday - here they are the next morning having breakfast that grandpa made of sauteed ham, diced potatoes, eggs with cheese melted over it all - great camp breakfast.

The next day they found a frog and 2 tadpoles and brought them back to show grandpa and grandma.

Frog!

A close-up of Shooting Star wildflowers on the rocky side of the beach where we keep the boats when not in use.

Caleb was sooooooooo tired after playing in the water and riding bikes all day that he fell asleep next to me on the chair before he even could eat his turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and corn dinner.  :-)

The annual family photo on the log on the side of the bay.

Dayle is simmering chicken thighs in teriyaki sauce over the fire for our Chicken Teriyaki Yakisoba Noodle dinner with lots of veggies.  YUM!

With Dayle enjoying being chef, I could work on my crochet flower shawl in front of the fire, although I did put it down to go in the trailer and chop the veggies for the stir fry - onion, cabbage, mushrooms, pea pods, broccoli, carrots and celery.

Dinner turned out SUPERB!

The boys were up early riding bikes around the circle near our campsite.

Our campsite.. I drive my car with the boat trailer and Dayle and Buddy pull the trailer behind his 1 ton Dodge dually.

Our son arrived on Sunday and on Monday he paddled me in our canoe out to the little island in the mouth of the bay - Kristi kayaked out with Caleb and Hayden and the dog were in the canoe.  This turned out to be a highlight of my week as the boys had so much fun and our dog got to run free which he never gets to do ordinarily.

The island.

The clear water.

I'm not sure if you can see it, but at the end of the island is a cool little fort made out of stacked rock - Travis, Kristi, the boys and the dog went to explore while I took photos.

My sister Roberta took this photo of our family on the island and Rob, his daughter Jessica and his wife D'Ann in kayaks.  :-)

The fort closer up.

Picturesque photo from the island across the lake.

Kristi and the boys exploring the island.

Travis then went to get "Papa" - the dog is sooOOoo happy to see "dad".

Travis and the boys exploring the other end of the island.

That afternoon Travis and Kristi borrowed my camera and took some photos of the boys making new friends on the beach.. this is Hayden and "Bella".

Caleb is captured running along the beach with pure joy on his face. :-)

Both boys running and having fun.

That afternoon we started a fire and made "S'mores" - this is my monster one with some toasted marshmallows, a whole Hershey's chocolate bar and 2 whole graham crackers.  I broke it in half and shared it with Travis.

Kristi posed Buddy on top of this stump.. doesn't he look like a bear?  Roarrrrrrrrr!

Our son Travis drove up in his 1966 Mustang GT fastback and Kristi drove her VW camper bus.

I took these photos of the island with the warm evening sun slanting across the lake.

Another shot... love these.

Grandpa took this shot of the boys looking up at the sky.

Kristi and Travis heard that at night the toads cover the beach and excitedly brought this one to show us that night.  :-P

Our campsite.. notice my crocheted bunting/pennants/banner?  Dayle used my nice wooden kayak paddle to hold up the tarp.. sheesh!

On Wednesday, Dayle, my sister, brother and I sailed to the lagoon and swam, then sailed up the lake, then we sailed to the boat launch and loaded our boats for our departure on Thursday.  This is me on my boat heading to the lagoon.  How pretty is this??

My sail.  Story time:  Ten years ago my sister called and told me about this ad in the paper of a new Sunfish for sale.  So, I called the guy and he'd won this at a convention. The sail was custom designed to advertise the movie "Tequila Sunrise" starring Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell and Michele Pfeiffer in 1988.  I talked him down from $950 to $750 on the phone.. then went to pick it up.. did I ever SCORE!  This was brand new, in the box with a custom sail!!  These boats new are now over $4k and that is not with a custom sail.  I **LOVE** this sailboat.  

I took this photo of a wildflower in that meadow that I'd never seen before.. do you know what it is?  Sorry, the photo is not very clear.  (Edited to add - The flower is a "Elephant Head" or "Pink Elephant" - thanks for the info from Kathy at Running with Rocket)  See the little elephant heads and trunks?  :-)

Last photo of the lake before we head home....

There was still snow there on the ground!!  It's 5400 feet in altitude, as high as Denver, Colorado which is nicknamed the "Mile High City".

Wildflowers on the edge of the beach.. Bunchberry.

Heading down from the lake.. this is Dayle and our trailer with Mt. Zoran in the distance.

And so.. hope I haven't worn you out reading this post.  I missed my blog and blog friends and all those who take the time to read my writings.

((hugs)), Teresa :-)