Waldo Lake Camping Trip 2014

We're BACK home!  Did you miss us?  :-)  I missed you, my wonderful readers!  We were camping 13 days - we had a great time at the lake.  This image of me sailing was taken by my sister Roberta on our last full day.  I just had to put it as the first photo as it really depicts the joy and beauty of sailing on this crystal clear high alpine lake.  Some facts - this lake is the 2nd largest natural lake in Oregon, one of the purest lakes on the planet Earth and has the chemical makeup that is compared to distilled water, has 10 square miles of surface and has a visibility depth of over 100 feet.  Did I mention that we're "off the grid" at camp?  There is no water or electricity hook-ups (or internet!!).  Dayle took a new solar panel this year and it did a dandy job of keeping our batteries charged!  ALSO - this is our family's 27th year of having a camping reunion here!

But, I'm ahead of myself.  We left on Tuesday, August 5th before noon and got to the lake at 3:30 pm.  We were so fortunate to pull right into our favorite spot!  After getting fairly well set up, we headed off for a short hike to "the point".  Here is Dayle walking Buddy through the forest.

Interestingly, this is the only place where you can get cell service, so we called the kids at home to tell them we got there safely.  I saw a guy paddling a canoe by and snapped this shot.  Dayle is on the bench on my iPhone and there is Buddy looking for.. something?

Buddy is a Cairn Terrier and was bred to hunt for rats in rock cairns in the Isle of Skye in Scotland.  He just loves it at the lake where he can explore the rocks and look for frogs.

We hiked back to see the sunset over the lake.  We were happy to be back to "our" lake.

There were several small fires in the forests and the sun turned the most amazing shade of magenta as it set, due to the particulate matter in the sky.

The next day, after a busy time of setting up camp, I made a homemade guacamole lunch for us.  I made "Uncle Dan's" original ranch dressing mix for us to use a chip dip and to top our baked potatoes and I thought.. hmmm.. I'll add a spoonful of that to the mashed avocados, some salt and pepper and several drops of Tabasco Sauce - and it was the best guacamole ever!  I served it with tortilla chips and olives.  YUM!

My brother Rob and his wife D'Ann came in the day after we arrived and we managed to help him get the campsite next to us.  :-)  Later my sister Roberta arrived - Robert and Roberta are twins and are 6 and a half years older than me.  Our 4th sibling, youngest sister Denise, could not make it this year.  We missed her terribly.  On Wednesday we launched our boats - my brother Rob had made this clever cart for us to use and so instead of launching at the boat ramp, the guys and sis rolled them right down from our campsite to the edge of Shadow Bay.  We walked down in the evening to check on them and I snapped this shot of the bay and the lake in the evening light.  Dayle made my boat a wooden "bunk" to put on the rocks to protect the undersides of my boat - it worked wonderfully!

I zoomed in on the island.  Over the years people have built a rock "fort" on the end of the island.. kids are fascinated by it.  

The next day we set sail and headed straight to "Amy's Blue Lagoon" - named by my sister Roberta who took my daughter Amy and her friend Amy on a canoe ride when they discovered this wonderful spot.  I arrived first and got a shot of my brother and 2 of his grandson's sailing in.

I got a shot of Dayle taking a photo of my brother.. :-)  That's my sail behind him.

There were four women camping on the little peninsula at the lagoon - they were very nice!  They had two beautiful Labradoodle dogs that were fun to meet.  One woman was very adept on her paddle board and invited all of us to try it - the most courageous one was Dayle.. and he did very well!  D'Ann used our camera to take a photo of those of us swimming and Dayle on the board. From left, me, my brother and sister.  All the women shouted out "Dayle, you are a STUD!".  And he never fell off!

After our fun and swim, we headed out for more sailing.. this is Dayle and Buddy.

Here is Dayle working on "dinner".  Each year we buy a whole beef tenderloin to take to camp - he trims it and cuts it into steaks the size that we like, about a few inches thick.  Buddy thinks what he is doing is very interesting.

We had 5 days of wonderful sunny weather.. I did some decorating and tidying - we were expecting my friend Gracie from the blog Gray Sea Sailor.  The flowers are wild "Pearly Everlasting".

Buddy just loves to keep an eye on camp activities, especially other dogs.  

In the evenings during the first week I worked on a new bunting with more colors so I could hang them on two sides of our camping canopy.  There would be more colors.  Here is my pile of pennants as they grew.

I finally crocheted them all together - 11 of them - and hung them with clothespins.  I am going to find some clear plastic clips to use next year.  What do you think?

Our colorful campsite!  That is Dayle's small BBQ on the end of the table where he did a lot of outdoor cooking.

I hung a strand of flags in nautical colors (from the Martha Stewart line in Michael's craft store) to brighten the interior.  I also ordered a vintage red cowboy printed tablecloth off Etsy - which arrived the day before we left.. that's cutting it close!  I enjoyed the extra color of my two newest crocheted pillows on the sofa.

One of the reasons that we got this particular trailer is the nice sized kitchen area.  

Our two comfy easy chairs.. that's mine on the right.  My "nest".  

The bedroom - the queen sized bed works.. I just wish it was a king! :-)

I had lost my sourdough starter due to some alien microbe that turned it into a black fuzzy monstrosity in the fridge.. so I cleaned the crock really well and took it to camp to hopefully get a new start from my brother who is an official "sourdough" - he has kept his sourdough going for years and makes sourdough flapjacks often for his family.  I fed it and made a batter to fizz up overnight and now I'm back in the sourdough business!  See the little saucer with the nautical flag on it?  I have a collection of WW II Wardroom china from aboard a Navy ship.  I have a lot of it.  I'll have to show you sometime.  Most pieces have an anchor design on them.

I made the batter the night before, then you take 2 cups out of that and put it back in the crock for the next batch.  Dayle mixed up the egg, buttermilk, flour (Bob's Red Mill unbleached white flour), salt and baking soda for the flapjacks and cooked them up for us for brunch.  These have the most divine tangy flavor!  My brother gave me his recipe which I have to admit is better than my old one.. let me know if you want it.

UN-fortunately -- the weather turned bad on about the sixth day.  There was a LOT of thunder and lightning.. !!BOOOOM!!, **FLASH**, rain RAIN rain.  We were pretty much staying inside.. which was really fine as we all chatted about old times, our childhood and I crocheted.  This is the view from our trailer, see how close the lake is?

This is an old log that is rotting more each year we go.  This is our path to the lake and beach.

Gracie arrived to say hello late Monday evening.  Poor Gracie drove all the way from the Portland area to Sonoma, California to pick up her sister and bring her to visit the lake while we were there.  They rented a room at Willamette Pass Inn for two nights.  Gracie came to spend the day with us on Tuesday - unfortunately her sister wasn't feeling well and stayed at the Inn while Gracie visited.  Her sister missed a fantastic BBQ filet mignon dinner, with BBQed corn and I prepared baked potatoes - roasted for an hour and a half at 400 deg.  I wash the big baking potatoes, dry them, rub them with butter and sprinkle salt on them and wrap them in foil.  They turn out so fluffy and yummy!  My sister accepted our invitation to eat the meal we'd prepared for Gracie's sister.  :-)

My sis Roberta and Gracie declare that the corn is YUMMY!  It was down in the water in the cooler full of ice, so Dayle stuck it on the BBQ and roasted it and it turned out fab!  We dined in our cozy caravan while the rain poured outside.

Want some?

My brother and his wife joined us after dinner for some visiting - I loved introducing Gracie to my family as she and I have become such good friends.  We met by her reading my blog.  How cool is that?  When Gracie was ready to head back to the Inn, we walked in the cold and drizzle so she could see Shadow Bay.. where we'd planned to sit in the sun and swim out to the island.  ::sigh::  I asked Gracie if she'd mind if I followed her back to bum a shower.  Which I did.. thanks so much!

My grandson Hayden asked me to make him an Angry Birds Pig - so I found a pattern on google and spent my crochet time working on this green thing for him.  

Here it is almost done.. I finished it up with eyebrows and sewed the eyes down.  I must say - Hayden is VERY happy with his pig.  Now I have to crochet a red Cardinal Angry Bird for Caleb.  Yay.  

I zoomed in and got a shot of the fire across the lake.. the next time we sailed out my sister and I saw 2 more near this one! 

Back on the point for a phone call to home.  Here is the bench there.  I was able to get reception sitting right on the bench, yay! 

This photo of the water has a story.  Ready?  On Friday the weather finally got sunny again, so my sister, Dayle and I headed out for a sail.  I wanted to get a snap of the beautiful clean water to show you.  While fiddling with my camera I blew off course a bit and ended up floating over a shallow rocky area.  I pulled up my dagger board (keel) and successfully missed all rocks.  Dayle, Mr. Hero, felt I needed his help, (which I did not) and headed directly into danger.  I yelled "Don't come in here!  I'm FINE!".  Did he listen?  What do you think?  No he did not.  Did he pull up HIS daggerboard?  No he did not.  Guess who hit a rock at high speed and it knocked him flying and the dog too?  Keep on reading.  Yes, I will be testing you.  I'm serious.  :-)

Meantime, I sail off and head to the lagoon.  Sister sailing astern port-side quite a ways off.

Here is Dayle, finally making it to the lagoon.. he's looking a little low in the water.  But the dog looks cute.  

When he hit shore, this happened.  This is not a good thing.  He blamed the dog.  Yes, he did.  Something about wrapping his leash around the mainsheet.  You heard me right.  The dog did it.  I was just happy that I had my camera nearby.  :-D  So.... he bailed out the cockpit and we thought all was well.

Sis and I went swimming.  I took my waterproof Lumix out and got this shot of our 3 boats with their reflections in the water.  Dayle did not swim as he was wet enough already and a bit grumpy.  :-)  What had happened is when he hit the rock, it broke a hole into the hull and it filled up with water so he lost his flotation.  Hopefully he can fix it before next year.  He limped back into Shadow Bay.

My brother sailed through with a grandson aboard.

I organized the annual family photo.  Found a neighbor camper to take the photo for us.  Here we are, my brother's whole family, my sis and hubby and me.  Next year I hope my boys can come again.

Dayle packed up his wounded boat on Saturday while sis and I had our last sail.  The orange and yellow sail is sis and a two masted little sailboat sailing by us.

My sail.  My veteran readers have heard the story, but for the new ones I'll tell you about this.  I'll try to be brief.  A guy attended a video conference in Las Vegas, this boat was commissioned to promote the movie "Tequila Sunrise" starring Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell.  To try to win the boat you tossed your business card in.  The local video distributor won it, and without knowing it's value, he put it for sale in the local newspaper.  Sis called me to give me notice of it in the paper.  I call, ask him is this was his best price, he knocks it down $200 more and I say, I will come and look at it.  I go, see everything brand new in the box and say.. "I'll take it!".  (I paid about 20% of it's value.)  There is not another one like it on this Earth - cool, huh?  The Sunfish is the No. 1 sold sailboat in the world.

On our last day sailing, my sis and I took turns taking photos of each other.. this is Roberta.  Not bad, huh? :-)

Our brother Rob came out and joined us.. here are "the twins" - we were all three sailing fast and keeping abreast, it was cool.

My niece Jessica brought her white Labrador to camp and Buddy wasn't sure about that big dog.  :-)

My brother and SIL had all their kids and grandkids there, so the last 2 nights we had these big campfire gatherings.  D'Ann baked her DIL Amy a birthday cake and we celebrated.  I gave Amy one of my crocheted hot pads as a gift.  Here is D'Ann lighting the candles.

All good things come to an end.. here I am ready to pull out hauling the boats.

Heading down the road from camp with Diamond Peak in the background.

My goodness.. I hope you made it to the bottom of this journal.  Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos and story.  If you're a blogger, I'll be back to my normal reading and commenting now.  I hope you're enjoying the late summer.  When we returned our lawn was mowed and all the deck flowers happy and blooming, thanks to the good care of our DIL Kristi.  Talk soon!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)