La Pine Weekend

Since Becky’s parents have a couple of trailers parked on a big lot in La Pine, Oregon, we like to go and camp out there in the high, quiet desert occasionally. Our dogs like to go too; here’s Scout watching as we pack the car:

But we decided to grab dinner at our favorite happy-hour place first. We enjoyed live bluegrass music, and the dogs were probably very confused because we hadn’t packed them in the car yet.

Ready to go!

It’s about a 4-hour drive, and we arrived after dark. The next morning, we wasted no time settling in for our favorite activities, which mainly revolve around a campfire.

The puppies had a great time exploring and smelling all the deer poop.

We had stopped by the library on our way out of town, and the kids each filled a backpack with new books! They couldn’t wait to dig in.

Jackson and Scout can’t read, though. They had to entertain themselves.

One of our favorite stops in La Pine is Wickiup Junction, a highly diverse grocery store. We find the craziest things here, and the kids like to browse the toy and sticker shelves.

Through many experiments, I determined that this stump was the place to stand to get two bars of LTE. Once the discovery was made, this was where I could be found if I was between tasks.

One night we built up a good bed of coals, and made foil packets. This is one of our favorite campfire dinners. It’s so easy, but sooooo good.

This is how I work from La Pine. Note how the table has been pulled close to the LTE stump.

Another of our favorite traditions: the Lava River Cave! This is about a 2-mile hike, which you would normally think of as challenging for a 5- and 7-year-old, but these guys love it.

This is as far as you can go. The rangers recently put up signs prohibiting further exploration, but beyond this the roof is never high enough to stand up, so not much loss there. And probably many lives saved.