After the Coast - Chicken Bowls

 Chicken Bowls!!!!  (I'll get back to this later.)

We got up semi-early and drove down the coast through Bandon and on to the West Coast Game Park Safari to visit the animals. Baby goats have always entertained Linda. Al Dee and Diane went to great lengths to find Oregon baby goats for her to enjoy. 

Linda and the Baby Goats!

According to Wikipedia "The West Coast Game Park Safari is a walk-through safari park in Bandon, Oregon, United States. It opened in 1968, and includes snow leopards, African lions, Bengal tigers, emu, capybara, and cougars. The park is a petting zoo and captive breeding program, including endangered species such as the snow leopard." 

In real life, we were able to see lions, emu, and other various animals, but most were sleeping or hiding out of the sun. There was a show-and-tell that introduced several smaller critters to the park visitors. Diane and Linda were able to hold/pet several different animals such as a serval cat, brown skunk, ferret, red fox, and an opossum. Everyone enjoyed the park and Linda got a good dose of baby goats.

In Bandon, we went to the Face Rock Creamery and enjoyed a very nice lunch. We all had a good laugh about Linda and me being Lactose intolerant. We didn't bring our little Lactose pills, but it was more than worth it to enjoy that delicious meal. Al Dee's choice of a creamery for lunch gave us a lot of good subject matter to tease him about.

The goats got a bit aggressive.

We then loaded into the rigs and drove to Eugene and set up in our usual spot in the Sollinger's driveway.

That evening we ate pizza, but Diane started giving hints to heighten the anticipation for our dinner the next night, Chicken Bowls!

Chicken Bowls became the main focus as we moved along in our visit. The anticipation was staggering.

The night before the Bowls, I talked Al Dee into taking me out to photograph the stars. We spent a couple of hours out taking shots of the sky. Al Dee did his best to keep me on track, learning the basics of night photography. I was Luke, Al Dee was Yoda. It was a great time and I learned an amazing amount of valuable information. 

I could hardly sleep that evening. I had visions of the Milky Way splashed across the night sky with Chicken Bowls floating amongst the constellations. 

Capybara, a very large rodent.

On our final day, Diane outdid herself by providing us with the most amazing Chicken Bowl dinner we have ever eaten. All hail the queen of Chicken Bowls!

The next day we left the family in Eugene and headed back to the coast to finish up our adventure.

Diane and a ferret. Note both have masks on.

Al Dee's mid-life crisis toy.

Stars

Al Dee has been taking star photos for many years, and I wanted to pick his brain about the techniques involved in capturing images at night. I brought my night photo equipment (camera, tripod) with us and at about 9:00 pm I hounded Al Dee into going out and taking some shots. We had a great time and I actually captured three good images of the night. Click on the photos and enlarge them or they will look like I took photos of black.

Cars on the road at night.

Looking at the Milky Way.

Big Dipper