Monday, August 28, 2006

Monday, Monday

We had a busy weekend at the library with kids back in the homework mode needing books, computer time, etc. And in between I got mostly caught up on the piles on my desk and the unanswered emails so I'm ready to face Monday morning not being too far behind and with a 3-day weekend in sight in only 5 days!

Public Libraries in Madras, Redmond, Bend and Salem were visited during our vacation but we only used the internet in Redmond. Salem uses a reservation system and didn't have one available for over two hours when we were there so I persuaded the desk clerk at the Travelodge to print off our boarding passes for the return trip home.

Very much enjoyed our vacation, especially Central Oregon and visiting friends there. Oregon Caves National Monument was somewhat disappointing. Very remote location made it appealing but also made me think about the possibility of a forest fire (several were currently burning in Oregon) and being in the middle of the woods in a wooden historical lodge. The lodge from the outside fits beautifully in the surroundings, but the inside is in definite need of refurbishing. Big giant wooden beams, surrounded by a multitude of particle board walls. We heard not much had been to restore it after a massive flood in 1964 destroyed much of the interior.

The caves themselves were impressive but more in a "this should be preserved" way rather than a "wow this is spectacular" version. Kartchner Caverns in southern Arizona are much superior as far as the "wow" factor.

Time for breakfast. Have a great week!

1 comment:

Serena said...

Those caves in Arizona really are spectacular. They really benefited from not being open to the public until very recently (in the timeline of open-to-the-public caves). The Parks services people, I think, really learned a lot from bad examples of how hard the public is on natural wonders. I'm pretty sure that they talked about that when we (as in me and other people - like Roberta's friend Gloria, etc.) toured the caves in 2000.

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