Weekend Getaway 2009

We had been planning this get-away for a couple of months and were excited to head for Ashland, Oregon with our friends Colleen and Brad Houck.

We stayed at the Windsor and were very pleased with the accomodations. Brad and Colleen have been coming to the Shakespeare Festival for 3 or 4 years and this was their favorite place to stay.

The previous photo shows what used to be a working gas fireplace, but now it is rigged with lights. We never used it because we were gone all day and fell into bed exhausted when we returned.


We left Portland at around 10:00 and beat Colleen and Brad to Ashland by about 15 minutes. They left from Salem where they live. We got unpacked and joined them for dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant for dinner where we were serenaded by a man and his grandson,who I guess was about 10 years old. They both played the guitar. They stopped by our table and asked what we would like them to play; Colleen said, "How about something romantic". It was lovely and we enjoyed that very much. Dinner was delicious but too much. We got boxes to go and enjoyed the remainder when we got home on Sunday.

It began to rain and we had to walk back to our rooms to change clothes for the evening. I was glad it was going to be dark in the theater. My hair do was pretty much destroyed. We attended a prologue where we learned about the story of Macbeth. We were introduced to some of Brad's and Colleen's friends. There was a large group of deaf people there and we were shown some of the name signs that would be used in the play.

Neal and I had studied Macbeth for a couple of days at home before we left so we were familiar with the premise and enjoyed it very much. It was, however, quite a dark play full of witches and murder.

On Saturday morning Neal and I headed for the town which was very quaint. We window shopped because nothing opens until around 11:00. In the window of the Visitor's Center we found these models of the stage sets for many plays which have been performed in the Elizabethan Theater. They were quite interesting.

Oh how happy I am that the Lord let me come to earth in a time where women's clothes are so much more comfortable than these. I think that it would be a lot easier to stay on a diet if I knew I'd have to be cinched into a dress like this purple one! How uncomfortable.


This is a theater that was built with the design of the Globe Theater of Shakespeare's time. It is used in the daytime because part of the roof was left off to provide the light for the actors on stage. Remember that in 1603 there were no gas lights or electricity. The first performance of Macbeth was not actually performed in the Globe Theater because it was an evening performance.

Another fact about England in 1606 was that methods of sanitation were being used. All waste, human and otherwise, was just thrown into the streets and the river. Yikes! (just like the Willamette!)

This is the Theater where we saw the plays. We saw Macbeth on Friday night and The Music Man on Saturday night. How's that for diversity???

This is the billboard outside the theater advertising the plays currently being performed at this year's festival.

I was intrigued by this patio outside of an Italian restaurant. In my mind it is how I picture our patio for our new home in Texas.

I wonder if Wisteria will grow in Texas.


We took these shots of the motel when we arrived back from our morning outing.

We headed for the Great Cats World Park which was about 40 minutes off of I-5 near Grants Pass and just 1 mile south of Cave Junction. Wouldn't you know it??? It rained the whole time we were there! I keep a stash of umbrellas in the car so we had enough for each of us to stay dry.

I didn't take notes on the tour and so I won't be able to give the names or even types of all the cats that I photographed.

One of the interesting facts that I do remember was that cats are of two varieties. Those that purr and those that roar. The cats can't do both.

This panther was beautiful but quite scary looking. He actually does have the spots of a leopard but because of a recessive gene the spots are practically unnoticeable except in the sunshine.

This cat has the face of a Cheetah, the stripes of a tiger, the spots of a leopard, and a tail like a raccoon. Very odd looking cat.

Not thinking I went up to the cage to take a photo. I wanted to put the lens between the wire so that it would be a clean shot. I heard Craig, who is the owner, trainer, and guide at the park say, "You might want to step back... she can move very fast and has a reach outside the cage of about a foot". Whoa, I stepped back about 4 feet while everyone chuckled.



This one has the ability to climb. She is light enough that she can actually climb upside down and so her cage has to have a roof.



Big cats live much longer in captivity because they eat regularly and have medications and vitamins for optimal health. This lion is getting older - around 10 I think. He is expected to live to about 15. What an amazing cat. Lions don't get a mane like this until they are about 5 years old.


Most cats are afraid of water but not this species that actual hunt for fish and immerse themselves to get their dinner.

This leopard was gorgeous. It was explained to us that many of the cats were raised by Craig and have a very fond connection to him. He is really the only one who they think of as their equal and so they don't think of him as food.

We vacationers, on the other hand, would be killed in a moment. In captivity or not these animals are wild animals with the instincts intact.

This over-400 pound tiger was just stunning to watch. I wish that it hadn't been raining so that we could really enjoy studying them.

He stands about 7 feet tall. Craig looks pretty small next to him.

Of course, this was the real reason for our going to the Park. Colleen has written two books of a fictional white tiger named Ren who is cursed to live his life as a Tiger. A young girl named Kelsey sets out on a quest to free him of the curse. It is an intriguing story. Two volumes have been completed and are on their way to being published. She is beginning book three of the trilogy and was able to teach us even more than Craig about white tigers. Fascinating!




There are no known white tigers in the wild now and I think Craig said only 15 in captivity. I might be wrong about that. Craig works the cats in the movies. And if you see a big cat in a movie it is likely that it is from this Park. Craig has taught the animals to roar and snarl on command. And they perform for the audiences.

Though the roars were quite frightening, Craig assured us that what we heard was "nothing" compared to a real threatening roar. We were on the other side of the park when we heard a roar and later learned that the tiger was protecting his area from the park worker who was just trying to change the water in his bowl. Whoa!


Colleen was explaining in ASL that the tiger weighed more than 5 hundred pounds and I thought that in this photo it looked like she was clawing like the tiger. Funny. You can see how we were sort of mezmurized by the size and beauty of the cat. He is the largest of the animals in the park and stands an amazing 8 feet tall.



This is a mountain lion. It is called by many different names depending upon which part of the country you are in. It is also called a Cougar, Puma and also Panther.

Cats are very lazy conserving their energy for the moment they expend it all in pursuit of their dinner. This one was standing on its hind legs until the guide began talking. Knowing that he would have to wait for his snack he just slowly slid down the fence until he was in a sitting position to rest and sat there like a begging puppy. It was so funny.


This is a Lynx. To me it looked like a Terrier. After the crowd left I stayed behind to get these shots and wondered if he was thinking I'd make a nice big dinner.


This is another type of leopard. It has the ability to leap 40 feet (50 on an incline). Wish we could have seen that!



A black panther. He seemed to me to be the most unfriendly of all.





After the Park tour we stayed and spoke with Craig for a while. We stopped for lunch on the way back to the motel. After resting for about 1 1/2 hours we headed for the theater again and enjoyed a really wonderful performance of The Music Man.

They adapted a part for Brad's and Colleen's deaf friend Howie which was really very funny and so there was a large audience of deaf people who had come to support him. There were well over a hundred in the deaf section. Well done Howie! He had the hearing audience laughing as well.

In the morning Neal and I got up and dressed for Church. Well, except for my dress and jacket which were missing! Neal went to the office and they apologized and said they would look into it. However, we knew it would just be my word against the maid's. And so we got into our traveling clothes and went to the dining room for a continental breakfast. I told Colleen of my plight and she teased, "Why? It's not like it was a designer jacket". We laughed. We chatted and then thanked them for including us in their yearly trek to the Festival.

I went over and over in my head whether I could be mistaken about my church clothes. I remembered hanging up the jacket thinking I might have to iron it. And it sort of gnawed at me all the way home as to whether I remembered hanging up the dress too. Anyway, we got home and I hurried upstairs to see if I had left it on the bed and forgotten to put it into the suitcase.

It wasn't there. And I had two thoughts. One, okay, I'm not losing my mind. And two, darn it I really liked that jacket. I went into the closet and voila' there was my outfit. And so I am rejoicing in not having to go shopping and mourning the loss of my mind! (I even had a check list I used to pack. Ummmmm. Dunno).

Neal called the Windsor and said that he didn't want anyone to question the integrity of the maid and apologized for our mistake.