Sailboat masts at Cap Sante Marina made nice reflections in the water on a calm day in March when we were staying on our boat in Anacortes.

Can’t believe it’s been five months since we’ve posted anything on our blog! Once again, life has pulled us in a different direction than we planned. Our house projects and maintenance have turned into larger efforts than we thought, and have kept us in Bend most of the winter/spring. I haven’t been doing any posting on this blog because we haven’t been doing any boating activities in the past few months, and for that matter, we still haven’t figured out boating plans for this summer!

But it’s way past time to get activity going on this blog again. So thought I’d do some catch-up and share our activities since our last post in December…even if the activities aren’t about boating adventures! And since a lot of my time recently has been spent learning more advanced photography skills, I’ll enjoy sharing some of my favorite photos from our recent activities.

January 2014
January was relatively dry in Central Oregon, and we enjoyed getting out on a few lower elevation hiking excursions. The trails along the Deschutes River are nearby and offer several choices for hikes. A visit to Dillon Falls in early January was our favorite.

When we went hiking on the Deschutes River Trail in January, there was just a bit of snow left in the shadows along the shoreline of the Deschutes River above Dillon Falls. The beauty of this area was accented by highlights from the late afternoon sun.

February 2014
In February, we started to see more snow in Central Oregon. It was a great time to get out our snowshoes and head for the mountains. We picked a snowy day for a 5-mile round-trip trek from the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center to Todd Lake and back.

At the half-way point of our hike, we arrived at Todd Lake. The lake was frozen over, but a stream of water was still flowing out of Todd Lake, creating a tunnel of snow along its banks. It was gorgeous!

March 2014
In March, we visited two of our favorite places: Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and Smith Rock State Park. We had good weather for both hikes and really enjoyed some of Central Oregon’s spectacular scenery.

The colorful hills at Painted Hills National Monument in Central Oregon are breathtaking.

We had a beautiful day for a hike at Smith Rock State Park in March.

We also made a trip to Anacortes in late March for a family memorial in Seattle, and stayed on our boat at Anacortes Marina for about 10 days. It gave us a chance to check things on the boat and visit with several friends in the area.

A colorful sunset greeted us the evening we arrived back to our boat in late March. The setting sun lit up the clouds hanging over Anacortes Refinery, across the water from our marina.

A calm sunny morning resulted in great reflections in the fairway behind our boat at Anacortes Marina.

April 2014
We did more hiking in April, including hikes in Bend’s Shevlin Park in the snow, and another visit to the Deschutes River Trail near Dillon Falls.

Tumalo Creek runs through Shevlin Park in Bend. We had a snow/rain mix the day we were there, and some of the snow had accumulated along the banks of the creek.

The Deschutes River is typically quiet in Ryan Ranch Meadow, above Dillon Falls. It was very calm when we were there, and the late afternoon light created a very peaceful scene.

In late April we headed back to Anacortes. We didn’t think we’d be returning to the boat so soon and without cruising plans, but three events drew us back to the area, where we once again stayed on our boat at Anacortes Marina for about 10 days.

Mt. Baker glowed in the early morning sunrise. There was lots of snow on the mountain in April.

First event: a photography workshop. I signed up for a photography workshop in Seattle led by Art Wolfe, from the public television show Art Wolfe’s Travels To The Edge. I couldn’t pass up such a great opportunity to learn from one of the best landscape and wildlife photographers in the world.

I loved being able to attend Art Wolfe’s photography workshop in Seattle while we were staying on our boat in Anacortes in April. Photo: Art Wolfe, Alice Doggett.

Second event: see a play. We were lucky to get tickets for a performance of the Anacortes Community Theatre’s production of Les Miserables. The entire run was sold out, but they added a couple of performances, and we were able to get seats. It was terrific.

While we were in Anacortes we were lucky to get tickets to a performance of the Anacortes Community Theatre’s production of “Les Miserables.”

Third event: Tulips! We were able to be in the area and spend a couple of days visiting the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival while the tulips were still in bloom. Got some great photos!

The tulips in Tulip Town were endless. So beautiful.

May 2014
So now it’s May. We’re continuing with our house projects, and doing work in the yard too. We’ve also continued to get out for local hikes. So far, the highlight has been a trip west of the mountains to Silverton, OR, where we spent 5 hours hiking at Silver Falls State Park, and enjoyed 7 of the 10 magnificent waterfalls.

It was nice to visit at this time of year, because Silver Creek was running full due to spring runoff in the Cascade Mountains, and we also enjoyed a sunny day with unseasonably warm temps in the 90s. It was a rather long day, however, because we had a 3-hour drive each way…but it was worth it to spend time in such a gorgeous park.

One of our favorite waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park was the 106-foot Middle North Falls.

We’ll get our boating act together again soon, and will be back with more posts to this blog when we have news.