Central Oregon rock trip day 2

Day two of our trip (Monday) was our only full day in Central Oregon so get ready for a lot of pictures! 

After waking up, we had breakfast in the breakfast room.

Eating outside the breakfast room.

After breakfast we got in the van and went to the High Desert Museum in Bend. 

We got some pretty pictures of the Three Sisters on the way

We had been to the High Desert Museum a few years ago and even though we didn't see nearly everything on that trip, we loved it.  So, as you can probably imagine we were really exited to go again!

Standing in front of the sign.

There was a cool exhibit on bioluminescence.

Celeste liked the exhibit.

The play room was a big hit with the little kids.

After looking at the bioluminescence.

This map showed where the High Desert is located.
The High Desert Museum is where the little red dot is.

After looking at some of the inside things, we went outside.

There was a cool otter exhibit.

After a little bit of walking we came to some old cabins and a barn.  There were people dressed in old fashioned clothes showing us how to use a wash board and water the garden.  It was a big hit!  

Gema really enjoyed washing clothes.

Sedric spent the whole time in that area
watering the garden.

Everyone liked to play the tossing hoop
game that a guy dressed as a farmhand was teaching.

Once we were done spending time on the little farm we walked to the birds of prey exhibit.

What's your wingspan?

Silly picture outside the birds of prey center.

Lunch time!

After lunch we spent another hour or two looking around inside the museum.

There were a bunch of really cool animals in the museum.

The exhibit on changes that the Native Americans
experienced was very interesting.

At around 2 or 3pm we finally left the museum (which by the way, still had things we hadn't explored yet) an went to Lava Butte; a cinder cone (extinct volcano) that released a LOT of lava when it erupted.

The big hill behind me is Lava Butte and all of
the black rock is cooled lava.

Sedric and Celeste were sleeping when we got there so Mom,
James, Mariposa, Gemma, and I went on a bus that took us up
Lava Butte while Dad stayed in the car with the Littles.   

We could see many other cinder cones sticking out of the
ground on our way up Lava Butte.

Once we made it to the platform where the bus parked, we
climbed up the sidewalk to the very top. 

There was a wildfire observation deck at the top.

This picture in the wildfire observation deck showed the
elevation of different mountains in Oregon.  

It was windy up there!

There was a BEAUTIFUL view from the top of the butte.

After about 20min. we went on the bus back down.

Once we got back from the top of Lava Butte, we ventured down into caves that were formed from lava that came out of Lava Butte.

Everyone was exited to go down into the caves!

Welcome sign.

Hiking down into the cave.

It was 40 degrees down there! A big difference from the 100
degree heat of the day!

Celeste seemed to like the caves.

It was pitch dark in the caves lighted only by our flashlights.

We came to a sign that said we had made it one third of the way to the end!

Quick stop for a picture. If you can't tell, that's
Sedric in the backpack on my dad.

NIP cave.

Family picture.

The walls were really close together here.

One of the many odd formations on the ground.

This low ceiling part of the tunnel was actually a tunnel inside the tunnel! 

After almost an hour of walking we were stopped by a man that worked at the caves who said it was 4o'clock, which meant that it was closing time for the caves. It turns out we got close to the end of the caves! 

We finally made our way back to the entrance.

This sign talked about how the caves were made.

After the caves we made a quick trip to our room at the hotel/lodge/motel then went out to dinner in downtown Sisters, which was only a minute away. It took a little bit of walking and deciding but we finally chose a nice pizza place.  After dinner (which was really good!) we went to a place called the Snow Cap and got some ice cream

The ice cream was good!

Sedric liked his blackberry ice cream.

After dinner my dad went into Bi-Mart to get some inner tubes for the pool. After that, we went back to the hotel/lodge/motel.

We had two rooms at the hotel/lodge/motel.
Mom, Mariposa, Celeste, and I slept in this room.

A view of the pool and hot tub from our room.

I took a walk with Mom and Celeste before going in the pool.
This is one of the hotel/lodge/motel's llamas.

Celeste liked the llamas.

Playing in the pool.

Can you see me?

There was a lizard in the pool!

Jumping in the pool.

On the bridge between two parts of the hotel/lodge/motel.

Stay tuned for for the last day!