AShLAND, OREGON Kid-Friendly | Dogs on leash welcome Easy to Moderate | 2.2 mile loop | No bathrooms We love when we finally get to hike a trail that has been on our list for years! The Green Springs Mountain Loop Trail is located in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and is only 2.2 miles long. It's rated as easy (though I would personally rate it as moderate). While there were some flat spots there were some pretty steep climbs that I had to take slowly, so it all depends on your level of health. The easy part is the fact that it's pretty short. If you take the trail to the left you wi ..read more

Who doesn't enjoy driving around to view Christmas lights?  I think it is just about on everyone's holiday to-do list.  Every year we bundle up, get our hot cocoa, blast the holiday music, and tour the Rogue Valley's holiday lights.  Well last year we decided we wanted to go a huge step further and do a Christmas Lights tour not just of the Rogue Valley but all of Southern Oregon!  We broke out our google maps and started planning.  We decided to start south and make our way around; starting in Medford we headed to Brookings first, then to Charleston in Coos Bay, heade ..read more

AShLAND, OREGON Kid-Friendly | Dogs on leash welcome Easy to Moderate | 2.2 mile loop | No bathrooms We love when we finally get to hike a trail that has been on our list for years! The Green Springs Mountain Loop Trail is located in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and is only 2.2 miles long. It's rated as easy (though I would personally rate it as moderate). While there were some flat spots there were some pretty steep climbs that I had to take slowly, so it all depends on your level of health. The easy part is the fact that it's pretty short. If you take the trail to the left you wi ..read more

I used to hate winter!  Well, not necessarily hate winter, but I was more of a sit by the fire snuggling, drinking a hot toddy while watching the snow fall outside the window kind of gal.  Gary and I would go to Tahoe and while everyone was out skiing we would hit the local dining spots and go shopping.  Yah, I know, WHAT?!  I don't know what switched inside my brain but things have changed.  I still love the snuggling by the fire and shopping but now I have to get out in the snow!  It's just a matter of bundling up and jumping in! Now that the holidays are over i ..read more

Fall is awesome in Southern Oregon!   Perfect weather, lots of food, beer and wine festivals, pumpkin patches, and family fun.  We usually have to plan every weekend out, so that we can make the most of it.  We wanted to help you out, so we've created a bucket list, so that you don’t miss a thing!  We also have created a condensed bucket list fo refer to here. Take a Fall Foliage Drive or Walk Fall in Southern Oregon is fabulous and our area’s landscape is so diverse that you can get a good three weeks of color changing. Check out some of our favorite spots:  ..read more

Gary and I are always looking for fun and unique date nights so I’m starting a series of stories about just that, kicking off with a night out in Phoenix! For those of you who don't know, Phoenix is a small town that shares its border with Medford, the largest city in southern Oregon. It’s a tiny town in the midst of a lot of growth, especially with its businesses, and we love heading there for date night. Kick your date off with wine tasting at the Catalyst Wine Collective, a collaboration between two small batch winemakers, Sound & Vision and Goldback Wines. The tasting room is brigh ..read more

Kid-friendly with supervision | Not stroller friendly | Dogs on leash Difficulty: Moderate | Distance 2 miles out and back No restrooms We hit the trail last week to check out the new Little Applegate / Siskiyou Viewpoint Trail found in the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail System! It was a gorgeous morning with lots of sunshine and crisp cool air making for a perfect day. Siskiyou Upland Trails Association (SUTA) just cleared the way for a nice little trek that starts at the Wolf Gap Trailhead and takes you about a mile out to stunning 360 views of Little Applegate canyon and the snow peaked mou ..read more

We have had Spring Creek in Chiloquin on our bucket list for years and we finally got to paddle these crystal clear blue waters this last week. The Spring Creek Day Use Area is recently rebuilt with a large parking lot and restroom facilities after it had been badly burnt in the two four two fire back in 2020. The day use area is tucked away behind the Collier Logging Museum. The drop-in is about fifty feet from the parking area so we had to walk a little ways with our kayaks and paddle boards. It’s mostly paved so it’s not too bad a trek. As you can see the water is a crystal clear blue a ..read more

Our local lavender farms open every summer in early June through mid-August to show off their beautiful, blooming fields. They offer a variety of activities throughout the season to engage in so that everyone gets the opportunity to fully experience the farms in all of their glory and there are two weekends of the Southern Oregon Lavender Festival so that no one misses out.  If you are coming from Medford you will want to to start out with Lavender Fields Forever since  it is right in Jacksonville. THE ENGLISH LAVENDER FARM The English Lavender Farm always has a full schedule for th ..read more

SPONSOR Since the early 90s we have been visiting my grandparents in Redmond. It was a quaint town outside of Bend that had just a couple of restaurants and a couple of grocery stores for shopping.  We visited nearby Smith Rock and Tumalo State Park and were so excited when they built the shopping center right between Bend and Redmond because it gave us more options to shop and eat. We always loved visiting because the community of Redmond really knows how to slow down and we take in the relaxed vibe that pervades the whole area. It has been a few years since my grandparents moved away ..read more