Oregon Caves and Applegate River

Yesterday, no Shakespeare, but we went on the cave tour, walked in the surrounding woods, and drove back through the Applegate Valley (lots of horse farms and vineyards, plus the Applegate River). Overall, the trip confirmed that Oregon has endless hills and forests. I guess this is not news.

Merchant of Venice - 8.5 out of 10. Had forgotten (never known?) how good this play really is. Shylock is not, in fact, a sympathetic character - he is not simply personally unsympathetic, the play is by no means relativist and allows that certain aspects of his culture and religion may be objectively bad - but yet Shylock is viewed sympathetically; the capricious, smug and prejudiced outlook of the Christians is nicely skewered; Portia is both a perfect Shakespearean heroine and a witchy, bitchy, princess; and for good luck you have a second over-privileged-daughter subplot with Jessica, Shylock's daughter, who is too busy being superior to her self-made father to recognize either monetary or sentimental values. Pretty Cool.

Hamlet - 9 out of 10. Excellent.

All The World's A Stage

Hubby forgets to mention that the reason we are in Ashland is to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We flew up here on Wednesday morning - in a very small plane, about 30 people, with propellers! - with the only tension arising from Hubby not having an assigned seat when we arrived at the airport.

We are staying at the Ashland Springs Hotel on East Main Street, which is registered with the Historical Hotels of America group. It dates from 1925 and has fairly small, but perfectly adequate bedrooms. We are in a corner room on the 5th floor with a view over the main street. Breakfast is a bit motelish, but otherwise all is good.

On Wednesday evening we went to see "Twelfth Night" (7/10 for variable quality of ensemble acting and general dodginess of the story). On Thursday we saw "Henry IV part 1" (8/10 - the tavern scenes were well done, but the court scenes were a bit tea-potish). Tonight we are going to "The Merchant of Venice" and Saturday night it's "Hamlet".

Grizzly Peak

Today we walked 5 miles up and around Grizzly Peak, about 15 minutes from Ashland. The guides gave warning that the path was half closed, but in fact we met the work crew finishing the path repairs and so we could walk the whole loop. The views were panoramic in all directions, with snow capped volcanoes, views towards the Rogue River, and views across the Ashland / Medford valley. Plus, wildflowers and butterflies were everywhere.

Takelma Gorge

Yesterday, we headed to the Upper Rogue River and walked past the Takelma Gorge. The main hazard in the early part of the walk were the killer mosquitoes, which attacked in swarms, biting despite the sprayed-on Deet, even biting through clothes; later in the walk, beside the gorge itself, the fast-flowing water plus rockier pathways stopped the mosquitoes, more or less, and we could enjoy the water and the trees.

Not quite RVing

We're in Ashland, Oregon, though the kids are back in California, at their camp. And we're not quite RVing, we're staying in the Ashland Springs hotel, downtown. We do have a hire car, though, a Suzuki Jeep-style thing, so I guess we're in a tin can when we go out. And we have been for some walks.