Blueberry Picking and Alsea Falls - July 31

Did you know there are more than 20 varieties of blueberries grown in the Oregon area? Varieties that are on the sweeter side, the tarter sider, more flavorful, milder, better for baking muffins, better for canning, better for snacking. Different varieties come in different sizes too, as well as different hues of that deep purple-blue color and different amounts of the fine powdery coating. We found this out as we went traveling the whole 5 minutes from our apartment to go blueberry picking last Saturday at Blueberry Meadows, one of several blueberry farms in the area. U-pick blueberries go for $1.25 a pound, and we couldn't wait. We'd been lured to a roadside blueberry farm on a past trip through Oregon last year and the memory of the candy-like blueberries (that lasted for barely an hour during our car ride) still lingered.

Of course, at that time we just thought the sweet, rich flavor of the blueberries was due to buying them fresh from an Oregon farm. While that's definitely part of it, what we city folks are learning is that the variety itself determined that wonderful snackability. As we check in at the counter at our U-Pick farm of choice on this overcast summer day, we are delighted to discover that the picking begins with snacking. (Excellent!) There are about eight little bowls of blueberries, each labeled with their names, and we are told their descriptions and ideal purpose by someone whose familiarity with the subtle distinctions between such similar looking berries is fairly remarkable. We each try a berry from every bowl, feeling slightly piggish but being encouraged to do so, and decide on our favorites. The gal writes these down, along with the rows in which to find these treasures, we're given our buckets and we're on our way. Of course, once we picked each of the varieties we'd chosen, the buckets get dumped into a paper bag and everything got all mixed together so that once we started snacking from the bag (the minute we buckled up in the car, that is) it was anyone's guess what we were getting. Ultimately, it didn't matter to us as they were all quite delicious!

Next, we snacked our way over to Alsea Falls - the most accessible falls I've ever visited. They're not the tallest or grandest waterfalls, but for hiking around (as well as rock climbing and log straddling) and actually being able to stand right next to the waterfalls, this area was great. We managed to arrive when only a photographer and a couple of great-grandmothers were there, so it was as if we had the place to ourselves. The great-grandmothers had somehow made it halfway over the river, pausing on a large rock and contemplating whether or not to figure out the rest of the way. We took the lead from there, leaping from rock to boulder, precariously stepping along a fallen log to cross over, and hopping down to explore the other side. Joshua loved it - we felt like adventurers!

Our city kid is becoming quite the bug lover lately.

Of course, it could have something to do with having recently watched A Bug's Life!

One of the ladies in the background is a great-grandmother to 6, and here she was climbing and crawling her way across the river! This shot is taken looking downstream, right at the area we had to cross. It's hard to capture the boulders and logs we traveled to get here, but it was worth it! We ended up returning before the ladies did, but I kept watching them out of the corner of my eye to make sure they made it back across all right. I was impressed by their gumption, but slightly nervous for them at the same time. It wasn't easy to get a good footing going across the bumpy logs and mossy rocks - but good for them! My role models.