California, Here I Come!

Time to wake up the ole blog site.  How I've been neglecting thee.  I haven't been keeping up with the concerts I've attended since the last show either.  I'll try to catch up on things soon, although I shouldn't make promises I can't keep.  What I can say is...it's road trip time!  I'm on my yearly pilgrimage to the City of Angels...California!  Before starting my long drive this morning, my cat Kimi was huddled in her usual spot when she thinks she's going for a ride.  Not the most ideal way to say my goodbyes to her, but oh, well. 

It was smooth sailing to my first destination on the day, Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve in Littlerock, WA. Mima mounds are natural, dome-like mounds of layered sediment, often called prairie mounds in other parts of the country.  There are several theories on how these mounds were formed...including pocket gophers...but, nothing definitive.

I walked along one of the paved trails in the preserve, not only looking at the mounds, but also the wildflowers like this purple blossomed camas, which produces edible roots.  Not to be confused with the white-flowered death camas, which is poisonous.  I had to be fast to snap a  pic of the white-checkered skipper butterfly...it likes to keep on the move.

  

By the time I left the preserve, the temperature was starting to heat up.  As I crossed into Oregon, it hit the low 80s...too hot for me!  I know, I'm a wimp.  I turned on my car's air conditioner for the first time this year.  My afternoon destination was the Museum of Mental Health at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. This small museum is housed in the oldest building in the state, and is dedicated to telling the history of this mental health facility through the stories of those who lived and worked there. 

The exhibits on past treatments of patients and medical instruments were fascinating...and a little bit scary.  There was an actual table where they would perform lobotomies on patients, and a couple of electroshock machines.

Oregon State Hospital is probably best known as the location for the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.  Not only was it filmed there, but actual patients who were at the time living there were cast in the movie. The movie's exhibit at the museum included the prop television seen on the big screen.

I'm hoping tomorrow it won't be quite as hot as today.  I'll be doing a little bit of hiking, enjoying some of Oregon's natural beauty.  Stay tuned...