After a long drive along Highway 101, we finally stopped in a town called Gold Beach. I'm not quite sure, but if I had to make an educated guess, I would think that this place's main source of income is either the fishing industry, or whitewater rafting. Or both! We were there for two mornings, and on both I counted at least forty fishing boats right outside our hotel window. It was foggy in the mornings until about eleven, and then the sun came out to warm things up. One of the days, we took a mailboat for 104 miles up the Rogue River. A mailboat is a jet boat that takes mail up the river, hence the name. This river has been a favorite among rafters because of its rapids section. Not too fast, but fast enough to get the desired thrill. Most of the people doing this decide ahead of time how long they are planning to make a trip of the river. The mailboat tours gave us a really close view of normally hard-to-see wildlife in the area. We saw a black bear that was eating berries just off the bank. That was the biggest animal we saw. Others included deer, bald eagles, mink, osprey, and a slew of other critters.
After leaving Gold Beach, we had an extra day to meander up towards our next destination, so we stopped in Ashland, OR. I'll just tell you the main attraction there, because it doesn't need much explaining: Shakespeare. Every year the town has a Shakespeare festival. Before each show, there is a mini performance in the park that is free. That evening, it was Japanese taiko drumming, which I had never seen before. It was similar to the Chinese drumming which opened the Beijing Olympics.
Next destination: Crater Lake.
