Field Trips (part A)

We have taken some awesome field trips this school year.  That's not happening during the stay-at-home order, so those trips feel extra special now.  

Treehouses

In September, we revisited one of our family's favorites, the Out'N'About Treehouse Treesort, in southern Oregon.  This place is magical and one of the most peaceful places I've ever stayed.  It's pastoral.  Imaginative.  It defies time and space.  This was a return visit for us, and we might just go every year.  I think humans feel at home in trees, (or at least I do,) and I am beginning to feel like this place is another home for us.   

[C] and [A] climbed the apple tree at the swimming hole.  The apples were ripe and delicious.

[G] joined in a game that continued throughout the weekend: send the apples down the stream and catch them as they float by.

The management has made a game of naming all the structures with tree puns.  We thought of some pretty good ones ourselves.  This outhouse has the best reading material, and it was usually a lot closer than the bathroom in our treehouse.  

This was our treehouse this year: Magistree.   It's one of the highest.  

This is the view from our balcony.  We're pretty high up there.  In a tree.  Which is alive.  

I told you it had a bathroom.  And a shower.  This is not your father's camping trip.  

The rest of the interior looks like this.  Queen bed...

Kitchen....

Dining room (or school table--this was a school field trip after all, and we studied a little too)....

...up the stairs to the loft

...where we would tuck the kids in to bed and read stories and feel the wind sway our house in the treetops.

This place has the most amazing creaky bridges.  

I love this one, because of the way it's built around the oak tree's branches.

We spend most of our time just swinging on ropes and tires...

Or watching dappled sunlight...

Or trying out new recipes in the communal kitchens, sharing them with new friends, or sitting by the campfire.  

[A] tried the zipline for the first time.  It took some guts.  

The weather was perfect for afternoons at the swimming hole.  Update:  [C] is correcting my memory; the water was freezing.  (But worth it.)

I love this place.  I hope it stays around for a long, long time.  

Next year, our treehouse has room for more.  Maybe you will join us.