August 2012 Camping at Paulina Lake Post #2:

Last Friday, we headed back up to our spot on the lake.  During the late afternoon, we went to Paulina Lake Lodge and ordered a deep fried snack plate for dinner.  We stayed overnight and enjoyed the scenery.

The next morning, we got up and drove to East Lake for breakfast and also renewed our fishing licenses there.  I am going to do a separate post on that, but here is a pretty picture of East Lake from the lodge:

After breakfast, we came back to camp.  I grabbed my book and my camera, got Dana all set up, and enjoyed the morning from my lawn chair:

I brought the nice camping tablecloth from home:

There were chipmunks all over the place.  I thought this one was so cute, sitting peacefully as he watched us:

The rocks in the water are very strange.  They look like brains.  They must be cooled lava or something:

The fish were jumping all over the place.  I was able to catch a few images of them coming out of the water:

It was a glorious morning.  Later in the afternoon though, wildfire smoke from Lakeview descended upon the lake.  It hadn't gotten there in this picture though:

I watched boats of all kinds motor or float by:

In the afternoon, Cary's brother Larry and his girlfriend Carla came up with the pontoon boat.  I didn't take very many pictures for some reason.  I was getting very worn out.  We went fishing and tooling around the lake for a couple of hours.  You can see how smokey it got in these pictures.  The first one is of Paulina Peak:

The guys never did catch any fish, but we did notice a couple of deer:

On the way back to Paulina Lodge to dock the boat, we went over to check out the hot springs area over by the slide.  I didn't take a picture of that either, but there were several families playing in the water.  You can access the hot springs by boat, or by walking around the lake on the trail.  You can also park at Little Crater Campground and walk a shorter distance.  They aren't naked hot springs (at least during the day) and they aren't very big, but they are still neat.

After arriving at the lodge, Cary treated us all to a delicious prime rib dinner.  It was heavenly!  I don't know why, but I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the food. 

We drove back to camp to get the dog and some of our things to take back home.  As I opened the bedroom door of the trailer to let Dana out, a chipmunk ran out too!  I was so startled that I screamed, and really loud.  The neighbor lady popped up her head to see what was going on.  I grabbed a few things and high-tailed it out of there.

After I walked over to explain what happened, the neighbors said that they were having trouble with them too.  They sneak into the trailers when the screens are open, looking for dogfood.   

They might be cute, but they sure don't belong inside!

We drove back home and I slept 10 hours straight.  Then I got up, posted my pics on FB and drove to Eugene for my daughter Kristin's 30th birthday party.  I was still groggy by the time that I arrived there.  Saturday was a busy, busy day.  I'll post the pictures of Kristin's party soon.

Hope that you all had a wonderful weekend!

~ Kathy M.

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