Oregon Trip 2023 - Day 2: Crater Lake, Medford Temple, & Grants Pass Bears

After we checked out of our hotel in Lakeview, we drove to Crater Lake.  It wasn't too busy, and the weather was perfect.  We walked around seeing the different view areas of the lake.  It's amazing how blue and clear the water is.  There was still snow in many of the shadow spots, but it was gorgeous.  

We went to the visitor center and the ranger center where the girls became Junior Rangers of Crater Lake.  It was super fun to watch them get sworn in as Junior Ranger.  

After we saw all the sights that we could, we then started our drive to Grants Pass.  We stopped by the temple in Medford first and it was beautiful.  We love going to different temples and walking the grounds.  

We then went to Costco for gas and lunch.  The best place for a cheap lunch and a nice place to walk around.  After that we made our drive to Grants Pass and went to check into our hotel.

Our hotel turned out to be a dump.  It was super dirty and sketchy, and looked nothing like the pictures that were online, so we ended up checking out of the hotel and finding a new one down the road.  It was a hundred dollars more a night and only had two beds, but it was nice and clean. 

After we checked into our new, clean hotel we unpacked our bags and got situated in our room.  We then went to the local Walmart to pick up a sleeping bag and a blanket for the girls to sleep on the floor of our room.  These ended up coming in handy later at the cottages.  

After Walmart, we then went to my parent's hotel.  It was a nice room and was right on the river.  Each room had a balcony with a river view.  We then went out to dinner with my parents to a yummy local restaurant.  The food was really good, and the service was even better.  It was nice getting one-on-one time with my parents and enjoying good food.  

After eating we went back to my parent's hotel where the rest of our family was about to check in.  We got some popcorn from their front desk and hung out for a little while before going back to our hotel for the night.