Seven Feathers RV Resort and Casino

The very first place we stayed upon leaving our house in Oregon was Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, Oregon. And let me tell you, it did set the bar rather high for future RV Parks.

First, 360 degree mountain views.  And a day moon! This is the first thing was saw when we stepped outside. Beautiful, right? 

 If we gambled, this would be a destination resort. Plenty of LEVEL cement pads, full hookups, CLEAN everything, full friendly helpful staff, and totally easy access to the casino in the form of a shuttle you could call day or night to come to your spot, pick you up, and drive you to the casino. If we ate "regular" food, we could also have used this for the buffet or one of the five restaurants they have there. 

But we don't. Their rates are also quite reasonable, with Good Sam, senior, AAA and I believe military discounts. Almost every RV park we've seen offers military discounts, because they better. (We're not in the military, just to be clear.)

So this lovely pond with a really great sculpture of cranes (I think). And this other lovely fountain, just across from the pond, which after exploring we climbed this hill behind it. I don't tink the staff is used to its guests exploring like we did, because we got some looks - but no one asked us to stop. 

This is our rig with that amazing view behind it. Not pictured is the indoor pool that my son pretty much lived in while we were here. To be honest, had the weather promised to hold up longer, we'd have gladly extended our stay here by weeks even. Well, for as long as they'd let us. I don't think they have monthly stays but we also didn't look into it. This place was truly peaceful and lovely. 

 The holiday decorations were also adorable - several other animals aren't pictured, but adorned the property around the clubhouse and office. Also I didn't remember to take photos of the office, the huge comfy lounge area, the fitness center, or again, the pool. Oh, and there was also a hot tub.

They were chlorinated, but not so much chlorine that you couldn't breathe. I was actually able to go in the pool a couple of times, which was pretty amazing for me. I can't usually handle chlorine, but perhaps my healing body has decided that just a little is tolerable at times.

And all over the place we saw signs like this one stating that they used reclaimed water for irrigation. The planet steward in me was SO happy to see this, and of course they do, because first, they are native americans, and that's just love for planet, yo.

They also had a nice little dog run with a bench, where Muffins met a couple of other dogs and befriended them, and I had some really nice chats with their humans.

Along one side of the property there was also a creek and a paved walkway to walk alongside it - but a fance to keep humans out so the ecosystem wasn't disturbed. Smart. Everything was beautifully maintained, and it was quiet, and such a great place to stay. IF we go back through that way, we will DEFINITELY stay again, because we had such a nice time there. So if you're headed to Winston Wildlife Safari and don't mind a half hour drive to get there, this is a wonderful place to stay. We were able to easily get organic groceries and sushi in Winston, and the drive to and from is just lovely as well. I wish I'd taken more photos but we'd just gotten started and I was soaking it all in. This was probably the best starting point we could have hoped for, and we  were very very happy there. 

Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon

I didn't take this photo, but the one I took of the entrance
was blurry, so I'm borrowing this one from the internet. 

One of the places I'd heard great things about and that we wanted to see for ourselves was right on our way down I5 in Winston, Oregon - Wildlife Safari. There are probably a million photos of it online that are better than ours, and more professional, but these are ours - proving we were actually there. So bear with me - haha - bear! The only animal we didn't see, because it was hibernation season.

When you drive into the Wildlife Safari, first you drive down a narrow and winding road - there is enough room for cars to go both ways, but we got there early enough that we didn't drive by anyone leaving as we drove in. You drive through a lovely forested area for about a mile maybe, down down down into the area where there is parking, a gift shop, smaller snimals in smaller enclosures, and a walk-through area. You drive up to the window where a super friendly employee of the park tells you all the rules: 

1) Drive slow, not more than 10 mph (we did more like 5, as did everyone else there)

2) It's fine to have your windows down as you drive through, but if an animal approaches the car, roll your window up

3) DON'T FEED THE ANIMALS

4) Stay at least 4 car lengths away from the Rhino

5) You can drive through twice as long as you reach this window again by 4 PM (it was like 11 AM at the time). 

That's what I remember. They also give you a sheet that tells you what animals are in what areas, so you understand who you're looking at. When you drive in, there are arrows that point the direction, but they're not always perfectly clear, and at slightly unclear points there are also rangers in towers who kindly point the way for you (and are probably also making sure that people do NOT get out of the car, because sadly, not everyone listens to the rules ("But the Lions are behind fences! How else am I going to get the best photo?)

The variety of wildlife throughout the park - it really was consistent with animals one might see on a safari in Africa - all of the animals except the one Asian elephant I think - were really from Africa. And they seemed to do a good job taking care of them and keeping them safe - everyone looked fed and happy, and with the exception of the overly curious ostrich, none of them seemed more than bemusedly disinterested in the cars driving through.

The Rhino, to our relief, was WAY at the top of the hill when we came through, so we were much more than 4 car lengths away from him. Apparently Rhinos like to climb. Who knew?

Wildlife Safari also has what I think I remember to be one of the most successful cheetah breeding programs in the country. Apparently it is SUPER difficult to get cheetahs to breed in captivity, but when we were there, we saw a proud (and slightly irritated/protective) cheetah Mama and she had FIVE adorable fluff ball cubs. I'd call that successful! I do NOT think she was enjoying her babies being on display so openly though, considering how far back into the woods they go to breed. Mama was pacing like she really wanted to take the cubs back to the protected area, not be so vulnerable here where the humans drive by.

Make no mistake, the cars get nowhere near where the cheetahs are - but it's still through a chain link fence rather than being hidden in the forest as it should be. But you know, I get it, considering it's a huge place to support, and I'm pretty sure baby cheetahs are a pretty big draw for the public - I mean there was so much cooing in our car that you'd have thought a cute bomb exploded in it. It did, in the form of our eyes taking in the sight of 5 baby cheetahs rolling all over each other playing and hunting each other. 

SO. CRAZY. ADORABLE. 

And all of the animals are ones one doesn't just see any old where in North America, that's for sure. Zoos, some of them. Others we'd never seen before in real life. The whole experience was amazing for us. When we first drove in, after the lions, we came upon the giraffes. I've never been that close to a giraffe - you can really see the evolution from the dinosaurs when you're that close. At one point I thought this guy was going to sit on our car, but he just walked  by the front - so close!

I was so blown away. 

At all of the animal areas they had little huts like ths one, full of hay and whatever else they ate. 

Sorry for all the spots - it was raining off and on and there were water droplets on the windows, which as you remember, we were instructed to leave up if the animals walked up - which the male giraffe had.

Some of the other animals we got to see:

The zebras - my people. They hold a special place in my heart. 

These. I think they're elk?

The smiling llama. He was just chillin' by the side of the road. 

The lovely emu.

The hippos. Again, you can see the dinosaur origins. So amazing. 

Two African elephants and an Asian elephant. I'm not sure about their space, like is it back behind this building? All of the other animals had ample space to roam, so it's difficult to imagine that the elephants remain in such a small area, but it was so far back and you cannot leave the car, so there was no way to tell from where we were. 

White deer that I am forgetting the name of. 

My favorites of the big cats.

There is also a smaller walking area after the drive-through one, and a gift shop and snack bar. We of course bought a plush from the gift shop, because the kiddo loves his plush. And my husband fell in mad love with these little floofers: 

Obviously it's an experience we highly recommend for anyone who likes animals at all. It's so cool to get that experience up close. If you're going through Oregon, definitely stop in Winston for this experience. 

Canon Beach, Oregon Coast

We took some time out of our constant working on the RV this weekend to just go and have some fun. I realized that our life this past year has just become business all the time - go to doctor and physical therapy appointments, work on the RV on weekends, be fatigued at home - not much fun anywhere in there. Maybe an occasional movie or game of mini golf or LEGO event, but other than bi-weekly play dates and Skyping with friends, we really haven't been giving our son or ourselves a very fun time. 

So I decided we needed to remedy that. After all, it would be good practice for RV living to go start exploring this amazingly beautiful state we live in. We've been here three years and have barely seen any of it - I mean, that's a crime when you live in Oregon! 

Sunday we took a day trip to Canon Beach. We only live an hour and a half from the coast, and until a few months ago, we had never even been there - again, HOW??? Craziness. 

Click this to see the full photo album.

It was so fun and beautiful - we only lasted a couple of hours, but Kiernen had SUCH fun chasing the tide with Muffins and feeling the sand beneath his toes. And he found a fully intact sand dollar! Beautiful!

We haven't been to the ocean in years! It rejuvenated all of us. I even did some tide chasing and a lot of walking and standing for me. We are definitely taking the RV back to the coast and spending some real time there - Astoria and Canon Beach are such amazingly beautiful places, and need to be further explored.

We're starting to have a sense of where we'll be going when we finally launch our maiden voyage in the RV.