Art & Wine Festival - Hawk's an Artist

The Art & Wine Festival comes to town once or twice a year. And it doesn't just come to our town; it comes to several towns in the area. So if we miss it in Sunnyvale, we can catch it in Mountain View. Or Santa Clara. Or Fremont. Or Los Altos.

Last year and this year we've gone to see the Los Altos show. It's similar to the others; there are one or two organizations that run all the shows, and many of the vendors sign up for multiple shows as it's a significant part of their business. Los Altos tends to be a little higher end than the other shows, befitting the city's elevated real estate prices and snooty attitude. But what also sets Los Altos apart for us is that Hawk is now one of the artists at the Art & Wine Festival.



Hawk has been selling some of her jewelry creations through an established rock shop downtown. This year the shop owner invited her to be an "artist in residence" during the art show. Woohoo!

Hawk was at the store/show all day Saturday and will be again all day today, Sunday. Unfortunately she made now sales Saturday. The shop owner was surprised it was a weak day for her whole shop. There were plenty of visitors looking, but nobody was buying.

I don't think it was just the shop that was seeing slow sales. I spent an hour walking around all the booths in the afternoon, and other than the booze stands and the places selling ice cream, I didn't see anyone transacting much business. Oh, the streets were plenty crowded with festival-goers. But festival-goers were in look-but-don't-buy mode.

The Floor is LAVA!

Oregon Cascades Travelog #12
McKenzie Pass, OR - Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 7:25pm

After hiking Proxy Falls, Lower and Upper, we thought we were done for the day. We were tired and hungry and both ready to be home. Or at least somewhere sitting down for dinner. In moments where we had signal as we climbed up toward the McKenzie Pass we refreshed our maps to get an ETA for getting back to Bend— or at least to Sisters— where we could find a decent restaurant. It looked like it would be about 8pm for Bend. Hawk tamped down on her usual feelings of carsickness as I hurried through the curves on the twisty mountain road toward home. But then as we crested the mountain pass a strange thing happened. The floor was LAVA. We had to stop and look.

Watch on YouTube

Okay, so this video doesn't show us stopping. Trust me, we did stop to visit that observatory I called out in the video— yes, the one made from LAVA. I'll share photos in another blog entry.

In beauty I walk... even when I drive! 😂

Update: continued in next blog with pics at the observatory made of lava!

Serendipity in the McKenzie Pass: an Observatory Made of Lava!

Oregon Cascades Travelog #12.5
McKenzie Pass, OR - Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 7:30pm

When we first neared the summit and entered a lava field at the edge of the McKenzie pass we thought, "Enh, we've seen lava fields before." But then it kept going. And going. And going. We realized it was a big thing. I started making video as we drove through. But then Hawk pointed out, "Stop! We just drove past an observatory made of lava! Go back."



And holy shit, up here at 5,325' (which isn't that high in California but seems like the roof of the world here in Oregon), there's a observatory made of lava rocks. Not just the floor is lava, but the walls and ceiling, too!

We were tired as hell, and hungry, and sore. We were counting the minutes until we got back home. But suddenly all those feelings went away. We had to explore this observatory made of lava!



It was a slow slog up those winding, uneven lava-rock steps to the top. A fierce wind blew away whatever warmth clung to our bodies. But the views as we circle around were amazing. Above is a view of The Sisters. It's actually the Three Sisters, but South Sister was feeling shy this evening and hid behind Middle Sister (on the right).



The observatory has chutes in its walls labeled with what mountain you can see looking through each slot. There are too many volcanic peaks visible to include them all. I'm sharing this non-peak picture, above, to show the view looking west, where we're headed next. We've already driven a few miles across this lava field, and there's about a mile more to go. When I looked north toward Mt. Washington, the lava field seemed to extend miles in that direction. It's amazing there's a road through here.... And according to plaques in the observatory, this is the route of the original road built across this part of the Cascades!