Beating the Heat

The Sprout Swimming at Bunch Bar

The forecast for the weekend was HOT so we planned to visit Bunch Bar on the Umpqua River just past Elkton. The bar is a place where the water is shallow and swift with great slack-water on the the sides giving little people a safe place to play. 

On the way down we dropped into the Elkton Community Education Center. The center has a butterfly pavilion and garden among its varied attractions. In 2005 Sunset magazine selected the center as “one of the five best places to see butterflies".

The center has more than that to offer though. An amphitheater, Botanical gardens, native plant nursery, community library, cafe are among the many offerings of the center. They are also constructing a replica of Fort Umpqua.  

The Bean Himself in the
Butterfly Pavilion

The Sprout & The Bean Himself @
The Elkton Communty Education  Center 

The center's gardens also have several rows of berry bushes. A sign declares that visitors are welcome to eat the berries but requests that you leave some for the visitors that will be coming after you. This made The Bean's day. He is a berry lover and could have stayed all day looking for the perfect berry. Actually he didn't have to look very long before he found the biggest blueberry that I have ever seen. He spoke about it often throughout the day amazed by his good luck. 

"Dad, that berry was So Good!"

The Sprout in the ECEC Library