California, Here We Come!

Right back where we started from...literally. Ellyn and I first met, fell in love, and married in California. After more than 3 1/2 months and 6,000 miles, we cross the border from Oregon into California on US 101. Our first stop is at Camper Corral in Klamath, on the northern edge of Redwood National Park. We are only staying for two nights but we find out that they are closing the park after we leave for the winter.

The next day we took a tour of Redwood National Park in our car. We drove down the scenic drive which parallels US 101 and goes very closely between the giant redwood trees. Although we took lots of pictures, they do not do justice to these trees, which can get as tall as 320 feet. At the end, we turned down a gravel road which goes out to the shoreline. Out there we stopped to have a lunch we packed ahead and then drove to Fern Canyon. Lined with ferns, this canyon is like something out of Jurassic Park, mainly because part of the second movie was filmed here. Finally we visited Lady Bird Johnson Grove, dedicated in 1969. There are some very fine trees in this area and a nice and informative nature walk. We learned lots about the trees in this area.

Next day, off to Eureka, staying on US 101. We stopped in Trinidad, CA, to have lunch and see the fishing port there, which features cranes to pull the fishing boats out of the water. This is because they have very little breakwater and protection from the ocean waves. We also stopped in Arcata so Ellyn could visit a jewelry store there. We stopped in front of a salvage store where we bought a couple handfuls of switch and outlet cover plates for her sister, Laura, to decorate and sell at flea markets.

In the morning, we went to the Samoa Cookhouse for a great breakfast, and then to Blue Ox Millwork, where they use antique wodworking tools to make some amazing, special order pieces for Victorian-style homes. We also toured an area of town where they have many of this type house which have been restored. Then on down US 101 to a stretch of old US 101 known as the Avenue of the Giants. We drove through and stopped once but found that stopping in the RV was a challenge, so we got back onto US 101 about 2/3 of the way through and continued on to Gaberville for the night.

Next day, we decided to leave the RV and take the car back up to Avenue of the Giants and see Founder's Grove, which has several fallen redwoods which are mostly still intact. The size of these trees is even more apparent when you are able to walk their length. When we returned to the RV, we decided to continue straight through to Pacifica, CA, our final destination on our Spring/Summer tour of the USA. Ellyn's sister lives here and we are staying for 5 weeks. We will celebrate the Jewish High Holy Days here and Ellyn's birthday before heading on towards Florida and Sun-N-Fun for our winter stay.

Coasting Down the Coast

After Portland, we went west to kick off our cruise down the Oregon Coast into California. Here is a list of the locations and sights we stopped at on our drive down US 101.

• Ecola State Park -  From here we could see the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, AKA "Terrible Tilly". It sits on a rock a mile from shore and it was as remote a spot as any lighthouse keeper could be put.
• Cannon Beach - Here is Haystack Rock, a large "sea stack" left over from erosion of the coast by the relentless waves. We saw some large starfish here during low tide.
• Nehalem Bay State Park - We camped here for 5 nights. The beach has a nice view of the Nehalem Head Lighthouse.
• Tillamook - Home of the Tillamook Cheese Factory where we were able to see the cheese making and packaging and pick up some blocks of cheddar.
• Newport - We camped here for two nights and visited the great Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. We also saw the seal lions and seals who rest on the wharf docks in the evening.
• The Devil's Elbow - Near here US 101 gets pretty twisty and high above the rocky surf. We stopped for some pictures in a couple of spots.
• Umpqua River Lighthouse - We stopped here and looked through their museum.
• Sunset Beach State Park - We camped here for 2 nights, viewed the Cape Arago Lighthouse, walked in the tide pools, saw the Simpson Gardens, watched seals and sea lions on Simpson's Reef, and looked out to sea from Cape Arago.
• Bandon - We stopped here for lunch and a view of the Coquille River Lighthouse.
• Port Orford - We stopped here for a view of the fishing port where they haul the boats out of the water with a crane rather than tie them up. This is because the port is not well protected from the sea waves.
• Gold Beach - We camped here for two nights. Ellyn went to a quilt show nearby and we sat on the beach and watched the surfers and seals swimming in the surf.

From here it was a short drive into California.

Portland, Oregon

We arrived in Portland on August, 31st for a 7-day stay. We parked at the Columbia River RV Park, a very nice facility with level RV pads, extra space for the toad, and good wi-fi. We met our nice neighbors, who are from the area, and had been coming there for many years. They gave us some tips on things to see on the Oregon Coast as we head to California.

• Day 1: Off to the International Rose Test Garden on a hill overlooking the city. Although past their peak for the season, their were still lots of nice blooms and the clear, sunny weather made for a very nice day. We also stopped at a local music shop named Artichoke Music, where Ellyn got a hard case for her dulcimer and Geoff bought some finger picks. They have a room for concerts but it was "dark" in August.
• Day 2: We met up with Pam, a good friend of Ellyn's sister, Laura, and had lunch. Another great weather day and we sat outside on the Raleigh Hills Pub patio. Then we went downtown and visited the "Duck Store" where they have just about every piece of University of Oregon Ducks goods you could imagine. Then we went to the Powell Bookstore, a 6 story building of new and used books. If you cannot find it there, it probably is not published yet. Geoff bought some copies of Disc World books he has not read yet (he has gone through all of the ones his brother, Wes, gave him) and Ellyn stocked up as well.
• Day 3: It was Saturday so we headed downtown again to the Portland Saturday Market. Lot of vendors, food, and music. Another nice weather day with hot weather and smoke from some nearby wildfires starting to move in . Some great musicians and odd characters on each corner made for an interesting time. A hot spot seemed to be Voodoo Doughnuts, which had a line most of the day and some interesting looking donuts.
• Day 4: One of our first, in a long time, days of hanging out in the RV with the A/C running. In the afternoon, we went to visit another one of Geoff's cousins, Bruce Bottomley and his wife Anne in their home here in Portland. Geoff and Bruce did not meet each other before (as far as they can remember) but Geoff's Mom used to baby sit Bruce and his brother Buster when they were kids and she has many stories that Geoff has heard over the years. We had a great time catching up on happenings, met their daughter, Sara, and went out for a nice dinner.
• Day 5: The heat is starting to break a bit. Out to lunch at Sushi Ville, where the plates of food come by on a conveyor and you pay by the plate. Then we went to see the movie "Super 8" at the Mission Theater and Pub, where we had comfortable seats in the balcony and a table for our sodas and popcorn.
• Day 6: We ventured out to Camping World to spend the generous gift certificate we had gotten from the CEO of Good Sam and Camping World at "The Rally" in Redmond Oregon in July. We picked up a lot of goodies and only had to pony up $40 of our own money. Nice! On the way, we had spotted a Costco so we stopped by there on the way back to pick up some supplies.
• Day 7: Back on the road and back to the Oregon Coast. Our destination: Nehalem Bay State Park, where we will start our trip down US101.

The End of the Trail

A continuing theme along our trip West was following the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. We had seen the Mandam Village where they stopped and visited with the Native Americans. We saw Pompey's Pillar, which was a site they came upon on their return trip and where the only physical evidence of their passing still exists; William Clark's signature carved into the side of the cliff. Cape Disappointment, named because of the difficulty and sometimes impossibility of navigating the channel into the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean in the early 1800's, was where the trail for Lewis and Clark ended as they finally reached their destination. We stayed here for 3days.

Day 1: We drove most of the day along the northern shore of the Columbia River and at one point stopped to watch a very large ship making its way down the river towards the Pacific Ocean. We noted the name, Global Sentinel, and later looked it up to find it is a cable laying ship used to place underwater cable for transmitting power and other signals across bodies of water.

Day 2: We explored around Cape Disappointment State Park and visited Waikiki Beach, named in honor of a Hawaiian sailor who died near there in a shipwreck. We also visited Long Beach and bicycled on a trail which runs along it. We also visited "Clark's Tree".


Day 3: We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center on Cape Disappointment and again visited Long Beach and flew our kites in the wind there.


The next day we left Cape Disappointment State Park and drove across the river to Astoria, OR. Here we parked the RV in a convenient parking lot and took the car to visit some local spots.

• Astoria Column - this is a tall column on the top of a prominent hill in Astoria which has paintings and wording depicting the history of that area of the country from before the arrival of the White Man to the arrival of the railroads. Geoff climbed the staircase inside the column and took pictures from the top.
• Fort Clatsop: Named for a Native American tribe in that region, the original fort was built by Lewis and Clark as a winter haven from the time they arrived until the spring when they could begin the return trip to Virginia.
• The Salt Works: In Seaside, this is where members of the L&C team boiled sea water to extract the salt for use in preserving meat for their return trip.

After returning to the RV in Astoria, we continued our journey along the Columbia River to Portland, Oregon.

The Olympic Peninsula

The trip over to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington was not too arduous. We only had a 2.5 mile drive to the ferry dock and then a 7 mile drive from the ferry landing to the RV park. We didn't even hook up the car. Ellyn drove it and I took the RV. The way they loaded the ferry, the RV was way in the back and the car way up near the bow. But they unload in Port Angeles from the rear, so I was out early and Ellyn had to wait until nearly the end to get out. So, by the time she got to the RV park, I already had the RV set up. After lunch, we went up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. It was partly cloudy but the mountains were almost all visible. It is quite a view of the Olympic mountain range from up there.

Day 2: Still in Port Angeles, we made another trip into the park up the Sol Duc River. We stopped off at the rapids where we hoped to see some salmon jumping and we were not disappointed. We saw several and even caught some of them on video and in still shots. It was fun. Then we went up to the end of the road where there was a short hike to the Sol Duc Falls. Then we went to the Sol Duc Hot Springs and relaxed for a couple hours before driving back to the RV.

Day 3: Back on the road down US 101 and over to the Washington coast. We stopped at Ruby Beach and went down to do some beach combing. The fog was in pretty thick and we could just make out the breakers near the shore. There were a lot of flat stones and people were skipping them in a tidal pool. As we were leaving and walking up the hill back to the RV, the fog started lifting. By the time we got to the top of the hill you could see several off shore islands and rocks. Then we made our last stop in the park at the Rain Forest. It was quite quiet there and a little hard to find, but it was an interesting short walk. Then we continued down to near Mount St. Helens.

Day 4: We spent this day at Johnston Ridge about 12 miles from the crater which was once Mount St. Helens. In the 31 years since it erupted, a lot of the surrounding vegetation has recovered. The area around the mountain was turned into a national park and is being allowed to regenerate naturally but the other land for miles around was replanted by the logging companies. These trees are now quite large and will be available for harvesting around 2025.

The next day we drove on to Cape Disappointment and the conclusion of our study of Lewis and Clark.

(Belated) Seattle, WA - Part 2

Ok, so I forgot to do the second part of our Seattle visit. This will give me a chance to reminisce. Good thing I keep notes.

Day 8: We got the kayaks off the car for the first time in a long time and launched out onto Lake Union, a part of the channel between Lake Washington and Puget Bay Sound. This was a great day for kayaking and the lake is nice because it is big but it is a no wake zone, so the boats did not disturb us. We saw the police boat stop some personal water craft and told them to slow down. Geoff got a t-shirt from the place that let us use their dock for launching. We had lunch at a Jimmy Johns sandwich store, like the one Geoff's cousin's husband manages in MS. It was delicious.

Day 9: A rainy start to the day and mostly cloudy afternoon, so we took another lazy day. We just went out for Mexican for dinner.

Day 10: Another wonderful, sunny day and we took a ferry ride across the Sound with Ellyn's friend, Moss, from her college days. We went to Keyport, WA to the Naval Undersea Museum to see the Bathyscaph Trieste. Geoff was attached to the Trieste for 8 months while in the Navy, 42 years ago, and it was retired to the museum in 1987. It was a big nostalgia trip for Geoff. We also enjyed the museum, which was very well done and had a lot of submarine and deep sea exploration displays, including an entire control room form a submarine and the second submarine sail, mounted outside the museum, that we have seen on our trip so far. We had lunch and Polish pastries in Poulsbo, WA.

Day 11: We went back into Seattle and visited the Experience Music Project and Sci-fi Museum. They have a great display on Jimmy Hendricks and some props from the TV show, Battlestar Galactica, both the older version and the newer one. They also have a huge video screen where they showed several documentary shows and music videos. We rode the monorail train from the museum to downtown and visited Pike Street Market.

Day 12: Laundry day before going into Canada and stocking up on groceries.

Day 13: Lunch at Ivar's Salmon House, then off to see the fish ladder at the locks. There were fish in the viewing area but we did not see any jumping. We also went by the UW campus so Ellyn could see the old physics building where she spent a lot of time on campus.

Day 14: On the road again north to BC, Canada.