Whales and Craters

We spent a week on the Pacific Coast in Pacifica, CA. Ellyn’s Sister, Laura, lives just a couple of blocks from the ocean and from the closest RV Park to San Francisco. The RV park is slowly disappearing as the cliff erodes away with each passing storm. The weather there matches with Mark Twain’s statement that “The coldest winter I ever had was a summer in San Francisco”. It was mostly in the 60’s with lows in the 40’s while we were there. Also, the fog was prevalent while we were there and except for two afternoons of the week we were there, it was overcast. We did venture “over the hill” into the sun a few times and then it was much warmer.

One of the great things about spending some time on the coast this time was that there were whales feeding right off the shore. Just about any time you went down to the edge of the cliff and looked out to sea, you would see whales. Geoff just had to go out there with his camera and tripod and he got some of what Laura said were the best whale pictures she had seen taken there. They were ok.

Ellyn’s Father and his wife also live nearby. Geoff went out with Jerry for lunch one day and Jerry showed him some of his latest tech ideas. Jerry has not been able to really retire but his brain is definitely still right in the game with ideas for increasing computer security. We also went out for a couple of meals with Jerry and Liz and had a very nice time. Geoff and Laura’s Husband, Jay, took in a few games of bowling one afternoon. Ellyn’s Brother, Howard, and his wife, Liz, came down from Gig Harbor, Washington for a few days to see their favorite baseball team, the Washington Nationals (from Washington DC, near where they used to live, not from Washington State) play at the San Francisco Giants. We went with them to two of the games. The first one was in the evening and it was not warm. Yipes! We have not been that warmly dressed in July since we went to Alaska and wore our winter coats on the Fourth. The second one was better, being in the afternoon, with the sun shining down. Geoff was almost able to wear shorts.

On the way back to Portland, Oregon to see our Grandkids, we decided to do a little extra sight-seeing. One popular stop, that we never visited before, is Crater Lake National Park. What a treat. The surrounding lands are covered with old-growth forests of beautiful pines. We climbed hundreds of feet up the sides of the crater caldera (in our car) to the rim. The view of the water is amazing. It was a clear, sunny day and the water reflected the blue sky at an amazing hue. The water in the lake is fed exclusively by snow and rain with no water flowing in from streams or runoff so the water is pure and clear. The only damper on the day was the forest fire that was raging to the west of the park and growing closer. This caused a haze across the sky for some of the pictures and, at the end of our day there, fire had made its way into the caldera of the crater.

The final stop before landing back in the Portland area was near Sisters, Oregon, in view of the Three Sisters mountains, Mount Bachelor and Mount Jefferson. Ellyn really wanted to come here to visit a quilting store that she had visited 5 years before when we were here for an FMCA Rally. The town of Sisters is really nice and obviously geared for tourists. It was a lot of fun just walking around and stopping into the stores. They also have a lot of really good food.

Leaving Crater Lake, we had some engine trouble with the RV. It is a reoccurring problem of the engine stalling shortly after initial start that happened last in Connecticut. We thought the problem had gone away but it looks like it is back so we will have to get some work done in Portland. We had it stall out after leaving the RV Park and it took a while to get going again, then it stalled again going onto a major highway on the ramp. Geoff got it off the road but we called for roadside assistance. The person who arrived checked out the fuel filter and the fuel supply to the injectors and it all seemed good. We got it restarted and it seemed to be OK after that. At our next stop, Ellyn suggested we give it another dose of Howes Lubrication, something we have added at fuel stops in the past, that seemed to alleviate similar problems, and that Geoff had been adding regularly. So we did that and things seemed OK to the next fuel stop, where he added the rest of it. The rest of our trip to Portland seemed to be OK. Between this and the generator problems we’ve had, we will have a lot of work for Cummins.