Now The Fun Begins.........Sand Dunes, Redwoods, Napa and Sonoma!

All’s Well That Ends Well

Friday September 29 & 30, 2011

Oregon is an outrageous state.  So diverse,  desert, mountains, coastline, lakes, timberland, great towns and more.  Can’t believe how many dunes are on the  coastline. We went on a dune buggy tour of the sand  dunes in Florence.  Great fun and awesome sites. 

Route 101 is everything everyone has told us.  Along a wild, spectacular coastline and then inland into forests, then out to the coastline again and beautiful vistas.  Pictures don’t  do it justice.  At least mine don’t.

That's Jeff, a little spec, standing at the base of the BIG rock.

We stopped over in Trinadad, but after leaving in the morning realized we should have gone just a little bit further to Brookings.  Much more of a town, right on the water. Oh well, we had a goods night sleep.

 

Next stop along Route 101 was The Redwoods south of Crescent City, Cal..  Wow-one cannot even begin to describe or take pictures to do justice to the awesomeness of those gigantic trees and their beauty. 

Is that a bear in the woods?

Muscle Man!!

That's one big beautiful root.

The hikes through these woods are just overwhelming.  We stayed over in a campsite right in the Redwoods.  Slept in late only because the sun was so far high up above the trees, who would know it was morning.  Did a little laundry, filled our propane and off we went to Sonoma. 

The trees and hills and valleys were just stunning but even more so when we arrived in the vineyards.  So many vineyards to see.  One after another and then we passed our favorite, Silver Oaks.  Unfortunately they didn’t have tastings there as it was not their main vineyard.  It was 5 PM by now and most of the vineyards close about 4:30.  Darn….Just have to wait until tomorrow. 

So we pulled into Calistoga, Ca. where friends, Brad and Sharon Suhr, now live who used to live on The Vineyard. Brad ran the Edgartown Bike Shop and got the opportunity about 4 years ago to buy Calistoga Bikes. We’ll be visiting them tomorrow for a bike tour of the vineyards.  Can’t wait!  We actually had a hard time finding a place to stay as there were festivals and a national moto-cross bike race in town, but we ended up in the Bothe-Napa State Park (scheduled to be closed along with many other due to California’s terrible finanaces) that was quiet and lovely so all’s well that ends well. 

Hold on to your hats, boys

Sept. 26, 2011

Our angel, Clay knocked on our door again this morning and said he wanted to show us the other side of town. So off we went with our tour guide to see Nye Beach and the lighthouse. He knew all the special places and even pointed out California Grey Whales to us when we were up by the lighthouse. It was fantastic and because the winds were gale force, but warm, it made it even more fun. You could stand at a 45degree angle without holding on. Hold on to your hats! Just so happened I just bought a windbreaker in town yesterday. Perfect timing.

Jeff and Clay fighting the gale winds

several grey whales out there

Clay told us at one o’clock it was time to feed Ursula and a must to see. Check out the video. Wow was he right. The Oregon State University has an aquarium just next door so we explored the fascinating aquarium. Very educational and hands on. Never realized how beautiful an octopus is and that they change colors when they eat.

Our gal Ursula waiting for lunch

Cool! After a fun, windy, educational morning we all had lunch at the Rouge Brewery on the waterfront and sampled some of their 50 brews and ate halibut fish and chips, chowder and beer bread. After the visit with Ursula, I just couldn’t order calamari this time. But everything else was great.

Infamous Rogue Brewery

We said our good-byes to Clay and with some good advise and recommendations headed down Route 101. It is a beautiful coastal hwy with spectacular views of the rocky shoreline along the Pacific. Our destination was Florence, Oregon. Oregon is really a beautiful, diverse, wonderful state. I could see living here sometime. Our kids should check it out. (Then we could come visit!)

We rolled in around 4:30 PM and I cooked a roast beef dinner right here in the RV and then we took a nice walk in town. It was late in the season so much was closed but the morning brought sunshine after a night of rain so we wondered in town for breakfast and checked out the shops. It was a lazy day by the water where we watched a sea lion pop in and out of the water and pose for us while the retirees went out in their boats to fish.

Later in the afternoon I had to go back in town to really shop (without Jeffrey). Bought a beautiful sweater and feather earrings! The shop keepers are so friendly and fun to talk to. Must always keep that in mind when working at Past & Presents!

While in town as I had to check out the menu for a restaurant right on the Siuslaw River by another McCoullough Bridge (one of many beautifully designed bridges connecting the Oregon Coastline). The name of the restaurant is The Waterfront Depot, an old train station, just like our house. This had to be one of our top 5 restaurants in our entire world travels. Baked crab encrusted halibut!! French Fried Onion Battered Green Beans!! Hanger Steak and BBQ Shrimp!! A great bottle of Chateau Chevalier Cab!! Need I say more. Besides the great food and wonderful atmosphere, is that it was incredibly inexpensive.

Sunning Seals and Dungeness Crabs

On the way out of Bend we stopped at Sisters, a small western town with sweet shops and a Hops Festival.  That is a Beer Festival, with 10 kinds of local beers, food and music, but because we were on the road to a destination we just looked and didn't partake.

Well that had to be the longest, windiest, hilliest road we've ever been on and guess whose turn it was to drive!  And so we have no pictures! The road was so windie that it limited the length of trucks and RVs as they couldn't make the sharp turns.   Well our old girl handled very well.   The passes through the Cascade Mountain Range were very deep into the forest so not as much the distant views as the beauty of being enveloped by the tall, deep green trees.

It was about 7 PM when we went over the last mountain pass and there was the Pacific Ocean.  We made it from the East Coast to the West Coast in exactly one month.  We left Pennsylania during Hurrican Kate and arrived in Newport, Oregon torrential rain and 60 mile/hr gale winds.  We stayed right under the Yaquina Bay Bridge between the ocean and the bay and swayed with the wind all night long. This fabulous art deco jewel was the last bridge built in 1936 and final connection for the coastal highway 101.
This was the first real rain we had since the east coast except for a little rain in Wisconsin and Montana.  Not bad. 

Over the mtn and there was the Pacific just in time for sunset!

Caught up on some paper (computer) work in the morning and heard a knock at the door.  We don't know anyone in Newport and just got here so we really haven't met anyone???? It was Clay (Our RV campground Host) who wanted to take us for a tour of the area. So 10 minutes later we hopped in his car and off we went.  He is a retired gentleman and he and his wife live and work here for 5 months out of the year and travel the other months. We wandered up the coast line of the lake and he pointed out oyster beds and Alaskan fishing boats and gave us some history of the land as well as some of his personal history.  He served in the Navy during the Korean War for 2 years when he was only 16 yrs old.   He showed us how the dungeness crabs were caught and how to tell a male from female.  You can only keep the males.  And the big fat male sea lions were sunning themselves right by the pier.  They are kind of ugly cute and very noisy. They go down to California in the summer to mate with the ladies and bring any male offspring back up to colder waters of Oregon with them in early September. Guess this allows them to spend a hassle-free winter just with the guys.  Another of the Lord's special wonders.

Hurry before they escape!

Just lounging around.

Great seafood lunch and famous Newport Rogue beer

Just a few fishing boats!!!!

Clay dropped us off in town.  We were going to go on a whale watch boat but there was a storm out in the ocean so the boat wasn't going out for a few days. We had a great day wandering through the shops and had  a late lunch overlooking the fishing boats in a restaurant run by the fishermans' wives.   Local fish and chips and dungeness crabcakes, along with Rouge Dead Man Beer and Tangerine Wheat Beer.   Yumm!

Campsite was right under this bridge!

Thousands of crab traps waiting for Dec. 1 crab season

One side of street fish- Other side shops

Marcia Draper's twin at our lunch place

Uh Oh!!!!

Oh and the sun came out around noon and it was a beautiful day once again.

Happy Birthday

Could easily get comfortable in one spot but we must move on.  So much move to experience.  The road from Coeur d Alene was pretty bland (though I finally got Jeff to play "Going to California and gonna bring......) until we entered the Columbia River Gorge and The Dalles in Washington State.  Passed quite a few wind turbines, supposed to be about 3,000 of them.  Much better spot for them here on a butte with alot of wind instead of the Nantucket Sound.

Mt Hood

We arrived in Bend, Oregon early evening and had a great dinner by the Deschutes River where we ate outside in the Old Mill District. A four course meal of shrimp, dungeon crab, chowder, caesar salad, fried oysters, salmon, mousse, and peach ice cream.  This is becoming a food tour.  Love eating the local foods! 
Another beautiful day in Oregon!  In the 90's- can you believe it?  We drove about 1/2 hr out of town to the Dechutes National Forest and into the Newberry National Volcanic Monument  Forest to the Pauline Lake and East Lake, suggested to us by a fellow in an RV supply store in town.   These are two Volcano Crater Lakes which we found after traveling up, up, up, and around and around about 7,000 ft till we finally plateaued and found several State campsites. This is when you appreciate your camper and all its amenities including generators when it's cold in the morning. We selected Little Crater Campsite and it was a winner. Right on the lake and so we just relaxed and watched the sun set over the mountains and lake. Quiet Birthday for Jeff but what does one want at 65!  Beautiful sunset, lamb shishkabobs for dinner, some great white wine, and a wife that loves him!

Little Crate Lake Campsite

Painting My Toenails

Birthday Boy