Crater Lake in snow

9/9/2010 

Crater Lake Lodge after dinner

Sunrise over Crater Lake, OR

Big disappointment. I was up several times in the night looking out my pricey deluxe lake view room window to see stars, or even better stars and moon reflected on the lake. No such luck. At about 5am, it seemed a little clear sky window opened up directly above the Lodge and I could see some bright stars but no lake. We showered and hurried downstairs and outside into freezing rain and visibility of about 15 feet.



We went back inside the Great Hall and had some complimentary coffee and hot tea and watched the lake view out the windows near the big fireplace. There were 2 very brief periods when the clouds blew out from over the lake and then it would cloud back over. Somewhere the sun was rising because it became daylight within our clouds but we did not see a sunrise! By 6:45am the lobby and hall area were getting pretty busy. I don’t know if I mentioned it last night, but we were the 3rd reservation to check in at the dining room. We were called 3rd after 5pm and opening arrived. This meant that we did not get a table by a window because there are only 2 two-tops by the windows and they will not seat 2 at a four-top.

I was determined to get a 2-top by the window this morning so I went and stood by the podium at a few minutes to 7am. The girl there turned out to be the coffee/tea girl and we had already visited. She checked the time when I walked up and told me it would be a few minutes, I told her I knew and I would wait. I think she knew I wanted to be sure to sit by a window, since that was what I was doing from 5:30am to 7am! At 7:01am she walked us to the best window table for 2. Mission accomplished! We watched for 30 minutes as rain turned into what we in Raleigh would call a blizzard. It just kept coming down, we could see snow accumulating outside and decided like many others we overheard to just hustle on down the mountain and out of the snow.

time to go...

I had the Crater Lake Eggs Benedict which was not too good, the Hollandaise was transparent and watery, they put a slice of tomato on them and the English Muffins were sourdough, which I don’t like. Clay had 2 eggs fried with toast, Marionberry jam and he paid $2 extra to have Bison hash, since the waitress last night convinced him to have lamb chops over Bison Prime Rib. He thought the Bison Hash tasted funny. It looked the same as my hash browns, or fried potatoes, and I thought mine tasted normal. Since he had paid the extra $2 for Bison in his hash browns, he picked out every bite of the meat and left a big pile of taters! Anyway, he spent the rest of the day in gastric distress and looking for restrooms everywhere we stopped.

West Rim Drive

We checked out an hour early and rather than try any further sightseeing, we drove the West Rim drive out of the park in very low visibility. We were hoping that we might find some pockets of clearing like we did yesterday afternoon, but no such luck! We never got a peak at anything other than road and snow! After going down a couple thousand feet in elevation we left snow, and sleet and visibility improved and it rained on and off pretty much all the way to Salem.

a viewpoint on West Rim Drive

leaving viewpoint on West Rim Drive

We wound up making very few stops driving to Portland today. It is sad but it is the weather and you take what you get. We did stop at one or two places on the Rogue-Umpqua National Scenic Byway (the other, curvy end of Hwy. 138) to I-5 when there was a break in the rain and I will post photos when we get home. Immediately after we merged into I-5 traffic and settled into the flow, we ran into a couple of long and extra-long tractor-trailers. I don't think trucks are allowed to pull 3 trailers at once in NC! Anyway, just as I finished pulling past the 3-trailered truck and was about to pull back to the right, we entered a bridge with very narrow shoulders and concrete walls on either side. There was a MAN staggering down the road in the right lane! I watched the rear view mirror in horror as the extra-long truck swerved to try to avoid hitting the man as well as not knock the rest of the passing traffic off the bridge. I did not see any accidents, but what a nightmare! Who needs coffee with excitement like this in the morning to get your heart pumping? When we came around the front of the truck, I said, MAN! Clay sat up and grabbed his camera thinking I thought there was a good view atop the bridge. He was looking out the side windows and said where... I nearly screamed MAN in the road! I don't know how those trucks missed hitting him or another car to get around him. I can't imagine what was wrong with that guy to be walking in traffic on an Interstate Highway!


Umpqua River




Another Umpqua River view




Colliding Rivers Visitors Center


We had another little panic as we tried to find a place by the Interstate to get Internet access around 12:30pm and the 24-hour mark for online check-in for our Southwest flights tomorrow. We finally got logged on near Albany, I think, through a Super 8 Motel’s wi-fi while parked in a McDonald’s parking lot.

We drove on to Salem and had lunch at a Shari’s Restaurant. We had been seeing signs for these places but had not seen one or stopped at one. We both thought of Perkin’s when we walked in to face a pie case and saw the sign for free pie on Weds. 4-10pm with dinner. But, Shari’s serves beer and wine and we’ve never seen that at Perkin’s. We both had the lunch trio. It was either $7.99 or $8.99, we each had a different price in our menus. I had soup, turkey sandwich and chocolate pie. Clay had salad, chicken salad sandwich and peach cobbler, with NO ice cream!

We drove about another hour to get to our destination the Red Lion Inn at the airport. Traffic was horrific for the last 30 minutes of that going 20mph in a 55mph zone in 3-4 lanes bumper to bumper. It was like rush hour! It was only around 3pm though. We decided that we would not attempt any more tourism in Portland. (As we were driving under a hanging cable car somewhere over Portland that we had no idea existed and by a black submarine docked in the Willamette River!) Anyway, the plan now was that we would get repacked for flying! Clay would get his treadmill workout at the Red Lion Inn. We would go out to dinner and try to get a good night’s sleep. In the morning we would get up at a reasonable hour and go to breakfast. Clay has been dying to eat a chain called Pig n Pancake and there is one here in Portland. I want to go back to Voodoo Doughnuts and get a dozen to carry home, though they may all get eaten tomorrow on the planes since we will on board for both lunch and dinner. We will get back to Raleigh near midnight tomorrow. Frankly, it will be good to be home. While we have been very impressed with everything Oregon, this has been a hard vacation. Since we have been without Internet for more than half of this trip, I will have to come back into this blog and edit to add photos after we get home and that will probably be the last work I do on this blog. This is probably the last entry then.