Fort Clatsop and driving south on Hwy. 101

9/6/2010

We had a big breakfast included in our rate at Grandview Inn in Astoria. It included fruit juice, coffee, a big fresh mixed fruit bowl, a big toasted cheesy whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and lox, and a fruit muffin. We ate with the only other couple that appeared to be there overnight last night. They were from Tucson and were also heading to Ft. Clatsop first thing this morning. Coincidentally, they will also be at Crater Lake on Wednesday night, but not at the Lodge. They were a lovely couple and we had much in common. Breakfast was nice.

But, this reminded us of our week on Cruise West’s Spirit of ’98 and what we disliked about it. You could never have a meal without sitting at a table with 6 to 8 people. Even if you tried to sit with one or two familiar couples, it was always like a social networking 2 hours! Only if you ate the Early Riser Breakfast Buffet in the lounge did you have any hope of sitting alone or as a couple and even then there was no guarantee. I guess we are just way too antisocial! On a related note, we are not sure why but the further from the door we sat in the dining room of Spirit of '98, the slower the service. Even at the first closest table to the door, it was a full hour from the time you were seated until you got a waffle, or egg, or bowl of oatmeal or whatever you ordered. If you were at the last table in the dining room from the door, dinner would be well over 2 hours and might only be 2 or 3 courses, with no one at the table ordering the full possible 4 courses. Anyway , breakfast this morning reminded us of why we decided not to repeat the Cruise West experience.

Ft. Clatsop - Flintlock demonstration

Lewis & Clark's Netul Landing

Back to today... We arrived at Lewis & Clark’s Fort Clatsop shortly after it opened at 9am. Today was the last day of the year that they were having interpretive experiences! Lucky! We bought an Oregon Pacific Coast Passport for $10 for 5 days. That should cover our entry and parking at just about all the state and federal fee sites we want to enter as we drive south along the coast this week. We watched a film and went through the exhibits in the Visitor's Center and then we walked down the path to the replica fort and spoke to the costumed interpreters about life at the fort in the time of Lewis & Clark. We watched a flintlock demonstration. The guy got a smoke ring from his shot, it blew over our heads and then the prevailing breeze blew it back to him before it dispersed. Not sure if we got a photo that shows that. (Nope! Sorry!) It was pretty incredibly unlikely! Both guides were shocked and thrilled; they said they had worked all summer to perfect it for their last day! We walked down to the water and listened to a ranger discussing the Lewis & Clark expedition putting in with their canoes here. The daily program actually said that yesterday was the last day of the kayak tours, but they must have extended it to today. Then we went down to the Netul Landing and watched them haul the kayaks back ashore. It was all very interesting to see and hear especially after a week of listening to Lewis & Clark stories and seeing all the sights all the way from the Snake River in Idaho.

Oswald West Park - That's a long way down!



Bikes in tunnels?!? Too scary!

 We continued driving south on US 101 along the coast. We stopped at just about every viewpoint! Traffic was crazy and so was the road! It clings and curves and swerves and climbs impossibly and then plunges down. The bicyclists along the route must be nuts! There are places where there is nothing but a white line between your right tire and infinity! I cannot imagine what the bicyclists are thinking! You wouldn't catch me over there!

Tillamook Head Lighthouse

Ecola State Park

Our next big stop was Ecola State Park. It was crazy scenic! Beautiful! Ridiculous narrow curving winding roads in a tunnel of creepy trees! Amazing! Then Tillamook Head, Tillamook Rock Lighthouse visible 12 miles offshore, Ecola Point with the rocks full of sea birds, Indian Beach with dozens of surfers. It was all just incredible.








Ecola State Park



Ecola State Park - surfers



Another creepy forest - Narrow 2-lane road in ESP



Seaside - Seafoam!

Next big stop was the town of Seaside. It was crazy crowded on this last day of the summer beach season. It is very popular and has what we imagine is a Coney Island feel. We walked down to the turnaround at the beachfront to see the statue of Lewis & Clark. We had lunch at Tsunami Sandwich Co. We had locally brewed sodas and I had a grilled Tillamook cheese sandwich and Clay had Pastrami on marbled rye. It was a tasty and filling lunch. They had Tillamook ice cream, but Clay decided to wait! We went to the Seaside Aquarium because we had a coupon to feed the seals free. It was a very compact little aquarium with lots of touch tanks. We really didn’t want to touch anything! The seals don’t eat biscuits! Eeuw! They eat little chopped up fish. I threw a lot of pieces and then Clay did. The seals were very impatient and would splash and bark at us. But, the funniest thing was that they would start out by slapping their bellies loudly to get your attention. If you didn’t hit them with a little fish piece, then they would slap and bark, then escalate to splashing since it didn’t really get them a fish bit.

Lewis & Clark at Seaside, OR

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, OR

We continued on south on US 101 to Cannon Beach where we stopped and got out several times to see Haystack Rock in the surf. We liked Cannon Beach better than Seaside, though it was just as crowded. This area is home to tufted puffins, but it seems they are all gone for the season by August. Boo! We looked though because there were lots of birds!

Haystack Rock with horses on the beach

Garibaldi Train

We stopped in Garibaldi where we saw the steam engine chugging through with the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, photographed the statue of Capt. Gray who was the first known non-native American to set foot on Oregon’s coast as well as to sail around the world.

Capt. Robert Gray statue in Garibaldi, OR

Garibaldi, Oregon

Tillamook Bay, Oregon

Then we bought some fresh local cherries from a vendor who said it was his last day of the season. I hope we find some things still open tomorrow! We called the Best Western in Tillamook from there to see if they had a room for us tonight. They did and so we drove on to Tillamook and the Cheese Factory! Unfortunately, the factory was not in full production today due to it being Labor Day. I don’t think we could have stood it any more crowded though! But, we got to see the ice cream and cheese vats and some packaging of giant squares of cheddar. We got to try samples. The best thing was the Squeaky Cheese! It is fresh cheese curds that squeak against your teeth when you chew them! We bought a bag. They only sell Tillamook Squeeky Cheese right there at the factory, so it is a real delicacy. With the late lunch, cheese curds and cherries we have dinner tonight. There were only 2 real restaurants in Tillamook and so we just decided to picnic in the room. Cheese and cherries! Yum. (More on this later.)

Tillamook Cheese factory - That's some BIG cheese!

Tillamook Squeeky Cheese!!!

So, I am inserting some driving thoughts here. Oregon does not have self-service gas stations! Neither Clay nor I can really remember the last time we did not pump our own gas. The stations are set up the same way as our self-service pumps at home. The credit card gets inserted right into the pump and then you pick your octane and pump, and then it spits out a receipt. But, you sit in the car and an attendant does all the work. Once we got the windshield cleaned (on a rainy day when we really didn't need it since the wipers had been running all day!) and another time when they actually asked to check under the hood (but we were on our way to turn the car back in at the airport, so no). Another observation is that pedestrians really have the right of way here, not like in Raleigh! Lastly, the Mercury Grand Marquis drives like a living room sofa, but it is comfortable seating, so I guess a good car for a road trip. But, man I miss my little corner-hugging SLK on these crazy winding narrow lanes! If Clay is scared, he's not saying anything!

Tomorrow morning we plan to start out taking the Three Capes Loop before returning to our southbound drive down 101. The map in the lobby here describes the Three Capes drive as thrilling. I certainly hope it does get any more thrilling than today’s drive was! So, it looks like we only made it about ¾ of the way down the North Coast. We started at mile 0.0 of Oregon Hwy. 101 in Astoria at the Astoria-Megler Bridge and we stopped for the day at mile 65. We will have to exit 101 at somewhere between mile 190 and mile 270 to get over to a road to go to Crater Lake. It looks like we will need to get the lead out to make it to Crater Lake Lodge by Wednesday evening! Well, we always knew we weren’t going to have time to do everything we wanted to do here.

Clay is getting less enamored of his big idea of traveling America on non-Interstates and never going more than 50 miles a day. I don’t mind it much. But, it is a pain to pack and unpack every day and get organized in a different place every day. We are in a Best Western right now and it seems similar to Red Lion which makes it easier than last night at the Grandview Inn. But, it seems like that uniformity would get boring after a while. It seems like missing something of local interest and part of experiencing the place where you are at the moment. I guess the other argument is for some regularity, familiarity, and peace of mind in the routine every night when you stop for the day. The other issue is that probably only in the chain motels/hotels can Clay get to use the treadmill before and after the drives, if their hours allow it. He did morning and evening hours at the Red Lion Inn in Portland and he has gotten in his walk time this evening. Best Western’s fitness center is posted as opening at 8am, so not sure if we will hang around here long enough for that. I can see both sides of this argument and if we ever take Clay’s dream road trip, I don’t know how we would handle this aspect. Time for sleep. I will post this and try to keep up again tomorrow. Pictures after we get back home, promise!