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.

Crater Lake, Oregon

9/8/2010

Red Lion Inn's Hot Pancake Dispenser!

Clay was up first this morning and told me to get up at 6am. I showered and we packed up and loaded the car… in the rain! We drove around to the Red Lion Inn lobby building to check out and have the $4.99pp Get Roarin’ Breakfast. This was worth it because of the pancake vending machine! Did you ever even imagine such a thing? You put your plate under a roller on one end and push a button to order 2 pancakes. (You really can’t have just one! One is not an option.) In about 1.5 minutes the first edge of pancake appears and slowly rolls out and flops onto your plate, quickly followed by the second pancake. I had pancakes! I also had a sausage patty, a bacon slice, water and a coffee with cocoa mix. Clay had orange juice, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, toast, a Danish and a cinnamon roll; no pancakes.

Covered Bridge Museum near Dexter/Lowell, OR

Then we got an early start on our 2.5 hour drive to Crater Lake, Oregon. We started out southbound on I5 to Hwy. 58 to to Hwy. 97 to Hwy. 138. It sounds complicated, but it wasn't because there aren't that many roads to Crater Lake.

Tunnel! Look at that guardrail!

The drive was very scenic. It rained off and on the whole way, at the highest elevation we could see snowflakes on the windshield. We climbed to over 5000 feet and saw rivers, lakes, a rainbow, water falls, a covered bridge, a dam, a deer with fuzzy antlers and miles of wildly curving roads and thousands of evergreen trees. Needless to say I drove again today.

Rainbow over Odell Lake, OR

Hwy. 138 - That is a straight road!

We're here!

We arrived at the North Entrance to Crater Lake National Park at around 10am. Check in time at the Lodge is 4pm, so we took the long drive around the East Rim. The ranger who sold us our pass told us to be careful as visibility was poor today! She said that it was rainy inside the rim. Well, she was right and wrong. The sun came and went. Rain came and went and turned into sleet and into snow and back into rain and then sun again. The high today is about 46 degrees F. It is quite comfortable when the sun comes through and quite miserable when the sleet is blowing sideways, under the shade, or even inside of a cloud. We are satisfied anyway. It would have been nice to be able to use the rocking chairs on the back porch of the lodge, but they are soaked. The NPS forecasters are not predicting that it will clear out tomorrow morning either. Too bad. Still hoping for a good sunset and sunrise.


Pumice desert along Crater Lake North Entry



Our 1st view of Crater Lake with Wizard Island

Beautiful Crater Lake, Oregon

Around 12:30pm to 1pm we ran into sun, so we stopped and sat on the wall overlooking Pumice Castle and Phantom Ship and had a little picnic of cherries, Nabs, almonds, Raisinets and water. As we sat there we watched a cloud come over the high part of the rim on the opposite side. We wondered if it would slip on down or burn off in the sun and dissipate. We sat and watched as it dropped down all the way to the surface of the lake and darkened its way across towards us. Clay kept saying it would burn off, but I guessed as it reached the midpoint that we had about 3-5 minutes to clear out. We abandoned post shortly after a tiny ground squirrel ran under our legs and we started to get wet. It was pretty amazing and spectacular. Crater Lake is 5 miles in diameter. There are no inlets or outlets. It is 1943 feet deep and the 7th deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the USA. Wizard Island on the west side of the lake is a cinder cone that rises 760 feet above the water and at the top is a crater 300 feet across and 90 feet deep. How amazing is that? It’s a small crater at the top of a small extinct volcano inside the crater of a huge extinct volcano.

Here comes the rain!



Uh-oh!



Wildlife!




More wildlife...



Phantom ship rock formation in Crater Lake



Clay and Debbie (and Bob) at Crater Lake, OR


We reached the Rim Village about 2pm and went into the Steel Visitor’s Center and watched the 18 minute film about the creation of the crater and the park. Then we drove on to the Rim Village Gift Shop and Café. We walked around the amazing viewing area there and then drove on to the Lodge.

There it is!

We arrived at about 3pm and we were able to check in so we did. We got room 212, a deluxe lake view room which is what we had reserved and paid for months ago. It’s view is partially blocked by trees, but that may be true of most of the rooms. We brought in our luggage and checked out the room, then went back out because it looked out our windows like the sun was out.

What a view for these little guys!

Just spectacular!

We opened the back door off the Great Hall and got a face full of slushy rain. We zipped up and walked down the little paved and benched lookout area back there anyway and we were rewarded with a rainbow touching down right in the lake. Amazing! It was a snowbow! We did not hurry back in, but once back in we dried out in rocking chairs in front of a huge fireplace with gas logs burning. There were waitstaff wandering offering to serve snacks and hot and alcoholic beverages, but we passed to save our appetites for dinner.

a snowbow!



Wizard Island, Crater Lake Oregon



Drying out and warming up in Crater Lake Lodge Great Hall

We have a 5pm reservation and I have to go now to wake Clay from his nap and get down to the dining room. More later. Oh, there is no Internet here, though oddly enough when we drove through Mazama Camping Village they had wi-fi symbols up along with restrooms, etc. and that hardly seems right given the price premium at the lodge. It isn’t like they don’t have it, there is a wi-fi network up and running in the Lodge, they just aren’t allowing guests access! So we’ll have to post after we get back to Portland tomorrow!


Our Crater Lake sunset 


Back from dinner and it has at last stopped precipitating. But, we are still socked in with low clouds so we just got a few moments of the faintest few splotches of pink on the lake. Bummer! Still have fingers crossed for a brilliant sunrise over the lake. When we went out after dinner the temperature had dropped to 35 degrees F and even though it was no longer blowing or wet, it was cold!

Dinner in the dining room was good, not great and very expensive. Over $120 for the 2 of us with 2 drinks, 3 courses and tip. Clay couldn’t decide and let the waitress lead him astray with the lamb recommendation. He immediately regretted it. But he ate it all and part of my Classic Chicken Dijon with a polenta cake and braised greens. I had French onion soup to start and it was not great, but hot soup on a cold wet day is always good. I had flourless chocolate torte with raspberry sauce for dessert. Clay had a salad with Marionberry vinaigrette and Gorgonzola to start and triple berry crumble with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Clay told me to make sure I came back here and added that he paid $4.95 extra for a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the $7.95 cobbler! I had the Crater Lake Lodge Private Reserve Label Pinot Gris to drink and Clay had an IPA draft beer from some microbrewery in Ashland, OR, sorry don’t remember the name.

So, anyway that was our big finale vacation day. Not a total washout, but less than hoped for. Tomorrow we hope for excellent weather here in Crater Lake and then we will drive out on a different route before returning to I-5 for the run back to Portland. We have a room reserved tomorrow night at the Airport Red Lion Inn and we have no plans for anything in Portland. We will have to see how time and weather are if we do anything else here, or there, or between here and there. Good night.

Highway 101 South in the rain

9/7/2010

I can’t believe I forgot to comment on the weather yesterday! We finally lost our sunny clear weather and woke up to typical Oregon coast weather. It was low thick clouds and random drizzle most of the day. We had a short period of clear sunshine while we were at Seaside and that was it. Unbelievably I sunburned my face in that time! Today looks to be the same. We went to bed with a view of mountains and woke up to a view of clouds/fog beyond the parking lot. Not too scenic. Hope things improve!

Well, here I am 12 hours later and things did not improve, but worsened dramatically! It was all wet and gray today. The sun never shined at all anywhere that we were. We were really lucky with our beautiful clear weather the first week here in Oregon. So, we are happy. We will be even happier if we wake up to a clear 24 hours tomorrow. It will be very sad if the only 24 hours we have to spend at Crater Lake are spent seeing nothing but the inside of a cloud! So, we set off a little later this morning because Clay slept in. He used the treadmill at the Best Western the night before and it did not reopen until after 8am. Complimentary breakfast was at 7am and it looked nice with eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon and biscuits and gravy. But, the coffee was so weak I actually first thought it was a bad carafe of tea. But, I tried the pot at the front desk and it was only slightly better. So, I really missed my dose of caffeine. We did not eat the breakfast there, so maybe it was all bad.

Clay had walked to Fred Meyer the evening before with the idea of getting himself a Diet Coke, but he got sidetracked by a Party platter of Marionberry coffee rolls and a tub of Maple French Toast Twists in the bakery section and bought those and forgot his beverages. It was enough food for four and that is what we ate last night and again for breakfast, with the rest of our squeaky cheese and we’re still working on the 2 pounds of cherries! I also think I forgot to say that we bought and ate Sea Foam at Seaside yesterday. It is like a Cadbury Violet Crumble bar, but not as good, too much chocolate. Anyway, we tried some for the first time after lunch. I remembered it when we saw so much real sea foam today!

So, we started out from Tillamook thinking that as the sun warmed things up that it would clear up. But, it didn’t at all. So we started out to head for the Cape Meares area to do the Three Capes Scenic Loop drive along the coast. But since visibility was so low we decided it would be a waste of time and we would just hurry down 101 and go to the aquarium at Newport. We did not realize that the aquarium is mostly outdoors! Oh well.



Clay at Munson Creek Falls

On our way, I spotted a sign for Munson’s Creek Falls and Clay looked it up and it was the highest falls on the Oregon Coast at over 300 feet. It was a good slog through rainy woods, but it was worth it. (That is from memory, the route map is out in the car and I am not going back out in the rain now! If it needs to be corrected, I will do it when I come back and paste in photos. Sorry! Inserting here with photos and that is all correct.)

Another creepy forest trail to falls



Oregon seashore this morning



Siletz Bay

blowhole at Depoe Bay, OR

We stopped to look at a spouting whale statute at Depoe Bay, since you could barely see the surf there for the sea spray and rain and fog that would surely be the only whale we would sight spouting there. I did see one dolphin leap over a wave crest though, amazingly. I was watching waves to try to count off for Clay to photograph a blow hole there and just happened to see one. We stopped at Rocky Creek Scenic area. It was very scenic.

low visibility at Cape Foulweather lookout - go figure!

We stopped at Cape Foulweather and admired the fog as we read the signs telling us to look down for sea lions on the rocks and to the left for Yaquina Head Lighthouse and we saw nothing beyond the fence except fog! It lived up to its name. Another classic on a clear day moment for us!

Yaquina Bay Bridge

Devil's Churn

We stopped at Devil’s Churn, which was a cleft in the cliff where the surf would wash up a tunnel it is carving and get all foamy. It was near Otter Rock. This is a noted area for storm watching. I guess we were getting a classic view of loud surf sounds and mostly the inside of a cloud!

Otter feeding

Tufted Puffins

As mentioned earlier we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium at Newport where the famous octopus was apparently off exhibit, but we did see tufted puffins (now tied for my new favorite animal with sea otters). We were there right on time to stand in the rain and watch the sea otters get fed.

Oregon seashore this afternoon

Cape Perpetua Scenic Area

We stopped at Cape Perpetua. We did get to see Heceta Head Lighthouse. So, of all the 9 Oregon coast lighthouses, we were only able to see 2, the rest were lost to the mists and the fact that we cut off the coast at Florence.

Cape Creek Bridge

Heceta Head Lighthouse Scenic Viewpoint

Top side of Cape Creek Bridge - right into tunnel!

Heceta Head Lighthouse

So, we decided to end our time on 101 at Florence and go to the Sea Lion Cave; the World's largest sea cave or something like that. We parked, walked across 101 and went to pay and they informed us that 3 weeks ago all the sea lions had left and there was only 1 in there now after none for weeks! We were offered a $3 discount if we would go down to view the empty cave. We decided not to go down. She had a live webcam showing the one lonely sea lion down there in the cave and we did not think live would be an improvement on the view.  http://sealioncaves.com/home/


So, while it sounds like a washout of a day, it really wasn’t. The drive is dramatic; think Amalfi Coast, then take away the Italians and the stone retaining wall along the edge, then add a lot of bicycles. It was really very scenic. The fog and mist and sea spray just made it all the more dramatic, though probably not any more beautiful since a great deal was completely hidden from us. 

We ate lunch in Newport. We saw a place called Pizza Cucina as we entered town and Clay was hungry for a pizza. We ordered a 10 inch to share. It was a thick crust, which we don’t like, and it was slathered in garlic butter. You could smell it on approach from the kitchen! Not a happy choice for a couple spending a day in a car! So after we needed a palate cleanse, and we did not drive far before spotting an ice cream parlor. I was happy to have a strong peppermint, which did the trick for me. Clay selected a chocolate peanut butter and it only made things worse for him! Anyway, in the car driving inland on 126 to Eugene to spend the night, Clay found a Red Lion Inn in the directory he picked up in Portland and called ahead to book a room. We hope to only be about 2.5 hours from Crater Lake in the morning. We are crossing our fingers that this rain moves out before our time is up in Crater Lake!

dinnertime in Eugene, OR

The hotel desk clerk recommended McMenamins North Bank in Eugene as a good local place to eat dinner and it was. Clay had a tasting tray of 6 beers and I had a Pinot Noir Blanc that was from their own winery and it was good. The food was good. Clay had ribs and I had a southwestern chicken sandwich. Clay had a brownie with ice cream and caram-ale sauce and I had a horrible mocha milkshake. During dinner Clay was yawning and I asked him if he was ready to go home. With huge eyes, he said "I AM ready to go home!" I laughed out loud at him, and he started back tracking about only not wanting to go back to work, just this entire vacation has felt too much like work and he just wants to go home but not to work. Um-hum.

Well, that is it for tonight. Clay just came back soaked from working out on the treadmill and getting ice. This Red Lion Inn has all outdoor entry guest rooms in a bunch of separate buildings and we are far from the ice machine and fitness room. This Red Lion Inn is nowhere near as nice as the one at Portland Convention Center, but it is still so much better than the closet we inhabited on Spirit of ’98; we need to keep that in mind!

I need to put in an endorsement here for http://www.visittheoregoncoast.com/. You can find loads of information there, but even better for road trip purposes you can order a free Official Mile-By-Mile Guide to Hwy. 101. We found it invaluable with its milepost information and the ads and the photos. If you are going to do any part of this drive, go online and order the Guide! You won't be sorry. So, anyway, this is the soggy end of our coast drive!

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!