We made it to San Francisco! We were so excited, with big plans here. Back in Cape Outlook Oregon, we met some interesting folks, the Trojac family from Philly.
It was early evening, and we were working on dinner, when we saw a Tiffin Class A RV with the same color scheme as us pulling into the campground. I felt bad because we had just pulled in, and I knew we got the last spot with hookups. I felt really bad when I noticed that they were towing a Honda Van on a dolly, and their stairs were deployed. (folding stairs leading to front door were extended). Knowing how tight the loop was, I flagged them down and told the driver that their stairs were deployed. He said “oh, my sensor…”. We saw them pull around the loop and take off.
The next day, we were doing the cape lookout hike, on our way back, we passed a family of 5, and I recognized the Dad as the guy with the Tiffin. We started talking, and it turns out the Trojac’s are also on a yearlong sabbatical. They are from Philly, and started their trip in June. We chatted for a few minutes, exchanged contact info, and vowed to connect later.
Well we had a few near misses with meetups with the Trojacs and it finally happened in San Fran. We decided to meet them there, camp in the same campground, and do Halloween together. It was great to socialize with another family with kids, and naturally, we have a lot in common to talk about wrt our trips. They are trying to hit all 50 states, and as such are going to Hawaii from LA. They also took a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska, which was neat to hear about.
At any rate, it made for a fun Halloween. We went to Alcatraz (which is run by the National Parks), and the kids were able to take advantage of the “Junior Ranger” program there. Once we got back home, we went over to the Trojac’s house for dinner. Mike T had asked around about places to trick-or-treat, and we considered going downtown, but didn’t want to fight traffic and/or parking. One of the full-time campers at our campground, suggested a neighborhood 10 minutes away and gave us directions. It was a really nice, older neighborhood, evoking memories of Webster Groves, tucked into the city of San Rafael. Lots of young families, and a tight knit area. The place is called Grestle Park.
Several of the houses were totally decorated in themes… huge spider web, with the spider from LOTR, including dead trick-or-treaters (skeleton bones in costumes). The French Revolution, with Marie Anionette in the guillotine. GhostBusters theme, actually playing the movie on a 20 foot screen. It was great fun.
Alcatraz was great, and even though Kim and I had visited 16 years ago, I still learned some things (or re-learned perhaps). I love the audio tour, especially the stories of escape attempts. The kids really enjoyed it too, and didn’t seem to be scared at all, just fascinated.
The following day, we moved Campgrounds to a place closer to the airport, and got ready for our first visitor, Nana Kane (Kim’s mom) was coming Saturday morning and staying until Tuesday Morning.
Alcatraz pics:
Our ship. These guys get over a million visitors per year. At least 3 of these boats.
Our Tickets… expect to spend 100 bucks for a family of 4
Cool scale model of the island with info on each area.
Learning something over there.
Model of the guns originally outfitting the island to defend the bay during the Civil War. They were never needed.
Love this quote. “Chew on the bitter end of treason”.
Old watch tower.
Still fascinated by the Indian occupation after the federal prison closed.
National Parks!
I wonder how many times they repainted this and re-painted the indian graffiti?
Typical cell, empty
Audio Tour! Love it!
The guards who narrate the audio tour.
Kim, working on Kane’s audio tour which got out of whack.
Photo op
She LOVED the audio tour.
Copy of the rules/regulations for Alcatraz
Interesting, that the inmates became obsessed with Bridge, and figured out how to play by themselves with dominoes?
Rec Yard. Nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge, but they only got 2.5 hours on Sat and Sun
From the door of the rec yard
Cell Block “D”. Nobody wanted to be here because it was dark, wet, and cold. The Birdman, Robert Stroud stayed here.
Famous cell block “D” inmates.
Story of this escape attempt is amazing.
Example bar spreader.
The gun gallery, where it all began.
Floor where you can still see grenade damage from the battle.
Pipe chase where the found the escapees after the battle. (dead)
The much desired sunny east side of the prison.
View of the city. They say on New Years eve, the inmates could hear the party at the yacht club.
Guard Uni… called them red ties.
Stepped outside for a breath of fresh air.
They never found two of these guys… brilliant escape.
The movie “Escape from Alcatraz” was based on this one.
Jr Ranger Program!
Jr Ranger!
I don’t think Kim would have agreed to go if not for these badges!
Waiting to board the boat back to the city
Golden Gate Bridge from the boat
Bye Bye Alcatraz
I thought this was sweet. Kat was tired (we all were).
Great view of the Golden Gate bridge on the way home
Halloween Pics:
At Trojac’s for dinner
Kids in their “Goodwill” purchased costumes. Ghost Face Zombie, and Ladybug
With their jack-o-lanterns… Kane carved his own, Kat designed her own.
Our kids with Trojac’s… ready for action
First house
Kane’s mask is genius, squeeze a bulb, and blood runs down, but it also runs back down into the bulb… unlimited blood!
Spider house
Dead trick-or-treater at the spider house.
French Revolution House
These guys had a real haunted house… incorporated the backyard, basement, and garage!
Loved the haunted house
Counting loot and deciding what to trade back to Mom and Dad for cash.
Well, we had plans to be in San Francisco for Halloween, and that gave us a couple of days to spend in between the Redwoods and the Bay. We’re finding that the State Parks in CA are not nearly as RV friendly as those in Oregon. After much research, and discussion, we booked a couple of nights in Fort Bragg.
It was OK, but I don’t really recommend it. The RV park was fine, but Fort Bragg was kind of a pain to get to, and some of the sites over-hyped.
On the way in, we debated our route… do we take highway “1” down the coast, or stay longer on 101 South and cut West on “20”? Mapping software seemed to suggest 1, but the RV park directions explicitly call out 101->20. I was trying to minimize our travel time so I could catch the Cards game. Based on Kim’s timeline for the “1” route, and the RV park recommending 20, we took 101 to 20. It turned out to be “dumb luck”. Kim’s estimate of the time was off by about 1/2 hour, but in talking with the RV park managers, we probably would have had to turn around if we had taken 1.
That said, highway 20 was EXTREMELY windy, hilly, and narrow in spots. Thankfully, it was freshly re-surfaced. Drives like the 30 miles on highway 20, makes me very thankful for my 11,000 miles of experience driving the RV!
I felt like somebody didn’t want me to watch the Cardinals game! The game started just as we turned off of 101 and got onto 20. I pulled over, searched the radio (unsuccessfully) for ESPN radio, fired up the MiFi and got ESPN Radio on my phone (using the “tunein” app). So happy I had the game. About 2 minutes in, Wainright was already in a jam, and we lost our AT&T signal. By the time we got it back, it was the bottom of the 3rd, and Cards were down 1-0.
When we got to the RV park, and Kim was checking it, I checked the ATT signal… nothing. Then I fired up the generator to run the TV and check the broadcast signal… nothing. Then Kane was able to get the RV Park WiFi. So we started following the updates on his Kindle. Soon after Matt Holliday hit a game-tying homer.
We got to our campsite, hurried to setup, got the cable TV setup. We had 30 channels, but for some reason FOX was near-complete snow with no audio. I was ready to explode! Thankfully, the Davises who sold us the RV gave us a 30 foot coax cable. I went out, got the long cable, and ran it to the campsite behind us (nobody in it). The FOX signal was “PERFECT”. Yeah! Then the Cards lost the game. (probably my fault).
The next day, we hung out in the morning and did school. Then, after lunch, we headed out for some sight-seeing. First stop, “Glass Beach”. This is where a former landfill has eroded over the years by the waves. It has created a “pebble-like” beach, intermixed with small pieces of glass. The glass has been broken and rounded into little glass pebbles (white, green, amber mostly). Glass Beach was highlighted for us by a Redwoods NP Ranger the week before. I have to say, this has either been “picked over” over time, or it’s the best marketing campaign in the history of Chamber of Commerces. It was really a mediocre beach, smelly, covered with flies, with a modest amount of glass in it.
That said, our kids still enjoyed it, Kane had fun climbing around on the rocks. Kat had fun looking and collecting glass (which she had to put back based on rules). I was glad we found the glass, but ready to go!
Next stop, the Ecological Staircase Nature Trail. This is an area along the coast where within a 3 mile trail, you can experience 5 different eco-systems. Evidently, the coast here is continuously rising over time. Every 100,000 years or so, the whole coast lifts enough to raise the others and create distinct environments for plants/animals.
The highlight, by far, was finding a really cool Bishop Pine tree on the trail. See pics below, but this tree was an amazing mass of twisted branches, all large and strong enough to climb on safely. The whole thing was covered by a canopy of green needles.
We (Kat) found a couple of nice King Bolete mushrooms near the end of the hike, in the pygmy forest. We quickly ate them that night, with our “korean beef” for dinner! Yum! All in all, not a bad place to kill a couple of days, but not a destination.
From the CA state parks site:
Ecological Staircase Trail
This trail takes the visitor on a tour of the geological updrift from the coast to the Pygmy Forest two and a half mile inland. This marine terrace sequence illustrates a successional story unparalleled elsewhere in California. The composition and processes responsible for this unique ecological setting offer a diverse selection of interpretive opportunities.
Jug Handle State Natural Reserve is a special place. Few places on earth display a more complete record of ecological succession. Each of the five terraces represents one stage in a progression of successional environments. Jug Handle, then, is one of the few opportunities to interpret this aspect of the coastal spectrum of ecological succession and landscape evolution.
The material base from which the terraces were fashioned is composed of a uniform body of graywacke sandstone (Bailey and Erwin 1959). Although each terrace has evolved from the same parent material, each has been weathered for different lengths of time. The soils, plants, and hydrologic associations on each terrace are affected by the degree of change the weathering has produced in the sandstone (Fox 1976 p. 5).
The structure of the terraces at Jug Handle is a result of the movement of the earth’s crust (plate tectonics) and the fluctuation of sea level during the Pleistocene. In the last several million years, the continent of North America has moved northwest, and the coastline along the Mendocino coast has risen slowly in relationship to the increase of the sea level brought on by the melting of the continental glaciers. These two factors are massive agents in the shaping of land forms and are rarely seen so clearly outside the desert regions of the world.
The principal sculpturing agent at Jug Handle has been the sea. During periods of the Pleistocene when the glaciers were retreating northward, sea level rose more rapidly than the land was rising. As the pounding waves were uplifted onto the land, they fashioned a smooth underwater terrace. With renewal of glaciation, the waves slowly receded as the sea level fell.
Deposits of gravel and sand (beach material) were spread across the emerging terrace by the retreating waves (Jenny 1973 p. 8). Continued uplifting raised the terrace clear of subsequent rises in sea level. In this fashion, new terraces were created where older ones had existed. Terrace No. 5 (the oldest) was once at the elevation now occupied by No. 4 and so on.
This repetitive sequence proceeded at intervals of approximately 100,000 years and involved about 100 feet of uplift to form each of the terraces. The higher the terrace the older it is, and the longer its beach materials have been subjected to weathering.
Another active agent forming the land at Jug Handle has been the wind. Coastal breezes have been depositing beach material on the first terrace where the bluffs are low. Similarly, in the past the seaward edge of each terrace was covered with dune-building material that is now ancient.
Pics!:
Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, it took some time to actually find the much ballyhooed glass.
Found some glass!
Kane is the consummate optimist. I can’t claim any portion of this trait, other than he’s compensating for my bad example.
Kat was happy, until we made her put the glass back. There was a big sign saying “no collecting glass”.
I love watching her getting into Nature. She loves it!
Kanes looking for some sealife in there.
Any chance to climb is taken advantage of
Gotta see a “pygmy” forest
Excited to do our hike!
Hopeful that we can go back to “Clowlick’s Ice Cream” that we saw when we went to the post office (we didn’t)
Found a tree to climb.. this was not a dead tree, but a branch that had grown into the ground.
Trail started along the beach/cliffs in a scrubby area
Kim was concerned…
Watching the waves crash in, and watching roll away again
Found the coolest climbing tree ever… Bishop Pine
Climbing the pine
Those cones are huge and attached directly to the branches
This is our new favorite tree ever. Second one is on the Wash U campus.
You’d swear this was 10 trees rather than one.
Loving It
Even I could not resist this tree!
Manzanita Bark… love this stuff
Manzanita Tree. Kane does not recommend the fruit!
On the trail in the second tier. This area was still scrubby, but was covered with plants.
Pygmy Pine tree, full grown at about 7 feet tall.
Typical fo the middle of this hike.
We were racing the sun on the way back.
Nice view once we made it back to the shore
After the hike/dinner, we started carving our pumpkins. We decided to get them cleaned out, and do smores, rather than finishing the jack-o-lanterns this night. It was a fun evening!
She still loves to get her hands dirty.
He still does not love to get his hands dirty, but he’s come a long way!
We spent a couple of days in the Redwoods National / State Parks. Camped in a commercial RV park (so I could have cable and World Series). It was a nice place.
The hike in the Jedediah Smith State Park (Boy Scout Tree Hike), was a real highlight. These trees are up to > 2000 years old, and MASSIVE. It’s surreal walking amongst these giants. They’ve been used in many movies including Star Wars (Return of the Jedi… home of the Ewoks).
I’ve determined that a tree can be “just as” unique and majestic as a mountain. I love the sense of history that I get realizing that these trees where alive in Biblical times. Kids love climbing, crossing fallen logs, and hunting for mushrooms. We all loved this hike!
Boy Scout Tree Hike / Stout Grove
The following day, Kim got some alone time, and I took the kids mushroom hunting. We only found one Chanty, but we had a good time nonetheless, and saw lots of other “stuff”. (including a tiny frog).
Mushroom Hunt / French Hill
In the “mixed emotions category”, Kat told me the best thing about hugging me is “I don’t have breasts”. Kim’s been trying to get her to stop head-butting her when she’s coming in hard for a hug. I took the compliment in stride, and didn’t have the heart to tell her she was wrong on multiple points.
Ho hum, you’ve seen one Volcano that blew it’s top creating a perfect crater, subsequently filled with melted snow to become a pristine lake, you’ve seen’m all.
The video running on the 1/2 hour at the visitor center says that just 7700 years (in geological terms, yesterday) ago, Crater Lake was Mount Mazama. In fact, the indiginous indians, claim to have handed-down eyewitness accounts of the fateful event.
Scientists estimate that what took millions of years to create, caved in over the course of 2-3 hours. Well, we spent our 2-3 hours there, and it was amazing… crystal clear, blue sky, no wind (water was mirror like), mid 60’s… perfect hiking weather. Some locals assured us that we were seeing it “at its best”.
All that said, the State Park that we chose to camp in based on proximity to the lake probably equaled the lake in my mind. It was perfect. Large, treed campsites. Full hookups. Lush grass. Bike trails. Deer. Firepit. Mixed forests with falling leaves. A lake. Amazing stars at night. I could go on and on, but within 5 seconds of being setup in camp, I felt the last little bit if stress leave my body. It was perfect. (except for no tv or wifi, but you can’t have it all!).
Check out these pics! The kids are getting back into taking pictures, since Kane bought himself a camera, and Kat dusted off her DS (that she bought from Kane). Kane had a blast taking pics of the lake, and his camera has a built-in “paranorma” (he pronounced it… really “Panorama”) mode which was perfect for the lake.
We drove up to the visitors center (got in free because we have an annual NP pass), got he lay of the land, drove up to “rim village” to park. At the lunch we packed on the stone wall overlooking the lake. Then we did the the “Garfield Peak Trail” to the top for the exercise, the feeling of accomplishment, and the views. What a day!
After 3.5 months, our hiking shoes are good and broken in!
Kids bikes have to come off the jeep immediately after we are setup (and sometimes before).
This was our yard for a few days… Joseph Stewart State Park… wow!
Our campsite. It was aided by sparseness of the late season, and the face that the loop behind us was closed
Interesting how this sign is totally different from the other NP signs we’ve seen.
Kim and I “almost” had a fight about this sign. We didn’t stop on the way in, and we thought we were going to have to argue about turning around on the way home if we missed it. Turned out moot because we didn’t miss it! Everybody’s a winner.
Kim took this with her iPhone. I thought it was interesting how more saturated the colors were by default. Nice blue water.
Kids with Wizard Island (sunken volcano tip) to the left.
A lot of these are “Just cool” pics of Crater Lake… no story here.
I was laying on the wall, relaxing, while Kim was taking the lunch trash back to the jeep. I notice a couple struggling to take a “Selfie”. I offered (and took) a shot for them, and they returned the favor. Why not, we’re due for a new banner photo for the blog!
Garfield Peak Trail Hike – 3.4 miles round trip, and 1000 ft elevation gain
Junior Ranger in the making
Our lunch spot
Wizard Island
Kim’s learning again!
We spent a lot of time looking at the lake. It was amazing how walking a few feet would completely change the view.
Lots of snow around, and some steep areas down to the lake.
Kids + Snow = Snowballs = TROUBLE
LLao rock. Natives say the crater was created basically by the underworld god (Llao) and the aboveworld god (Skell), having a fireball battle. Llao was mad that an indian princess would not marry him, Skell was sticking up for the indians. This rock formation is called Llao rock for the underworld god.
1/2 of this trail is on the “wrong side” of the peak (no view of the lake). Cool views down into the valley though.
Kanes on the prowl for a photo op.
The Valley south of the lake.
Various views of Wizard Island coming…
Hiking through the snow this time. Parts were slippery.
Parts were muddy too!
Rest break… and some messing with the fish eye (super wide) lens.
Liked the flare.
Kane always wanted to take the lead and shortcuts straight up where possible.
Getting up there!
We got the peak!
Working on her Junior Ranger program. We needed to turn them in at 5:00. Pic taking at 3:45… gotta hustle.
Some nice views up there.
Little outcropping is called “Phantom Ship”, it’s actually as tall as a 6 story building. Kind of messes with your sense of scale?!
Not a bad place for a school lesson?
Could not help getting these of the kids working on their Junior Ranger books in this place.
Kat, working hard.
Zoomed in on the Phantom Ship.
Snapped a few wide-angle shots of the lake on the way back.
If I’d have known catching crabs was so much fun, I’ve have done it years ago.
After we got evicted early from Beverly Beach, we headed south down the coast to Coos Bay. With the Cards making a deep postseason run, and having licked the cable tv setup issue in Portland, I lobbied for a “commercial” campground (non State Park, and thus Cable TV). Kim shut me down. 🙁
Fortunately for me, once we found the State Park, and toured the available spots, there really weren’t any (only one spot long enough for us and it was all the way upfront by the registration). So, Kim (finally) took pity on me and agreed to go to “Oceanside RV Park”, where cable TV was offered. Yay!.
The first afternoon there, I hung out at the RV (some alone time), and Kim took the kids over the beach. Kane came back and announced that “it was the best beach I’ve ever been to!”. I guess the tidepooling was terrific.
The first full day, there Kim had planned to go crabbing (catching crabs). After she talked to a few folks and scoped it out, and she relayed that “it’s been slow”, I pushed pretty hard to skip it and go do a hike or something. I just couldn’t imagine getting a license, renting gear, fumbling our way through learning the technique, spending 3/4 hours, and not getting anything. For the record, though, my heels were not dug in deeply! We compromised and we went crabbing.
The bait shop near the marina was closed, the owner left a note on the door saying “I had to take my kid to the doctor, be back at 12:30”. We need to be crabbing at lowtide… 11:00. I pushed back again, and failed again. Kim ran over to the little place on the dock, and got the scoop. We could rent all the gear there, but we would have to buy a license elsewhere (the Oregon license bureau). We headed over to the bureau. Kim and I had a bit of a mexican standoff. I was trying to get her to go in and get the license (and hence be responsible for doing the crabbing), and she wanted me to do it. We compromised and I went in to get the license.
The ladies at the license bureau were really friendly and helpful (mostly). I got my license, and they took 10 minutes to fill me in on where to go, the regulations, how to id Dungeness, Red Rocks, Male/Femail etc. How to measure them (they gave me a measuring tool). Everything was good, until I asked them to root for the Cardinals that night. One of them was “born in Orange County”, and seemed a little miffed by the request. The license was good 3 days and cost $11.50.
Off to the pier to rent gear. We got the “Crabbing Special”… one “crab ring” (collapsible basket with rope), two “bait bags” (plastic mesh bag for holding bait, two baits (one salmon head, one tuna head), a bucket and a measuring stick. We had borrowed a crab ring (smaller one) from our campground office, so this gave us (in theory), two complete setups. The extra bait and bait bag were 4 bucks, so we were in for $14.
The gals at the license bureau told me not to fish at the dock where the bait shop was… it’s over fished. They told me to go to the other side of the bridge (across the town of Charleston), and find the “T” shaped pier. The super nice guy at the bait shop told me how to get there. So we went there.
When we got there and walked out onto the pier, there were actually 4 docks branching off of the pier. There were boats parked along the outermost docks, and the inner docks were void of boats. It looked like there were people crabbing on each, though not many. We decided to pick the inner dock and avoid the boats altogether. It was a great choice. On this doc, there was one guy with a little girl crabbing. As we walked down, we shouted to him… “do you mind if we join you?”. He said “sure” so we set up just down from them.
Nolan and Cherokee were not first time crabbers, in fact, Nolan grew up in the area, and seemingly has tons of free time. He’s crabbed everywhere in Charleston, and “this spot is the best”. Sounds too good to be true, but great! We had a great time, picking Nolan’s brain, learning the finer points of technique (especially for how to throw out the ring… like a frisbee, then give it a “jerk” after it sinks to make sure it sinks rightside-up), and also how to hold the crabs without getting clawed.
There are varying schools of thought on how often to pull up the rings. We’d heard that the big ones come and go (they don’t hang out on the ring for long periods), so we decided on 10 minutes. We used Kims iphone as our timer, and we were all “Giddy” when we heard the “dog barking” alarm go off on Kim’s phone. Every time we pulled up the rings, we had crabs in the basket! It was soooo fun! Usually, we had 5-10 crabs, some mix of Dungeness and Red Rock, varying sizes. We started out keeping all of the Red Rocks (they are not indigenous to the area, and you can keep any size/sex), and “keeper” dungeoness (5 and 3/4 inches wide across the shell).
We’d pull up the ring, measure any large Dungeness, and throw our loot into a cooler of ice. Later on, we threw the smaller Red Rocks back, and kept our 2 keeper Dungeness, and “larger” Red Rocks.
I apologized to Kim as I was totally wrong about the crabbing. It was fun as heck, and something I’ll remember forever.
Toward the end of the crabbing, Kane (who was careless at times with handling the crabs), had a large Red Rock crab latch onto his pinky! He was screaming, I was trying to put my gloves on, and Kim was shouting at me “help him!”. I was able to get it off after probably 20 seconds, but those suckers are STRONG! It was a good lesson.
One the way home, we stopped at the seafood store and bought some fresh Tuna for a fish fry. We wanted to try to replicate the “Bowpickers” fish-n-chips from Astoria. Then we stopped by the campground office and borrowed their huge stock pot.
That night, boiled the crabs outside over our coleman gas grill, and beer-battered and fried the tuna inside on the stove. All the while watching the Cards game. Ultimately, the crab was too difficult to harvest to be awesome(we understood why “most people don’t bother with Red Rocks”). I don’t eat crab anyway because of a suspected allergy and migraine headaches. The tuna and potatoes were “very good” (not competition for Bowpickers yet). But what a day!
The best ability is availability. See the yellow paper on the door? Closed!
Next best bait shop on the pier. Really nice guys there!
Getting ready… we look happy, but we have no idea what we are doing
Hey, we got a few… small, no keepers, but still felt good
Our bar was really low at first… keeping “any” Red Rock crabs (regardless of sex or size)
Thanks to Nolan, we knew to “tug” the rope after we threw out the crab ring. This ensures the ring drops rightside-up. (it it lands unside-down, it won’t hold the crabs when you pull it up)
Bringing one in… always exciting!
Taking stock. We didn’t care what we got, it was such a beautiful day.
Not bad technique, hand on each claw…
Is it time to bring them up yet?? 10 minues seemed an eternity for Kane.
Nice Haul. We had lots of “near-miss” Dungeoness (1/4 inch too small to keep)
Another slight miss! Good thing we are honest!
Decent technique, but a little hard with small 10 yr old hands…
Kane started bringing them in too!
We’d let the little guys scamper back into the water on their own, it was neat to see
These guys are REALLY strong. There were a few times where I had to just throw them back in vs damage them by wrenching them off the ring (or rope as in this case). Nolan stands at the ready to help. Don’t let the tats fool you, he’s Morman.
We learned eventually the “dump” technique for getting crabs back in the water
Not a great shot, but give you a feel for our view on this day… pretty sweet
Nice one
We got a keeper, folks!
Yeah! These fish-cleaning gloves came in handy (again)
Sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Time to rearrange the cooler and make sure their good and cold. We also let some smaller Red Rocks go
Kat’s new friend Cherokee was happy to play Uno between harvests.
Fresh “claw marks”. Lesson learned.
They could totally do this on their own at this point.
This watched pot almost never boiled. I had to go inside to fry up the tuna (and watch the Cards game)
Happiness is catching your own dinner
Typical time-killing move at the campsite… Biking!
Guarantee, he’s still worried, even though the crab is dead
Time to be boiled, crabbies
One crab stew, coming up!
Love seeing the kids this happy
Starting to float…
Nice bowl of crabmeat
Some of the crabs, cooked and ready to be “shucked”
Beer-battered tuna, yum!
Time to relax and watch the Cards game
The next day, we debated a few options, and ultimately decided on “sand sledding”. The Sand Dunes recreation area (40 miles of sand dunes) was just 1/2 hour north of us. Kim had read a lot about Dune Buggies, Sand Boarding (like snow boarding), and Sand Sledding. We decided that best value in experiencing the dunes would be to rent or buy a sled.
We found a rental place after some searching, and in a moment of clarity opted to rent one sled for “all day” (20 bucks). I figured, we long pole in the tent would be energy to climb the hill, and I wasn’t sure Kat (nor I) would be up for more than 1 run. The sleds are kind of like wake boards (just a wood board with two handles and a fiberglass bottom layer). The guy who rented it to us, gave us a map/directions to a good place, and said “be generous with the wax”. Put it on, and slide the sled on the sand to make it slick.
We drove out (another 10 miles north) to the park, and it was amazing. There were woods, with a short path to a 5 acre lake, and one entire side of the lake was adjacent to a massive sand hill (150 yards long, and > 45% slope down). On the way over, I explained the ground rules of the sled… nobody climbs the hill without the sled. You wanna sled, you get it up the hill yourself, and don’t leave anyone stranded at the top of the hill without the sled. So of course, when we got there, we all immediately climbed to the top of the hill, and I carried the sled. Oh well, it was a good idea.
When we got to the top of the hill, we were treated to a real view of the sand dunes. Sand hills as far as the eye can see, ending at what looked like the ocean. It was amazing and worth the effort by itself.
The backside of the “big hill to the lake” offered some more modest runs, and we decided to cut our teeth there vs the big one. Kane went first. I waxed the board with the “wax for hot weather”.. evidently 70 is hot here. Kane had a nice run down to the bottom of the slope and fell off. He came back, and it was Kat’s turn. She seems to be a natural (and light), so she went about twice as far down the “less steep” part of the hill. Not to be outdone, on Kane’s next run, he started pushing him self down the less steep area with his hands, and managed to go “over the cliff” at the bottom. He went to an area that I could not see, and had not seen. All I heard was a scream, and he disappeared. I waited about 10 seconds, called to Kane, and didn’t get a reply, so I put my camera down and “ran”. He was OK, and had just shot down into a ditch (it was steep, but not that long). Climbing back up was rough! The sand in some areas is very “slippery”. Take a 2 foot step up the hill, and make 6 inches of progress?
After a few more practice runs, we went to the other side (lake side). Kane had a hard time getting going, and I wasn’t sure if it was all the footprints, or lack of wax. (I was not yet convinced the wax was helping much). So I used the regular wax, and put a full coat on. Kane “flew” down the hill. He got to within 30 feet of the lake and had to “ditch”. He flipped 2/3 times (thankfully the board didn’t hit him), and the board slid (by itself) all the way into the lake!
Kane was OK (lost his sunglasses and face covered in sand), and Kat got the board. Kat brought the board up to the top (what a trooper), and announced that she didn’t want her turn. I gave it a go, and had a similar experience to Kane, though I didn’t ditch at 30 feet out, I wiped at 50 feet out. In hindsight a bad idea because my camera bag ended up getting a bunch of sand in it and my camera had sand on it. Thankfully, I don’t think Kim was videoing, otherwise, my pride might have been damaged more than the camera.
It was a great day. It was also the day our dear friend Stephanie got remarried, and as a result, we were getting texts from friends at the wedding. Kim was feeling really low about not being there, and I was spending a lot of time thinking about my buddy Jeff (Steph’s first husband who died). Jeff would have been our biggest fan on this journey, no doubt proud of us. Jeff also would have shredded that sand boarding hill(probably while yodeling and wearing a sombrero).
We arrived at the suggested sand sledding place. The hill was a bit ominous across the lake
For 20 bucks, you can rent these babies for a day
Almost like a wooden wakeboard?
Climbing the hill. There is a “trail” through trees which is easier and convenient from the parking lot
Treated to quite a view of the dunes from the top!
Never seen anything like this, except maybe a movie where somebody is lost in the desert
Looking back at the lake from the hill. We decided to sled the back side first for some practice
Ready to go!
Kat, headed down the hill
She just kept going, and going, and going!
Harder than it looks, coming back up
Kane, didn’t quite make it as far as his sister, ouch!
Yes, I’m at the bottom of the hill now, Kane dissappeared and I freaked out
He’s fine!
Ready for the Varsity hill
Weeeeee
Kim was solemn, wishing she was in STL at Steph and Brads wedding
The board served as a walking stick on the way back up… I used this technique myself
Kim took this one, and I really like it
Kim’s maiden (and only) voyage
Fastest run of the day, by far… thanks to a fresh coat of wax!
Lost his glasses, and coated his face with sand. Kim insisted on sunscreen, which is a great sand-glue
Some sand castle fun at the bottom of the hill
I was thinking of Jeff Wilcox all day
The excuse was needing to clean off the sand
Wax… the red was supposed for be for “hot” days. The white was better, we didn’t realize until Kane was flying.
Hard to tell, but I had probably 1/3 cup of sand in each boot.
Not surprising that in between the Northern Oregon Coast and the Southern Oregon Coast, we visited the Central Oregon Coast! We’re on a roll here with Oregon State Parks, they are super awesome (wooded) and motorhome friendly (large sites and elec/water hookups).
This was a quick visit (2 nights and 1 full day), mostly because we got kicked out of our campsite. (unbeknownst to us, our spot was reserved for the third night already), but we made the most of it.
The kids and I did lots of hiking and mushroom hunting around the campgrounds, and during our one full day there, we drove up and down the coast to catch some highlights.
Devil’s Punchbowl was a favorite.. we’re suckers for caved in geological features!
Kane found some new stuff here… “Pig’s Ear”, and “Lobster Mushroom”. Pretty Cool!
We ended up eating the lobster mushroom, it’s interesting because it actually grows on another host mushroom (usually a russella). It was OK, but a tad bit bitter (not as good as Bolete or Chanterelle). It does smell of shellfish!
Our campsite at Beverly Beach State Park.
Typical view from our campsite here… awesome.
Devil’s Punchbowl, caved in seacave. Fun to see big waves crash in and fill up the bowl!
LIttle park at Devil’s punchbowl area, kids loved climbing the trees here!
Kat wanted deperately to stay here for lunch, but we voted and moved on.
Depoe Bay! Famous for Whale watching, but we didn’t see any (too late in the season). Nice place for lunch though!
Kat gave me her sticker! And it’s true!
Kids and Kim learned a ton about Whales here… I snuck upstairs to follow the Cards game on my phone. One of the ranges was giving me the stink eye when I was downstairs with my phone out.
Awesome park in Newport. Best equipment ever… Kompan!
For a nice break from nature, we scooted over to Portland for a few days. My Nephew, Mike Arps Jr (my sister DeeDee’s son) and his wife Mika, recently moved to Portland and are expecting Iris (their first) any week now. They moved from the SF Bay area about a month earlier to escape the crime, commute, and cost of living. So far, they’re loving Portland (actually they live in Beaverton just West of Portland).
Anyway, it was great to socialize with family for the first time in 3+ months! Also, Mike is a gamer (as in German board games), and was also eager to “get it on!”.
We rolled in Friday afternoon, and camped in Beaverton about 10 minutes from their apartment. We met them for Thai food Friday night, which was great. Then they came over to visit us at the campground. After a short visit, and kids going to bed, Mika took the car home, and Mike, Kim, and I fired up the games. We hit it pretty hard until about 4:15 am, and slept in until about 9:30. The morning was rough, but the kids were great about not waking Mike on the pull-out sofa.
Didn’t take long to get reaquainted with cousins on Friday night
Took longer to get reaquainted with Agricola… it was a marithon!
We had planned to go downtown to visit the farmers market and “VooDoo Doughnut”. Since Mika had not yet recovered from the Thai food, the 5 of us parked the jeep at “park-n-ride”, and took the train downtown. The kids really enjoyed waiting for and riding the train (and it’s fast). Mike takes this train each day to work, so he knew the drill. We got off the train right near pioneer square and in the middle of the market.
From there, we made the short walk to VooDoo Doughnuts. Quite a line (probably 300 feet?, and great for people watching. A few buskers, people in costumes, panhandlers etc. Surprisingly, the line went fast and it only took 40 minutes to get in.
Park-n-ride Mike takes this train every day to work, so he knew the drill.
Kids wanted to call Mika from the station (she was home feeling ill).
Pretty laid back crowd on the train that day.
Kane, excited to ride the train.
Trying to follow the Cards game (game 2 of the NDLS) on the train
We found the place, and a line.
Higher energy than apple store on iphone launch day.
More than willing to wait for donuts.
Sugar anticipation.
Across the street fro VooDoo.
I liked everything about this guy, except his hair. He played Bright Eyes, Shins, and Deathcab…. nice set list.
We finally got to the door!
Racks and racks frosted delisiousness
See the VooDoo doll in there?
Crazy menu, including the famous “cock-n-balls”
VooDoo closeup
OMG
Can almost taste it now.
Love the bumper stickers.
Bubble Gum.
Fruit Loops?
Custard filled… Portland Creme
A funny thing happened when we were waiting to get a cashier to order (we were next in line). There was a single guy (probably early 30’s) in front of us, we could tell he was placing a very specific order, but his voice was down so we couldn’t hear. The cashier was hustling to fill his “pink box”, and then he came back to the counter and “shouted”… “We’re all out of cock-n-balls, sorry, is there anything else I can get you instead?!?!?”. I just about lost it. I couldn’t help but think of a scene from the Woody Allen movie “Bananas”, where he’s buying a porno mag on the sly and stacks in in between Newsweek, Time, SI etc. The cashier gets to the smut, and hollers back to the back for a price check. “how much is XXXXXXX?!?!”. All the other patrons staring at Woody as hes sweating. (or the famous Swedish penis-pump scene in Austin Powers… “It’s not mine baby!”).
We grabbed a table outside, and ate a few doughnuts… they’re pretty darn good! Kat got approached by a bum for money and ran away.
We headed back toward the market, and got side-tracked at a candy store. I have to admit, I was busy watching updates on the Cards/Dodgers game 2 on my phone. About this time Wacha worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam (protecting a 1-0 lead), and I told Mike, that’s Game and Series… no way their coming back from that. Perhaps a bit premature, but it did work out eventually!
We went down to “food truck row” for lunch, where the Kids and Mike had burgers at “Brunch Box” (they were great), and Kim and I had Korean bbq tacos (also good). As were sitting there, we were approached by a beggar, and saw several others. Kim noted some young kids picking through the trash can and eating discarded scraps (or at least pretending). She gave them our left-over tacos (3 whole, untouched tacos), which they happily accepted. It did make us appreciate what we have for sure.
MIke in front of his office building
Food Truck Row! Looking for Indian!
Got our food, ready to dig in.
Korean Taco place for Kim and Scott
Korean Beef Tacos… yummy
Brunch Box Burgers for kids and Mike
Custom burger for Mike… Mayo and BBQ sauce on Texas Toast
We were all a bit tired, so we headed back to the train.
Near the train stop, there was a one-man-band playing. He noticed Kat watching, and mid-song, he asked her for her name (several times). She was mortified, ran away, and hid (behind and under) the information sign at the train stop. He invited her to help him play, which she declined, but she did eventually take a buck over for his bucket. It was cute.
One man band, tried to engage Kat.
Kat hiding behind the info sign.
Kat climbing out from under the sign, where she was hiding from the one-man-band.
Kat, scouting her next hiding place from the one-man-band. She eventually did give him a buck, but never did play with him.
That night, Mike and Mika came over for dinner, (followed by more games). Kim gave up at about 12:30, Mike and I at maybe 3:30 or so. Mike stayed over again.
The next day, we all went over to Mike and Mika’s apartment to watch football. Kim made Clam Chowder for dinner, and Mike and I vegged out on the sofa watching the Chiefs beat the Raiders, and then caught some other close games. It was great. No games Sunday night, as we were all pooped.
Monday, Mike had to work, and we planned to go for a hike. The kids got into building Legos in the morning, and we decided to have “lego day”. We just hung out and built motorized legos (Kane made a house with a retractable roof, and Kat and I made a car). It was nice to just stay home and be creative with the kids.
Kat building
Kane cooking scrambled eggs
Eating his own eggs
Excited for brothers Eggs and lego day
More cars!
Kane working on his house with retractible roof
Team effort!
Kane, still cooking, making grilled cheese for lunch
Watching game 3, which ended badly!
Monday night, Mike and Mika came over and we had pizza. Then we played one more game of Agricola. Mike won this one handily. Kim had won the previous 2 (with me usually in 2nd).
Books Kim got Mika (Iris)
Kat playing with Poo… he loved it!
Mike and MIka’s apartment.. third floor, nice!
Monday night group photo… we’ll miss hanging with you!
Tuesday, we took the RV to be serviced (oil change, generator tune-up), and messed around in the jeep (visited the “end of the oregon trail museum”, did short hike, went to Target (a big deal), and went out to lunch at Red Robin (a big deal)).
Once we got the RV and hooked up to the jeep, Kim and I had a pretty interesting 5 minute conversation behind the RV about where to go next. We had decided earlier in the day to head East through Idaho and head for the Grand Canyon. Kane was really upset and wanted to go back to the Oregon coast. At the end of the discussion, we headed back to the coast. It’s such an amazing blessing to be able to have the flexibility to have those conversations about what the future holds. It’s so liberating!
After an epic visit to Astoria/Fort Stevens State Park, I wasn’t sure what more the coast of Oregon could offer. Tillamook/Cape Lookout did not disappoint!
Driving into Tillamook, I had strong tugs on the old heart-strings for multiple reasons. One, the last time Kim and I were in this area, we were with our dear friends Jeff Wilcox and Stephanie Russell. Jeff has since died of Brain Cancer, and we still miss him dearly. Two, the place has a similar feel to Vermont, where we’ve had several great trips over the last few years.
Tillamook County is on an alluvial plain, where no less than 5 rivers converge. It’s an interesting flat area in the midst of an otherwise hilly (mountainous?) region. It’s also a hotbed of dairy farming (much like Vermont). and it’s been alluring to talented cheese makers for almost two centuries.
Cape Lookout is a beautiful State Park just South of Tillamook, on a point jutting out into the Pacific. (interesting that Merriwether Lewis refused to call it the Pacific because he claimed it was never peaceful). Oregon State parks are sweet! I guess at this point I’m a sucker for Douglas Fir trees (and the mushrooms that grow under them!).
Here is a gallery of the highlights of our time in this area….. hiking cape lookout (6 miles total), exploring Oceanside beach (tide pooling, jade and agate hunting), and touring the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
Online mushroom research to confirm Kanes find. The big one was “chicken of the woods”, but too many maggots, so we pitched it. 🙁
The Douglas Fir forests here along the coast are perfect for mushroom hunting. Kane found these Chanterelles in the campground. So proud of the fact that another camper was excited about Kane’s find, and he gave her a mushroom (without prompting from Kim).
The most incredible sauteed mushrooms ever. Chanerelles. 3 TBS olive oil, 3 TBS Butter, 3 cloves garlic sliced. Tiny bit of salt right at the end. WOW
Typical of the non-muddy (first 1/2) of this hike…. so nice!
First vista off of the Cape Lookout trail hike. Reminded me of Waikiki beach from the volcano.
This tree didn’t scare me, but the cliff to the right sure did. (you can’t really appreciate it from this pic, 30 foot drop)
Stumbled upon a couple of these guys on this hike. Alaska had lulled us into a false sense of “no snakes”, mostly because they don’t have any there. (nor poisonous spiders or ticks).
Happy Hiker, properly layered.
Looking for good ones for Daddy to smash later.
Very representative of this area, it is sooooo gorgeous.
Snack time at the end of the hike! We’re eating our share of Kind and Granola bars! Kane is sad, because 5 minutes earlier, I slipped in the mud and totally smashed our mushrooms (all of them). We had found some nice Chanty’s and Boletes on this hike.
Periodic Vistas to the south from Cape Lookout hike. At times, I felt like we were at a Caribbean island.
View of Oceanside beach from our parking spot.
Shout-out to the Jeep!
Cool tunnel from one beach to the next. Impassable during high tide BTW.
I’m the laggard, they’re already finding Jade (I can hear Kane howling in the distance)
Looking for Jade at Oceanside beach.
A Jade, an Agate, and a bit of sand (if you look close)
So very happy with her find.
Typical view if you look down at the Oceanside beach. We found cool Jade chunks and Kat found Agates.
Typical Oregon coast – ho-hum. 🙂
Anemone in one of the tide pools.
Chunk of jade right in the rock at the edge of a tide pool.
Reminds me to appreciate the simple things in life. We loved this time at the beach.
Some keepers!
I could eat her up, sometimes!
Turns out, Kat REALLY likes finding Jade. She announced later in the day, that in addition to potentially being a vet, she’s seriously considering going into Jade mining.
Someone who came before us to this place, stacked these rocks in this little waterfall. I could not resist.
Don’t try this at home. This is a re-enactment done by professionals. Kane had found a piece of foam that looked like a rock. He ran up behind us, shouted, and beaned his mother with it. It was so funny! At least it was funny the first time, after he hit us 4/5 times, it got old. He gets that from his old man (riding a good thing into the ground and auguring in).
Tides rolling in, time to go!
Taking inventory of the booty.
Are you ready for some cheese!?!?!?
That is one handsome cow, but don’t mind the extra mouth nor the extra set of arms on that farmer… they are legit.
Huge blocks of cheddar, coming out of aging to be chopped and packaged. Love the automation… most of human intervention was quality control.
Rennet (enzyme harvested from intestines of un-weaned calves) We’ve confirmed that it is indeed used in cheese making, and this was the first 55 gallon vat of it for proof. Sorry sympathetic vegetarians!
Kat spent the next 30 minutes picking the cookie dough out of her’s with a straw. Kane was sad… after he ordered the Rootbeer float, he got a sample of the “White Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream”, he was begging to change his order…. but we had already paid and they started making his float. I have to agree, it’s totally backwards to let you sample after you order and pay??!!!
Baby you can drive my false-front, mini cheese van.
We were disappointed that, the day, we were supposed to go to Olympic National Park, the Shutdown occurred. We had to go to Plan B. Head to the state parks! We planned on going to Cape Disappointment State Park after leaving Seattle, but ended up going south out of Olympia(after visiting the capitol-post for another day) instead of west, so we decided to head to Astoria, Oregon(which is right across the Columbia River from Washington) and stay there. What a blessing! We camped at Fort Stevens State Park. This fort was built during the Civil War and was active through WWII(was part of a 3 fort defense system at the mouth of the Columbia River). The North had concerns about the British attacking from Canada or the west to support the South. British and France were selling arms to the South for cotton and tobacco. Fascinating history, that I was not familiar with.
We spent our first day in Astoria. One of the big reasons for visiting Astoria was to take our kids to Fort Clatsop which is where Lewis and Clark wintered 1805-1806 after they spotted the Pacific Ocean. Well, I did not realize that Fort Clatsop is part of the National Park Service. So it was all gated up!
Well, we got a picture by the sign!Gates are closed to Fort Clatsop 🙁
We headed to Astoria after that with a quick stop to the Visitor’s Center. Our friends, the Smiths, had told us about a fish and chips place that they loved. We could not imagine it being better than the halibut we had eaten in Alaska, especially when we realized it was fried albacore tuna. Well, it was unbelievable! It was so delicious!!
Lunch!Best fried albacore tuna ever!
Another thing that Astoria is famous for is movies. There have been so many movies made here like: The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, Short Circuit, Into the Wild, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, etc. Well, last night we had family movie and watched the The Goonies. Scott was shocked that I had never seen it! It was so cool seeing different places from the movie around town. We also drove by the elementary school that Kindergarten Cop was filmed at.
Goonies House
We headed to Astoria Column following the Goonies house. The Astoria Column is a tower that sits on the highest point of Astoria, where it provided a spectacular view of the city, Columbia River, bay, forest and surrounding mountains. Our friends, the Smiths, had told us about purchasing airplanes from the gift shop that our kids could fly from the top. They were so excited! They had a blast flying the airplanes off. Kane climbed the tower up and down 4 times(he got his workout that day), rushing down to get their planes and going back up to fly them again.
Getting ready to go fly the planes off the top!164 stairs to the top! Kids could not wait to fly their planes.Astoria ColumnSee Scott and Kane at the top?View from top of Astoria Column
We finished the day at the docks to check out the barking sea lions. There were at least 30-40 on the docks.
Sea Lions on the docks in Astoria
Day 2 – October 4, 2013
We biked around Fort Stevens State Park Campground and visited the Fort and Battery. While biking Kane and Kat looked for mushrooms. They are really into looking for Boletes and Chanterilles. We ended up at the beach where we saw the Peter Iredale Shipwreck from 1906.
Visiting the Fort StevensThe fort with the Columbia River behind it.Crawford FamilyKane spotted mushrooms on our bike ride.We thought this was a King Bolete, but it ended up being a Slippery Jack. Glad we didn’t eat it! We would not have died, but we would have had some GI problems.Mushroom DiscussionKane searching for mushrooms in the forest.This is what is left of the Peter Iredale Shipwreck from 1906.Beach at Fort Stevens State ParkLook who spelled her name…Can’t beat a campfire and smores to end the day!
Day 3 October 5, 2013
We wanted to go clamming in Alaska, but missed the minus tide(which is a negative tide or unusually low tide). Good news for us-it was a minus tide this weekend! Kids and Scott headed to town to get clam gun and license in the morning. Then kids and I went to the Ranger led program on Mushrooms. It is so cool seeing their interest and knowledge grow about mushrooms.
Mushroom Program at campground.
After, the mushroom program we went fishing at Lake Coffenbury in our campground. Kids caught multiple teeny yellow perch and Kat ended up falling off the dock into the lake, but was okay.
Kat caught the first 8!Kane caught the next 5 after Kat fell off the dock.My wet little Kat.
After dinner, we headed to the beach for our first try at clamming. We went about 1 hour before minus tide. We headed to the beach and started looking for “clam show(a dimple, a doughnut or keyhole in the sand).” When we found our first clam show, we centered our clam gun over the dimple and twisted it down about 6-10inches. Then we placed our finger over the air vent and sucked up the sand and clam(sometimes we had to suck up 2 or 3 times to catch the clam, they dig fast). Kids were so excited each time we found one! We ended up collecting 6 razor clams.
Beautiful sunsetOur first razor clamAnother clamKane trying out the clam gun.Looking for “clam shows.”Our clamsA naked clam
Day 4 – October 6, 2013
This post is getting long, so I will just bullet point today:
Scott watched the Chiefs game
Kim went to the Laundry Mat
Scott and Kids found King Boletes in the woods
Clamming for the Second Day(not as good as last night(super windy), but we still found 4, thanks to Kane(he found the “clam show” and dug 3 of the 4 himself)
It is so windy!Kane is ready to find some clams!Kane searching through the sand for a clam.King Boletus
Scott cleaning the clams.Kat getting ready to drop the clam into the boiling water.
Day 5 – October 7, 2013
Today was dedicated to Lewis and Clark. The kids have been learning about Lewis and Clark since we started on our journey. I was so excited about them being able to see the places that Lewis and Clark have been and to think about what it took to survive their journey. So we went to some of the places around the Columbia River and the Oregon Coast that they were. We started at Dismal Nitch, where Lewis and Clark were pinned against the rocky shore and they took shelter from the strong waves, winds and torrential rain of a Pacific Northwest Storm. It was the first time Clark described the situation as “dangerous” on their long journey.
Much better weather today than November 8-15, 1805. 🙂
Station Camp-Lewis and Clark got their first full view of the Pacific Ocean at this point. (Sorry no picture).
Cape Disappointment- Lewis and Clark finally reached the Pacific Ocean here. They explored the step bluffs and forested hollows of the cape.
Lewis and Clark Interpretive CenterView of Interpretive Center from Cape Disappointment LighthouseCape Disappointment Lighthouse built in 1856. The mouth of the Columbia River is called the Graveyard of Ships due to the number of shipwrecks.
Seaside, Oregon -Salt Works
We visited the Salt Works where replicas of the structures (known as “cairns”) where Lewis and Clark’s men boiled sea water to evaporate the water and gather salt to season their food and preserve their meat. These cairns were ovens built of rock and shaped like an upside down “u”. Wood was piled beneath the rocks and a fire built and kept constantly going. Between December of 1805 and February of 1806, three men worked with five brass kettles boiling 24 hours a day, going through over 1400 gallons of seawater to make enough salt for the expedition to use on their return home. They were able to make three quarts to one gallon each day and ended up with over 20 gallons of salt. It is amazing to think of them hiking 15 miles from their camp to make salt. Then having to haul it back.
Salt Works ReplicaPicture of what Saltworks would have looked like.Walking down the beach in SeasideLewis and Clark statue commemorating their 18 month, 4000 mile journey to the Pacific Ocean. This was designed as the official “End of the Trail” for Lewis and Clark.Seaside is known for their saltwater taffy.
Who can resist?After a full day of history, we had to stop at the arcade for a bit!
Last stop of the day was Cannon Beach where Lewis and 12 of his expedition traveled to see a beached whale. Tillamook Native Americans were already there boiling the blubber, so Clark bartered with them for 300 lbs. of blubber and some whale oil.
We loved visiting Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach. It was low tide when we got there, so we were able to go tidepooling. A tide pool is a puddle of water left when the ocean recedes during low tide. It is a great time to spot marine animals and plants. We spotted barnacles, anemones, seastars and hermit crabs. Our kids really enjoy spotting the marine animals.
Piggyback rideHeaded to Haystack RockLove this picture of Kat.They love tide pooling!Kane touching the seastars.Looking for sea creatures in the tide pools.We spotted so many beautiful anemones!Look at the big Seastars!
Well, Seattle, I have some good news and some bad news. First the bad. I did everything I could to grease the skids with Kim, telling her how great you were and what a great place you would be to live. When your big moment came, and I introduced you to Kim, you crapped the bed. I understand that you had record rainfall (by 20%!) for September, and it was unseasonably wet, but you had 4 days to get your act together, and you didn’t do it. Too bad for you that she met you on the tail end of about 20 days of rain starting in Seward.
Now the good news. We still had a great time visiting! So at least you made the “great place to visit, but I don’t want to live there” category. That’s something to hang your hat on.
I’m ashamed to say, that I’m starting to take some of this stuff for granted. I’m a week overdue to write this post, and as I chose the pics and wrote the captions, I perhaps for the first time truly appreciated the breadth of the Seattle experience. It was in and of itself, wonderful, and unfortunately for it, sandwiched between Vancouver and the Northern Oregon coast (that’s stiff competition!).
On to the details… the Seattle visit was a great blend of touristy stuff, and “real living”. As per usual, I think we agree that the “real living” experiences are a tad more precious and almost always sneak up on us because their not planned (could they be?).
We camped in Bellevue, which is a sizable town in it’s own right, east of Seattle on the opposite side of the massive and beautiful lake Washington. The campground was sufficient, basically a parking lot with hookups, but the location was good, they had (modest) wifi, and much to the kids joy, an indoor pool! We rolled in mid afternoon, and decided to walk to Pizza Hut for dinner. Actually, we debated between Pizza Hut and Outback Steakhouse as we have (had) gift cards for both. We’re a pizza family, and you know what to expect from Pizza Hut. Lots of talk about Chickens and Octopus’s over dinner. The kids are obsessed, and I have to admit I’m intrigued by the idea of fresh eggs. How often does a female Octopus lay? 🙂
Our first full day was Saturday, and we decided to do the Space Needle and the Dale Chihuly museum (gallery) combo ticket. Our friends the Marings had visited recently and strongly recommended the Chihuly place. I’m glad they did, because I would have leaned to skipping as we visited the Botanical gardens several times when Chihuly was there, and I felt like I’d seen it all. I had not. It was a bonus that Chihuly was right next door to the Space Needle.
I get the feeling that the Space Needle is a different gig when the weather is nice and visibility is good. As it was, I’d put it in the STL Arch and Statue of Liberty bucket… enjoy it for the history/context and enjoy it from outside, but don’t bother going in/up. The view from the Needle far exceeds the Arch etc, but it was so wet, foggy, and WINDY outside there was no desire to linger. We got up, took our requisite pictures, ate our packed PB&J lunch, thoroughly inspected the junk food offered in the snack bar, read some exhibits, got frustrated by the touch screen kiosk, and left. If you have the budget, I suspect the rotating restaurant would be great… the menu looked good, but pricy. The gift shop is magnificent, and of course, the elevator down drops you there. I think we survived relatively unscathed as the kids have learned a keen ability to judge “good/bad deals” on this trip. Actually we’ve all sharpened those skills!
Mixed levels of excitement as we wait for the Space Needle elevator ride. It was raining in the elevator!They sprung for the Swarovski spotting scopes, but should have gotten the anti-fog model. I wish I had a nickel for every selfie we’ve seen taken on this trip. We usually offer to take a proper pic for them though. By “we” I mostly mean Kim. When Kim’s not around, I do it by proxy.Cool to see the city from the Needle, even if visibility was limited. I’m pretty sure the tan concrete hotel on the left is the “Red Lion”, where I shared the presidential suite with a dude in July 2011. (story for another day)Most of us are happy to be at the Space Needle. I think Kane just got shutdown on his request for a bag of Lays from the snack bar.Kat, checking out Seattle via a Space Needle scope. Visibility was poor!The combo tix for the Needle and the Chihuly gallery are too good to pass up, and they’re next door to one another. This was taken from the Chihuly garden.Touch screen kiosks… great idea… poor execution. They mostly “sporadically” worked.
From the Needle, we sauntered over to the Dale Chihuly museum. This place is amazing. We jumped into the theatre which was showing short documentaries chronociling some of his “epic” installments (Venice, Isreal, Rio, etc). We stayed put and watched them all (the kids were into the first 2/3, and Kim and I were enthralled throughout and didn’t want them to end). Then we proceeded though the exhibits inside, bounced out for the gardens, and ended in the “glass house”. It’s all great! A wedding reception in the glass house would be amazing. You gotta checkout these pics.
It’s love/torment, mostly love.The contrasting textures and colors in the gardens are breathtaking.Welcome to the gardenA little rain can’t keep us down… we’re Chiefs fans and we’re Crawfords.Thought I’d include one of the the entire, incredible “red trumpet glass” piece.How in the world do they make this stuff?The scale of some of these pieces is incredible. If you get a chance to see a Chihuly exhibit, see it!Sorry for all these pics, but these are just the best of the best! Chandelier used in “Chihuly over Venice”.My feedback for them is they need to have artisans on-sight demonstrating how they make this stuff.This is a long, narrow room, and by no means does this pic do it justice, but when you turn the corner, this is what smacks you in the eyes. It’s utterly incredible. A+mazing.The Bellagio called and they want their ceiling back.I know there are too many pics of the art, but It struck me that I like this picture “much” better than I like this piece in real life.The talk all week had been, Kat getting a Chicken and Kane getting an Octopus when we get home. And of Kane potentially going into marine biology. Fitting that Chihuly had an entire room dedicated to marine life. (no chickens, however there were several egg shaped elements)Love me some bowls. Aspiring artists, take note, a gallery is 75% lightingPictures of this can’t do it justice. The colors are so vibrant and vivid.
What you might see if you look up from within the Chihuly glass house (available for rent). Sweet venue.Some of the places in here are stunning, and I love how they’ve planned sight lines. This is inside the “glass house”, looking out over the gardens.
Well after Chihuly, we had no plans, and though it was raining we felt compelled to wander around a bit searching out our next victim (or was it the prey searching for the next predator?). The Sience center looked pretty cool, but the budget was shot for the day, so we just saw what we could through the windows. I agreed to walk more in the rain for a promise of food (I was silently hoping for a samosa). We headed south toward the sculpture park. The rain let up to a drizzle, and it was a nice walk “downhill” through a nice downtown hood, though the only potential snack was a Subway. The sculpture park was a nice place to hang out, right on the edge of the Puget Sound. As far as the art goes, it’s probably a notch below Lauramier? Opinions vary I’m sure. The only “interactive” installation that we found was basically the roof of a house built directly on the hillside. After reading the sign of warnings, it dawned on me that we “might” be allowed to walk on the roof. As I’m thinking out-loud about the goodness of the idea, Kane scampered to the top. Kat quickly followed suit (albeit slower), so I went with her. I guess it was OK, nobody chewed us out. I did have a hard time getting Kane off that roof for some reason, but it had started to rain hard now and we were a mile from the jeep. We made a bee-line for our parking spot, and didn’t get that snack after all. Solid day none-the-less, and once again Kim was vindicated in her insistence that we all buy “decent rain gear” for the trip.
Walking from Seattle Center (Space Needle/Chihuly) to Sculpture Garden.Seattle sculpture garden. Free and we had the place virtually to ourselves.It took some nerve to finally climb up here, we were not 100% certain we could, but nobody stopped us. Not sure what kind of art this is… a roof built in the hillside. Did I mention entry was free?Included this so you could appreciate how close this is to the sound.
The following day was Sunday, and I had one thing on my mind… my Chiefs were still undefeated and playing at 12 central (10 am Seattle time). Kim again took pity on me, and we scheduled the day around this 25+ year affliction of mine.
We got up reasonably early, and headed downtown for Pike Place Market. I’d been here a few times to buy souvenirs for the kids and to watch the “fish throwing” at the seafood shop. Neither Kim nor the kids had ever been, and Kim got word from her friend Allison that there were fresh doughnuts to be had as well. This was to be our breakfast!
We got close, but parking was a challenge. On Sunday it’s free to park on the street, and we knew this, but it was also busy. We were giving up on free parking, and pulling into a paid lot, and we were approached by the self-proclaimed “parking guru”, who told us (for a suggested tip) that we could park in any zone but handicapped on Sunday (including police etc which we’d been avoiding). So we headed back out to find any opening possible on the street. We did find one, and unfortunately for the guru, we didn’t have to walk past him to get to the market.
We wandered around the market, amazed both by the offerings and the offerers. 10 bucks can go a long way at the market, surprisingly! Just as we were ready to fire up the MiFi and look up the doughnut shop, we found it. It was busy, and we had fun watching their doughnut making robot work while we waited. Everybody placed their order with Mom, and she brokered the deal. After that, we wandered around a bit more, watching the fish market workers, looking for souvenirs, and being impressed the the “worlds largest shoe museum” (worlds smallest, coin operated museum?). But, it was close to gametime, so we headed for the jeep.
These babies are FRESH (at least the plain ones), we watched them roll out of the “doughnut cooker 2000” robot and onto this platter.One of the toughest decisions of our lives this year… what kind of mini-doughnuts to buy. Settled on half dozen maple frosted, half dozen sprinkles, and a dozen powdered. We passed on the maple-bacon, as I was told never to eat seafood in the midwest nor pork in the Pacific Northwest. 🙂I always feel like a leach, hovering around this place waiting for somebody else to buy something, so I can watch them holler and throw the fish.
Kim dropped me at a previously researched location (“Fuel Sports Bar on Washington st”). Kane was given the option to go with me, but bars scare him at this point (since he got bounced from the place in Anchorage), which is probably OK for now. So Kim, Kat, and Kane headed to the childrens theatre to catch Pippi Longstocking, and I settled in for some great football, and the worst biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had. The Chiefs handled the Giants, and Seattle made a 14 point 4th quarter comeback, which created an excellent atmosphere at Fuel.
Kim took kids to see Pippi while I was at a “fuel” sports bar watching the Chiefs game.
After the game and Pippi, the family picked me up, and we went back home for lunch and MATH! We really just hung out at home and didn’t do much the rest of the day. I think Kim did laundry maybe, while I did Math with the kids.
The next day (Monday), I had made an appointment to get the Jeep fixed. Our clutch had been squealing since the day before we drove it to McCarthy and back. It had done nothing but get worse since then, but I wanted to get back to the lower 48 for such a major repair. Sam at “The Shop” in Ballard had told me that they were about 1 mile north of the “locks”, which we wanted to see anyway. We decided to drop the car off with Sam, and spend the day in Ballard, on foot. It turned out to be our best day in Seattle, oddly enough.
Here’s the day, and I’ll let the pictures do the talking:
1) Stopped at the coffee shop for Kim to get a Latte. I got the best brewed coffee I’d had for awhile (Ethiopian beans?), and the kids split a hot chocolate.
2) Stopped at a small, independent bookstore for an hour. We all love books, this was a no-brainer. Kids both got new books (Ive & Bean for Kat, and Ender’s Game for Kane). I spent my time reading a book on Zen written by Jeff Bridges, which I want to read, but won’t pay 27 bucks for hardcopy Bridges. Kim talked with the owner, and looked at baby books.
3) Stopped at the petstore to coo over the “tuxedo” kittens in the front window.
4) Made it to the “Locks-n-dam”. Hit the visitor center/gift shop first for the lay-of-the-land. Put simply, the Locks rock. First of all, what a gutsy idea to connect the ocean to lakes miles away, and 12 feet above sea level. Second, I can only imagine the feeling of accomplishment of the engineers, when this thing went from paper to concrete/steel, and they saw it work for the first time. It’s incredible. I may be the last person on earth to see a lock in action and to figure out how it works, but WOW!
5) From the locks, we walked across the dam to the “fish ladder”. This is a stair-stepped series of mini-locks, that allow fish to swim from the ocean up the ladder to the fresh water to spawn. They had the forthought to install windows and a viewing area underground where you can watch the fish move up 3/4 of these locks. The sliver salmon happened to be moving up to spawn, and so we got to watch a dozen or so work their way through the ladder. Really cool to see, especially since Kane caught silvers in Alaska, and we’ve been eating them.
6) Lunch! Thai food across from the coffee shop. It was really good. The “free lunch soup” was the tastiest I’ve ever had. The pad kee mao was great, as well as the cashew nut chicken (all with jasmine rice). So happy to have decent Thai food. We miss Addies so much!
7) Dessert! We had passed a gourmet popcorn place on the way to lunch, so we went back. We sampled almost everything (we are expert samplers at this point), and bought a bag of “Hawaiian Salted Carmel” (sea salt and carmel corn). So good, and they keep it under a heat lamp, so it was warm!
8) Still had time to kill, so we jumped across the street the movies. Cloudy with Meatballs 2 was the only option. It was marginal, but still fun to see a movie.
9) Quick call to Sam to see if the jeep is ready… not yet, so we look up the public library. It’s just around the corner! Really nice library. Funny thing happened to me. The kids and Kim headed over to the kids section, and I went looking for a book. I found a cool encyclopedia of world religions, and took it over to read near the family. After 15 minutes or so, a librarian came over and said “excuse me sir, do you have a child with you?”. I said “not yet, but prospects are good”. I wish I had said that, in reality I just pointed at Kat. It’s difficult to describe the depth of humility experienced the moment you realize somebody suspects you are a predator (in an actionable way no less), but I also gained some respect for their policy and for this lady specifically. It’s nice to know that some effort is made to keep kids safe at the library! (even from me)
10) Sam called and the jeep is ready. So we walked back north to “The Shop” and get our, newly silent, jeep. He showed me the bearing (throwout bearing) from the clutch, and I should have taken a picture. The bearings were gone, it was just two mangled rights of metal remaining. I guess bearings are optional if you don’t mind some obnoxious noise!
11) We drove home in rush hour traffic, got to see Seattle from the north (it was clear), and all felt great bout a day of “doing normal stuff” in a new/exciting place. For once, it felt less like we were traveling, and more like we were living somewhere. Ballard is excellent, and we never would have known that if not for the jeep repair.
The start of a great day in Ballard, waiting for the jeep to be “de-squeeked”. Coffee & Hot Chocolate!Ballard is sweet, somewhat of a hybrid between Webster Groves and U-City. I wonder if the public school is any good?Across the street from Starbucks, what would you choose? Still stick’n it to the man (when it’s convenient).Stop #2 in Ballard was the bookstore. I guess we didn’t really take many pics here, we all scattered and dug into some books. I found a cool book that I deemed too expensive called “The Dude and the Zen master”… by Jeff Bridges and his Zen mentor.The lock and Dam. A must see.The large lock opening up for a huge tugboat to head up to lakes (Union and Washington). Lake side is 12 feet above the sound (ocean) side.Small (cabin cruiser) pulling in to be lowered and head out to sea. The little lock leaked more than the big one.Lock drained, he’s ready to go, 12 feet lower. Amazing.Large lock is to the right, small to the left. This is the puget sound side where the boats head out to sea. We all loved it, though by this point, Kane was anxious to get to the fish ladder.Fish ladder at the lock-n-dam from the top. It has sequential chambers with successively higher elevation. Some fish jump from one to the next, some swim super hard though tunnels between them. (there appears to be a powerful flow of water through the tunnel)Viewing area of the fish ladder (the method by which the fish spawn around the dam). There’s one now!The silvers were nearing the end of their run. Some (like this one) looked good, others a bit mangy. Did you know they die after they pair up and spawn?Dam happy.Lunch! Thai! We opted for 4 stars and .7 miles away since were were still on foot. This place did not disappoint.A movie? Could this day get any better!? Yes, it could have been a reasonable movie! At least we brought our own snack… hawaiian salted carmel popcorn from across the street (it was killer).Killing more time at the Ballard public library. Nice place. I was “carded” for being weird looking and in the children’s area.Back on the road (and squeak free!), we got to see the city from the north.
One last note on Seattle, one night before Kat went to bed, she made this sign. She used masking tape and taped this to a plate. She put the plate on the stove. Kim was in the back and didn’t see this until the kids were in bed. We had a great giggle, and put a couple of bucks on the plate. Kat was so incredibly happy, and immediately made her self a “chicken fund” box to save her money for her pet chicken when we get back to St. Louis. She’s been researching this, and Kane has likewise researched keeping Octopuses as well. We’ll see… Clearly, Kat was impressed by one of the many homeless in downtown Seattle, and leveraged some of their strategy for this sign.
One of those mixed emotion type moments. Hey, learning to passively panhandle is still learning, right?
One last, last note. One evening, I was able to sneak out for a drink. A friend of mine from work, who had helped edit one of our 48 hour film projects, now lives in Seattle. He lives in the “Capitol Hill” neighborhood, which I was liken most closely to U-City, really cool eclectic area. Anyway, I met Alec at a brewpub down there, and we were able to catch up. I’m glad Alec is doing well, and it was fun to have a bit of normal social interaction in amongst 24×7 family time.
We left Seattle, feeling great about getting our jeep fixed. Originally, we planned to spend some time in Victoria and Olympic Nation Park. We elected not to ferry the RV over to Victoria due to cost, and the government decided to shutdown the NPs due to ACA. We’re doing the next best thing… State Parks! On our way to Astoria, we stopped in Olympia to visit the Washington State Capitol, which was interesting and fun. I have pics for that, but it will need to be another post sometime!
