2004 Northwest
Travels through the Northwest,
August 2004
The trip was another in a series of family road-trips that began in 1997 with Across the Midwest. This being the 5th. It had originally been planned as a return trip to the Southwest to visit my sister and her family in Rancho Cucamonga. But our sights shifted north when the Hagens returned to the Philadelphia area in June 2004. Also the plan to use our many frequent flier miles on ailing U.S. Airways wasn’t to be because of the inordinate restrictions that this airline places on the use of such miles. But the airfares were a bargain all the same. We saw many beautiful and stunning sights, and if I may speak for the family in whole, we had a wonderful time. One can almost never do all that one would like to do on a vacation, and that was certainly true of this one. But with one exception, we did about all that we could have done without overextending ourselves. The exception is that we didn’t make it to Ft. Lewis, Washington. One of the main reasons I wanted to return to the Northwest was to get back to the army post where I was stationed for 2½ years all those years ago. Weeks before the vacation, I had obtained permission to enter the post, but when we changed our departure date, the authorization was no longer valid. Well, that’s what we didn’t do, here then is what we did do.
Day 1, Tuesday, August 17, 2004
After getting little sleep, we finished packing, loaded the car, and drove to my folks’ house. Gwen then drove us to the airport to catch our U.S. Airways 1:30 p.m. flight to Seattle. We were spread throughout the smallish jet. I sat with Eric and got a couple of hours of sleep. Sharon sat with Becky and was not so lucky. Travis was off on his own. As we neared Seattle, the plane passed very close by Mount Rainier.
The flight arrived in SeaTac on time at about 4:20 p.m. local time. We eventually located the Dollar Rent-A-Car desk and rented the Chevrolet Blazer I had reserved. The only difference was that I had been told there wouldn’t be a charge for a second driver. Well, there was-$9/day. We declined it. All of our belongings, including the car seat we brought along, fitted quite nicely into the sports utility vehicle. And off we were down busy I-5 South with the fixture that Mount Rainier is in these parts looming off to our left. Of course, we didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time we’d see the mountain on our trip.
We stopped in Federal Way, a very congested strip-mall kind of town where Reliance once had an office, and looked for a place to eat. There were quite a few restaurants around. We chose the Red Robin. I was not overly impressed with my burger; however, Eric’s pyramid (or whatever it was) of onion rings and particularly the sauces that came with it were very tasty. Back on I-5 South we passed by Fort Lewis, parts of which seemed familiar, although most did not.
We reached Portland, Oregon, about dusk and took the I-5 expressway through downtown. We had no plans to stop in Portland, and I hadn’t researched the place at all. But as we drove though along the Willamette River, it looked like quite a lovely city at night with it’s modern buildings and the reflection of the bright lights dancing on the water. We exited I-5 and took U.S. Route 26 West. I had hoped to find a motel for the night a little past the town of Hillsboro, near Oregon Route 6. But there weren’t any that we could find between Hillsboro and Route 6, so we turned around and drove the 10 to 15 miles back to Hillsboro, where we checked into a Marriott Fairfield Estates. The room was typical yet nice. And as I recall, it was here that we began a trip tradition of watching the Summer Olympic games on television (that is Sharon, the boys, and me; Becky was always asleep by then).
Highlight: Beginning a new family vacation.
Lowlight: Having to backtrack 10 to 15 miles.
Internet sites:
http://www.lyza.com/view_content.ph
http://www.bizave.com/cgi-bin/photoalbum.cgi?photoalbum=pdxnight
Day 2, Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Awoke at 7:20 a.m., showered, and then went to the breakfast near the hotel lobby with the family. The breakfast was included in the hotel room charge and was one of the best hotel “complimentary” breakfasts (there’s a mouthful of a word) I ever had. It included make-your-own waffles, fresh orange juice, bagels & cream cheese, apples, and peanut butter. We ate heartily and then grabbed a few apples and peanut butter packets for the road. Following our meal, we packed, loaded the SUV, and got on the road about 9:00 a.m. The weather was perfect. Our first stop was across the street where I learned that Oregon law does not permit motorists to fill their own gas tanks. (Oregon is one of only two states in the nation that have such a law, New Jersey being the other.)
After refueling, I planned to hop on Route US 26 West, but the road proved to be more difficult to find than I would have expected, so it took more like a hop, skip, and a jump to get on it. About 10 miles after getting on US 26, we took Oregon Route 6 to the town of Tillamook. This stretch of winding road led through a part of Oregon that was hilly, pretty, and almost entirely undeveloped except for perhaps some logging that wended in and out of view from the highway. We blew right through Tillamook, which from what little I saw of it looked to be a rustic and inviting little town. My primary concern at this point had become finding a restroom. And it wasn’t easy finding one. We reached the nearby tiny seaside town of Netarts. It was so tiny that there weren’t any gas stations. There was, however, a public beach with a public parking lot with a public restroom.
We then went down to the beach-a very wide expanse with a rocky promontory to the right as you faced the ocean. Also, a few hundred feet out to sea were several small island rock formations. The boys ran around in delight, and I “snapped” the first pictures with the new Sony digital camera I had purchased two days before. We all climbed on the forward edge of the promontory, the part that jutted into the ocean. Even Sharon and Becky climbed up and joined us. We then hiked across the beach and found a tunnel that led through the promontory. It was about 50 yards long. Eric and I were the first to pass through it to the other side, where we came out to a small cove surrounded by cliffs. Travis and then Sharon and Becky soon joined us. Then we headed back to the car and got on the road with Sharon at the wheel for the first time.
A few miles up the road we came upon a most unusual sight-rolling fields of sand with trees and other vegetation. We stopped briefly for a quick look and resumed our coastal drive. Our immediate goal was to find a place to lunch. That place was found a few more miles up the road at a place called the Pelican Pub & Brewery in Pacific City. It was a newly built place right on the ocean with a splendid view of Haystack Rock (until it became obscured by mist & clouds), but the food left a lot to be desired. My pastrami Rueben sandwich came with about one slice of meat. And Eric’s Caesar salad, although huge, was quite a disappointment. As bad as the food was, it was great compared to the glass of beer that Sharon and I ordered. It was called Pelican IPA. I can only surmise that IPA stands for “India piss ale.” The stuff was so bad that I have to think we got a bad batch.
Following lunch we hiked across the parking lot to the beach and then headed up the beach to the massive hill that formed its northern boundary. The remarkable thing about this hill was that it was entirely covered with sand. I’d never seen anything like it, but I knew the kids (young and old) would have a blast on it. And that’s what we did for the next 45 minutes or so. Travis and Eric climbed nearly to the top. I made it about half-way. And Sharon a Becky a bit less than that. The climbing in the loose sand on the steep incline was exhausting, but running down the embankment was a blast.
Back on the road and I was back at the wheel, ending Sharon’s day with about 4 miles under her belt. We headed down the coast along US Route 101, enjoying the rugged coastal landscape, which at times was along the ocean and at other times a bit inland. Traffic was very light. We stopped at a Walmart in Newport, where we picked up a Coleman cooler and some other supplies. I had planned to get a Styrofoam cooler, but the plastic Coleman proved to be vastly more practical, useful, and durable, and cost only $10. The boys go to run free for a spell in the store, but it was difficult corralling them when it was time to go.
Our next stop was at the Sea Lion Caves 11 miles north of Florence. The place is billed as the world’s largest sea cave, and it’s home to hundreds of, you guessed it, sea lions. We browsed through the gift shop, paid admission, then took the 200+ foot elevator to the caves. They are huge, and incredibly smelly. Back up in the fresh air, we walked to the lookout a few hundred feet up the cost to watch about 100 sea lions napping on a rock. The weather was quite chilly and windy. After another brief tour of the gift shop, we were back on the road.
I stopped at a Fred Meyer store near Florence to pick up some supplies and noticed that there was about a 20-foot dune in the back. We didn’t investigate, but I assumed that the beach and ocean were on the other side. But I don’t know for sure-this is one sandy area. I went in to the massive Fred Meyer store and loaded up on beer and Smirnoff Ice because of the good prices. Then we went off in search of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Unfortunately, it was beginning to get late, so we didn’t have much time to explore them. We stopped at one of the campgrounds along Route 101 and drove to a parking lot a couple of miles from the highway. I got out of the car to have a look, hiked up the massive dune, and beheld what was perhaps the widest stretch of beach I had ever seen. It was impressive. And very sandy. I would have liked to have explored this area much more time allowed.
We began our search for a motel and a place to have dinner. We considered a new and nice looking Best Western hotel about 20 miles north of Coos Bay but passed on it because the town didn’t look very inviting. Little did we know that Coos Bay didn’t exactly look like a tourist’s Mecca either. Now Coos Bay may not have looked like a tourist Mecca what with its rundown appearance and the overwhelming presence of the logging industry, but given its complete lack of available lodging at the five or so hotels in town, you’d have thought it was the trendiest spot going. Sharon was told at one of the motels that there must have been a lot of weddings in town at the time. On a Wednesday? We finally found a room at a Ramada Inn in the neighboring town of North Bend. The place was in a shopping center in a nothing town, and the room was stuck in the back and no great shakes. And at $97.23 it was certainly no bargain. But it was getting late and the choices seemed to be very finite. So Ramada it was. The boys enjoyed the hotel’s indoor hot tub, while I sat by and read some of the novel I’d brought on the trip-Light in August by William Faulkner.
We had a late dinner consisting of tacos and gorditas from the Taco Bell next door in the hotel. Travis ordered big but ate small. He said there was too much cheese in the tacos. After the kids went to sleep, I watched some TV and read some of the travel book I brought along, called The Green Guide Pacific Northwest. I got to sleep about 1:15 a.m. ~~
Highlight: Sandy Mountain. Never saw anything like it. Playing on it may have been the most fun the boys had on the entire vacation.
Lowlight: The beer at the Pelican Pub & Brewery. It was awful.
Notes:
· The stretch of coastal highway that we traversed on this day is known for its many lighthouses. I wished we had visited at least one or two of them.
· One goal we had for this trip was to get on the road by 9:00 a.m. This was the only day we achieved that, but overall we did a better job than on our other family road trips. We also did a better job of getting situated earlier in the evening than in past travels, although not as early as was our intention.
Internet sites:
http://www.pelicanbrewery.com/default.htm
http://www.ohwy.com/or/o/odnra.htm (Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area)
Day 3, Thursday, August 19, 2004
We inquired about breakfast at the hotel, but Ramada, at least this one, didn’t offer it as part of the room rate, so we showered and packed up and took off. Our first stop was at the Pancake Mill Restaurant in North Bend. The wait for a table was rather long and the food was rather insipid and the service rather poor. But we were fed. After we fed the Blazer, we headed inland via Oregon Route 42, winding this way and that through pristine hills until we came to Interstate 5, which we took north to Roseburg.
We exited the interstate in Roseburg and looked about to find picnic makings. Our first stop was at a convenience-type store, which didn’t seem to have quite what I was looking for. Also, one or more of the kids was acting up, so we left and drove back into town. There Sharon went into a supermarket and got lunchmeat, rolls, lettuce, mayo, etc. for a picnic. We also stopped at another store where I picked up some sodas and corn dogs to tie the kids over until it was picnic time.
Then we set off for Crater Lake via Route 138, again winding this way and that beside a pristine creek on this beautiful summer day. After meandering through lovely wilderness for a good stretch, the roadway cut through a stretch of flat pine forest and then began to ascend rapidly-2,000 feet, 3,000 . . . 6,000 feet. Shortly thereafter, we came to northern entrance of Crater Lake National Park, paid the car fare, and climbed some more. In another 20 minutes or so, we reached the lake. With no idea which way to go, we took the west rim road, which started us counterclockwise around the lake.
We stopped very soon thereafter at one of the overlooks near Hillman Peak for lunch and to view the lake and Wizard Island. Very impressive. And to our complete surprise, we learned that this thing called Crater Lake, was not formed by a meteorite as Sharon and I had somehow always assumed but rather by a volcano. The following extract about the lake is from the U.S. National Park Service, Crater Lake National Park Website, 2001:
Crater Lake is located in Southern Oregon on the crest of the Cascade Mountain range, 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of the Pacific Ocean. It lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin <http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Caldera/framework.html>, created when the 12,000 foot (3,660 meter) high Mount Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago following a large eruption.
Generous amounts of winter snow, averaging 533 inches (1,354 centimeters) per year, supply the lake with water. There are no inlets or outlets to the lake. Crater Lake, at 1,958 feet (597 meters) deep, is the seventh deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the United States. Evaporation and seepage prevent the lake from becoming any deeper.
The lake averages more than five miles (8 kilometers) in diameter, and is surrounded by steep rock walls that rise up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the lake's surface.
Following the collapse of Mount Mazama, lava poured into the caldera even as the lake began to rise. Today, a small volcanic island, Wizard Island, appears on the west side of the lake. This cinder cone <http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/CinderCone/framework.html>rises 760 feet (233 meters) above the lake and is surrounded by black volcanic lava blocks. A small crater, 300 feet (90 meters) across and 90 feet (27 meters) deep, rests on the summit. The crater is filled by snow during the winter months, but remains dry during the summer.
We resumed driving along the western rim. The roadway along this stretch resembled a pock-marked, cinder path clinging to the sides of steep embankments with nary a guardrail to hinder one’s fall to certain death hundreds of feet below. But it was absolutely beautiful. We parked the car at the Steel Information Center and Park Headquarters and began hiking along the southern rim. We stopped briefly at a glass-enclosed lookout point, passed the stately Crater Lake Lodge, and then climbed up toward Mt. Garfield. Part way up, we stopped at a lovely wooded spot to take some pictures of the kids with the lake in the background. The setting was perfect . . . except for those red fire ants that emerged from a hollow stump and started harassing Eric and then the rest of us. So we quickly moved along to another setting, where we got some splendid pictures (one of which we used as our Christmas picture). Becky tired of climbing, so she and Sharon headed back to the park headquarters, while the boys and I continued up the rim. We too eventually ran out of gas (or nerve or both) and headed back down to the park headquarters, where we found Sharon and Becky in the gift shop. They had really nice baseball caps, but I didn’t buy one.
Back on the road, we exited the park and took Oregon Route 62 south to Upper Klamath Lake and then US Route 97 to Klamath Falls. The entire stretch was quite lovely, particularly along the valley through which Route 62 runs after it descends from Crater Lake. We thought about eating and staying in Klamath Falls. We drove through the downtown and surrounding areas looking for a tantalizing eatery, but one never materialized. So we got back on Route 97 South and continued our search, which ended up at a McDonald’s, where the kids played in and on the maze of tubes and ladders in the place. The taco salad that Sharon and I split wasn’t half bad and the coffee was well received.
Sharon was in favor of making tracks tonight so that tomorrow’s drive would be that much shorter. So off we were on Route 97, first over a straight and flat stretch of highway teeming with tractor-trailers (I passed five in a row at one point). As evening turned to night, we crossed the Oregon-California state line. Soon thereafter, we wound up into the hills, but it was so dark we couldn’t see much until the lights of Weed, CA, loomed into view in the valley below. Route 97 ends in Weed, and so too did our day’s drive. We stayed at what looked to be a brand new Holiday Inn Express. The boys made good use of the indoor hot tub as I sat by and read. Back in the room, we watched the Olympics, which on this night feature women’s gymnastics & men’s swimming.
Highlight: Lunch at Crater Lake-very tasty sandwiches and oh what a view.
Lowlight: Going round and round and nowhere fast in Klamath Falls looking for a place to eat.
Notes:
· I found out shortly after the trip that former Phillies pitcher Dennis Bennett, who was on the infamous 1964 team, owns a tavern in Klamath Falls. Too bad I didn’t know that when we were there.
Internet sites:
Day 4, Friday, August 20, 2004
We ate breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express, which was set up in a side room near the front desk and featured Danish, bagels & cream cheese, OJ, cereal, etc. I had a bagel & cream cheese. Before checking out, I planned to load our cooler with a couple buckets of ice as I would always do, but the hotel’s ice machine was all out of ice.
We drove the few miles to the town of Mount Shasta, where in 1977 the borrowed station wagon that Steve Stokes and I were using broke down as we were heading back to Ft. Lewis. I wasn’t sure where exactly we had the car fixed, but I believe I located the area and the road it was on, which is the main drag through this small town. It was all vague, but it brought back memories. We stopped in a Rite Aid for supplies, including ice and little spiral notebooks for the boys, and I bought a map of California and filled the tank at the gas station next door, and then we left the town.
We took Interstate 5 south a short way to California Rt. 44, which we took to Susanville. Along the way we wended up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains and came within about 10 miles of Lassen Peak (10,457 feet). I would have liked to have taken the twisting roadway through Lassen Volcanic National Park, but our schedule did not permit the time. In Susanville we got takeout food at a KFC fast-food restaurant and then looked around for a place to eat it. After considerable searching, that place turned out to be the nearly deserted Johnstonville Elementary School in the nearby town of Johnstonville. The day was very hot and trees were scarce, but the school offered a little grassy oasis with a picnic table under a clump of shade trees. All in all the lunchtime meal was not bad at all (see photo).
Then Sharon took over driving for what was by far her longest stretch of the trip. As we motored along on US Route 395 through a desert that reminded me of the Old West as portrayed in many movies, I nodded off for a spell. I awoke as we neared the Nevada state line. Soon thereafter, we were navigating through downtown Reno on a crowded expressway at rush hour. I’d never been to Reno before, but I understand that not long ago it was just some jerkwater town. Now it’s a modern city in the middle of a desert. A desert which on this afternoon featured intermittent rain. We stopped at a convenience store/gas station upon entering Carson City for a restroom stop and coffee to go. While making the coffee, I flipped on a coffee maker that kept spewing out water. I forget how I finally got it to shut off, but it was embarrassing until I did. It would have been more embarrassing had the totally inattentive clerk been aware of what was going on. Oh well, I had our coffee, as well as some very tasty beef jerky that came in a little jar, and on top of that, I think the inattentive clerk undercharged me by ten bucks or thereabouts.
I resumed driving through bustling Carson City and then up into the hills on the recently built US Route 50, which took us along the western shores of Lake Tahoe to the town of South Lake Tahoe. We reentered California and began looking for a place to stay. The first several we tried were very lovely and very full. Then we checked out a Howard Johnson's that had a vacancy but left a lot to be desired, including a awfully steep room rate for a dive. So we kept looking and soon found the Best Western Timber Cove Lodge. It wasn’t cheap but we had a very nice room with a great view of the pool and the lake. Also the entire Lodge was in an exceptionally pleasant setting on the lake with several restaurants, a pier, good-sized pool, beach, and much more. Our plan was to stay here for two days, and we were set.
After we hauled everything into our room, the kids went for dip in the pool. Then we ventured off in search of a place to have dinner. We began our search at the lodge, then drove around town stopping at about five or so places. We settled on Dory’s Oar Restaurant, a k a The Tudor Pub, where we dined al fresco on the front lawn with a view of the lake a few blocks off. As the sun set and a slight chill set in, the restaurant’s strings of festive lights came on to keep things bright. I had curried chicken, Sharon had the rib eye steak, and we also got fish & chips and a shepherd’s pie for the kids. Everything was excellent. (At $82 it was our most expensive meal, but unbeknownst to me at the time we earned frequent flier miles.) And Eric unintentionally provided us with a comical moment. I had switched chairs with him at the beginning of the meal because I didn’t like the one I was in. Toward the end of dinner, Eric must have leaned back too far and fell over backwards. I knew that chair was problematic.
Then we drove into town and lucked out finding a parking space a block from the heart of the action in this charming resort. We browsed in a number of stores, selling all kinds of gifts, crafts, clothes, and novelty items. One thing that caught my eyes were some earrings that resembled fishing flies. Great idea I thought, although these particular ones didn’t look all that well-made. At one of our stops, Becky fell head over heals for a little pink piggy stuffed animal. She had to have it, but somehow we managed to get out of town, on this occasion at least, without a little pink piggy. After our little evening stroll through downtown South Lake Tahoe, we headed back to the lodge. The kids were all very tired. When I tested Eric’s blood sugar about midnight, it was quite low, so I walked to the supermarket across the highway and got him some snacks.
Highlight: A picnic lunch at a closed-for-summer school and dinner al fresco at a delightful British pub & restaurant provided some interesting ambiance and tasty fare.
Lowlight: I’m sure there are many fun things to do in Carson City, but triggering hot water to pour from a coffee machine with no idea how to stop isn’t one of them. Also, hotels should not run out of ice.
Internet sites:
http://www.dorysoar.com/tudorpub.htm
Day 5, Saturday, August 21, 2004
I got up a little before 8:00 and jumped in the shower, as we all did except Becky who was afraid of the shower stall. The room was fitted for handicapped use, and as such, the shower stall didn’t have any lip between it and the rest of the bathroom floor. Becky was concerned that water would get all over the place. So was I, but for the most part it didn’t.
We ate breakfast at the lodge, which entailed going through a line rather than the more free-for-all that we’ve encountered at other hotel courtesy breakfast offerings. We could have eaten inside but opted to dine in the seating area outside near the pool. It was a delightful little spot, but owing to the cool weather this morning, it wasn’t the warmest of spots. Breakfast was somewhat different from what we were used to, consisting of cold cuts and cheese and pastries, along with some other things, including little bagels but not cream cheese. The coffee, however, was very good.
After breakfast we drove into town, parked in the same spot we did the night before, and commenced to shop. We had two hours to do so because that’s how long the car could stay parked where it was. We started out going to an outdoor flea market on the Nevada side of the state line. Becky found another little pink piggy stuffed animal there, and this time she made sure we didn’t leave without it. Then we walked up and down the main drag looking in the boutiques and trendy shops. I bought Sharon a pair of badly needed shoes (light brown Clark brand sliders) at a place called Heavenly Sports, and she got me a pewter figurine of a carousel lion at a store that had an impressive collection of authentic looking American Indian garb and the like. Our last stop was the same as our first-after we got back in the Blazer, the kids and I drove around in a casino-hotel parking lot while Sharon went back to the flea market across the street and bought Eric a glass turtle figurine that he wanted. Eric was turtle-figurine-happy the entire trip and at times less than discriminating. This turtle, however, was quite nice.
We returned to the lodge to have lunch at the Blue Bistro Restaurant on the pier behind the lodge. While waiting about 45 minutes for a table, we strolled along the pier looking at the beautiful surroundings. We were eventually seated at one of the picnic tables on the pier. The view was intoxicatingly scenic, the food (fresh pasta, cheese pasta, and chicken skewers) was delicious, and the windy was so gusty that it almost blew over our umbrella on two or three occasions.
After lunch, the boys and eventually Becky (after Sharon retrieved her swimsuit from our room) went down to the beach beside the pier and waded into the big lake. Becky didn’t stay in the water very long, however. It was too cold. After their dip in the lake, the kids went into the hot tub & the pool.
We discussed at great length what we should do that afternoon in South Lake Tahoe. There are of course lots of attractions and excursions in this world-famous resort. But we missed the glass-bottomed boat cruise and couldn’t decide or agree on what else to do (the boys in particular didn’t want to do most of the suggestions we had-such as visiting the Vikingsholm). So we ended up just lounging around. In fact, for a spell I was lying around taking a nap. Oh, well, lounging was not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon at our lovely resort lodge.
For dinner, we thought we’d again try the Mexican restaurant in town called Chevy’s. We’d stopped there the night before, but there was an incredibly long line of people waiting to get in. Tonight, however, there was only about a 15-minute wait. We drove around while we waited, then were seated outside. The food was very tasty, and the prices quite reasonable (as it turned out the prices were exceptionally reasonable because the charge never showed up on my credit card statement). The most amusing line during dinner came from Becky. The waitress said something to the effect of “I guess you don’t want any chocolate cake or anything?” Becky shot back, “I’d like chocolate cake.”
We returned to our room and watched a bit of the Olympics. About midnight the toilet stopped up, and I had to go the front desk to get a plunger to unclog it. ~
Highlight: Lunch was a very delightful, albeit a windy, affair.
Lowlight: Disappointed that we didn’t take an excursion on the lake or do something of that sort.
Notes:
· We found out later on during the trip that Chevy’s is a chain restaurant that operates in the West.
Internet sites:
http://www.timbercovetahoe.com/
Day 6, Sunday, August 22, 2004
As we did the day before, we ate breakfast at the lodge; this time, however, we dined inside and I for one enjoyed the meal more because I made a bagel sandwich out of the cold cuts. Then we packed up the Blazer and got on the road. The decision to be made was whether to drive up the shoreline of Lake Tahoe or head straight for Sacramento. We decided to take the scenic route, and it probably costs us two hours or so.
We passed by a few picturesque points before finally pulling into a scenic point high above the lake to climb some rocks and have a look around. Unfortunately, we never even made it out of the car because all of the parking spaces (and there were quite a few) were occupied. Seems that lots of other folks had the same intentions. So we moved along. Our next stop was at a small trading post that featured local crafts, most notably rugs made of alpaca wool. The prices for the alpaca were very steep, the kids were running wild, and the owner was a bit of a jerk. There were some very nice women’s sweaters at a good price but the wrong size. So off we went.
A little farther up the road, we ran across a roadside flea market with about 30 to 40 stalls. There were lots of nice and unusual items for sale, and we bought a few, specifically, a wooden jewelry box from the Odenheimers and a leather vest for Sharon from Pat’s Place. What we didn’t buy was a very nice quilt from the Odenheimers that Sharon really liked. It was damp and chilly out, so we didn’t dawdle long at the flea market. Back on the road, we ended our partial circumnavigation of the lake and headed toward I-80 near the town of Truckee. The interstate soon thereafter cuts across Donner’s Pass, which is a rugged stretch offering impressive views. We stopped briefly at a rest stop near the top of the pass, where it was without question the coldest place on the entire trip.
It was soon time for lunch, so we kept an eye out for an inviting town where we might find an inviting restaurant. That town proved to be Auburn. And very inviting it was. We drove around a bit, then parked near the artsy section of town near I-80. First we had the kids pose beside a massive statue of a forty-niner (a prospector not a football player), and actually they weren’t beside the statue but rather sitting in the screening pan the forty-nine held in his hands. The pan was so big it accommodated all of the kids, although Becky was not at all fond of being in it. After first browsing through a souvenir shop or two, we decided to dine at the Open Door Restaurant. And very inviting it was too. I ordered a few sandwiches and refreshments at the counter inside, and we dined on the veranda overlooking the city of Auburn. The food was good, the beer delightful, and the view splendid. And Becky had lots of fun playing with the kids’ stove set and other toys that were lying about. After lunch we looked around in a few more gift & novelty stores. Eric brought a necklace consisting of turtle charms strung together at shop with a jumble of things, and Travis would have bought some very fancy looking chopsticks at an upscale boutique had they been for sale by themselves rather than as part of a set of China bowls.
Soon after getting back on I-80, we hit what was by far the worst traffic we encountered on the trip. (I guess owing to it being a Sunday afternoon on one of the last weekends of the summer.) For hours we crawled from Rocklin to Sacramento to Davis to Vacaville to Fairfield. It was dreadful, and for most of the way the scenery was no great shakes. Finally, a little past Fairfield, we got off the interstate at California Route 12 and left the traffic behind.
Almost instantly and magically, the world around us was transformed from a clogged expressway crawling through uninspiring flat lands to a two-lane country highway lazily rolling through lush fields and hills covered with grape vines and dotted with quaint towns and one renowned winery after another. We were now in the Napa Valley. This was wine country. California Route 12 soon because Route 29, which sort of runs between Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley. This stretch was indescribably beautiful, and seemingly every mile we passed another vineyard offering free wine tasting. We stopped to eat dinner a little south of the lovely town of St. Helena at an outdoor burger joint called Taylor’s Refresher. The place looked to be out of the 1950’s, and Sharon had her reservations about it at first. But it had a wide selection of food and draft beers and lots of open space for the kids to run and run and run. And that’s what they did. The food wasn’t great (we had a cheeseburger, catfish po’boy, mini corn dogs), but the draft beer (Sierra Nevada & Anchor Steam) and the ambiance were. Also, the kids enjoyed their vanilla shake and needed to run off some energy.
Soon after we got back on the road, dusk began to settle, making this lovely area all the more enchanting. We began to look for a place to spend the night, but the next town north on Route 29, a little place called Calistoga, didn’t appear to have suitable offerings. So we drove on in the twilight, cutting over to California Route 128. There wasn’t another town for quite a way, that being Geyserville. Once there we checked out the Geyserville Inn (pictured below). It was a very attractive place, but it didn’t include breakfast and the cost was rather steep. So we continued on in search of a Best Western in Cloverdale that the proprietor of the Geyserville Inn had told Sharon about. We missed the entrance to US Route 101, however, and went a few miles in the wrong direction before realizing we probably weren’t on the right track. We doubled back, found US 101, and headed to Cloverdale, where we stayed in room 106 of the Best Western Cloverdale Inn. The motel was very new, clean, pleasant, and nearly deserted, and the room was fairly spacious.
The boys took a dip in the hot tub (probably the nicest one on the trip), while I read. Then we watched some TV, in particular the Olympic finals of the Men’s 100 meter race. We all put up $5 and picked our man, winner take all. I went with the old guy Maurice Greene, Sharon went with a guy from Jamaica, Travis went with Shawn Crawford from the US, and Eric went with Justin Gatlin from the US. And then we were told not to forget about the Portuguese guy. As it turned out, 9.85 seconds later, Justin Gatlin made Eric the big winner, and he was very happy about that.
Highlight: The Napa Valley was an absolutely lovely area, and our dinner spot was idyllic.
Lowlight: The traffic wins this one, no contest.
Internet sites:
http://www.vw.vccs.edu/vwhansd/HIS121/Donner.html (account of the Donner party)
Day 7, Monday, August 23, 2004
Breakfast at the Cloverdale Best Western, although pleasantly situated in a spacious and nearly empty room adjacent to the office, consisted of rather limited fare because it closed at 9:30 a.m. and we didn’t get there until about 9:25 (they had already started putting away some of the food away).
After packing the car, we briefly drove around Cloverdale looking for a gas station. Like everything else in this area, the town was very well manicured, quaint, and lovely. Wine producing must pay very handsome dividends in this part of the world. (Cloverdale is in Sonoma County, which like its neighbor Napa County is a famed wine region and absolutely stunning.) We then hopped on California Route 128 North on our way to the Pacific coast. Again, I was awed by the beauty of the surrounding countryside. The route started out winding and climbing up into the hills. It leveled off some, but on this day there were more twists and turns in the road that on any other during the trip.
We passed through Boonville, in Mendocino County, and eventually reached California Route 1 and the Pacific Ocean near the town of Albion. Up the road a short stretch was the town of Mendocino. Little of it could be seen from the highway, but we were ready for lunch, so I exited to have a look around. Mendocino is a salty and arty little town of small wooden buildings that sits on a promontory jutting out into the ocean. We drove straight through town to the cliffs overlooking the Pacific and got out of the Blazer to have a look around. And what a place to have a look around. The cliffs stood about 40 to 20 feet above sea level and consisted of jagged rock and a little sand. The view of the ocean and the natural arches and hollows and the waves crashing against the boulders below was stunning. I worried a bit that one of the kids might get too close to the edge and vanish into the water below, but the only mishap was when Eric slipped while running over the rocks and scraped his knees.
We drove back to Mendocino and again looked for a place to eat. Just as I was about to give up, I found the main drag where all the restaurants and gift shops were located (that being on Main Street along the southern coastline). We dined on the upper terrace at the Bayview Café, which as the name implies had a front row view of the Pacific Ocean. It was a stunning setting, and the food (fish sandwich, burger, and pasta salad) was one of the best meals of the trip. It was pretty darn hot and the sun was very bright, so this is one time when dining inside may have been a better idea. All the same, we had a delightful meal even if we did get a little sunburned.
After lunch, we browsed in a few of the many gift ships lining Main Street. The only one, however, where we bought anything was at the Big River Trading Company, where Eric bought 3 more turtles (all of them made by Hagen-Renaker) and I bought Sharon a sweatshirt with the word “Mendocino” printed on it.
Back on the road, we soon came to the town of Fort Bragg, which I thought was the home of the US Army post bearing that name, having forgotten that it is in North Carolina. This Fort Bragg has no military post, although I learned afterward that it once did long ago. Despite its impressive location, we saw nothing in the town that made much of an impression, so we just passed on through. A ways further up the coast, I drove down a side road, hoping that it would provide access to the vast sand dunes that lined the coast in the area. But in only led to a dead end. So I turned around and headed back to the highway, which would have been uneventful were it not for this woman who stormed into the street and threw a conniption because someone had the gall to venture down her secluded little lane. I think she accused me in her maniacal manner of going too fast, but I was only going 10 to 15 mph. I also think she may have tailed us for a distance.
About a mile farther north we came upon a huge public Seaside Creek Beach. The beach was flanked on both sides by cliffs (upon which there were houses overlooking the ocean) and had a massive rock near the middle. The boys wanted to climb this island in the sand, which stood about 25-feet across, 60-feet long, and 25-feet high. I told them they could and then joined them myself up top. To my surprise, Sharon and Becky also scaled it, which was no small feat, indeed, for Becky’s little feet. After looking around and taking a few photos, the boys and I descended and soon so too did Sharon and Becky. We then walked around the beach for a bit down by the water. Becky was particularly disgusted with or frightened by the dead jellyfish lying about. The boys wanted to climb another huge rock at the other end of the beach, but it was time to be moving on.
As we drove further up the coast, the inland landscape along the coastal highway grew more and more barren, so unlike the lush hills and vineyards of the Napa and Sonoma valleys we had traveled through in the morning. A bit north of the town of Westport, California Route 1 leaves the coast and twists and snakes through the hills and forests of northern California for about 15 miles or so until it ends at US Route 101. That meant about 15 miles of twists and turns and ups and downs through this tranquil and almost completely deserted stretch. It was slow going. And we had to slow down even more because the constant zigzagging was giving Becky an upset stomach. At one point we had to stop altogether.
At the end of California Route 1, where it empties into US Route 101 near the town of Leggett, there is one of those drive-thru trees. It’s about as hokey as it gets, but we figured what the heck, can’t do that just any-old-wheres. So we paid $3 to drive through the really big Chandelier Tree on Drive-Thru Tree Road in Drive-Thru Tree Park. We also checked out the gift shop, and the boys climbed on top of a really big fallen redwood. Yep, it was all really hokey. The following quote from the roadsideamerica.com Internet site is incisive: “Modern environmentalists have made sure that there will be no new drive-thru trees, so the remaining few are tenaciously preserved for exploitation.”
Sharon took over driving for the next 90 miles as we headed north on Route 101 to Eureka. It rained off and on, while I dozed off and on. In Eureka we looked about for a place to have dinner, but we couldn’t find even one of those drive-through coffee shops. The town, or at least what little we saw of it, was nothing like those quaint, upscale communities in Sonoma and Napa but rather a gritty seaport. We got back on the highway and exited soon again at McKinleyville. First we stopped at a grocery store to get beer and Smirnoff Ice, but their prices were so steep that I ended up buying the booze at an adjacent liquor store. Then as we drove back and forth on what I presume was the main drag through town looking for a nice restaurant to have dinner, a very thick fog rolled in. It made McKinleyville a real downer of a place. The restaurants all looked dark and dingy. And as such, nothing appealed to us. We eventually settled upon a Subway (in the same shopping center as the grocery & liquor stores) despite Sharon’s usual aversion to the chain. The food wasn’t bad, even Sharon agreed, although it certainly wasn’t one of more delightful dining experiences of the trip.
After dinner, we found our way through the soupy fog back to US Route 101 and continued north to Crescent City. It’s 67 miles from McKinleyville to Crescent City, and it was the foggiest 67 miles I ever drove. There were spots where it wasn’t too bad, but there were also stretches, particularly after it got dark, where the only thing I could see was the line in the middle of the often-zigzagging road. But we made it. In Crescent City we encountered a host of hotels. We stopped at four of them, where Sharon checked out the situation. We chose an independent place called the Anchor Beach Inn. Our room was purported to have an ocean view, but what with the dense fog, they could have told us it had a view of the Eiffel Tower. One thing for sure, we had a huge room-three large double beds and room to spare. Sharon took the kids for a dip in the hot tub while I stayed in the room. After they returned, we watched more of the Olympics and the movie “Flirting with Disaster” with Ben Stiller and Alan Alda, finally getting to sleep about 1:25 a.m.
Highlight: Lunch in Mendocino.
Lowlight: The fog was even worse that the maniac lady on the side street near Fort Bragg. But then if I had to listen to that lady for 2 hours like I had to navigate through the fog, I would probably feel differently.
Notes:
· There was a lot too this day. It may well have been the most notable day of the year.
· We missed the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which runs parallel to US Route 101.
Internet sites:
http://www.californiacoastline.org/ (This site has incredibly large online photos of every mile of California’s coastline.)
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/CAPHItree.html (Drive-thru trees in northern California)
Day 8, Tuesday, August 24, 2004
In the morning, I decided to check out the view from our room. What I saw looked a lot more like a trailer park than the ocean to me, although I guess the ocean was out there somewhere. Then we all went to the office to suffer through the worst hotel breakfast of the entire trip, by far-nothing but donuts. I don’t like donuts. Travis does, but he was in a foul mood for some reason and wouldn’t touch them.
We started the day’s journey taking US Route 199 (also known as “The Redwood Highway”) through more redwood forests and into Oregon. In the town of Cave Junction, Oregon, we considered checking out the Oregon Caves, but decided it would take too long, would be too cold, and was too far away. Along the highway were several quaint-looking shops selling every manner of woodcarvings. I stopped at one such place in Kerby that made and sold handcrafted wooden furniture. It was actually a collection of shops, sort of like a commune, where these post-hippie types built unique and exquisite chairs, tables, benches, etc, from local wood, notably burlwood. The stuff was remarkable, and they had an incredible amount of it. There were also three exotic treehouses on the grounds that the woodworkers had constructed. And to my surprise, they let the kids explore them. Eric and Travis and to a lesser extent Becky spent about 45 minutes climbing up and down and throughout them and had a blast doing so. At one of the shops Travis bought a reggae-style hat for $10. They didn’t even know they had such an item for sale.
We ate lunch, consisting of breakfast fare, at a Shari’s Restaurant in Grants Pass. Now there were lots of restaurants in this town, and we no doubt picked the worst of the litter. It was like a very bad Denny’s with service as slow as was humanly possible. We got there about 1:00 p.m. and didn’t get out until about 2:30 p.m. Afterward, we shot up Interstate 5, at one point retracing a short stretch near Roseburg that we’d covered last Thursday.
Our featured stop for the day was the Columbia River Gorge outside of Portland. My boss at work, Chris Watson, had told me about the place, and the guidebook gave it two stars out of three, meaning to the editors that it was worth a side trip. So once we got near Portland, we switched from I-5 to I-205 and then to I-84, which we took a short distance before exiting at Wood Village. After getting gas and some snacks to tie us over since it didn’t look like we’d be having dinner at the usual time, we started on US Route 30, which would eventually become the Historic Columbia River Highway. The sparsely traveled two-lane road wound through some very lovely countryside, but we saw no signs of the mighty Columbia River. Finally, we reached the overlook at the Portland Women's Forum State Park at Chanticleer Point, which was mentioned in the guidebook, and pulled in and parked. And there spread out hundreds of feet below us and miles and miles before us was the vast and inspiring Columbia River Gorge. What a view. As a light rain fell, I took some photos of the kids and the gorge, but it soon began raining harder, so we retreated into the Blazer.
We then drove to the far end of the parking lot to check out the view from there. The entire lot was nearly empty, and at this end we had it all to ourselves. That loneliness coupled with the light rain and the early twilight, permeated the majestic gorge with serenity and somberness. The boys and I got out again. While they cavorted, I marveled at the view, which was punctuated by a domed structure that stood atop a section of the ridge about a mile away that jutted into the gorge. It looked like an Italian castle perched on a hill that one might see in a painting by an old master.
Our next stop was at that impressive domed structure seen from the overlook-it’s called Vista House (built in 1918) at Crown Point State Park. I read that it served as a rest stop, an observatory, and a memorial to Oregon's early pioneers. We parked and walked along the roadway that circles Vista House, which was closed and under some renovation, and took in a 180° view of the gorge in the soft muted tones of the gloaming.
Then we hurried as much as we could along this stretch of narrow, meandering highway through the rain to our third and final stop along the gorge-that being Multnomah Falls. Hoping to arrive before it was dark, we got there just as the last remnants of light on this very gray evening were vanishing. The falls, which was across the street from the parking lot, could be seen at once. We walked up closer and gave it the once over. The most remarkable thing about the falls from our vantage point was the ornate bridge that spanned the lower section of the cascade. We would have hiked up to the span, but given the time of day and the weather conditions, which grew worse by the second, we instead retreated to the gift shop. Inside we browsed and picked up a few postcards. Then after first stopping for another brief view of Multnomah Falls, we made our way back through the rain drops to our car.
[Description of the falls from the Internet] Unforgettable Falls - Heading into a mossy rain forest, a series of graceful figure-eight loops gently drops you 600 feet. Within five miles of each other, you'll encounter four dramatic cataracts - Latourell, Shepperd's Dell, Bridal Veil and Wahkeena falls. Each has a misty footpath to offer you a closer look. Next is two-tiered Multnomah Falls, the granddaddy of them all. At 620 feet, only three falls in the nation are higher, and none are more beautiful. It attracts large crowds on summer weekends, so plan accordingly. A trail from famous Multnomah Falls Lodge (1925) climbs to the Simon Benson Bridge across the lower cascade, then zigzags to the top.
We traveled a bit farther west on the Historic Columbia River Highway to the next (or perhaps we missed the next and it was the second) entrance ramp to I-84, which we took east. We exited a few miles up the road in the town of Troutland and checked out a Holiday Inn Express and a Comfort Inn. The Holiday Inn got the nod because, as Sharon told me, the desk clerk seemed to have no interest in attending to her and the lobby was unpleasant due to being remodeled. Our room at the Holiday was on the second floor and pretty much the usual for this chain. I got us some burgers and fries at the Wendy’s right next door for a very late dinner. It was probably largely because we hadn’t eaten for so long, but the burger sure tasted good. The kids were exhausted and soon asleep. Sharon and I watched some TV and were asleep by 12:40. ~~
Highlight: The Columbia River Gorge was stunning. Our first view may have been the best, although Multnomah Falls may have been were it not dark and raining. The treehouses were really cool too.
Lowlight: Lunch at Shari’s was really pathetic.
Notes:
· The guidebooks raved about the Shakespeare Festival in the southern Oregon town of Medford. Alas we were close by, but didn’t have enough time, so no cigar.
Internet sites:
http://www.tripcheck.com/General/Gorge.htm (Columbia River Gorge site)
http://www.mind.net/dlmark/gorge.htm (Columbia River Gorge site)
Day 9, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Whereas yesterday began with the worst hotel breakfast, today featured the best-by far. Omelets and biscuits with sausage gravy and OJ and on and on. We filled our tummies and then some. And then we got on the road, taking I-84 to I-5 North. The Green Guide book gave its top rating to both Mount St. Helens and to Mount Rainier. But we only had time to visit one. I’d been to Mt. Rainier before and I believe so too had Sharon, so we decided to visit The Johnston Ridge Observatory about 5 miles west of Mount St. Helens.
We exited I-5 at the town of Castle Rock, where we stopped at a Shell gas station to pick up some drinks and snacks. Then we headed east on Washington Route 504 to the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Until we got near the mountain, the drive was pretty unremarkable. But as you get closer, the views become more interesting and the roadway more winding. The landscape becomes tortured, and the mountain looms into view. Did the explosion of 24 years ago wreck all this havoc? Here’s some history about that explosion from http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/:
At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.
In 1982 the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment is left to respond naturally to the disturbance.
We drove in and out of cloud cover as we neared the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which was named after volcanologist David Johnston who was on duty May 18,1980, and was one of 57 people killed by the eruption (the most deadly in U.S. history). The clouds threatened to leave us in the fog, but were slightly above us when we reached the observatory. That was good but not good enough to see Mount St. Helens 5 miles away and completely obscured by clouds. We went into the observatory, looked around in the gift shop, where Travis had a melt down for some reason, and then went in to watch an 18-minute film about the eruption. The film ends with the curtain rising to reveal the mountain, but of course on this day it just revealed a barren landscape and clouds. Even so, I found the story of this mountain very moving. And being there made me feel it so much more even if I couldn’t actually see the mountain that was reduced in height one day in 1980 from 9,677 feet to 8,364 feet. I guess it’s that and the 57 people that make such an indelible impression. Mountains are one of the few things that are supposed to be immutable. But this one blew up and changed the earth around it in the process. One particularly moving photo is an undated one of Spirit Lake before the explosion. In the photo a couple of people are canoeing on this tree-lined pristine lake with the classically shaped mountain in the background. After the explosion the trees were gone, the lake was gone, and 1,313 feet of a beautiful mountain were gone.
After the movie we looked at a few exhibits, and then Eric and I stood outside and looked at the barren landscape stretching below and between us and the mountain. Rain started to fall, so we retreated to the observatory, where Travis was starting to come out of his funk. I bought a very nice picture book at the gift shop, and we soon scampered back to the Blazer.
This next hour was spent mostly heading back on Route 504 to I-5. This is about the only time, we had to retrace our tracks. We stopped along the way at restaurant-lodge-gift shop in the park area, and were going to eat lunch there, but the service was intolerably slow and the prices uninvitingly high, so we bolted. Our next stop was back in Castle Rock at the Mount St. Helens Gifts shop, where we bought a bunch of souvenirs, including a baseball cap and shot glass. Next door we got gas and drinks at the same Shell station we’d stopped at on the way in.
Cruising north on I-5, while scenic, was boring, as is often the case on interstate highways. At about 6:30 p.m. we existed the interstate and stopped in a town near Olympia, whose name escapes me, to look for a place to eat. Finding nothing of interest, we elected to get some takeout at a Jack-in-the-Box to tie us over. Then we had a devil of a time finding our way back onto I-5. The traffic at this point had gotten very heavy, although nothing nearly as bad as the total mess we encountered between Sacramento and the Napa Valley.
In the midst of this traffic, we drove past the front gates of Ft. Lewis. One of my only regrets about the trip is that I didn’t pull up to those gates to see if they would let us pass through. Instead, I drove on and got off at the next exit. There one could either turn right into a back entrance to Ft. Lewis (it being the 41st Division Drive gate, the one I was most familiar with during my Army days) or left to a seedy, little, rinky-dink town, which is very much like all of the other seedy, little, rinky-dink towns that exist beside military bases. I took a left, and drove up and down the main drag. (Had we driven up and down once more we would have been in violation of a posted warning advising motorists that they would be fined $300 for doing so.) I stopped at a convenience store, which I believe was the same one where in my Army days we often stopped for hot sub-style sandwiches. The place didn’t look familiar and the sandwich of lore was not to be found. We then drove around the area a bit more. It was vaguely familiar, but I had a hard time getting my bearings. I considered going up to the 41st Division Drive gate to the base, but concluded they wouldn’t let us pass through. So I got back on I-5 en route to Seattle.
Traffic had eased up, so that was nice. We arrived in Seattle in the early evening and navigated the downtown area, where we first checked out a couple of $300+ per night hotels (The Edgewater & a Sheraton, I believe) before settling upon the Holiday Inn Express near the Space Needle. Sharon and the kids headed up to our room while I drove around and around for a long, long time looking for a place to park. I eventually had to take one of the handicapped spots. At least our suite was quite spacious with a living room, large bedroom, tiny kitchenette, and two baths. Also there was a clear view of the Space Needle.
At 9:30 p.m. while Sharon took the kids to the noisy little indoor pool, I ventured out to get take-out and ended up at the hotel restaurant, called the Emerald Grill, where I enjoyed a draft while waiting. Back in the room, we watched TV with the kids and feasted on chicken quesadillas and buffalo-style wings.
Highlight: Mount St. Helens, even if clouds did get in our way.
Lowlight: Not making it onto Ft. Lewis, where I served for almost three years all those years ago. Maybe there’s a silver lining to this cloud in that I’ll just have to return to the area.
Notes:
· The obstruction of Mount St. Helens by clouds recalled the time in July 1991 in Maui when they eclipsed the solar eclipse.
Internet sites:
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/
Day 10, Thursday, August 26, 2004
The hotel’s complimentary breakfast was set up in the hotel’s lobby and featured bagels & cream cheese, cereal, muffins, orange juice, and other things. It was all very nice, but the place was jammed packed and every table occupied. Eventually, we were able to grab a table and take a seat.
A little later we ventured downtown. We were navigating fine until we briefly misrouted onto Route 99, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which funneled us out of town. We headed back in and parked at the 2nd and James Garage near Pioneer Square. It was 1:10 p.m., and we paid for 2 hours. We initially thought we were further north than we were, so it took us a few minutes and some aimless walking before we got our bearings and found our location on the map. We ventured down to Elliott Bay, which is the name of the Puget Sound inlet that Seattle is on, and started walking north along Alaskan Way. Sharon wanted to visit the Seattle Aquarium, so we did ($41.25 for the whole gang). She and the kids liked it. I just liked the otters. Then we moved on, passing the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center, which I thought (as did the guide book) looked like a more appealing attraction that the aquarium. We crossed the highway via the walkway bridge, which offered an excellent view of the city, so I took a few pictures and shot a little video. We soon came to a crowded little park and shortly after that the Pike Place Market.
Seattle’s Pike Place Market is world famous and one of the city’s main attractions (some may even contend the main one, although I’d probably give that claim to the Space Needle). The nearly 100-year-old market covers nine-acres in the heart of Seattle’s historic district. I’m not sure we covered all nine acres, but we saw quite a bit of it. The place is amazing and a maze. We meandered through the corridors on the lower levels and browsed in many of the countless curio shops selling stuff new and used, from near and afar, mundane and exotic. One of the kids (Eric I believe) got scolded by a hag in one store for handling the merchandise, so they didn’t get any of our business. In fact, I believe the only shop that did get any of our business was one selling turtle figurines (what else?). Then we looked around for a place to have a bite to eat, and although there are many, nothing really struck our fancy. So we ended up buying food to go at a stall on the upper level, where all the fresh food vendors and throngs of customers do business. The place was so crowded we had to eat out on the sidewalk, but the eats were quite good. Then we got a few large freshly baked cookies for dessert. And that was it for the Pike Place Market-a place most curious and interesting, even if perhaps most of what they had to sell was pretty much junk.
We continued hiking through the city en route to our car. We stopped along the way for coffee at a gourmet coffee shop, where we sat outside for a spell to drink it. A little after 3:00 p.m., we arrived at the James Garage and then drove a few blocks and parked in an open lot under Route 99. After dropping a few quarters in the parking meter, we set off to find a place to have a late lunch. That place was the Taco Del Mar at 2136 First Ave. in the delightful and historic Pioneer Square district. Sharon and I sat at a booth and dined on tacos that were quite tasty and imbibed a Mexican brew that really hit the spot. The kids sat at the counter and slurped their frosty frozen concoctions. After lunch, we returned to the Blazer and drove back to the Holiday Inn Express.
Back at the hotel, the boys predictably enough wanted to go swimming. So I took them down to the indoor pool, which was a lot quieter than last evening because only one or two other kids were in it. As the boys splashed and played some game they devised, I sat by and read some Faulkner. After pool time, we all walked the eight or so blocks to the Space Needle in the Seattle Center. We looked into dining at the SkyCity Restaurant atop the Needle and decided the charge was too steep for what was offered. So we walked around the Seattle Center fairgrounds in search of a place to eat. The choices were few because most everything was closed or closing for the day, so we grabbed some pizza slices and an enormous gyro at the food court inside the cavernous and nearly deserted Seattle Center House. After chow, we walked back to the 605 foot tall Space Needle and at 8:17 p.m. for $36 we took the elevator up. It was still twilight as we walked out onto the walkway that encircles the observation deck. We were greeted by and treated to a vast and lovely view of the vibrant city and the serene sound. Alas, if only clouds had not obscured Mt. Rainier. Night soon fell and the Puget Sound was lost in darkness, but the city’s lights were all the more ablaze. Then we walked around inside the observation deck, playing a few of the goofy games there, before taking the elevator down to the ground, where we bought a few things at the SpaceBase gift shop, including some rather stylish blue metallic mugs.
Once outside, I took a few photos of the Space Needle from as directly beneath it as I could get and still view the entire structure. I was trying to capture it from a “different” angle (I’m sure I’m only about the 10 millionth visitor who has done that). Afterward, we wandered over to the Pacific Science Center next door. The place was closed so there wasn’t much reason to hang around. So we made our way back to the hotel. Back in our room, we watched a little more of the Olympics. Tonight they featured the finals in the men’s 200-meter race. We once again all put $5 into the kitty and picked our man. Eric again picked the winner (Shawn Crawford). Then we watched the movie “As Good As It Gets” with Jack Nicholson and finally pondered what to do tomorrow-the last day of our vacation.
Highlight: The Space Needle at night offered a lovely view of the pretty city by the sound.
Lowlight: Everyone else liked it, but I thought the Seattle Aquarium was not worth the visit.
Notes:
I used to visit the Seattle Center with my buddies when I was in the Army to take in rock concerts at the Coliseum. And the Beatles played there in 1964. In 1995 the Coliseum was reconstructed and renamed the KeyArena. I also attended an indoor laser light show or two at the Seattle Center, which I gather was held at the Pacific Science Center.
Internet sites:
http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/
http://www.beautifulseattle.com/attr.htm
http://www.spaceneedle.com/webcam/
Day 11, Friday, August 27, 2004
On this our last day of vacation, we contemplated driving to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park or perhaps San Juan Island in the Puget Sound, both places being highly recommended by the Green Guide book. But alas, with an 8:30 p.m. flight back to Philadelphia, we didn’t believe we had the time. So instead we ate breakfast at the hotel and then ventured back into Seattle. We parked in a noisy open lot under Route 99 near Pike Place Market, took the elevator down to Alaskan Way, and went into the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center. We got there about 12:30 p.m., and for the price ($21), you couldn’t beat the place. It was mostly empty, so we had it pretty much to ourselves. There were all kinds of hands-on exhibits; in fact, all of the exhibits were hands-on except the first one, that being a replica of a Viking ship. But by the time we saw the sign advising that no one was to climb aboard or something to that effect, it was too late-the kids dressed in full naval regalia had already commandeered the ship. No one scolded us, so they must not have minded that much.
We went from exhibit to exhibit playing with this and that. One of the more memorable and fun things they had was a video-type game in which the player is timed at loading containers. Another was a simulated cargo ship that one tries to steer through the Puget Sound. As we were about to leave, we realized that somewhere along the way, Becky had lost her little pink South Lake Tahoe piggy. So we went on a massive search for it, and of course found it in the last place we looked (and the last place we were)-the gift shop.
Time was about to run out on our parking meter, so we returned to the car and drove to another lot near the second place we’d parked the day before (an open lot under Route 99). We then ventured back to the area where we dined yesterday and found an inviting spot for lunch called the New Orleans Creole Restaurant at 114 First Ave. South. I believe we might have been the only diners in this cavernous eatery that at one time must have been a warehouse and now doubled as a restaurant and club. The food seemed quite authentic, came in abundant portions, and was very tasty and reasonably priced. Among the dishes we ate were chicken and tasso (smoked ham), jambalaya, and steak Creole.
Then we walked up Alaskan Way stopping here and there to browse in a few of the many gift shops that line the route. Most of what was for sale seemed to be rather tawdry. We also stopped at an ice cream stand called The Crab Pot and got the boys a cup of ice cream and a milk shake. It was about 5:00 p.m. at this point, and we were very much aware that our time was running out, the vacation was all but over. Perhaps we could have gone back to the Pike Place Market or explored some other attraction in Seattle, but instead we returned to Blazer and started for the airport. We didn’t get too far at first, however, because we needed to cross the railroad tracks to get on the expressway. But there was a real long cargo train on the tracks. The train went by us rather slowly and then stopped all together. Then it started moving slowly in the other direction. Then stopped and started once again in it’s initial direction. Stopped, back the other way, and back and forth. All the while strategically blocking our and everyone else’s path. The engineer must have been a complete schizo. Eventually, his medicine kicked in, or whatever, and he got the heck out of our way.
The rest of the drive to the SeaTac Airport was uneventful. We stopped and filled the gas tank one last time and then found the airport and Dollar Rent-A-Car garage with no problem. It took a while to clear out all of our stuff from the Blazer after eleven days of travels, but it was still hours before our flight. We checked Eric’s blood sugar in the car rental lounge, and it was upwards of 500 mg/dl. Not good. But for the most part his “numbers” had been reasonably in range during the trip. We then hiked through the garage to the airport terminal, and what a long, long hike it was. I think we must have walked from one end of airport to the other and then all the way back again. Well, like I said, we had lots of time. We checked in at the ticket counter and then headed to our gate with still about two hours to kill before our flight. I got a latte from a Starbucks kiosk for Sharon and I to share. It was the only cup of that famed Seattle brew we had on the trip. I also picked up some fast food fare for the kids, but we were all still hungry, so we all headed to the Edge Sports Bar in the terminal and shared a bowl of chili, a tasty French dip sandwich, and beverages. Back at the out gate, we called Gwen to let her know we were on our way. Then we flew home, Gwen picked us up, and our travels were over.
Highlight: The Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center and lunch at the New Orleans Restaurant were both quite pleasant.
Lowlight: Waiting and waiting for that train to clear out of our way.
Notes:
· We never did get to see Mr. Rainier again after the first day because of clouds and haze.
· Downtown Seattle is a user-friendly city, particularly when it isn’t raining, and we saw nary a drop during our stay. Interestingly, in our rather short visit there, I saw more of the city than I had during the entire two years and sevens months I was stationed at Ft. Lewis.
· As we usually do, we carried out luggage on board on both the flights out and back.
Internet sites:
http://www.ody.org/ (The Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center)
http://www.neworleanscreolerestaurant.com/ (The New Orleans Restaurant)
Closing Notes:
To my mind road travel is the most memorable way to vacation in part because you see so much. To make sure you’re seeing the best of what there is to see, however, it’s a big help to have a good travel guide. I thought The Green Guide Pacific Northwest was superb. It was comprehensive, accurate, and a good read, and it traveled well. Photographs, video, and a log like this one, I believe, are helpful in reliving one’s travels. The new Sony digital camera I bought before the trip worked out very well. The fact that it was digital and had lots of memory made it easy to take more photos than I usually do, and I usually don’t take enough. It also allowed us to view them immediately on the ample sized 2.5 inch display. Also, the fact that it was considerably lighter than my 35mm camera plus its lenses and flash made it much, much easier to haul around. The video camera we used was the same one we’ve had since 12/98. The video came out good except for a 56-minute gap where the camcorder apparently was accidentally left on or turned on during our visit to Mount St. Helens. We probably should have shot more video than we did. And I would like to get one of those sleek digital camcorders soon.
It struck me toward the end of the trip after we’d passed yet another deserted Mom-and-Pop motel that this aspect of road travel in the United States was dying. Before they’re all gone, I’d like to photograph a bunch of them. Although I’m sure it’s been done before, a collection of photos depicting this lost part of Americana would make an interesting book.
One of the many pleasures Sharon and I have enjoyed on our many trips over the years is watching a movie in our room at the end of the day, and as noted in the log, we saw two movies on this trip. What is not noted in the log is that the soundtrack to this trip, however, doesn’t belong to either of those films but rather to the flick “Big Daddy.” We bought the “Big Daddy” DVD early on in our travels, and the kids watched it on the portable DVD player over and over. I couldn’t see the picture but I heard the audio time after time. My sister Gwen had lent us her portable DVD player, and watching movies on it entertained the kids on the long stretches of driving. We should certainly consider bringing one on our next road trip, although a more compact model might make hauling it around less of an ordeal.
As I stated in the prologue, this trip was at least in part inspired by the prospect of returning to Ft. Lewis in Washington. Seems ironic that the biggest disappointment of the trip was missing out on the place where I spent the most miserable time of my life (not counting Basic Training). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the experience and did have many enjoyable times in the Army, but all I wanted to do for three years was get the heck out. It turns out that getting out proved to be easier than getting back in.
Two other places I would have really liked to have visited and that were within striking distance were Olympic National Park and the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. We’ll hit ‘em next time. Besides, what’s seen on these trips isn’t what’s all important. What’s most important is that you’re doing something memorable and you’re doing it as a family. The identity of our road trips is forged by where we went in the context of the kids’ ages. Which reminds me of a exchange I had with Travis as we were cruising down the highway somewhere on our travels. I asked him if knew what “groovy” meant. He said, “Kind of rad.” Well, as far as travels go, this one was totally rad.