A Run on the Beach

Tuesday, which happens to be today, so now we're up to date again, we slept in late, all this driving makes you really tired! We didn't leave here until about 10:00. We went back to the beach where we sat and watched the sun set last night. We set up our blanket, plunked Joshua down on it, and momma and papa took turns going for a jog. It felt really good and really refreshing. The air was cool and the sun warm, a very nice day. Momma got her feet wet, that was enough for her, it was cold! But papa, he ran all the way in and dunked himself! That was just enough! It was cold! He said, I didn't come all this way not to get into the ocean!!!

After our run, we came home, showered, ate breakfast for lunch and now here we are, taking it easy again this afternoon, that workout tired us out!

That's it for now. We'll stay here tonight, and tomorrow drive down the Oregon coast once again, stopping along the way taking in all its beauty!

The Oregon Sunset

I felt these were worthy of their own entry....

The Oregon Coast

Monday morning we left Cape Disappointment and headed over the Columbia River on the Astoria Bridge, it's 3 miles long! Another beautiful sight! Somewhere half way over the bridge, we were in Oregon!

The Oregon coast is gorgeous! We stopped every now and then just to take pictures! Shear cliffs, "hay stack" rocks, birds and flowers, miles and miles of crashing waves, unbelievably pretty!

We passed through the town of Tillamook and lo and behold, there was the Tillamook cheese factory that you can take a tour of! Rico was hoping for samples! We wandered around inside for awhile. There are windows above the factory for all the tourists to look through and watch how they package up the cheese. It was fun to watch, we had never seen so much cheese!!! Blocks and blocks and blocks that probably weighed 50 pounds, they were all being run through different machines cutting them down to different sizes and then being packaged up and shrink-wrapped! Fun to watch!

After we got our samples and bought our own for the road, we left there and found a little hole in the wall that said fresh Dungeness crab, yum, let's go there! We shared a whole crab, that was delicious and messy, some clam chowder, yum, and a crab melt with Tillamook cheese down over the top! Oh yum! That was a tasty treat, we left there with a full tummy and half a dozen oysters for later!

By this time it was getting late, time goes by so so fast! We found a KOA kampground just outside of the town of Newport, Oregon. We knew that would be a good place to stop, not only full hook up, but wi-fi!!! We arrived early evening, took a nice long walk to the coast, and for the first time in the 15 days since we left, we watched the sun set! So, so beautiful!

We arrived back at home about 9:30, fed the boy, put him to sleep, then we bbq'ed the oysters, that took longer than expected, Rico had a hard time getting the fire going. We didn't eat them till about 11:00 p.m.! That's late for us these days!

Cape Disappointment and Lewis & Clark

Sunday morning we woke up after a night filled with lots of rain! Our rig isn't very sound proof! We set out on a hike, which turned out to be quite rigorous, although pretty short, only 3 miles or so round trip.

We hiked up to the old lighthouse, the views up there were spectacular, we stayed up there for half an hour or so, when we noticed off in the distance that it was raining, and it looked like it was coming our way! So we high-tailed it back down the path and made it to the information center just on time for it to start raining! We've noticed here, that it rains a bit then it stops, then rains some more, off and on like that all day and night.

The information center told us all about the story of Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea. There is a time line on the wall all throughout this building, it's a wonderful place, we learned all about their 2 year journey, their ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs! It was fun having a little history reminder!

We learned that Cape Disappointment got its name because when they finally made it to the Pacific Ocean from the Columbia, they assumed that they would find Europeans already there and already well established, but they didn't, they didn't find anyone there at all.

We also learned from a nice old gentleman volunteer that 150 years or so ago two jetties were put in place at the mouth of the river in order to calm the waters between the ocean and the river. The mouth of the river was a very, very dangerous place, there were many, many ship wrecks over many, many years. Apparently, without the jetties, there was a constant wave that measured 15 feet high, and the mouth of the river is 5 feet long, so could you image the size of those waves? They found it necessary to build these jetties to calm the waters to make it safer to pass through. What a wonderful story, we learned so much from this sweet little old man.

After our hike back to our "home", we took it easy the rest of the afternoon. It was the perfect day for that, it was chilly and windy, and it rained so much off an on, it was perfect for relaxing. So I did a couple of loads of laundry at the laundromat just few hundred yards away, and while papa bear and baby bear slept most of the afternoon, I got to curl up with my book and read for hours, it was wonderful!

We stayed one more night, it rained off and on again, and then it was off to Oregon!

Time to Head South!

Saturday morning we left our nice quiet little parking lot, and this time we started heading south and west, it was time for the coast! We drove and we drove, and we encountered some rain along the way, and as with all of Washington, everything was so green and beautiful, and so much water, everywhere you look! It is really a beautiful state!

One little town we drove through, I don't remember the name now, we were pulled over for speeding! Uphill! How on earth can you speed up hill in an RV of this size? We didn't believe the officer, but we didn't argue with him. He checked Rico's license, and sent us on our way with only a warning, thank goodness, he said the ticket was $112 bucks!!! We felt that he really pulled us over because our RV has no license plate yet, and he wanted to check it out for whatever reason, but he needed a reason to pull us over. Anyway, we'll never know, but at least he didn't give us a ticket!

In the late afternoon we pulled into Cape Disappointment! What a terrific name, we had to find out just why it is called that! Anyway, Cape Disappointment is in Washington and it's right at the border of Washington and Oregon, where the Columbia River meets up the the Pacific Ocean. We found a nice camping ground inside the park to settle for the evening (no wi-fi). The park is a beautiful place, it's in the forest, so we're surrounded by trees, and where we stayed was very close to the shore.

We went for an evening walk, with all the mosquitos and we found a beach they call Waikiki, and up on the cliff overlooking Waikiki sits a beautiful old lighthouse. We decided we would investigate more the next day, so after a simple meal, we all went to bed.

Seattle & Pikes Place Market

What a wonderful, full,busy day Friday was! We got up as soon as Joshua woke us up, 5:30, got ready, hopped on the ferry, this time we left our rig in the parking lot, and took the half hour trip into downtown Seattle! The city coming into view on the water was beautiful! We got off the ferry with hordes of other people, walked a short distance and found ourselves in Pikes Place Market, the oldest farmers market still in existence, it's celebrating it's 100th year this year.

What a wonderful place! We were there really early, before 8:00 a.m. so there weren't many people yet, but all the vendors were there setting up. Fresh flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, jams, jellies, syrups, honey, and the seafood, so much seafood! You name it it was all there on the inside of this wonderful old building. Just outside and on the same block, there were many different stores, jewelry, clothes, souvenirs, food, unbelievable amounts of foods, from just about every nation in the world! From Russian Peroshkies to Chinese dim sum, cheeses made on the premises, you could watch them prepare it, and we did watch! What store we thought was really fun, was the ORIGINAL Starbucks! We each got a latte from there, we felt it was a must! Rico's favorite place, he had been there before, was the Peroshky place, we had cinnamon peroshkies for breakfast with our Starbucks, and we went by later in the afternoon and bought one of each kind of the meat filled ones, they fed us for a few meals!

There was so much to do and so much to see, the bustling of all the people, and it was still early! We wanted to buy many things, but we decided we better do that on the way back to the ferry so we wouldn't have to carry too many things, and if we got perishables, that would have been better time to do it. So we left there for a bit and carried on...

We then carried on walking through all the retails stores up and down the blocks and then found ourselves at the Space Needle. We wandered around there for awhile, we didn't go up, they told us we couldn't bring our stroller, and by then we had too many things packed into it, that we didn't want to bother unloading it. But the area around the Needle has lots to do. It's very kid friendly. There is an amusement park, a big grassy area to play, and several children's museums, we wandered about checking everything out. At one point we sat near the grassy area and rested for awhile and watched all the kids playing.

For the fun of it, we decided to count Starbuck stores, Seattle is where it originated anyway, on our travels just around downtown, we counted 10!

By this time it was early afternoon, and we decided it was already time to head back so we could do our shopping. We took the monerail back, just like the one at Disneyland. It starts and the Space Needle and ends in the heart of all the retail stores. We decided we liked Pikes Place best anyway, everywhere else we walked were all familiar stores, nothing unusual, so we went back to where we enjoyed it the most. By the time we got there, the place was packed! It was incredible, so many people, it was so much fun to people watch! We worked our way through, bought some fruits and vegetables, some honey and a few other things. We sat and had some clam chowder, and then we bought our Peroshkies and before we knew it, it was 4;00 and we knew we had to get back.

We again boarded the ferry with a horde of other people and set sail back to our little island of Bainbridge. We took another walk around the neighborhood, and then turned in, it was a busy and wonderful day! We spent one more night in our nice quiet little parking lot.

Puget Sound - Here We Come!

Thursday morning we got up and left our little backyard oasis and drove again, this time, all around Puget Sound. It's so beautiful, and huge! We had no idea how big the entire area was! We drove onto Fidalgo Island and then Whidbey Island, from there we took a fairy, rv and all, west back to the mainland. We drove all day, everything so green and lush and beautiful, we passed over a few bridges that connect one island to another. We wound up in the late afternoon on Bainbridge Island, it's actually very small and quaint, we decided we could live here, we loved it!

Our destination was to be near the Bainbridge Ferry that would take us over to downtown Seattle. We found a nice lot where RV's could park, we checked with the attendant, he told us it was OK to spend the night there inside the RV as long as we paid the fare. After settling down for the evening, we took a nice walk around the downtown area of Bainbridge, it's very small, only a few blocks long. We really enjoyed it!

Wireless Internet Access

I imagine some day soon wireless internet access will be as common as our cell phones, but until that day arrives, it is still hit and miss whether or not we can get connected. So in the meantime, we'll keep posting whenever we can. So keep checking in, and we'll do the same every chance we get!

Wednesday, Still at the KOA Kampground

We all slept in this morning, I think we needed it! Papa and Joshua slept about 12 hours last night! I guess they both had too much wine! :)

Today we decided we needed an easy day. We didn't feel like going anywhere. We geared up to take a little hike, but on our journey on foot, we realized there wasn't really anywhere to go! There were a couple of fields we walked around, a little stream, a really dense patch of forest, we couldn't get into, and a little road that we walked on that only after half a mile or so, turned into the busy highway, so we decided to come back home. We did manage to see a dear little deer on our little walk.

We're spending the afternoon here at our little backyard campground. The air is fresh and cool and perfect. I did a couple of loads of laundry, Josh had a nice long nap, papa cooked a couple of hot dogs on the open fire and we'll probably go for a swim in a little while. There is a little playground here for the kidlets, we put Josh in a swing for the first time, he seemed to like that alot. That's about it today, easy, easy, easy.

Then tomorrow....off to one of the Puget Sound islands, which one? We haven't figured that out yet. In the meantime Daniel, I'm trying to figure out how to post all the pictures, instead of just a couple here and there, we have taken so many beautiful pictures, we'd like to be able to share more.

More Driving...and then a Picnic!

Tuesday morning we woke up early again, and started driving...again. Our night at Wal-Mart was much quieter than our night in Shasta, believe it or not. We decided to drive straight through to Seattle, we were tired of driving and just wanted to get somewhere and stay for a moment.

We made it to Seattle in the early afternoon, we got off and drove around down town, we wanted to stop at Pikes Market for some perogies, but as with any down town area, parking was a bear, especially in our rv. We decided we needed to find our stopping point for the night, so we drove to the nearest KOA Kampground, it didn't look too far away on the map, but as we got back on the freeway, with all the traffic (hey, this isn't L.A.!), it turned out to be 88 miles north and 2 hours or so away in the little town of Burlington. We were tired and getting kinda cranky (how cranky can you be when you are with your family and on vacation) anyway, the campground turned out to be this wonderful little place. We felt like we were in somebody's backyard, lots of grass, a play ground for little bitties, a swimming pool (indoor) a laundry room, and a game room (no centipede or pac man, too bad!). The people were really kind too, we felt right at home the moment we walked in.

We had a picnic for dinner and right outside our rv space there was a field with grazing cows, the evening was cool and inviting. We sat down on the picnic blanket in the grass and shared a little wine. My husband had a little too much, so he and Joshua both fell asleep about 8:00 while I went to the pool and had a nice swim and a shower before I went to bed some time later. It was a nice ending to two days of lots and lots of driving.

Crater Lake, Oregon

Monday morning we woke up early after a not-so-good night's sleep, it turns out in the little town of Shasta, there are rail road tracks running right through, and the trains went by approximately once an hour! Oh well, it was still a beautiful place to stop!

We were on the road by 6:00 a.m., while the baby was still asleep, we thought it was a good time for a little Starbucks, do you know there are no Starbucks from Northern California all the way until Seattle? Who knew?

Anyway, we drove up to Crater Lake in Oregon, that was our one big stop of the day, and again, just like everything we've seen, it was beautiful! The lake is in the center of a huge dormant volcano and you're looking down into it. The water was so incredibly still and so blue! It's very deceiving. It looks big, but at some point we saw a boat way off in the distance, it looked so tiny we were amazed! The lake is absolutely huge! It's about 6 miles across! Wow! There's that word again! The air was nice and chilly and the sun was nice and warm. The other thing that amazed us was how much snow was still on the ground all around the lake, how pretty that was, huge patches everywhere!

After visiting the gift shop, we had a nice little lunch in our RV in the parking lot, and then we were off again, the drive down from the mountain was just as gorgeous as the lake, we followed a river all the way down.

In the afternoon we visited a couple of wineries, bought a few bottles of nice wine. The last stop, the wine was so strong, we had to let it wear off a little while before we could continue on.

We wound up sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot just out side the town of Eugene. We discovered that RV'ers and truckers can spend the night in any Wal-Mart lot for free! How handy, we needed a few things anyway!

So that ends Monday, time goes by so, so quickly!