Tall trees, a taste of England and volcanoes
Saturday, July 8 – We left for Greater Cincinnati International Airport at 7:10 AM and had sunny skies and very little traffic until we got to long term parking. The buses were jammed, as was the check-in counter in Terminal 3. We went outside and checked our bags at the curb which still took several minutes because of the lines. Our plane was leaving from Concourse B so we rode the underground train to get there. We were on Delta flight 75, an MD-11 wide-body jet making a nonstop flight to Portland. We were in the window seats in rows 53 and 54. The plane left right on time and we watched the midwest drop away from us as our progress was displayed on the video screens in the cabin. As we flew west we watched the Badlands, Rockies and Yellowstone pass below. Michelle had a vegetarian breakfast which included soy milk – an experience she would be glad to forget.
Western Oregon was completely overcast but we were able to see the summits of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens protruding from the clouds. The flight attendant jokingly welcomed us to sunny Portland. Portland International was much less crowded than Greater Cincinnati had been and we soon snagged our luggage and walked across the street to Hertz. We had reserved a Taurus but upgraded to a Grand Marquis with all the bells and whistles. We left the airport via 205, taking I-84 east into the Columbia River Gorge. Both kids were fast asleep less than two miles from the airport. We woke them up to see Multnomah Falls but they both fell asleep again as we headed back towards Portland to catch I-5 south. Although it was just after 2:00 PM Pacific Time when we got to Salem, we were so tired we decided to stop for the night. We stayed at the Phoenix Inn on the south side of town. Dinner was at Papa’s Pizza Parlor – it was strange-tasting pizza. The Phoenix Inn had lots of amenities – a pool, jacuzzi, microwave, refrigerator, etc., and we took advantage of as many of them as we could before turning in early.
This was the first visit to Oregon for Lynne, Scott and Michelle.
Sunday, July 9 – The complimentary breakfast at the Phoenix Inn was excellent. The morning started off cool and cloudy as we headed south on I-5. At Eugene, we caught Oregon 58 to US 97 stopping for lunch at Loree’s Chalet in the town of Chenult. We followed Oregon 138 west to the north entrance for Crater Lake National Park. A class A RV towing a PT cruiser was just ahead of us as we pulled in to the entrance. The road passed through the Pumice Desert and climbed to the Rim Drive where the many pullouts gave us breathtaking views of the incredibly blue water.
We spotted the Old Man of the Lake, a floating stump that has been wandering on the waters since the 1930’s. The Cloudcap Turnoff took us to the highest overlook on the rim, but the road to the Pinnacles was closed by construction. After a last look at the lake from Rim Village, we headed south on Oregon 62. We found ourselves behind the same RV towing the PT Cruiser at the park’s exit although we had not seen them in the park at all. As we headed south, we turned off to see the chasm cut by the Rogue River at the Gorge Overlook which was very impressive. At Medford, we booked a room at the Windmill Inn and ate dinner at Elmer’s.
Monday, July 10 – After breakfast at Denny’s, we left Medford on I-5. In Gold Hill we detoured to see the Oregon Vortex. Michelle was very impressed with this “vortex of unseen energies” where balls roll up hill, people change height as they walk through the vortex, and brooms balance on end for hours at a time. After the vortex we continued on I-5 to Grants Pass and took 199 south into California. We passed through Redwood National Park on our way to Crescent City. One of the hotels listed at the Visitor’s Center piqued our curiosity and we ended up getting a room at the Curly Redwood Lodge. The entire motel was built with the lumber from a single redwood tree. Furniture from the 1950’s and early 1960’s gave an indication of the age of the place. We ate lunch at Taco Bell and headed for the redwoods. A couple of miles out of town, Lynne realized she didn’t have her purse with her. We sped back to Taco Bell where another customer had spotted the purse and given it to the manager who had it locked up in the store safe. Our relieved party headed back on 199 to Redwood National Park.
A ranger suggested we take the Howland Hill Road through Jedidiah Smith Redwood State Park, so we did, stopping for a hike amid the giant trees at the Stout Grove. We had more excitement when Michelle, who had gone ahead of us on the trail, wasn’t at the parking lot when we returned. It turned out she thought we were lost and had gone looking for us while we were busy looking for her. Eventually we all met up again and headed back to the motel. We drove to Crescent City’s Beachfront Park where the kids kicked off their shoes and socks and waded into the Pacific Ocean despite a temperature in the upper 50’s. We walked over to the Marine Mammal Center where orphaned or injured sealife is treated. There was one seal pup they had rescued on display. We ate dinner at the Captain’s Table restaurant on the public dock and the kids took a walk around the port. We returned to the motel to don long pants and jackets to watch the sun set. Michelle opted to stay at the motel but the rest of us headed up Enderts Beach Road to a clifftop overlook, part of Redwood National Park. We joined a small group shivering in the breeze until the sun dipped below the horizon and we all adjourned.
This was the first time Michelle and Scott saw the Pacific Ocean.
Tuesday, July 11 – The morning was as cool as the previous evening; the highest the temperature got during our stay was 59 degrees in Crescent City. After breakfast at the Apple Peddlar Restaurant we went to Ocean World, an aquarium right next door. We saw sea lions and river otters perform and went below the surface to see rock fish, rays and sharks swimming. Touch tanks gave us the opportunity to touch starfish, urchins and other tide pool inhabitants, and another tank allowed us to pet a Leopard Shark. Michelle took a little time to work up the nerve but she petted the shark too. We had low clouds and fog as we headed up 101 but the morning sun burned off the gray before we reached Oregon. We had excellent views of the ocean and the sea stacks from the many viewpoints and turnouts along 101.
South of Bandon we stopped at the West Coast Game Park where they raise and train animals for movie and television work. Besides seeing many animals in their cages and enclosures we also got to pet a bindurong (bearcat), fox, skunk, black bear cub, 3 1/2 month old tiger cub, and a 9 week old panther cub who hissed at everyone, without imparting much fear. While Michelle was petting the tiger, another child startled it and it batted at her, so she can honestly say she was attacked by a tiger. After lunch at Fraser’s in Bandon we continued through the Oregon Dunes to Florence. The Holiday Inn Express advertised a laundry so we stayed there. We played miniature golf and the kids drove go-karts at Sandland then ate dinner at Pizza Hut and returned to the hotel to wash clothes. Michelle woke up feeling sick to her stomach in the middle of the night.
Wednesday, July 12 – We ate breakfast at the hotel. At the suggestion of our Moon tour book, we turned off 101 north of the Sea Lion Cave to try and spot the herd but they weren’t visible on the rocks below. A side road took us to the top of Cape Perpetua for the highest viewpoint on the Oregon coast. In Newport we ate lunch at Wendy’s and headed for the Historic Bayfront to see The Waxworks museum at Michelle’s request. She enjoyed it very much. We continued north on 101 to Tillamook and stayed at the Best Western Inn and Suites. After dinner at The Locomotion, a restaurant with a decided 1950’s look and feel, Michelle complained she didn’t feel well and her face felt warm.
Thursday, July 13 – We let the kids sleep late since Michelle wasn’t feeling well. After breakfast at the hotel we drove south to the Tillamook Air Museum which displays aircraft, blimps and balloons in a huge wooden hangar built during World War II to house blimps that patrolled the coast. After touring the museum we headed to the north end of town to see the Tillamook Cheese Factory. The self-guiding tour showed us tons of cheddar cheese being made, sliced and packaged. We had samples (Tillamook cheese is really excellent, very smooth and creamy) and bought some goodies and ice cream.
In Garibaldi we ate lunch at Bozzio’s. From Garibaldi we continued slowly, due to heavier traffic and more towns, to Fort Clatsop National Memorial where the winter quarters of Lewis and Clark’s expedition have been re-created. We saw the fort and some dugout canoes before crossing the Columbia. Traffic thinned considerably as we headed up into Washington. We stayed in the Red Lion Inn in Aberdeen and ate dinner next door at the Panda Chinese Restaurant where Lynne couldn’t get the dinner she wanted because, in the words of our waitress, “Snow peas is out.” This was everyone’s first visit to Washington.
Friday, July 14 – After a so-so breakfast at the so-so Red Lion we continued up 101 bypassing stops except for lunch in Forks at the Rain Drop Cafe. In Port Angeles we got a room for three nights at the Uptown Motel where our third-floor room gave us a view of both the harbor and snowcapped peaks. Although it was a smoking room, we found with the windows open, it was not bad at all. All the rooms at the Uptown are themed and ours was called “Call of the North”, so our room was decorated with pictures of Alaska and statuary of deer and Dall’s sheep.
While the kids vegged out in front of the television, Lynne and Jim walked down to the ferry terminal to buy tickets for the Victoria Express the next day. We all drove up to Hurricane Ridge where we saw several deer and enjoyed the views of the Olympic Mountains, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island. Michelle’s attitude was terrible but the rest of us tried to enjoy the sights. We hadn’t thought to wear our jackets and the temperature on the ridge was 45 degrees. Back in Port Angeles we ate dinner at McDonald’s.
Saturday, July 15 – We woke up early and ate a light breakfast at the hotel. The Laurel Street Stairs led us to downtown Port Angeles and two more blocks found us at the ferry dock. We were on the 8:10 AM run of the Victoria Express, a passenger only ferry. There were several seats in a small cabin near the bow and we had an uncrowded trip although people astern were packed in like sardines. The weather was perfect for the crossing with sunny skies and smooth seas. In Victoria Michelle had to answer a couple of questions going through immigration because we hadn’t brought any identification for her. After exchanging some currency near the dock we went to the Undersea Gardens across the street from the Parliament Building.
15 feet beneath Victoria harbor, we saw crabs, sea stars, sea urchins, fish and an octopus named Armstrong. A diver put many of the fish, a wolf eel, and Armstrong through their paces. We walked around the harbor to a restaurant called Milestone’s for lunch. The Gray Line had buses parked in front of the Empress Hotel so we bought tickets to see Butchart Gardens. We had a little time to kill so we walked around the lobby of the Empress. An art shop had a white Arctic marble polar bear which we could have taken home for a mere $24,500. Our red double-decker bus to Butchart Gardens was driven by Chris whose strange and rambling patter sometimes amused and often befuddled us. He was particularly intrigued by the endorphins released when one stopped to smell the roses. The bus was hot on the upper deck and a group of loud and rowdy women in the front of the bus made the trip something of an ordeal. At Butchart we walked through the Sunken, Japanese, Rose and Italian Gardens and admired the many fountains. We also got bumped into by many of the hundreds of other tourists. The Japanese tourists had a particular talent for stopping in the middle of paths to slowly compose shots with their cameras.
It was hot in Victoria. Back at the harbor we saw the Crystal Gardens (a greenhouse originally built for a swimming pool) which also had some birds and some incredibly tiny Pygmy Marmosets. We saw the totem poles and long houses at Thunderbird Park, bought some souvenirs, and ate hot dogs at the harbor before heading back to the dock to catch the Victoria Express back to Port Angeles. U.S. immigration was even tougher to get through than Canadian. Besides asking Michelle her name, the official also asked her if we were her parents. We decided although it wasn’t much of a hassle, we would skip going to Vancouver, B.C. On the ride back across the strait we saw some seals. Back in Port Angeles we picked up some sandwiches from Subway and ate dinner back in the hotel.
This was everyone’s first visit to British Columbia.
Sunday, July 16 – While the kids slept in, we walked down from the bluff and had breakfast at the Cornerhouse Restaurant. We backtracked west on 101 to see the Hoh rain forest in Olympic National Park. We saw some elk near the visitors center and hiked the Hall of Mosses trail. Although the Hoh averages 175 inches of rain a year, we had cloudless skies and added to our sunburn as we walked beneath branches hung with dehydrated moss. Back in Port Angeles we ate dinner at the Dynasty Chinese restaurant and headed down to the city pier to watch the ships in the harbor as the sun set.
Monday, July 17 – We ate breakfast at the Uptown Motel before checking out and heading east on 101. We turned off 101 at Washington 104 and headed south through Bremerton to Washington 16 across the Tacoma Narrows, driving across the bridge which replaced the ill-fated Galloping Gertie. In Federal Way, we stopped for lunch at a Marie Callender’s and made our way to Michelle’s Holy Grail for this trip, West Coast Cards and Games. She had been ordering Pokemon cards from them by mail order for several months and was eager to see the store in person. After she stocked up on Pokemon cards we continued north on I-5 to Seattle. We parked near Seattle Center and walked over to the Space Needle. Once we got there, the kids decided the line for the elevator was too long and announced they were no longer interested it going up. They opted to ride a small roller coaster near the Space Needle instead. We drove over to Pike Place Market to watch the low-flying fish and caught them on a slow day, with only airborne fish to show for our visit. I-5 north was a maddening procession of stop and go traffic to Everett where we stayed at the Best Western Cascadia Inn and had dinner at Taco Bell.
Tuesday, July 18 – We had planned on touring the Boeing Plant in Everett but the majority decided it wouldn’t be worth the wait. Instead after breakfast at the Best Western we headed south skirting Seattle on I-405. The day started out overcast and we had some rain as we headed toward Mount Rainier. Just as we got to the park the clouds vanished and we were greeted by a brilliant blue sky and an excellent view of the mountain. We drove up to Sunrise where we ate lunch, threw some snowballs, and took a short trail for a view of the glaciers blanketing the summit. We drove around the south end of the park and got an overpriced log cabin at the Gateway Inn in Ashford. Many previous occupants had left their opinions of the place on the walls and furniture and most were both humorous and sadly true. For dinner we bought some groceries at the little store at the motel and ate in the cabin. The television only got one channel (NBC from Denver, of all places), so we got a fire going and amused ourselves with our own version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. Things were actually going pretty well until a mouse ran across the floor. The kids promptly demanded to be allowed to sleep in the car. We left the bathroom light on and eventually got everyone settled down, and were almost asleep when Michelle spotted the mouse again and set off another round of mouse mania. Eventually everyone did get to sleep, sort of.
Wednesday, July 19 – We woke up very early and fled our rodent-infested cabin for Mt. Rainier, stopping for breakfast at the lodge at Longmire. The kids both fell asleep as we drove up to Paradise which still had a lot of snow. Hiking sticks were arranged next to one of the trails leading from the parking lot and we saw why as soon as we topped a small rise and found the path before us was covered in ice and snow. We made it across 30 yards or so of snow before hitting a patch of slick ice which convinced us to head back to the car. We enjoyed the wildflowers blossoming on the meadows with a southern exposure as we drove around Paradise. On the way back to Ashford we stopped at Narada Falls, a cascade taller than Niagara, and at the bridge over the headwaters of the Nisqually River. We jeered at our cabin at the Gateway Inn before turning south at the town of Ebbe. At Morton we headed west to I-5 and turned south stopping for lunch at a Subway at the exit for Mount St. Helens.
The first visitor’s center is over 25 miles from the mountain. We stopped in to see some of the exhibits and pick up our visitor’s passes then proceeded up the road to the volcano. At the Coldwater Ridge center we were trying to listen to a talk by a man who had survived the 1980 eruption because he and his wife had left their home that morning and were on their way to a church in another town. His home was destroyed by the blast and he lived 17 miles from the mountain. Michelle got into a snitty mood and forced us to leave for the sake of the other people there to listen. At the Johnston Ridge Observatory we left her in the car. From Johnston we had a view right into the crater left when the top and side of the mountain blew out. Several square miles around the volcano were still as lifeless as the moon. We returned to I-5 and headed south to Woodland were we stayed at the Best Western Inn and Suites and ate dinner at Brock’s Oak Tree Restaurant.
Thursday, July 20 – We started our day running laundry at the Best Western. I-5 took us to I-205 back across the Columbia into Oregon to see the End of the Trail Museum in Oregon City, the western terminus of the Oregon Trail. The Museum is housed in three buildings which look like giant covered wagons. After a guided presentation at the museum we ate lunch at a Wendy’s, then drove to the west side of Portland to see the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. The roses were beautiful and Mt. Hood formed an impressive backdrop for downtown Portland against a cloudless blue sky. We stayed a little longer than we planned and hit rush hour traffic so it took us over an hour to get from downtown Portland back across the Columbia to Vancouver where we stayed at the Phoenix Inn. They didn’t have any regular rooms left so we ended up in a two-room suite with two queen beds in one room and a king in the other. Our room also sported a couch, two televisions, and a refrigerator. The kids were pretty happy with it. Lynne and the kids ate dinner at the Sweet Tomatoes Salad Buffet next to the hotel.
Friday, July 21 – We ate breakfast at the Phoenix Inn. Michelle wanted to see a movie so we drove up to the theater, but once we got there she changed her mind. We washed the car and drove through Vancouver to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. The fort was the headquarters for the Hudson Bay Company when the northwest was still largely under control of the British. We ate lunch at a Shari’s restaurant afterwards and spent a leisurely afternoon at the hotel swimming and sunning. We went next door to a seafood restaurant but it was too crowded, so we ended up at the Sweet Tomatoes again for dinner. After dinner, it was time to pack.
Saturday, July 22 – Our flight home didn’t leave until after 12 so we didn’t have to rush in the morning. We ate breakfast at the Phoenix, loaded up the car and drove back across the Columbia to the airport in Portland. It was gray and drizzly, almost a carbon copy of the weather we had when we arrived. We dropped off the car without incident, checked our bags, and killed some time looking through the airport shops. The kids hadn’t picked up too many souvenirs and spent some of the mad money at the international currency exchange getting French Francs and Japanese Yen. Our return flight was again on an MD-11 and we were again in window seats. We spent less time looking out the windows on the return leg and had some turbulence the last hour or so, and got back to Greater Cincinnati a few minutes late but were welcomed by sunny skies. The ride to long term parking was considerably less crowded than our ride to the airport had been and we found the car without too much difficulty. We headed back north on I-75 and, as seems to be a tradition, stopped for dinner at the Skyline on North Bend.
Milestones on this trip: Lynne, Scott and Michelle’s first trip to Oregon and Washington; Jim’s first trip to Washington; everyone’s first trip to British Columbia; Scott and Michelle saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
States and provinces we visited: Kentucky, Oregon, California, Washington, British Columbia
Capital cities we saw: Salem, Victoria
