PacNW - Day 4

Day 4 - BIG TREES!

So we learned from the State Park that there were tide pool walks given by rangers every once in a while. We however were so tired the day before that we didn't bother to see what time they were at. The one for this particular day was at 7:30 am. We woke up around 6:30, but by the time we got everything packed up and showered it was about 7:45 before we got to the tide pool. There was no ranger there, so I don't believe they ever showed up. So we went exploring through the tide pool on our own. The water was cold but we found a few cool things along the way.

IT'S A TRAP! Day 4 we fell into our first tourist trap. We paid $5 to drive through a Redwood tree. Literally you drive up a hill into a turn around and then drive through the tree to just drive back down the road you drove up. Since it was early morning and the owners were not there to lay down the rules we paid our $5 and headed up the hill and then proceeded to get our $5 worth of driving through a tree - I'm pretty sure we went through about 3 times.

After that we went to a scenic overlook of the ocean where the ranger the day before said that his 'fellow ranger' had seen whales. So we drove about 30 minutes one way on a curvy hilly road to an scenic overlook. As you can see from the picture at the hour we went it was not so scenic :(.

Then it was off to hike and drive through more of what Brian likes to refer to as 'old growth' redwoods. Which, I will admit, are a bit cooler than some of the new growth. We drove down an old wagon road which was still gravel and the whole experience was like stepping into a different world. The trees are just so big. We also did a bit of hiking which was cool to explore and play around the big trees.

We spent the majority of our day just exploring and taking pictures. After it was all done we started our way up the Oregon coast on our way back up to Washington. We made another 300 miles up to Lincoln City Oregon were we were unfortunate enough to stay at a KOA. Not to bash the KOA or anything, but after a quiet evening in a camp ground surrounded by redwoods an open field surrounded by screaming kids was not what we called a fun idea. We were however not able to find any other hotel/motel/camp ground to sleep - everything else was no vacancy :(.

PacNW - Day 3

Day 3 we headed out from Bend to Crater Lake.

Of all the things on the trip that I was least excited for Crater Lake was it. I however am glad I did not scratch it off the list. For a place that literally is 'just' a big lake - it is AMAZING. We arrived early afternoon to Crater Lake to what was one of the most calm and peaceful days I can remember. There were only a few clouds in the sky and the lake was like glass. The pictures we took there speak for themselves.

As the day progress and we made our way around the lake (its huge) we ran into a bit or rainy weather and it was breathtaking to watch the storm come in and it even was fun running through the rain a bit on the trails. Needless to say even though it is just a day trip Crater Lake was well worth the drive.

After we made most of the loop around Crater Lake we set Redwood Forest as our next destination. Surprisingly we made it to California before the end of the evening and were able to find a camp ground at Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. We literally slept under huge Redwoods! It's funny to see your little tent set up next to a tree which is wider than your tent. Once at the state park we crashed pretty quickly, it was another long day of driving around 300 miles.

PacNW - Day 2

Aaaahh, day 2, the first of many driving days. Day 2 started out in the ferry parking lot in Anacortes. Surprisingly the not so great Cobalt made a fair sleeping pad. We were both surprised.

So we woke up, and started heading towards I5 which would then take us into Oregon. The drive was actually quite relaxing considering we had heard so much bad talk of the traffic in and around Seattle, evidently on the weekends the people of Seattle don't get out much.

Around 300 miles later we were in Oregon where they pump your gas for you - no questions, they just do :). I miss that. Once in Oregon we saw the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. It however runs mostly along a road, which inconveniently has very few places to stop. Once water fall we planned to stop at was so congested that the line up for the parking lot was backing up the interstate. So we passed, thus sorry no pictures :(.

We stopped a a FISH HATCHERY!! There was a huge Sturgeon fish named Herman! They also had huge hydrangea!

We did however make it to Mt. Hood. Which has a lovely lodge at the top and SNOW! We even saw people snowmobiling, skiing, and snowboard; not to mention the kids having a snow ball fight in their shorts! It was awesome! Evidently according to the tour book some of the shining was taped there, I however do not think the locals like the story since I overheard one of the staff complain about people staying that - so if you go there, don't mention it.

After we played around on the mountain and got a bit light headed from the altitude we headed on south toward Bend, which was sold in the tour book as being a place where everyone wants to live - not true. But it was nice enough for us to rest for the evening. This time we decided to try a motel, which I forget how shaddy motels really are....until of course we are paying the Indian who got off his tredmill to check us in and the overwhelming smell of old people in the room. Either way it worked and we didn't die - so I guess it's all part of the experience, right?

PacNW - Day 1

Since we covered over 2,000 miles and saw quite a few sites along the way I've decided to break out trip up in to different blog posts for each day.

So here is about what happened day one...

Woke up around 3 am, Sandy picked us up 4 am, airport by 4:30.

Get checked in, exit row (nice). We sit next to a dude, named Tony, who has just spent the last week in Fargo at a National Wrestling tournament coaching some high school boys. His voice shows he has been yelling each day. He's surprised by our whimsically planned trip, where we just plan to see how far we can go and how much we can see. So he draws us a map with high lights we must see in Washington and Oregon. Tony literally spent about 2 hours drawing the map, reading through out tour book and talking to us about where we needed to go. Here is the map he drew us:

Once the plane landed we gathered our luggage and headed off to get the rental car. We had reserved what was to be an 'intermediate' car. Evidently an intermediate car is a crappy Chevy Cobalt with over 42k in miles, no power windows, no power locks, no cruise.

But we took the car, checked it out and put our GPS up with Anacortes, WA as our destination. We got out on the open road to discover the the car once on the freeways shakes so bad the dome light and the steering wheel shook. FUN! Ok, I'll stop complaining about the car....

We arrived Anacortes around 11 am, plenty of time for the 11:55 ferry to the San Juan Islands - Friday Harbor.

Once at Friday harbor we grabbed some food at Friday's crab house and enjoyed our first taste of Dungeness crab in the PacNW. Once we finally had some food in us we finally crashed and were so tired we found a nice spot next to the water were we could catch a few zzzzz....

After we had our little nap in the park, we were off on our Whale Watching tour.

One the cruise we saw a few Orcas:

We also saw quite a few seals:

And we also saw what I like to refer to as the phantom Cruise ship:

Overall it was a great first day, it did however run a little long. Our ferry back wasn't until 10 pm and it didn't arrive back on the mainland until 12:30. Needless to say we sleep the 2.5 hours on the ferry and then when we got back to our car we slept there too :).

Old house on the hill...

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Originally uploaded by brian and kate

Growing up I always wondering about the old house on the hill at the end of town. I'm not exactly sure how old I was when I learned that it was the house my mom grew up in but I do remember how much I wanted to go into that house when I was in sixth grade. There was just something it which made me want to go into it.

Until recently I had no idea that my cousin owned the place and conveniently the most recent renters had just moved out after tearing up the place. So needless to say it was not in tip top condition. Despite it's condition I finally was able to walk through the childhood home of my mom. Which it seems all my siblings have some memory of visiting. In a strangely sad and confusing way it seems as though I discover more about my mom each year. It's interesting the depth of individuals we never fully comprehend until we take a start looking.

Laying Sod

After we took out the buckthorn last year there remained a few open areas where we could do 'something'.

Being crazy I decided we should clean up the area and lay some sod. So we borrowed Brian's grandpa's tiller. Which is an amazing machine. It however whooped me. I've really only tilled areas that have PREVIOUSLY been tilled. So they've been pretty nice, easy tills. This however was full of roots, rocks and obstacles. So to put it frankly it was not fun.

Then to make matters even more interesting it started to rain. Determined to finish the entire project that day I still connect our trailer to our littler corolla (rolla) and headed off to get sod. I picked up 40 square feet of sod hauled it back - carried one by one down the hill and laid it out. After laying the first 40 I went back for another 20 - despite having an overwhelming feeling to do it another day. But I got the sod and got it all laid. Here are the before and after pictures:

Lathe

Brian has a new hobby! No longer is he just a 'gamer' he now can spin :) And by spin I mean turn.

In late winter Brian found a lathe on Craigslist which we bought for him. It sat in our basement until Spring came at which point he set it up and started turning wood. These are a sampling of the first 3 pends which he made.

The top is a pencil made for me. The middle a cherry pen for his grandpa. The third an acrylic with coffee beans for his mom.