Sept. 29, 2010

A combination of spotty access to the internet and fantastic visits with relatives and friends has interrupted this blog.  But there are stories to tell and pictures to show, nonetheless.  Even Lewis and Clark visited friends ... on their return trip, they sought out the company of the Nez Perce Indians who had helped them on their way to the Pacific.  They located them on their return, and the Nez Perce helped them a second time.  We have been lucky to visit with Jim's cousin Heather in Napa, CA, and with son-in-law Matt's parents in Pt. Reyes, CA.  It was fantastic seeing all of these good friends.

On the night of the 23rd we'd stayed in Eureka, CA.  It is south of National Redwood Forest, but the redwoods continue along the Coastal Range toward Mendicino and beyond ... as long as the range continues.  On the 24th as we were driving south, we went through some groves of redwoods that were cathedral- like.  Both of us commented that these groves may have been more magnificent than what we'd seen the previous day.  California has many state parks along this route, as well as those interspersed with the national park, and it is great that the state has acquired and set aside this land for the preservation of these trees.  Their dense canopy and the quality of light filtering through them is something to behold ... again, my camera is useless for capturing their beauty.

Redwood Grove

We drove on the windiest of roads toward the coast and Mendicino, CA, before heading southeast toward Napa.  Route 1 has perhaps more switchbacks than I have ever experienced in my driving life (even on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park); I am glad Jim was doing the driving at that time.  It was beautiful, but it was also a little scary and I'm sure Jim didn't get to see much scenery.  But after an hour we got to the coast where we saw the gorgeous beaches and cliffs of the Pacific and lots of pampas grass, a non-native species in California. Its pinkish cast was lovely against the green and brown background of the sages and rocks.

Pampas Grass -- invasive in CA

Once past Mendicino, where we had a bite of lunch, we turned southeast on a road toward Napa.  Again we took the scenic, windy road, which took us past more redwoods, but eventually the golden hills and scrub oaks of California took over, and finally the vineyards, which are abundant beyond belief.  As we drove inland the temperature rose, too ... it's almost visible in the vegetation.

Emerging Golden Hills

Grape Vines, Row Upon Row

On some of the vines we were able to see purple grapes hanging bountifully near the bottom of the vines, and we learned that each row of vines has a hose  hanging from the poles that irrigates the plants.  Also, we noticed that little strips of mylar (or something similar) is tied onto the lines and poles, maybe even the plants themselves.  We have no idea why; we conjectured it might be to scare birds, but we really don't know.  The entire process appears to be very labor intensive, requiring tying, pruning, irrigating, picking, and things we can't even imagine.   We didn't stop to taste or ask questions because we still had more of a "not-so-long", but a "scenic and twisty" drive ahead of us.

We arrived at Heather's home in Napa around 5:30, had a glass of wine (what else?), and went out for dinner at one of Heather's favorite spots.  The meal  was delicious and the conversation better ... we caught up on lost time and relived many memories!  Heather has a lovely home and a little dog Teddy who is her good friend.  In the morning, on Saturday, the 25th, we took him on a long walk near the Napa River that flows near her house.  We even took part in the coastal clean-up, picking up trash as we walked Teddy ... we didn't find much trash, but what we found we picked up.

Heather and Teddy in her lovely backyard!

 After a quick driving tour of Napa, Jim and I took off, heading back toward the coast to visit with Matt's parents, George and Suzanne, whom we hadn't seen since Matt and Emily were married two years ago.  It was a great time!  They live on Point Reyes and have a view from their beautiful home that is stunning.  During the day, they gaze out over Tomales Bay, and at night the moon rises right before their eyes, reflecting its light off the water.  Late Saturday afternoon we drove out onto the point and saw a herd of elk.  I had seen elk in several national parks with Meredith, but I hadn't seen a herd!  And we took a short walk out toward the point before sunset and then headed back for dinner.

Tomales Bay from the Car

Elk Grazing Before Sunset

On Sunday we had a relaxing morning and  a leisurely breakfast, followed by a trip to Point Reyes Station, where we picked up a bit of cheese and some crackers at Cowgirl Creamery.  Finally we headed to Limontour Beach, which was more crowded than usual due to the fantastic weather ... sunny and warm.  George and Suzanne speculated that folks were out for a last hurrah!  And they must have been enjoying that hurrah because in the evening we went into Point Reyes Station for dinner and the restaurant was packed.  This was surprising to George and Suzanne and the waitresses and waiters; no one knew of any special activity; all thought it was the weather.

Enjoying the Sun and Sand at Limontour Beach

 On Monday, Jim and I got up and were on the road to LA by 6:30 a.m..  We drove Rte. 101 all the way until the last hour, when we picked up the Coastal Highway into Santa Monica.  Along the way we saw changes in the landscape and land use.  We saw numerous farms: strawberry, asparagus, lettuce, perhaps brocolli and cauliflower, sunflower.  The fields went on and on.  We saw a large oil field, too.  Now we are with our dear daughter, son-in-law, and new grandson, adorable little Isaac James.  And our son Andrew flew out from Michigan to meet his nephew and spend a few days with the family.  We are reveling at being with all of them for a few days, wishing Amy were here, too, and getting to know wondrous Isacc James!  He's a wiggly little fellow so most of my pictures aren't very good, but here are the best of the lot.

Isaac and Uncle Andrew

Really?!

Step right up, Little Man!

Redwood National Park, Sept. 23

September 23rd started with  care of our six horse-powered wagon!  We stopped in Medford for an oil change and while there visited a Harry and David store.  This one was different from those in outlet malls we've visited; it had fresh fruits and vegetables.  We bought some ... I got two Jonathan Apples (my all time favorite) and four pears for snack-time.  Yum!!!

Make sure you look at the weather vane!

From Medford we drove on to CA and the redwoods.  We wove in and out of the state and national parks.  The Sequoias that grow along the Pacific Ocean on the hillsides of the Coastal Range are called Coastal Redwoods.  We stopped along the way to walk in the relatively quiet ocean waves.  The beaches were almost empty of folks and walking even a short distance was relaxing.  The sand is black and not finely ground ... you can actually see the small, small pebbles in your hand.

A quiet day on the Pacific.

We took a couple of hikes in the redwood forests.  The most impressive was through the lady Bird Johnson Grove.  The park service provided a self-guided brochure which was really informative ... at first we looked at it and thought it was too much reading, but it was broken into 13 chunks of info, which accompanied the mile walk through the grove.  It really helped us understand the cycle of the forest and the role the redwoods play in its regeneration.  We learned how burls, fire, decay, rebirth, understory, canopy, wind, rain, insects, algae, fungi all help in the life of the forest.  Pictures don't begin to do justice to these forests.  What I can say is that the size of these trees is humbling (they are magnificent), the light dappling through the forest is truly beautiful, and the silence in these forests is ... I can't explain how quiet they are ... you listen and hear nothing, absolutely nothing ... maybe the chirp of a small bird, but even that is quiet!  Jim and I tried to figure out why the forest is so quiet.  It's true there was little wind, if any, yesterday, but the other factor we thought might contribute is water and dampness.  We'll  have to research this!
My pictures don't begin to show how majestic the space is.

Stretching to the sky.

The undergrowth ... sword fern, mountain laurel, moss, fungi, algae.

A redwood so tall and vast, it can't be photographed.

Fallen redwood supporting new life.

This last photo was taken from the car as we were approaching Eureka where we stayed last night.  It may be the best photo of the lot.

Sunset over the Pacific!

Sept. 22, 2010

Yesterday morning I was reminded once again of Lewis and Clark.  We'd gotten about 20 miles out of Portland and I thought about calling Andrew.  I felt in my purse for my phone ... and it wasn't there!  After a phone call to the hotel, we headed back to Portland to get it.  I was really mad at myself!!!  But then I remembered a story from Undaunted Courage in which Lewis sent a man back to find his gun after he'd dropped it when he'd come upon a bear.  I can't claim to have had any issue with a bear, but the location of the electrical outlet wasn't obvious, and it matched the black color of the coffee pot.  The good news is that we'd only gone 20 miles, and that I remembered it!!

The rest of day went much better.  We arrived at Crater Lake National Park around 3:00 p.m.  The most surprising thing about this park is that it is surrounded by pumice desert.  Not much grows in the land that surrounds the crater itself.  That's not to say there's no vegetation, but it's different from what I expected.  When the mountain erupted eons ago (not really that long ago ... I guess it was 7500 years ago), it blew a mile-high top off of the mountain and buried the surrounding landscape in pumice and scoria up to 100 feet deep. Since then, I suppose because of erosion, some areas have pine and spruce trees, but much of it remains barren.  The lake is very, very blue and very pure ... no water feeds it and no water leaves the lake except for evaporation; it's fed completely by snow and rain.  It's the deepest lake in the U.S., and the water depth varies by only about 3 ft.  It's quite something to see and impossible to appreciate in a photograph.

Pumice Desert

View from the rim into the caldera

The blue is the lake, not the sky!

Again, this is looking down into the lake.  Look carefully in the upper right of the photo.  There's a sliver of blue created by a small rock resting on a larger one.

Late shadows on the lake

This morning we read in a paper, while getting an oil change, that on Sept. 11 a 2003 VW Passat had rolled into the lake.  The owners hadn't set the emergency brake!  Their dog was inside the car, had jumped out of the sunroof at about 600 feet, and SURVIVED with only a few scrapes.  The car was a mess.  It landed in about 10 feet of water, and just yesterday they had a helicopter rescue of the trash from the ridge as it bumped its way down the steep 1100 foot caldera wall and of the remnants of the car.  I wish we'd been there early enough to see that, but wow, am I glad it wasn't our car!  The last car to end up in the lake was in 1922, so it doesn't happen often, but it does happen!  Yikes!!

Sept. 21, 2010

Guess who JIm and I found in Portland this morning?  On our way to the Oregon Historical Society we found Abraham Lincoln.  Apparently the city erected the statue in 2009 to commemorate his birthday.  It's located in a wonderful green park that runs for many city blocks in the cultural district of downtown.

Since the glorious sun shone on Portland today, we took advantage of it!  We started at the Oregon Historical society, which was a good and succinct history of the founding and development of the state.  One fun bit of information was how the city of Portland got its name.  Two men, one from Boston, MA, and one from Portland, Maine, came west to make their fortunes and were founding fathers of Portland.  They each wanted to name the emerging city after their own home town, so they flipped a coin and the man from Maine won!  Things happen for the most amazing reasons, huh?

From the historical Society we made our way on the Portland subway system, which is very nice, to the Lan Su Chinese Garden.  This is an incredible garden that is a must-see for anyone traveling here.  I hope my pictures give an idea of how graceful and beautiful it is.

Reflected city in Lan Su Garden

Window view

Rock in landscaping

Floor patterns made from stones

Tea House 

Our tea

Lan Su has only been in existence since 2000!  Most of the materials to build it were brought from China, and artisans came to assemble it.  It's considered the most authentic Chinese garden outside of China, and it's based on what a wealthy government worker/scholar's home would have looked like during the 16th century.  It is worth seeing!

From there we went to the World Forestry Center in Washington Park, an urban park bigger than Central Park!  The Center is a hands on  educational museum about forests.  We enjoyed it and learned that neither of us had the skill to use heavy equipment (or even an ax, I would wager) to chop down a tree.  You could sit in a tree harvester simulator and try your hand at chopping down a forest.  Jim said he probably destroyed at least a million dollars worth of equipment.  I couldn't even get the "cutter" off of the ground ... pitiful!

Sept. 20, 2010

Having spent the night in Astoria, Or, very near Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805-06, we awoke to conditions just like they described ... rain and fog!  Thinking it might clear if we waited a bit, we went for a swim (Beth) and ran (Jim on a treadmill).  We ate breakfast, showered, and the rain was still coming down.  So we set off!

In the elevator, we met a couple who said they'd been bothered all night by the "orking" of the sea lions on the dock outside the motel.  They had had a riverside view!  They explained where the sea lions were and we were on our way.  I had my umbrella, rain jacket, and nylon pants, but the wind and rain were intense.  By the time I got back into the car, my pants were totally wet ... so wet I could see the color of my skin through them.  BUT we saw the amazing beasts orking away, many, many of them sitting on the dock or slithering into the Columbia or popping their heads up through the water.  This was very cool!

Look on the foreground dock to see just a few of the sea lions!

We'd been told by a few folks that the Astoria Column is a must see, especially on a clear day, so even through it wasn't clear, we went.  The view from there would be terrific on a sunny day because it is very high (the literature of Astoria calls it the San Francisco of Oregon), but what you see below is about all we could see.  Jim climbed the stairs; I wrote some notes!

Astoria Tower

The tower was built to memorialize John Jacob Aster who in 1811 established a fur trading town there.  Many Scandinavians live around the mouth of the Columbia apparently.  A man from Ilwaco told us that many Fins live there.  Astoria didn't claim only Fins, but all Scandinavians.

From the column we headed to Fort Clatsop.  A replica of the fort has been build there and they have a great interpretive center ... lots of Clatsop and Chinook Indian artifacts and information.  To me the fort itself seemed very finished, but the rangers thought the men actually would have been fast enough and good enough at building that they would have been able to finish the fort nicely as well.  Outside we recognized Sacajawea, too.

Jim and Sacajawea having a chat.

Private's quarters

 William R. Clark ... I like this quote!

We headed for Seaside after leaving the fort.  Seaside is where L & C went to barter for whale blubber once when they heard a whale had beached there.  Also, we saw where and how they made salt out of sea water at Seaside.  Essentially, they boiled sea water until the water evaporated and only salt was left.  Believe it or not, 3 men camped there from January until February and boiled water, and they made 4 bushels of salt!  Having run out on the journey west, the Corps had to have salt to preserve meat for the trip home.  At Seaside was yet another statue to L & C, a very impressive one at that!

If you enlarge this, you'll see some of the detail around the bottom.

Seaside behind us, we started for Portland.  We planned to stop at a park along the way and have a little picnic.  Surprise of all surprises, we happened upon Kloochey State Park, right off of highway 26, and we found there the remnants of the First Heritage Tree, a Sitka Spruce of magnificent size before it was snapped by a hurricane in 2007.  Look for Jim standing near the base of the trunk!

Jim's size helps with perspective. 

We stopped later in the afternoon for cobbler at a restaurant along the way and the waitress there told us a sapling is growing out of the roots of this tree, so it still has life in its old trunk!  Another very unusual and very large tree was in the same park.  Look for Jim in the following picture, too.

Do you see him between the two trunks?

Arrival in Portland was around 5:00, just in time to settle in for a walk along the river, dinner, and a quiet evening with this blog!

Sept. 18 & 19, 2010

4,000 miles to the Pacific Ocean!  That's what Lewis and Clark accomplished, and so have I.  And the weather conditions they encountered are ... well ... pretty much what Jim and I are encountering.  For the last two days there has been fog, rain, and wind!  The drive on Saturday, especially during the last hour in the dark to Ilwaco, was not fun ... the road was serpentine, a bit hilly, and it was very dark and rained the entire way.  What should have taken an hour, took a good hour and a half.

But the trip around the Olympic Peninsula, though in rain and fog, had moments of stunning beauty.  The most magnificent was of the Olympic Range.  We had been assured by a park ranger that Hurricane Ridge was clear, but on our way up the mountains we were skeptical.  It was misty the first part of the climb, and foggy the entire way ... until we rounded the last switchback!  There in front of us was the sun shining on the most glorious of snow-capped mountains.  It looked as if we'd driven all the way to Switzerland!

This doe and fawn (Black-tailed Deer) are used to people, no doubt!

Perspective is from a higher point on a short hike.

Only time caused us to pull ourselves away from this awesome place, but with the draw of the rain forest and a long drive ahead of us, we descended into the rain and fog once again.  But we made it to the ocean, catching glimpses through pines along the coast.

Pushing on, we arrived in Ilwaco, on Cape Disappointment, after 9:00, relieved to have made it, and appreciating that Lewis and Clark had made it possible for us to arrive at a motel instead of a campsite drenched in a soaking rain.

On the 19th, we awoke to an overcast and potentially rainy morning, which in  fact materialized at times.  We visited the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center on the Cape (a wonderful interpretive site with lots of information).  It sits on a high peak overlooking the confluence of the Columbia and the Pacific.  From the deck we watched pelicans in flight ... headed south toward California.

Our hiking was cut short because of rain, but we did make it to the top of North Head Light House.  A volunteer was informative about all sorts of interesting light house "stuff" ... he was really good!  He told us stories of ship wrecks, light house lenses, technological improvements, historic care of lighthouses, etc.  One funny story involves the three-month inspection by the Coast Guard.  In the 1800's, the lighthouse keeper had laundry hanging on a clothesline when the inspector came and was written up for the infraction.  It apparently was a day with sun and the wife was trying to take advantage of that.  Of course, today lighthouses are totally automated; Coast Guard inspections are still conducted every three months, but all the inspector does is change bulbs and make sure the mechanics are in good working order!

From the light house we went north along the coast to a couple of sites with sculptures to commemorate Lewis and Clark, one of which is a bronze tree with the carving that Clark left in 1805.

Who knows what the original carving was like, but the words are Clark's from my understanding.

Having spent a good day on Cape Disappointment, we headed toward Astoria, OR, which is only 15 miles away, so that in the morning we'd be set for a tour of Fort Clatsop.  If it rains, it will be like Lewis and Clark's experienced ... they had something like 60 days of rain out of the 80 spent at their fort.  Wow!

Sept. 17, 2010

Sept. 17th was a rest day of sorts.  Meredith and I were in Seattle at her friends'.  We got up late and enjoyed coffee and the view from their lovely home overlooking Lake Washington.  What a view they have; even the fog and clouds didn't spoil it; it just allowed the scenery to change by the minute.  So we puttered around with our computers, but didn't work on blogs, only on pictures.

At 11:00 we left for downtown Seattle.  We parked near Pike's Market and walked toward the Seattle Sculpture Garden, which has some very whimsical pieces.  Check out the following pictures:

D.C. residents will recognize this from our own sculpture garden

No, they are not real ... the washer, drier, and TV console are wood.

A. Calder -- don't know the name.

From the above sites we trekked up one of the hefty hills of Seattle (reminiscent of San Francisco) to the cultural center of the city, where, if I have this right, most of the theaters, concert halls, sports arenas (hockey, basketball ... maybe even football and baseball), museums (science, children's, music), and park areas are located.  One exceptional attraction is a huge fountain programmed to music.  I have a picture of a little boy with his dad (my assumption), enjoying the fountain.

Off to Pike's Market for a peek at the wonders of the place and a lunch of piroshskies.  The market was extremely crowded because University of Nebraska fans were in town for the Saturday football game.  It was hard to walk through even one floor (there are 3), and getting lunch was almost impossible since every restaurant was filled with fans.  SO, we went to a piroshskie shop, got salmon, cheese, spinach and other delicacies, went to a park close by and had our lunch.  Yum!

Very large shrimp

Piroshskies

Later, after dinner, I drove to the airport where I met up with my new travel partner, hubby Jim.  John Colter left the Corps of Discovery party on their way home, and Meredith's departure to travel with her husband, Doug, and Susan and Lee is somewhat similar.  Jim's arrival has parallels, too, I guess; Lewis and Clark picked up interpreters along the way.  They picked good talent for their trip; I have too!

Sept. 16, 2010

Departed Coeur D'Alene, ID, early after a hearty breakfast at the good old campsite, the Comfort Inn ... lots of coffee to get us going and good conversation with a local gentleman, a sporting goods salesman!  We jumped into our "steed" and got on the road.  The trip went well, though we were in heavy mist for the first part of it.  By 9:00 a.m., we'd arrived in Washington State.

Having left Glacier the day before, we were a bit surprised at all of the commercial development between Coeur D'Alene and Spokane, WA.  But after we passed the Spokane area, the highway opened out onto the Columbia Plateau.  Here were great agricultural stretches, first cattle ranching and then farming.  By the mile markers we knew we had about 275 miles to Seattle.  We stopped at a rest stop along the way for "Tired? Free coffee."  Though not really tired, we stopped to see what this was about.  Apparently, different local non-profits staff a free coffee and snack stand along I 90.  The gentleman there on the 16th was from a local church, and we heard him talking to a couple, welcoming them, and then us, and giving information as he was able ... a nice touch!

We continued through vast stretches of cattle ranches and then the landscape changed to crop farming.  Somewhere during this long stretch, we almost took out a coyote.  He was sitting right in my lane of the highway as I was passing a camper on my right.  I veered to the left to avoid him ... he got up and trotted right where I was headed ... fortunately I had time to pull back to the right and avoid him.  It was very close, and I'm glad it turned out the way it did; I've had a fear of hitting something!

Anyway, along another stretch of highway, various fields were identified with signs on the fences: we both thought this was very cool.  We saw fields of both sweet and field corn, alfalfa, sunflowers, potatoes.  The fields went on for miles and miles, and I would wager all were irrigated.  They were beautiful and quite productive.  We were also seeing indications of energy production ... two large windfarms (one probably 100 mills, a second probably 60).  Eventually, we learned how all of the crop production, irrigation, and energy generation were connected, but not until later.  At noon we had reached the Columbia River Gorge.  The river literally cuts through the Columbia Plateau.  One minute you are riding high on the plateau; the next you are descending into the river valley, and then ascending again, but into a very different landscape, one of pine forest and moisture.

Columbia River Gorge

Right after driving over the river, we stopped at a state park that overlooked the river, the Petrified Forest State Park.  We learned from a man there that the Coulee Dam, upriver from where we were, is what makes the agriculture we'd seen possible.  The Columbia Plateau (desert conditions naturally) is irrigated with Columbia River water!  It is amazing ... I guess this area is like Israel in a way ... the desert here is blooming, too!

This area is a geologic wonder!  At the park we saw beautiful examples of petrified wood, which had been buried under layers of basalt (lava) eons and eons ago.  From the park, it was easy to see the basalt layers in the rock on the opposite shore ... amazing, awesome, and humbling.

Petrified Lumber

While we were at the park, an air force training (?) jet flew right down the gorge.  The sound was deafening and I couldn't find the plane; Meredith saw it IN the gorge sooner than I.  Later I saw it downstream veering and soaring right down the path of the river!  If that pilot wasn't training, he/she shouldn't have been doing this manuver!

Lewis and Clark were on the Columbia River, but they entered from the Snake River, 75 miles downstream from us.  Following the river to the ocean will have to be another adventure, but I would love to see the area where they went through very dangerous rapids!  Perhaps they don't even exist anymore.

As mentioned above, after the Columbia River, the landscape started to change to forest.  We stopped along the way at Easten State Park and took a short hike along the Yakima River.  They have beautiful campsites, even if a little wet.  After this hike, we thought we might stop at another state park, but by the time we approached that park, it was raining so we drove on to Seattle, where we landed at friends of Meredith's.  They have a beautiful home overlooking Washington Lake ... quite a setting and quite a beautiful place!

Yakima River