Category: Trips

  • Bay City, OR to Gold Beach, OR

    We started the morning with a delicious breakfast at the Creamery Cafe at the Tillamook Cheese factory. We then toured part of the factory and to see how the famous cheddar of Tillamook is made and packaged. All kinds of people visited the factory with us and then lined up for samples at the end of the tour just before the cheese and gift store exit.

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    Not far from the cheese factory was the Tillamook Air Museum, located in one of two huge hangars originally built in 1942-1943 to store blimps. The second hangar burned a few years ago. These hangars could each house nine blimps. Today the hangar is home to a number of different aircraft, some of which saw action in various conflicts such as the first Gulf war. Outside there is a mini-guppy transport plane which you can visit the inside of.

    Here is an image showing the size of our RV in comparison to the mini-guppy and hangar.

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    The airbase cafe at the museum reminded us of Route 66 with its black and white tiled floors and red stools and booths.

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    Enroute we had a quick lunch at Siletz Bay which is known for the great tsunami of 1700.

    Late in the afternoon we visited the lighthouse at Yaquina Head and its black beach.

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    Because of our late arrival, the recommended Honey Bear RV Park at Gold Beach couldn’t accommodate us anymore.  We ended up at the Nesika Beach RV Park instead.

    Note: Today’s map isn’t complete as some was lost because we didn’t download it before it was overwritten.

  • Hoquiam, WA to Bay City, OR

    First item on the agenda was to finish the RV cleaning and drying of the damp laundry after replenishing our collection of quarters. Next was a battle with a terribly annoying lady who was monopolizing ALL the dryers. After breakfast we set out on a day of driving down the beautiful Pacific coast towards Oregon.

    We stopped in Long Beach where we each had a rather large ice cream cone. Even Pepsi had to help with polishing off the cones. Guiltily, all three of us walked the calories off on the extensive boardwalk along the sandy beach.

    After leaving Long Beach we found ourselves in a traffic jam. Luckily for us, Jim’s Biplane Rides offered a distraction and we went for a scenic flight in his open cockpit 1929 Travelair. The two of us sat in the front seat with cap, goggles and ear plugs while Jim flew from the rear seat.

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    Once safely back in the RV we continued to Cannon Beach. The traffic had mostly dissipated by this point and we made it in good time. Cannon beach has interesting rocks and a beach with very fine white sand.

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    The final task was to make it to the Tillamook Bay City RV park which is near the cheese factory we hope to tour tomorrow.

  • Hoh Rain Forest, WA to Hoquiam, WA

    This morning we continued to the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. This forest should be the stage for fairy tales. The tree trunks and branches are covered in thick moss-like plants that hang down like beards. Roots and old logs look like faces of dangerous creatures while providing nutrients to the next generation of trees. When a dead tree falls, mosses begin to cover it and decay sets in. New saplings start growing on top of the old log and eventually wrap their roots around the old log.  The old log continues to rot away leaving root arches from the new tree where it once lay.

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    We met another photographer couple on our hike through the rainforest and met them again at our next stop at Ruby Beach where we experienced the cloud forest. Despite the fact that it was a sunny day with perfectly blue sky, this beach was covered in fog and low cloud and appeared black and white. We spent a couple of hours there talking about photography and dog training and took some nice pictures.

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    Since we needed to do laundry and RV-cleaning we stayed at a full service RV park in Hoquiam. However, laundry did not start before dinner. We walked for about 3kms to the 8th Street Ale House where we had steak skillet and Guinness Pot Roast dinners along with a local ale. After walking back to our campsite we started laundry which we finished, except for a few damp specimens, at around midnight.

  • Poulsbo, WA to Hoh Rain Forest, WA

    We started the morning with writing five days of blog entries! Needless to say we didn’t leave too early.

    First stop was the Northwest Native Expressions Art Gallery in Sequim with beautiful and very reasonably priced native art, including artists from Canada. We bought a small carving of a hummingbird, made by a local artist.

    Lunch was at the Black Bear Diner, also in Sequim, where we had a drink made of iced tea, lemonade and fresh strawberries. Delicious and refreshing and soon to be on our home menu.

    The highlight in the afternoon was a first glimpse of the northern rain forest which we will explore tomorrow.

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    We enjoyed a brief stay at Lake Crescent before we found our new campground at the Minnie Peterson campground near the Hoh Rain Forest. This campground only has 8 spots and we were able to secure the very last spot which was reserved for people with disabilities until 6PM. As we had arrived at 5PM, we had a tense hour of waiting for wheelchairs to arrive and take the spot.

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    At 6PM sharp we breathed a sigh of relief, locked the RV and headed for a short hike along and in the nearby Hoh river.

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  • Seattle, WA to Poulsbo, WA

    We started the morning with breakfast at Geraldines Counter with our friends and then visited the Discovery Park for a hike with a view of the Puget Sound, wild orchids and blackberries.

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    Later on we met Connie, a photography friend we had met earlier in the year in Paris and had a very engaging conversation with her at a local Starbucks.

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    She then guided us to the ferry dock for our short ferry ride to Bainbridge Island.

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    We picked a Walmart close by to stay for the night and had a mediocre dinner at a Jack-in-the-Box, downloaded images and called it a day.

  • Leavenworth, WA to Seattle, WA

    We left our campground relatively early as we wanted to be in Seattle by early afternoon. The detour around the forest fire turned out to be a beautiful winding road adjacent to a river. Once back on Hwy 2 we crossed the Steven’s Pass and then headed downwards to the Seattle area. The small towns became larger and more attractive as we neared Seattle. We stopped at the Tijuana Restaurant in Monroe for authentic Mexican burritos.

    Finally we were reminded of what traffic jams are as we drove through Seattle. We met our friends, had good conversations and dinner at their beautiful house. A city tour of Seattle at night followed and we decided to stay at their place overnight.

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  • Pullman, WA to Leavenworth, WA

    The morning came early. 4AM to be exact. We left the Walmart parking lot to catch a sunrise in the Palouse. We were lucky to find a great spot on a dirt road to photograph, making the early wakeup worthwhile.

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    Now we deserved a great breakfast and that we got at the Top Notch Cafe in Colfax. This cafe could have been on Route 66 with its booths, barstools and milk shake mixer. The food was plentiful and really good. Pete, the owner, had lived in a number of different states and had bought this cafe from his nephew about 10 years ago. A good number of locals had their morning coffee, chatted and teased each other about the size of their combines.

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    Next stop was Spokane, a beautiful city bisected by the roaring Spokane river. Two hydroelectric plants dating from the early 1900s provide power to the city. A riverside park has gondola rides across the falls, an Imax theatre, sculpture of runners and an old carousel ride among other attractions.

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    The drive from Spokane to the Grand Coulee Dam was mostly through the plains and we had 40 degree temperatures. The early morning wakeup caught up with us so we stopped at a rest area for an hour long nap.

    We reached Grand Coulee Dam in good time, parked in the shade to keep Pepsi cool and visited the information centre to learn about the three powerhouses at the dam. A very informative video explained the geological processes that created the spectacular basalt column formations we were to see later on in the day.

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    We had a swim at the Steamboat Rock State park before heading further west.

    All of a sudden it seemed that Hwy 2 had taken us to Bavaria, with alpine mountains, painted houses and schnitzels. The now busy town of Leavenworth had been a logging town that had fallen on hard times and had reinvented itself as a Bavarian themed tourist destination in the 1960s. We just had to stop for a schnitzel dinner at the Baren Haus.

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    A forest fire 8 km away had closed Hwy 2 and prevented us from continuing and the detour on a winding and narrow road at night didn’t seem advisable so we stayed at the lovely Alpine RV campground for the night.

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  • Coeur D’Alene, ID to Pullman, WA

    The day started slowly by taking care of some housekeeping, a nice long shower and breakfast, but it would become an exciting and long day.

    At 11AM our friend Jojo came and picked us up in her battle hardened Ford Expedition used for photography missions on rougher roads. First stop, however, was a civilized lunch at a very nice restaurant at a beautiful artificial lake designed by her brother. We followed Jojo in the Roadtrek to Pullman where we parked at Walmart. The four of us then piled into Jojo’s non-airconditioned SUV and with open windows and fresh country air explored the less accessible parts of Palouse. The roads often have no signs and choosing the ones that looked more travelled and had power lines wasn’t always the correct course of action. This led to exciting 3-point turns on very narrow dirt roads. The landscape was gorgeous with rolling hills, charming red barns and bountiful wheat fields. Harvest season became real by seeing huge combines working the fields and leaving long trails of dust in their wake. Needless to say, we drank lots of water and had lots of fun, stopping abruptly whenever a picture perfect scene presented itself.

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    The day ended with a gorgeous highlight – a trip to Steptoe butte where we had a bird’s eye view of the landscape we had photographed all day. We ended this wonderful photographic day with a picnic dinner in the waning light with a refreshing cool breeze.

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  • Hungry Horse, MT to Coeur D’Alene, ID

    This was a day of driving from Montana to Idaho. We stopped at a roadside cherry stand which turned out to be a small little orchard owned by a woman named Donnie. She told us all about her cherry trees, each of which was named a family member. We took a walk through her orchard and photographed the cherries on the tree named “Anna”. We bought two kinds of delicious cherries, jam and postcards of cherries. Bit of theme here…

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    The drive was diverse with mountains, lakes and plains.  The small towns such as “Paradise” weren’t all that inspiring. We stopped in St. Regis for a salad lunch at a restaurant and casino with a reserved tabled for the cowboy-like seasoned regulars.

    The landscape became more and more beautiful as we approached Idaho and we stayed overnight in Coeur D’Alene at the Blackwell Island RV Park which is located where the lake and Spokane river meet. A wonderful spot with lots of Albertans. We talked for quite a while with Tim and Wendy who had trouble with their new Via camper and had to visit their local Mercedes dealer to get a software update for the engine so that they could drive at regular speed again.

    A swim in the river and dinner, with wine, under our rarely used awning -wonderful day!

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  • St Mary, MT to Hungry Horse, MT

    Morning came extremely early – 5AM so that we could photograph the sunrise and early morning hours on the Going to the Sun highway. This also meant less other tourists and easier driving along the narrow parts of the mountain road and parking at the various points of interest.

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    We stopped a couple of times for pictures. One highlight was a family of mountain goats.

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    On the west side we stopped for a hike at trail of the cedars after breakfast in the RV.

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    After exiting the park we stopped for lunch at West Glacier and then looked for a place to have an afternoon nap. We lucked out at a fishing access point on Lake Five which also had great swimming opportunities. After a great swim in glacier fed water we continued to Hungry Horse where we found a nice campground for the evening.