Northwest travels - further north

The second week of our vacation/trip seemed busier, maybe because we did not have 'home-base' like Seattle offered us.  It would be hard to describe Bellingham, WA, as a busy or hectic place, however!  That was our first stop north and we spent a few days there with my cousin.  Bellingham is a good-sized town with plenty of charm and lots of recreational activities!  While we were there, it was also a bit chilly and rained on-and-off - we couldn't believe that the high on the first day of summer was in the upper 50's!  Bellingham has also been in focus over the past few months because of a coal train controversy that has environmental implications (of the negative sort).

While in Bellingham, we took plenty of naps and explored some of what the town had to offer (a great Co-op grocery store and Saturday market).  We also beat the rain, sort of, and hiked up to Fragrance Lake, a nice little place in the Chuckanut Mountains (not the Cascades!).  It started to rain on us, but because of the canopy that the huge trees created, we barely got wet!  The trail - like all of the others that we experienced on the trip - was so well-mainained and easy to walk on.  Really nice!  We also took my cousin's dog along for the hike which made it more fun for us. I was obviously hopeful for sunshine, but the jacket served me better than the sunglasses.

After B-ham, we drove north last Sunday with my cousin and her niece.  Destination: Canada!  Vancouver, to be precise, which is about an hour from my cousin's house.  Crazy!  We spent most of Sunday exploring the University of BC's botanical gardens and the Museum of Anthropology.  The Museum of Anthropology (or MOA) was amazing!  It has a terrific collection of Pacific Northwest art and artifacts, and we spent hours wandering through the collection.  We especially enjoyed all of the totem poles - so cool!  

After the museums on Sunday, Monday was full explorations of different neighborhoods in Vancouver.  We started out with Stanley Park and just saw a tiny bit of it - what a terrific urban park!  We spent some time enjoying the view of the water, and then decided that we were too cold!  So, we took a walk around a lake and tried to not step in goose poop (that was a challenge!).  We also some idiots feeding a raccoon!  Seriously, who does that?!  I was secretly hoping that we'd see the raccoon bite the tourist, but that did not happen.  

After Stanley Park, we exhausted ourselves as we went to Granville Island (which is not an island) and ate lunch and explored some of the art studios that sold very expensive stuff!  Then, we went on to the Chinatown and Gastown neighborhoods.  I was clearly a great tour guide for the group (note the look of intense concentration on my face):

We did pretty well seeing everything that we wanted, except that I was determined to hit up a cool bar with a great beer selection.  Our trusty Lonely Planet guide book recommended the Alibi Room in Gastown, and we found it, ready to drink some brew!  It did not open until 5:00 pm, however, which did not work with our schedule.  You can see my frustration as I shook my fist at the bar!  I mean, honestly, a bar that doesn't open until 5:00?  Where were we?   

Dinner did compensate, somewhat, my failure as a drinking tour guide for the group.  We returned to Chinatown and ate at Bao Bei, which is described as a Chinese brasserie.  On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by Stanley Park again for some final views of the mountains, the Lion's Gate Bridge and more totem poles!

I'm pretending to be an out-of-focus eagle here.

Vancouver almost marked the end of our travels - we had one more stop, Leavenworth, WA, a faux-Bavarian 'village' in the heart of the central Cascades in WA.  The town is one of the biggest tourist traps I've ever experienced in my life, but the mountains around the town are gorgeous - pointy and dramatic.  We were there to visit family friends who are pretty inspirational, a word that I try to not over-use.  I would consider them true outdoorsy-people, even at age 74 and 64.  I hope that I can be as full of life and good humor as I grow older as these people are.  It was hard to say good-bye to them on Wednesday, as we headed south, back home, greeted by our own little family, Gus and Milo.

The trip as a whole - well, I keep repeating myself as I think about how lucky we were to see beautiful places, but we felt especially fortunate to see so many good friends (and family members that we like!).  

We left plenty of stones unturned, places to which we want to return, hikes that we could not take, time that ran out on us.  But, it was such a perfect trip the way that it was, and I'm so grateful that we had this opportunity!

June - Pacific Northwest travels

As I mentioned previously, our two-week trip to Oregon, Washington and Vancouver gave us a chance to explore new places, revisit old favorites and spend lots of time with good friends.  Now, more details, with photos!
We left on the early side of Wednesday, June 13 and shot straight north, making excellent time along Interstate 5 and arriving in southern Oregon before dark.  That was easy to do since the days were so long!  We enjoyed watching the sun go down around Klamath Falls while sipping a beer:

The following day, we meandered to the coast, taking a detour to Crater Lake.  I had driven by the lake a few years ago but had not appreciated the splendor that the views offered.  It was a bit too snow-packed (mid-June!) to hit any of the trails, but we enjoyed playing a bit in the snow and couldn't believe how beautiful it was.  

See all the white stuff?  Snow!

After enjoying Crater Lake, we headed north and west - to the coast!  It took us most of the day as we winded along the Umpqua River.  We stopped at one point to check out the sand dunes that were just over a hill.  It was so strange - evergreen forest on all sides but then the dunes snuck up.  We parked and hiked up a sand hill and took in the dunes.  Crazy!  And, one interesting detail about the Oregon sand dunes - they apparently inspired Frank Herbert who wrote Dune. 

Finally, we arrived at our destination: Yachats, Oregon!  Or just south of there, where we stayed at a cabin right on a cliff that looked out west and northwest and gave us views of the coast.  It was amazing, until we wanted to go to sleep and it was light until far past my usual bedtime!  Before tucking in for the night, we explored the coast a bit, heading north to Newport, Oregon which has an awesome bridge!  I don't know if other people find bridges fascinating, but we saw lots of cool bridges on this trip.  

In Newport, we stopped by Rogue Brewery for a drink (or four - I had a taster).  The bar area was great because it looked out on Yaquina Bay and had a bit of a working-class feel with the fishing boats coming in and out of the bay.  I wish that I had enjoyed the beers a bit more - they were awfully strong and I didn't just *love* them like I do some beers.

Our lodging for the two days we spent in Yachats couldn't have been better.  Well, I suppose it depends on what people want in lodging, but we stayed at Ocean Haven, a quirky place that was right on the coast.  We stayed in the "Shag's Nest Cabin" which was a tiny place perched at the top of a hill overlooking the coast.  We fell asleep and woke up to the sound of the waves and windows that looked west - from one window, all we could see was the blue-green of the ocean - it made me feel as though we were on board a ship!  We could easily walk down to the beach:

Our day along the coast also took us inland a bit as we rode our bikes along Yaquina Bay, a great little ride, and followed that up with one of the best meals at a seafood place that I've had.  The restaurant, Local Ocean, was busy but relaxed.  We scored a spot at the bar, so we could watch people prepping the food, all of which looked amazing.  When the server carried a bowl of a seafood stew by us, we immediately agreed that we had to order it.  It did not disappoint - was full of clams, mussels, oysters, crab, scallops and fish.  That and the beer we quaffed made for a perfect lunch!

Saturday, we headed back east and up I-5 to Seattle where we stayed about 4 days with good friends.  They live in the very cool Phinney Ridge/Greenwood neighborhood, and we enjoyed having such a great home base.  We did play tourists in Seattle, but not quite to THIS extreme:

No, no duck tours, fortunately!  But Petra, my old roommate, did score us free passes to the Experience the Music Project.  I lived in Seattle for a brief 2 years and never went to this museum, and Petra's been there 15 or 20 years, and she visited the EMP for the first time too!  The visit - eh, it was okay, but I'm not sure that I would have paid for the experience.  

In addition to drinking lots of great coffee, exploring neighborhoods such as Ballard and Fremont, perusing food at Pike Place Market, drinking lots of local IPAs and eating amazing seafood, we were also active!  We went on two great runs - one to and around Greenlake, the other was a run with a friend which took us to Lake Washington.  Our last full day in Seattle was a gorgeous day (finally!), and we took advantage of the weather, hiking up Rattlesnake Ridge, a nice hike in the Central Cascade region.  

Afterwards, we drove through the town of Northbend, the setting of the 90's David Lynch series, Twin Peaks.  We are currently watching the series, having missed it when we were in college, so it was fun to see some of the places from the show.  We did not stop for pie at the local cafe, but we did recognize it!

Before leaving Seattle on Thursday, we drove west to Golden Gardens, a city park that is on the western side of the city, looking out to the Olympics.  That was a great place to say our good-bye to the Emerald City before heading north to Bellingham.

Bittersweet - Back in sunny CA

It comforted me yet made me a bit sad when I woke up in my own bed this morning, surrounded by familiar details (such as dogs sniffing up at me when they sensed movement in bed rather than the usual sleep rhythm - how do they know it?!).  After two fairly long days in the car, Michael and I both welcomed the familiar sites along I-5, such as the lovely town of Grapevine, almost rejoicing when we merged onto the 210 Freeway, and we would have been ecstatic if we hadn't been so tired when we finally opened the door to our humble abode.  Milo and Gus did not make the trip with us, so their wagging tails were at attention as they greeted us with a mix of joy and suspicion.  For the rest of our short evening, they seemed to alternate between excitement and distrust, glad to see us yet nervous that we'd leave them again.  They were, however, quite happy to join us in our bedroom when we finally called it a day, so I think that they have forgiven us for this momentary abandonment.

Regarding the trip - more to come on that, photos and all.  It is hard to summarize and to not gush ad nauseum, but it was a fantastic trip - one of our 'best', if I could rank them.  Heading south on Wednesday felt like someone was yanking a part of me out, I hated to leave that part of the world that much, as we took our leave of good friends with whom we had reconnected and to whom we had to say our good-byes.  That was the bittersweet aspect of the trip, because it made me so happy to see these people and so sad to leave them.  Throughout the trip we saw different people, but on Wednesday, we had made our final "visit", so that was the hardest good-bye.  Our route on this trip was a bit circuitous - we made different stops along the way as we drove north to Oregon, then snaked our way to the Oregon coast where we disconnected from the world before heading north to Seattle, then on to Bellingham, then crossing the border to Vancouver.  Our final stop before the long drive south was east to Leavenworth, WA.  The return was, without a doubt, the most difficult part of the trip, as the excitement that pushed us on had transformed into anxiety and impatience to return home.  The long summer days suddenly shortened, and we knew that we were closer to home.

That is a summary of our route, but says little about the WHAT - the experiences and the activities.  It is hard, for me, to quickly summarize all of that, but I will say that we walked along half a dozen beaches, if not more; ate more than our fair share of excellent, local (when we could get it) seafood, lost count of the totem poles that we came across, consumed pounds and pounds of cherries (I kid you not); perused many a farmers market; fell in love with Oregon and Washington beers - IPAs in particular; stopped to take in one view or another and pinched ourselves when we couldn't really believe it; honed our local pie expertise; drank numerous cups of coffee (and only went to Starbucks once!); enjoyed the bounty of our friends' gardens at dinnertime; and stayed up far later than I am used to on most evenings as we gabbed and gabbed with friends.  I would also consider this to be one of our more active trips as we walked, hiked, biked or ran in every single locale that we visited.

Now that we are home, it is easy to return to a pat routine, to get lost in the day-to-day minutiae, to worry about next month or next year, or to focus too much on small details that, in the bigger scheme, don't really matter that much.  While this was no Kerouacian experience that involved hitchhiking, the elements and a few survival skills, it did allow us to step outside of the usual rhythm of our lives and to reconnect with several people that we know from different moments of our lives.  Being home has its own advantages, as we connect with friends here and spend time with the dogs (and I train for some race), and hunkering down a bit will energize us for our next trip - which will be coming up soon!

Road Trippin' 2012!

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest! Summer definitely snuck up on us, and suddenly our summer plans were no longer "plans" but a reality. I finished up a few loose ends on Tuesday, and then we found ourselves in the car, heading north early Wednesday morning. While we travel plenty by car these days, it has been a few years since we've taken an actually road trip. You know, the trip is about the drive, the journey, the experience, not the destination. As over-used a metaphor as it is, it is nice to think and reflect about all the possibilities, the openness, the freedom to stop and explore.

Heading north on Wednesday, we moved at a good clip through the San Joaquin Valley, not stopping until we put some distance between ourselves and home. It's a fairly boring drive until north of Sacramento. Around Redding, Mt Shasta pops up - or looms- in the distance, at first a bit of a shadow and then making its presence more than known. At that point, it seemed that we were true travelers, that we had entered another another time. We just left that morning, but time and space did not obey the usual rules. Surely we'd been on the road for two days already if not more?

Despite the long day on the road Wednesday, it was more than worth it to spend the night in Klamath Falls, OR, a sleepy town just north of the state border. On Thursday, we headed west to the coast where we spent two completely relaxing days. We walked on different beaches, watched seals and sea lions, and took in one dramatic view after another.

Life is moving at a different pace these days, and it is a welcome, if only temporary, change.