Seattle Road Trip

Our big trip for the summer was taking a big drive up the coast to Seattle for the 4th of July. Tim's cousin Dan is living up there right now, he is working on his second year of grad-school. We wanted to visit him while he was living there, so this worked out great.

*When I say drive up the coast, it was exactly that.*

The drive up

June 29th - We drove to Tim's parents' in Willits and stayed a night.

June 30th - We headed over to Fort Bragg. From there we took hwy 1 north. Where 1 meets up with 101 there is this really great attraction. In the little town of Leggett, on the south end of the Humboldt Natl. Forrest is what they call the "Drive Through Tree" also known as the "Chandelier Tree". Yes, like the one that used to stand in Yosemite, there are a few other trees in parts of California that are big enough to drive your car through.

Our next stop was in Fortuna, we stopped by Eel River Brewing Company. There is a really good drink that I couldn't get a six pack of anywhere but there. And for lunch we stopped in Eureka at the Lost Coast Brewing Company. The food there was amazing! They had some of the best garlic fries I have ever had. The weather at this time was chilly and slightly rainy.

We made a stop to check Gold Bluffs Beach (inside Prairie Creek Redwoods St Park), driving through those trees was pretty neat, Tim calls it the Jurassic forrest. This is also the place along the 101 where the elk crossing is, and we most certainly got to see them, two large herds hanging out in two different spots just off the road. We also stopped at a place in Kalmath called Trees of Mystery, there is a giant Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, got a few pictures then headed on. We had a camping spot at the Crescent City KOA. Thanks goodness, by the time we got there the rain had stopped and there was still some light to set up our tent by. Nice little camp ground, we love KOAs, but it was a bummer that it was entirely covered in redwoods, so the water still in the trees dripped a lot on everything. That evening we had a little date to Denny's for chocolate sundays.

July 1st - We checked out Crescent City's light house, fishing dock where they catch all their crab and we walked around the city park (they have an amazing play ground & as well as a disc golf course). Then we continued our drive crossing the Cali/Oregon boarder... Jaime's first time. We drove into Brookings, got ourselves some breakfast and took it over to Chetco Point Park. It was a neat little spot with a great ocean view on either side of the point, fun rocks to climb on; Tim was bummed we didn't bring our climbing shoes or had our crash pad yet, he saw a greater climbing potential. The sun was out and the fog was cleared away from the small town.

Just north, outside of the town of Coos Bay, there is a spit (not sure what its called) with loads of sand doons we stopped there for a while and ventured to the ocean. It was a long jaunt and as we were about to make our way back to the car a couple in an off road vehicle gave us a ride back. It was a totally unexpected perk to our stop, it was so much fun.

Lunch or was it dinner (linner), I can't remember, was in Florence. There is a restaurant with a funny name that Tim wanted to eat at called Charls' Restaurant. The next part of the drive was quite spectacular, the views were wonderful. There was still so much road ahead of us, so we didn't make any more stops. We made it to Tillamook 10 minutes before closing time, so we got ourselves ice cream cones.

July 2nd - We stayed at a pretty nice (besides the smoke) inn in town. In the morning we took a self guided tour of the cheese factory and had samples of their cheese. Before we left, we bought ourselves some "extra sharp" cheese (black wrapper) and the most amazing summer sausage I have ever had. We hopped back in the car and headed on our way. Our fist stop along the drive for the day was Cannon beach, one of our favorite stops of the drive up. Its was a pristine beach, with a cute little town and the houses that lined the beach were the most amazing "beach cottages" I have ever seen. What this beach is most known for is Haystack Rock; it was in the movie "The Goonies" (a favorite of both of ours).

Our next and last stop for the day was in Astoria. We spent a couple hours in the Lewis and Clark Natl. Historic Park, Fort Clatsop. Lunch we had our cheese and sausage on crackers I packed and dried pears from our home farmer's market. Got to watch a gun demo and tour the fort and walked a bit of the grounds. If we had more time, I would have wanted to go check out the town of Astoria (the setting and filming location of the Goonies) its a neat little town on the water.

Finally, our last part of our drive, we crossed into Washington, yet again a first for me. We drove up through Olympia and would have stopped by to see my aunt and uncle if we had more time, that would have been fun, next time we will. An finally reached Seattle.

Seattle/Victoria

July 3rd - Dan, Tim and I hopped on a Clipper boat and headed for Victoria BC. The weather was wonderful, sun patches, high clouds, little to no wind. It was a great ride getting to view all the islands in the Puget Sound. My first time to Canada and yes, I asked the customs guy to stamp my passport (they don't do it unless you ask). We ate lunch at the most amazing Fish and Chips place on the docks called Red Fish Blue Fish. After we got settled in our room we headed over to the Royal British Columbia Museum and walked through the dinosaur exhibit and and two others that were in the building. We then took a walk through the town and window shopped till dinner time. Dinner we chose to eat at probably my favorite restaurant I have ever been to, Irish Times. The food and drinks were so good! And the music was even greater, authentic Irish folk music. We had gelato for desert at a cute little candy shop.

July 4th - We toured the Parliament before we hopped back on the clipper to head back to Seattle. We rented bikes and rode them through the University of Washington to view the campus. Then we rode to the Gas Works Park to watch fireworks over the water of Union Lake and I must say it was the most spectacular show I have seen yet. The fireworks were coordinated with music and there were more colors and affects then most shows.

July 5th - Tim and I ventured around the city. We first stopped to get coffee at Peet's and walked around part of Green Lake. We drove over to the Fremont District to see the "Fremont Troll" under the Aurora bridge. Then headed downtown. The REI "Mother-ship". That place is incredible!!! We had to watch our time, we could have been in there much, much longer, but had to remember all the other things we wanted to see. We did lunch at the Water Front, there was a place with really good clam chowder.We walked a little bit, then headed up to Pikes Market. We didn't see anyone throwing fish, but we did see the original Starbucks and the famous "gum wall" in Post Ally.

We drove over to the Space Needle and toured the grounds there (the line was really long and the day was getting on, we figured we would save our trip to the top for our next visit and get dinner there while we are at it). We saw the EMP Museum (from outside) and other neat art sculptures in the area, and toured the Pacific Science Center. We were hoping to see the King Tut exhibit (this was its last stop before they were retiring it back to its tomb), but we weren't going to indulge them in the outrageous fee they were charging. We were really upset over the whole ordeal. Needles to say, it was the end of our touring for the day and were tired.

Back at Dan's waiting for him to get out of class, Tim and packed our climbing shoes and jogged over to the UW campus, they have a rock climbing structure we wanted to check out. And we ended the day the three of us going to see the latest Spider Man movie.

Trip Home

July 6th - We slept in a little in preparation for our drive. Hoped in the car and started down I-5. Stop 1, Fort Vancouver Natl Historic Site, built by the Hudson Bay Company. Toured the fort and had another wonderful picnic lunch of cheese, crackers and dried fruit. Crossed the Columbia River and went for a little detour through Forest Park. Walked through the Rose Gardens and part of the Japanese Gardens, then headed into the city where we took a little walk. Hoped back on to I-5 (got to be my favorite stretch of the 5 I have even driven on) and continued south for Eugene. So tired at this point that all we did was get dinner and go to bed early.

July 7th - Tim and I went for a little run in Alton Baker Park on "Pre's Trail", then stopped in the Duck Store at Autzen Stadium. Drove over to Oregon U's Track, Hayward Field and touched the ground that has changed running's history time and time again. From there headed up to Skyline Blvd. to visit Steve Prefontaine's memorial site.

Continued along HWY 58 and took a pleasant unexpected stop at Salt Creek Falls, Oregon's second tallest waterfall. Then onto Crater Lake we went (Jaime's first time and a VERY long time since Tim first time there). Set up our campsite and had dinner at the lodge. We went to a stargazing thing at the campground amphitheater.

July 8th - Had our breakfast on the wall overlooking the lake, walked a little bit of the trail to Garfield Peak and checked out the Sinnott Memorial Overlook. Drove down to Medford and had lunch at Wild River Pizza and Brewing Co. The Pizza was so good! And this was our final stop before we crossed the boarder back into California and arrived home.