Monday, September 27, 2004

Portland, OR
We've been having a wonderful time in Portland. Visiting with friends and seeing the sights. There's a lot to see and do in this area. More than we can handle in a few days. On Friday the girls got a day out together. Jen, Rene, and Diane went into the city and walked around the Vietnam Memorial, arboretum, Rose Garden, and Japanese Garden. The Japanese Garden was a very peaceful and serene place to be. A perfect place to meditate. That evening we met up with all the boys at Edgefields - a poor house turned into a microbrewery and winery. It was a campus of buildings with several bars and restaurants. Guitarists played in the wine cellar and workers were mashing grapes in a courtyard. There were indoor bars and outdoor bars. Our first beers were purchased in the old morgue. A very funky place indeed. The McMeneminns brothers converted the poor house and the old Kennedy school (another location in Portland) into these very hip and successful microbreweries.

Saturday we spent near Mt Hood. Unfortunately Rene's husband, Todd, wasn't able to join us but this gave Aquiles and Andy a day to play "dada" to little Michael. We hiked about 7-8 miles round-trip to Ramona Falls. Aquiles carried Michael on the way out (Michael slept most of the way), then Andy carried Michael on the way back (Michael was wide awake, swaying, and smacking Andy upside the head). The hike was through forest, with periodic views of Mt Hood, and the falls were a wonderful destination. After the hike we were all starving as we headed to Timberline Lodge for a late lunch at 5:00pm. The clouds came in while we ate dinner so when we went back outside we found that we were on top of the world. Thick blankets of clouds layed on the hills below us with the sun setting into the clouds to the west, the almost-full moon high above us to the east, and Mt Adams the only other landmark in sight. A magical moment.
     

 

Sunday we went for a bike ride along Marine Drive. It's great to be with friends relaxing and chatting. I loved the boathouses. You can see in the picture below that they have regular garage doors, but the pull their boats in not cars. We biked back to Rene and Todd's house and relaxed in the backyard having a barbecue.
 
Surprisingly enough we are experiencing some sunny days here in Portland. It's usually cloudy in the morning but burns off around lunch time. The sun has been tremendously hot, but the breezes keep you cool. We were supposed to leave today for the Portland Coast, but we started to experience some funny noises with our converter fan so we have an appointment at Camping World for tomorrow. We don't want to end up in a remote area with no power. Just playing it safe.
12:10 pm pdt


Thursday, September 23, 2004

Yakima, WA to Portland, OR
Well, we didn’t leave Yakima on the 17th as expected. Apparently Willie Nelson was having a concert down on the Columbia River Gorge in the area we were heading and all the campgrounds were booked. Oh well, at least we were able to go kayaking on the Yakima River because of the delay. We drove into the Yakima Canyon area to check out the river. We had learned that there were lots of places to put in and take out. Most people do it as a one-way float trip and set up a shuttle system. Instead of us setting up a bike-shuttle, though, we decided to do it as an out-and-back trip figuring it would be more convenient. The river looked doable. Since there was less current closer to the dam we put in at Roza Recreational Site. It started out easy enough, but quickly became a workout. The current got stronger the further north we paddled. We did have a couple of eddies that we were able to duck into in order to take a breather and enjoy our surroundings. Did we mention that eastern Washington is a desert? Well it is and it’s been a shock to be back in brown-grass and sage bushes after coming out of the rainforests of the NW. So we’d sit in the eddies and look out at the brown slopes of the canyon. We saw several deer, birds, and baby fish. Of course our competitive sides kicked in when we hit this one riffle (small rapids). Both of us tried feverishly to paddle up and over it, but to no avail. We’d get about three-quarters of the way through and then get stopped as if we hit a brick wall. We both finally quit and portaged over it. After that, though, the river just became harder and harder to paddle and make any headway. Diane was the first to cry “uncle”. It’s just no fun when there is no visible progress. But it was a good thing we turned around when we did. Big, black rain clouds came in from every direction and the rain started minutes after we loaded the kayaks on our car.
 
On Saturday we headed to the Columbia River Gorge and spent the next five days slowly heading west along it towards Portland. Our first stop was in Maryhill, WA. We stayed at the state park right next door to Peach Beach RV Park (Jim and Chris’ old stomping grounds – watch out guys we are hot on your trail!). From this base camp we visited Stonehenge and the Maryhill Museum, we relaxed on the riverbank and watched the huge barges going by, and we took a nice bike ride along Deschutes River. Even though we’re in a desert, this is a big area for wineries and fruit orchards which create interesting patterns of green on the brown slopes.

Heading west to our next stop near Hood River we started to notice a change in the scenery. More trees! Our new base camp was the Bridge RV Park in White Salmon, WA. The biggest drawback in the Gorge is the fact that there are highways and rail lines on both sides of the river. So you can’t avoid the noise. Unfortunately this pretty little RV Park was so close to the tracks that the train almost blew us out of bed at night. Losing one night of sleep was the most we could sacrifice to be in this nice area of the Gorge. We did pay extra for a late check-out, though, in order to see more before heading further west. Our first afternoon we took a scenic drive up to Rowena Crest and did a short hike out onto the Tom McCall’s Nature Preserve. The 25-35 mph winds made it a little hairy to be close to the cliffs, but the views up and down the gorge were pretty. We checked out downtown Hood River visiting shops and taking a detour to Big Horse Microbrewery with a nice view of the river and windsurfers and kite surfers. The next day we took a bike ride along the Historic Columbia River Highway Trail. We biked the portion closed to vehicles between Hood River and Mosier. The old highway is halfway up the cliffs with great views, it is paved and hilly, it is shaded with trees, and this portion has the Twin Tunnels – all of which make this a great ride.
 

After leaving Hood River we headed to our next base camp, Ainsworth State Park in Oregon. We finally get to put an Oregon sticker on our map. From here we visited the Bonneville Dam’s fish ladders. In order for salmon, sturgeon, and other spawning fish to navigate the dammed Columbia River, they’ve built fish ladders to help the fish get up and over the dams. Interesting. But I think salmon are ugly fish, and sturgeons are even uglier! Salt-water fish are so much more appealing to look at – makes me miss scuba diving. The next day Jennifer came to visit us and spend the day touring waterfalls. The old Columbia River Highway between exits 35 and 22 is lined with waterfalls. We’ve never seen so many in one small area. We started at Horsetails Falls with a short hike to the top…then we continued to Oneonta Falls…then a couple said that Triple Falls was just up ahead on this other trail…needless to say two hours later we finally found the right trail to get back to the highway for another short walk to the correct parking area where our car was parked. Here’s the problem though…it was the first time ever we did not have water, or snacks, or anything with us besides one camera. For those of you who know Andy and/or Jen you can imagine how quickly the whining started when the lunch hour came and went. Hell, even I was hungry, thirsty, and grumpy. Ha! After chowing down lunch at Multnomah Falls we hiked that area. We hiked to the top (we have a picture for you Gail) and further up to several other falls. It’s a beautiful area which must be even more beautiful in winter when the falls become iced over. After Jen left for home, Andy and I decided to finish touring all the falls along Route 30. But since our hikes with Jen totaled around 8 miles, the rest of the afternoon were short hikes.
 

 

We made it into Portland this morning and we’re looking forward to seeing Jen, Rene, Jen Brady and all significant others at dinner tonight.

3:00 pm pdt


Thursday, September 16, 2004

Mt. Rainier to Yakima, WA
We could see her from Seattle. We could see her from Victoria. We could see her from most of the Olympic peninsula. But she hid herself under blankets of clouds when we got up alongside her and reached Mt. Rainier National Park. She’d periodically play peek-a-boo and show a little of herself through holes in the clouds, but mostly the mountain stayed hidden. For three solid days, and the forecast wasn’t going to get any better. So much for the mountain views and hiking to Camp Muir, the 10,000 foot high base camp for climbers continuing to the summit. We decided that it just wasn’t our time to experience Mt. Rainier. Our timing was great regarding the crowds (the park empties out after Labor Day), but poor regarding the weather gods. We did have nice hikes through the inland rainforest, and this time it was raining. We did have great waterfalls to watch – some gentle trickles over moss-covered rocks, some long narrow falls falling hundreds of feet, some powerful falls cascading over rocks. We did enjoy watching the clouds themselves – swirling up from the valleys below, racing across the sky in the game of peek-a-boo (now you see her, now you don’t), and laying on the road in front of you creating a very mystical place.
   

 

One morning we toured Spirits of Iron. Dan Klennert, the artist, displays his sculptures around his property for people to come and enjoy. He asks for donations to help continue his dream, but he will sell his pieces if the price is right. This was worth the detour to drive back into Elbe. We spent about 45 minutes wandering around and speaking with Dan. He even took us into his workshop to show us the current projects he was working on. For someone self-trained in art and welding, his pieces were very detailed and well put-together. The textures he created intrigued me the most. We had fun just trying to identify the ‘parts’ he used to create his pieces. We found: large wrenches, saw blades, horseshoes, wire brush bristles, shovels, and even fishing line to name just a few. But he also creates pieces from driftwood, too. As he says, he doesn’t shape his pieces, he creates them from the shapes he finds. Most of his supplies are found in ravines in eastern Washington, so he is also helping to clean up America as well. If you find yourself in Elbe, do stop and spend time with his work. Slowing down and viewing from your car is not enough to appreciate his creations.
   

We stayed on both sides of Mt. Rainier. Near Nisqually we stayed at a great little campground (Mounthaven Cabins and RV Resort) which was just a half-mile from the park entrance. The owners were so friendly and eager to please and the setting was wooded and homey. On the east side we spent one night in the Ohanapecosh Campground within the park. Our site was right on the river and beautiful as well. We could imagine ourselves enjoying a campfire and the view…but we chose to stay warm and dry inside instead. We’d highly recommend both of these campgrounds.

The cloud shrouded park was beautiful in its own way, but we started to crave some sunshine since we couldn’t do the bigger hikes. We’ll just have to come back to tackle Rainier another time. So, off we go to Yakima and Washington’s sunny wine country…

We experienced a little culture shock coming back into civilization after spending the last few weeks in Olympic and Rainier. Cars, city noises, tighter camp spaces. But, we have WIFI, a heated swimming pool to do laps in, cable TV to watch Ivan, and the other conveniences of city life. After doing our laps and soaking in the jacuzzi we got on our bikes and rode the Yakima Greenway. The Greenway is a nice paved path that follows the Yakima River and connects 3 different parks in the city. It felt great to get in some exercise (other than walking/hiking).

We had expected a little more from the city of Yakima itself. For some reason we expected “Durango” or “Coeur d’Alene” type of a feel in the city. Probably because wineries and microbreweries usually create an eclectic, touristy feel. But the feel of the city we have (after a whopping 12 hours) is that it is purely agriculture, lower-income. Maybe we’re missing something, but we did drive around last night seeking a good place to eat out and saw quite a bit of the city.

Today we were going to try to get in a paddle – if we can find some more information on paddling the Yakima River near Roza Dam quickly. As of right now, we still plan on leaving tomorrow and heading towards the Columbia River Gorge.

11:55 am pdt


Friday, September 10, 2004

Olympic Nat'l Park - Kalaloch
Spent two nights on the pacific coast at the Kalaloch ("clay-lock") Campground. Our site was just across the driveway from the oceanside sites. We could hear the ocean, but only see it through the windows of the RV in front of us. The sunsets were beautiful and we walked the beaches to enjoy the colors. The beaches here were wide and sandy, unlike the others we've seen so far.
 
Hiked several trails in the Hoh Rain Forest. Several trees were estimated at 200 feet long and others with diameters over 6 feet. The moss, ferns, lichens, and funghi were so beautiful carpeting the trees, rocks and the ground. It was interesting to learn that young trees have such a hard time taking root on the crowded forest floor that they tend to grow on top of downed trees. This also creates interesting root designs when the new tree grows large and the old tree disintegrates over time. It stays so wet in the forest (do note it was sunny the day we visited the rainforest) that dew stays on the mushrooms throughout the day.
   
9:18 pm pdt


Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Olympic National Park
We found out recently that our house in Boca is fine. Special thanks to Gail and Merle for securing the place and reporting to us as soon as they could. We'd also like to thank all of those (Mom and Ace, Melissa, Rick H) who helped keep us informed regarding the storm conditions until we could hear from Gail and Merle.

Over Labor Day weekend, we camped at Lake Crescent which is on the north side of the Olympic peninsula. From there we spent one day in the Sol Duc area walking through rain forests, looking at waterfalls, and soaking in the hot springs. Another day we took a great bike ride on the Spruce Railroad trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent. Normally railroad trails are level and as wide as a railroad track, so we were surprised to find this trail more technical. Most of the trail was a naturally mulched trail high above the lake with some areas that washed out creating narrow crossings. Several rock slides created some challenging hills to bike over. And a couple inclines were steep with rock steps that were best to walk over. The trail wasn't what we expected...it was better. On our third day, Andy went kayaking on Lake Crescent as Diane did some yoga on shore. Amazingly, the weather on shore was about 30 degrees warmer than at our site which was under a thick canopy of trees. Fairholm campground is probably one of the prettiest campgrounds we have been in. It's like living in a rainforest.
 
Our next campground wasn't quite as nice - grass and gravel parking lot with spaces so small you couldn't open your slide-outs and awnings at the same time - but the view of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca was stunning. We ended up moving our RV to another location of the RV Resort in order to have some elbow space. We waited to after check-out and got a space in the front row, no sewer hook-ups, but it was worth it to not have neighbors on both sides. From this new base camp we drove to Cape Flattery to see puffins. We've been trying to see puffins for years (in Alaska and in Maine), but the puffins weren't there when we were. Foiled again! Cape Flattery is the most north-western point in the contiguous states. Beautiful views from a bluff overlooking sea caves, sea stacks, and arches. But no puffins...The next day we went to Lake Ozette to do a 9.1 mile loop hike. The hike starts in a forest and goes out to the beach, you hike 3 miles on the rocky beach to another trailhead that takes you back to your starting point. A great day. The sections in the forest were easy boardwalk trails. The section along the beach was a little more challenging terrain: soft sand or rocks, slippery moss rocks in the intertidal zone, and stinky kelp and seaweed washed up on shore. But we saw gulls, pelicans, harlequin ducks, black oystercatchers, sea lions, black-tailed deer and more. Unfortunately no whales, black bears or elk were seen on the trip though. And, no puffins...
   

Now we're on our way to Kalaloch. Stopped in Forks for lunch and found the library to update the blog and check/send emails. Keep an eye on Ivan for us!
1:18 pm pdt


Thursday, September 2, 2004

PA - FL - WA - Canada - WA
What a whirlwind trip in the past three weeks...three states and two countries within a twenty-four hour period...
Philadelphia...Visited with family and friends and had a great time as always.
Boca...Not enough time to do what had to be done. Weeding, trimming, cleaning, repairs, visiting with friends and family, soaking in 85 degree ocean, etc. Wished we could've seen everyone, but there just wasn't enough hours in the day.
Seattle...Had another hellish travel day, but all went as well as it could've. Flew from Ft Lauderdale to Phila to Salt Lake City to Seattle. Only took 12 hours this time. Surprisingly, on almost each leg of our trip our planes pushed back from the terminals early! Stayed at a hotel near airport that first night back. Since our RV parts hadn't been delivered yet, we decided our first touristy adventure would be to head over to Victoria.
Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada
What a beautiful city. Everyone kept telling us, but you can't appreciate it until you visit it. Old brick or stone buildings with ivy creeping up the sides. The city is surrounded on three sides by water. There are ferrys, taxi-boats, and seaplanes filling the harbor. The streets are filled with bike-cabs, double-decker buses and horse-drawn carriages. And flowers are everywhere: hanging baskets on every light pole, flower beds on every corner, flower pots and small and large gardens to walk through. Unfortuantely all of the flying caught up with us and we succumbed to some nasty colds. So we did the best we could - played tourist in the morning, napped in the afternoon, and walked the city at night to enjoy the lighted buildings. The parliament buildings are all dressed up with lights and look like gingerbread houses.
We did get to see most of the attractions, but couldn't manage anything too physical like a whale watching trip, bike riding, hiking or kayaking. We'll just have to go back, that's all!
 
Butchart Gardens was beautfiul, but we went on a Saturday when they do fireworks at night. The mass of humanity was smothering. It was the second to last fireworks display (they do it in summer only), and we think everyone on the Island was there. Next time, I'd go during the week and hope to have more space to walk around and take pictures without the claustophobia setting in.

At Undersea Gardens we got to see large pacific octopus (which grow up to 25'), a sunflower star (which is a 20-legged starfish), and a wolf eel (which has a face like an old bald man).
Craigdarroch Castle was beautiful with dark wood walls and ceilings and stained-glass on almost every window. It was built in 1880's with old coal money.

Hugo's Brewery offered a beer called the Super G. It was made with Ginseng and Ginger for spice. We tried some hoping it would help kick the colds :)
Now, before going to Canada don't forget to practice your math to help with conversions. You'll have to convert your money to Canadian dollars, the temperature from celsius to farenheit, and the gas from liters to gallons ($3.76/gal CA$).
Port Townsend, WA
We returned from Canada on Monday, but the parts still aren't here yet, so we drove to Port Townsend to spend some time. A neat little seaport built in the 1880's. Most of the buildings were built at the same time with hopes that the railroad would come through (which it didn't). The brick buildings have lots of details on the exterior and some still have the original tin ceilings on the inside. We walked the main street, drove through the Victorian neighborhoods, enjoyed the beaches, watched sea otters playing, and biked around Fort Worden. Our RV was camped near the beach in Fort Worden State Park. What a view! The fort itself is probably one of the largest and most intact forts we've seen. The old officer's quarters, etc are still in use as rental lodgings now, or offices. The batteries still have doors on working hinges and iron ladders that were strong enough to climb. There were dark tunnels that you could walk through to go from one side of a battery to another. All areas were accessible. It was very refreshing.
 
Olympic National Park
We should be heading into Olympic National Park today. The RV is back at the dealer for final touches now that the parts are in. We're hoping that we will actually get to enjoy the NP - considering we are trying to watch Hurricane Frances as well. We are also hoping that we won't have to cut our trip short and head home for repairs there. Our thoughts are with all of our family and friends scattered throughout Florida - from Ft Lauderdale/Boca to Melbourne to Orlando to Jacksonville.

PS I'll try to get some pictures up on the blog as soon as I have WIFI at the RV (which may be awhile!!).