A Barking Good Time

Another wonderful day in Oregon started off a bit less promising as we woke to a downpour in the hotel bathroom coming from the unit above us. It wasn't the most subtle wake up call I would have liked, but it did get us off to an early start for our day in Newport. San Francisco's male sea lions call the Newport pier home for several months each year, and it's easy to see why they choose it as a getaway pad (which locals dub "the bachelor pad" since the female sea lions stay put in San Fran). Newport is quite compact, with all of its attractions (shopping, restaurants, the aquarium, lovely little neighborhoods, historic Nye Beach, the Yaquina lighthouse -visible from our hotel balcony) just minutes from one another. Any walk up or down a steep hill (of which there are many) is rewarded with wild flowers grown along the embankment and stores such as "Made in Oregon" waiting for you to browse.

While Daniel was disappointed to learn that making a bonfire wasn't going to be as simple as he hoped (they discourage it, so you don't find driftwood and a pack of matches at the foot of the beach), he was more than happy to race Maddie up and down Nye Beach. The couple of hours we had just spent at the Oregon Coast Aquarium had more than satisfied everyone's yen to get up close with the sea life in these waters. Daniel spent the better part of an hour with a volunteer at the tide pool touch pool, who encouraged him to write everything he was learning down in a journal, then wow his teachers back at home when school started.

I say this each year, but once again I find that the "schooling" that takes places in venues such as these, on trips like this one, can't be duplicated. Our evening concluded with a late dinner in the cutest spot in Newport. Savory has game boards painted on each table along with a box of corresponding pieces if patrons actually want to play. We, of course, chose the Scrabble booth :) We could have also opted for Clue, Yahtzee, Checkers, Aggravation (though it seems "risk"y to sit down for a dining experience at a table named "Aggravation.") While we waited for our dinner, we passed the time with several rounds of Scrabble (the boys won); meanwhile, Dana plotted how we could open just such a restaurant in Hollywood Beach.

Today we leave the coast after a morning drive to Florence, then head a bit west to Ashland, where we have tickets to see She Loves Me, which is one of the featured shows in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (it somehow didn't seem right to make the kids sit through Hamlet ;)

With a five hour drive ahead of us, it's time I wrap up the blog and wake up the kids. Until tomorrow...

Did Lewis & Clark Ride the Tilt-a-Whirl?

Yesterday's journey down the Washigton and Oregon coast was filled with unexpected surprises, some wonderful (happening upon the location Lewis and Clark finally reached the Pacific), some less so (getting our car stuck on the sand on that same beach), but the day definitely epitomized the notion that the journey is the destination. In Long Beach, Washington, the kids got to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl and drive a go-kart, two activities I doubt Lewis and Clark could have envisioned would eventually occupy the space they "discovered" all those years ago.

After Long Beach, we took the bridge that separates Washington from Oregon, then stopped in Astoria, a wonderful little town in Oregon where the downtown has a J.C. Penny (which has been there since the 1920's), a couple of historic hotels, and is just as charming as can be. Next up - Cannon Beach, where the rich come to live and play. Designated (by Fodor's) as the Carmel of Oregon's coast, this is definitely a place to visit (though apparently everything costs more here). The one thing Cannon Beach seems to lack is a gas station, which was becoming increasingly necessary as our little rental Ford announced that we had 17 miles before the gas tank reached empty. The next tense (but gorgeous) 13 miles found us driving around the spectacular Neahkahnie Mountain where nary a gas station could be glimpsed.

When we finally reached the outskirts of Manzanita, we were thrilled to be greeted with the full-service treatment, as Oregon allows no self-serve in their gas stations. Finally, we drove through Tillamook, where cows and dairy farms abound, and Daniel developed a craving for cheese that would be fulfilled at dinner in Lincoln City, where he was assured by the hostess that the restaurant served Tillamook cheese. During dinner, we got to watch several people building a bonfire on the beach outside our windows. Others were looking through tide pools. This evening, we hope to do both. We arrived in our ocean front resort in Newport at 9:30 last night; today we are off to explore the aquarium and the town. The beach, of course, is quite chilly, leading Maddie to believe that it's better to live near an ocean you can actually enjoy rather than just view from a distance.

Smells Like Aberdeen Spirit?

We spent the morning on the the beach outside our hotel, which is surrounded byacres of sea grass, affording it tremendous solitude and adding to the eerie feeling that if any of the many tsunami warnings (run to high ground NOW!) were to be necessary, nobody would ever find us.
Daniel continued on his quest to "touch a bird" but had to satisfy himself with the chase instead. Maddie and I simply marvelled at the beauty. Dana, meanwhile, was responsible and used the time to get some lawyering done.

After this lovely morning on the beach, we headed into the town of Ocean Shores for a day of exploration and fun, only to discover that there isn't much in Ocean Shores to explore (or that looked like much fun) This is the portion of the blog where you who are reading are saved from ever making a trek to this point on the map. Trust me - the photos are sufficient ;)

So... we headed to Aberdeen, most famous as the childhood home of Kurt Cobain (though, we discovered, also the location of "Tom Cruise Day" at some point in 2006). What I love about a day like this is how it allows you to get off the tourist map and
live a day similar to the one the residents experience. On our way to Aberdeen, we stopped at a school playground in Hoquiam, where Daniel was lured by the sight of an "awesome" slide. This playground was full of whimsical equipment - a cross-over see-saw, multi-level swings - that suggested the creativity of the people in this very small town. In Aberdeen, which is so closely adjacent to Hoquiam that we never could quite figure out where one ended and the other began, we met a kind man who has operated a Star Wars memoribilia store for the past 30 years. The store has a little section devoted to Kurt Cobain. When the gentleman had to head out for a bit, he left the store in the hands of a kid (his grandson?) who couldn't have been older than 12 or 13. The whole experience was just wonderful (though Dana used it as a chance to gleefully "bloggie" about how rich Clay could have been if only Mom hadn't given away all of his Star Wars toys all those years ago :)

Our late afternoon consisted of watching Inception in the sole state of the art theater in this part of Washington (I'm sure it was refurbished for "Tom Cruise Day") in a mall that had far more vacancies than open stores. Dana commented that it felt as though we were wandering through an episode of "Wonder Years," and it did all feel much like the place time forgot.

Still, we had a dinner in a local bar/grill with a notorious past (the owner had run a brothel in that very space and later been convicted of murder), then headed back to our Ocean Shores hotel (where Dana finally won in the casino!)

Today we leave Washington behind and head to the coast of Oregon. I hope we get a chance to see how "real" Oregonians live, just as we got this glimpse into the lives of those who call Aberdeen home.

La Push to Forks and the Hoh River Rain Forest

I'm including lots of photos today because the landscape was just so dramatic each place we went (well, not Forks, but you know what I mean...) Our drive out of Port Angeles on Highway 101 consisted of a lot of scenery such as the first photo of Lake Crescent. The highway hugs the outskirts of the Olympic Nat'l Park and the entire western boundary of the lake, so the journey was definitely part of the destination in this case. The weather was sunny and beautiful until we got into La Push and Forks territory, which seemed apt indeed. It made sense for us to head east to La Push before visiting the tiny town of Forks and then heading a bit southwest to Hoh River Rain Forest, so that is exactly what we did. I was impressed with the sense of humor the Quileute Indians have about this whole Twilight phenomenon, as they mark the "treaty line" with a sign declaring "No Vampires Beyond this Point," have named one little shack in "town" (the only one I noticed where visitors were invited) "Jacob's Java," and one resident even has Jacob staring out the window of his home, looking at the visitors to First Beach. That beach is as dramatic as you would imagine.

I've been amazed these past couple of days visiting the places Stephanie Meyer set her Vampire saga without ever having actually, physically gone before the publication of the novels. The power of the Internet is shockingly apparent in the way Meyer was able to get so many details staggeringly right. In fact, spending time in these locations has caused me to realize that the settings of her novels might just be the single best thing about them. The road from Forks to La Push, First Beach, the little town of Port Angeles - all are so vivid and so much a part of those books. It's great to see the fans treat these places, and the people who live here, with the appropriate respect. And it's wonderful to see the business savvy of the residents here, who have opened not one but two Twilight inspired stores, as well as the local restaurants that title dishes after the characters. For places as stark and remote as these are, this whole Twilight mania could have been overwhelming and horribly negative, but they seem to just roll with it.

Luckily, in the Hoh River Rain Forest, there was nary a Twihard to be found. Rather I felt as though I'd entered Maurice Sendak's world, as we were dwarfed by moss covered alders and maples that Fodor's correctly described as looking more like prehistoric animals than trees.
Our trek on the "Hanging Moss Trail" afforded more photo opportunities than I could keep up wtih, though my attempts to "fix" my camera as Dad did in Seattle (by dropping it - with glee - two feet from the floor) failed to work as well this time. Thankfully, the lens cooperated in time for me to take a lone elk shrouded in the forest, though we were soon treated to a whole group of them basking in the sun and drinking from the river, as we headed out of the Olympic National Park for the final time on our way to the coast and Ocean Shores.

Twilight in Port Angeles

Our day in Port Angeles was spent exploring the sweet little town (where Bella, Edward, and Jacob lurked in every corner - notice how they stand in the upper left window in the building in the photo on the left), driving 17 miles into Olympic National Park, where we took a couple of easy "hikes" alongHurricane Ridge, where the views were gorgeous. Our closest encounter with the wild came three feet from the parking lot, as one particular deer had very little fear of people, or the massive vehicles they drive. Hope he stays safe. The snow tempted Daniel to want to have a snowball fight with Maddie, but was a bit treacherous on the trail. Dana took a spill, but he's fine (though he lost a pair of sunglasses - we can usually count on a minimum of one lost pair on each vacation)



















In the evening, we took a drive around the port (as this is the gateway to Victoria, B.C.), then we went to Bella Italia (La Bella Italia in the book), where Maddie sipped Coke and ate mushroom ravioli, just as Bella does. We did not bring a cardboard cutout or doll version of Edward, though the waitress assured us that many patrons do. We capped off our evening watching Ramona and Beezus in the Lincoln Theater where Bella, Mike and Jacob go to the movies. It was a cool old theater and the film itself is just charming. Maddie and Daniel posed on the staircase where Bella and Jacob have a heart to heart. Today we're off to Forks and La Push, in search of werewolves and more jaw dropping vistas (this time on the coast).