Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sunny California......well almost !

So we bade farewell to the wet, wild and windy Oregon coast and headed south to Crescent City, California and lo and behold the sun came out, the temps came up and we said Yea ! Unfortunately it was short lived since we woke up the the next morning to a rainy and cold sky.


Crescent City Lighthouse

But Crescent City is the start of the impressive Redwood forest and we were certainly impressed with their size and magnificent beauty. But you can only look at trees for so long and the weather situation was really getting to us so, we headed south toward San Francisco and better weather.


Small car......BIG tree

They really are impressive !


............Even in the rain !


An overnight stop at an Indian casino netted us a free night of camping, $10 each of free gaming monies and some good food. Plus we met another couple who were traveling in their motor home and enjoyed some great conversation.


We've found an Elks Lodge in the wine country of Napa & Sonoma and will stop there for a while. Reasonably priced, safe, secure and convenient. Our plan is to leave the coach for 2 weeks while we visit our 50th state and find the warm sunshine of Hawaii.

Last minute packages from the airlines are offering some great deals and we took advantage of it. Plus it's less flying time from the west coast !



Enjoy the pics of the redwoods and we'll talk again soon.

The Oregon Coast

The Oregon coastline is billed as some of the most spectacular shore line in the world. It certainly lives up to it's billing. Rough, rocky, imposing cliffs, beaches and scenic little seaside villages for miles upon miles. During the summer months this has to be superb; during a rainy fall it was quite the opposite.
Rough and angry surf on a rocky shoreline

While it's beauty comes through regardless of the weather and an "angry" Pacific Ocean crashing on the shoreline most of our 10 day trek along the coast was in cold and rainy conditions. We selected several towns to stop in and sample the rugged beauty and uniqueness of the region.

Haystack Rock - Cannon Beach

The end of the Lewis & Clark Trail


Where the Columbia River meets the Pacific
The Columbia River end !

Cannon Beach, Lincoln City and Florence Oregon are all quaint seaside villages with special characteristics each. Cannon Beach has Haystack Rock and the convergence of the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean as well as an old growth forest. Lincoln City is a collection of what was several smaller villages and is now sprawled over 7 miles and offers some sandy beaches and spectacular sunsets. Florence offers a quaint seaside village and harbor setting while being the gateway to the Oregon Dunes National Park and miles of fabulous sand dunes.

The new Delta kite flys in Lincoln City

Riding the Dunes
Miles of fun riding in the sand

Unfortunately, most of our ten day visit was in rainy and cool conditions but we persevered and the sun came out on rare occasions making the beauty even more spectacular.

A quick stop toward the end of the coast road

The sun sets over the Pacific

We'll let some pics tell the rest of the story of our days on the coast. We'll head south to California and the redwoods. We'll talk again soon.


Sunday, November 1, 2009

Mount St. Helen's & Portland, Oregon

Hello:

So we flew back to the west coast and headed south. We made a quick stop at Mt. St. Helen's and were really surprised to see that a major portion of the mountain is actually gone........spread out over a valley some 14 miles in length. The destructive power when this let loose had to be awesome. We drove up to the observatory, viewed the exhibits and the movie and drove around the local area.

Cold........Mt. St. Helen's

Mt. St. Helens

Unfortunately, it was cold and after looking at the mountain and volcano we opted to move along to Portland the next day.

We again parked at the local Elks Lodge and set off getting the new tires for the Honda: the price was right, no sales tax and they did it in about an hour while we got some shopping done at Costco.

Portland is a neat mid sized city with lot's of eclectic shops, a clean and modern downtown and a very progressive transit system. You really don't need a car if you live in any of the suburban areas and work downtown. We visited the art museum, did a walk-about-town and saw Pioneer Square.

Downtown Portland

Pioneer Square, Portland


We actually met another couple from Zephyrhills and Emerald Pointe RV Park in Portland ! Jim & Jodi Giroud, who also own a lot in the same RV park as us were parked in the Elks in Portland. They too had just finished touring Canada and Alaska and were working their way south to Arizona for the winter. We swapped stories of the road, shared some laughs and plan to meet up with them again in Arizona this winter.

Our next stop is the Oregon Coast,

Enjoy the pics

Gene & Laurie

Friends


Bob & Aida Cook on the rocks with us !
Lefty Bob at Wildwood


Jerry Grover in the beach !


Mike Bauer on the "Sea Napper"

Beach Activities & The Zoo

All 4 kites are flying high !

GrandMa & Hogan setting things up

Putting the boys to work on the sand anchor



Heading for the ocean


A "kodak" moment

At the Zoo

A Special Dinner & Memories

A special dinner

A memory blanket

The Amusement Park



Kane, Jesse Rae & Hogan






Family bumper cars





GrandPa on a mission









Hogan, Jesse Rae & Kane









Do you think they like the camera ?





Kristin & Hogan share a quiet moment on the ferris wheel.




GrandMa having Fun !

Jersey Shore 2009: The Narrative

Hello:


We spent 2 wonderful weeks visiting family & friends on the east coast. For the past several years we've been renting a 4 bedroom home in Ocean City, NJ about 2 blocks from the boardwalk and the ocean.


It has given us the opportunity to have a mini family reunion with our daughters and grand children and see friends from our days living in the Philadelphia area.

This year we flew from Seattle to Philadelphia on Friday and the girls and kids came down on Saturday. They were able to spend 4 days with us and we spent some time at the Boardwalk amusement Park, the Cape May County Zoo and some beach time flying kites with GrandMa.

Kane is 10, Hogan is 8 and Jesse Rae is 6 and we have some real good quality time with them and enjoy learning from them and their lives at school. We had a Wii and all learned to play golf, tennis and bowling. Some fun rounds of Mexican Train dominoes added nights of laughs and good competition too.

Katie and Kristin surprised us with a specially prepared formal dinner in honor of our 40th anniversary. A Memory Book with photo's and wishes from friends and family over the years added a special and emotional moment to the evening.

We also had time to visit with Bob & Aida Cook from Long Island. Bob and I went to grammar school and high school together and we've been friends for over 55 years. It was fun to see them and we really enjoyed their company for 2 days.

Our next door neighbors from the townhome neighborhood in Montgomeryville sold their unit right after we did and purchased a home in Cape May. Mike is an avid boater and fisherman and I had the chance to try my luck on his 38' Viking for some black sea bass. A wonderful dinner with his wife Diane and son Brandon made for a great visit.

We also spent some time with Jerry & Eileen Grover who have a oceanfront home in Wildwood and Jerry and I played a few rounds of golf. Yep, I bought my clubs with me.

All in all a great trip and chance to catch up with the east coast folks.

Well, I tried to develop a slide show and attach it to this post but for some reason it will not download even after putting them on Picasa. For some reason Picasa broke down the 23 pics to 4 each and sent them to different posts.

To make easier, I just left it that way, so read the narrative here and follow the action in the next few posts. Something different.

Till next time,

Gene & Laurie

Oh My Oh MY, did I get behind................

Hello & greetings from California...........opps, looks like I forgot to publish a draft I wrote over 3 weeks ago and since I've been unable to get good broadband service on the Oregon Coast wasn't able to d/l any pics to the blog site.

So, to catch y'all up I plan to publish the early October post w/ pictures (I wrote most of it in the Philadelphia airport waiting for our plane back west) and then go ahead and write a new post to catch up on our activities down the wet, cold and windy Oregon Coast.

So, enjoy the pics, sorry for the delay and confusion and hope you have fun reading about our adventures...........we've had fun doing them.

Gene & Laurie