Friday, Sept 12th we drove back to the heat in Phoenix, which wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The monsoon seems to be losing its grasp and the drier air is returning making for more pleasant evenings (80 instead of 90 degrees).
The hotel in Ventura, The Crowne Plaza, was a huge disappointment. I was under the impression that The Crowne Plaza in general were fancy hotels and thought that we would have a really nice room and view. Well, the room needed some help. The tub, carpet and easy chair were stained and filthy and the mirror in the bathroom had chipping paint on it. The bathroom was super small with no counter space for anything. The hallway was noisy, we could hear the elevator and everyone who walked by. The view was mostly of the parking garage next door. You had to look out at the west side of the window to see the beach, pier and ocean. There were hippies or homeless people sitting on the sidewalk below blaring a portable radio and singing along very loudly at 8pm in the evening. Finally, we took a walk out to the pier to see if we could get pictures of a nice sunset and the pier was pretty gross. The people were weird and when they caught fish, left fish pieces on the pier. Oh, and the railroad track was about 50 feet from the hotel and we could hear the trains blowing their whistle at 4am. Sucked.
We had breakfast at a Denny's for bikers (well, it wasn't that bad, we were the only ones without tattoos though :)) and left Ventura at about 10am. We drove across the 101 then the 134, 210 then 10 (maybe there was another one in there too). Could California have more freeways? Probably. Ridiculous. Besides all of that, the drive was pretty uneventful.
We woke up with fog and overcast skies and didn't have clear skies until we were past Palm Springs, though I think it was dusty there and not fog. We drove around looking for a place to eat lunch again (we did this the last time we were in Palm Springs/Indio). Where do these people eat? After about an hour, we found a few places on the other side of the freeway, of course. Stupid town.
I was glad to see the Arizona desert again. As much as I get sick of the heat, I still love the desert with its clear blue and dry skies and distant mountains.
We made it into Phoenix just as rush hour was ending, thank goodness, and arrived home at about 6:30pm. It was too late to pick up the dogs from their boarding, so we had some dinner, unpacked, cleaned California off of us and went to bed.
Overall, we had a great time but wish that we had at least another week. That was a lot of driving for two weeks and we didn't get to see as much stuff as we would have liked to.
We drove 3,100 miles across 3 states and only had to buy 70 gallons of gas! :) Our little Prius averaged 45 mpg! We saw a ton of Prius's in northern California and several people asked us about it too. They also liked our little license plate holder - "It ain't easy being green." :) One couple who asked us about our Prius while we were in Morro Bay was from Moon Valley in Phoenix! :) Pretty funny.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Castle in the Sky
Today, Thursday, Sept 11, we took a tour of Hearst Castle before we headed down to Ventura.
We had a quick breakfast of Cheerios and a banana (we brought with us) in our room since we had reserved tickets for a 9am tour and had to get going.
That castle is crazy! I cannot imagine having enough money to build such a place and fill it with so much art and architectural details! The indoor pool even has real gold inlaid on the tiles throughout the whole area around and in the pool. We took the Experience Tour and only saw a fraction of the buildings and grounds. There are 4 other tours ($24 per person per tour) that show you the gardens, more of the main house (Casa Grande), the guest houses, and an evening tour that has docents dressed in 1930's outfits pretending to be at an evening party at the castle. We would sure like to come back for the other tours sometime.
We had a quick breakfast of Cheerios and a banana (we brought with us) in our room since we had reserved tickets for a 9am tour and had to get going.
That castle is crazy! I cannot imagine having enough money to build such a place and fill it with so much art and architectural details! The indoor pool even has real gold inlaid on the tiles throughout the whole area around and in the pool. We took the Experience Tour and only saw a fraction of the buildings and grounds. There are 4 other tours ($24 per person per tour) that show you the gardens, more of the main house (Casa Grande), the guest houses, and an evening tour that has docents dressed in 1930's outfits pretending to be at an evening party at the castle. We would sure like to come back for the other tours sometime.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunset in San Simeon
Today our hotel has a landline to the internet and seems to be working way better. I am still having trouble uploading all of the pictures that I want to, so I will have to limit it to just a few. As you all know, this is very difficult for me as I take so many pictures. I will load them all to my Kodak website when we get home in a few days.
Boo hoo! Our vacation ends in just a couple more days!
We finally got to see a sunset over the ocean today! The clouds cleared up and out came the sun just before it set in a big fiery ball! Beautiful! :)
Boo hoo! Our vacation ends in just a couple more days!
We finally got to see a sunset over the ocean today! The clouds cleared up and out came the sun just before it set in a big fiery ball! Beautiful! :)
I just added some pics and edited some of my posts so now I am out of time and cannot finish this post. I will hopefully update this tomorrow!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Swimming with the fishes
We didn't really swim with the fishes, but it sounded funny since we went the the aquarium today.
Today, Tuesday, Sept 9th we didn't have to drive anywhere, well, not very far anyway. Yay! We spent the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Fantastic! I've been wanting to visit this aquarium since I was a kid.
We had room service breakfast in our hotel room to save some time so we could head out to the aquarium as soon as possible. The food was really good too! I had a Belgian waffle with a side of bacon and Mike had a Denver omelette with a side of bacon. Yummy!
The aquarium was pretty busy, but we were able to see everything before the place closed at 6pm. We also had lunch at the aquarium, cheese pizza, which was not very good and expensive. :( The pizza sauce tasted like Chef Boyardee.
Most of the areas in the aquarium were too dark to take photos, but I was able to get some pretty amazing pics of the jellyfish since they were lit up pretty well. The kelp forest and outer bay aquariums were huge and fantastic! Check out their website for live webcams of the kelp forest, otters and penguins.
There was even a cool exhibit displaying art inspired by jellyfish. The glass by Chihuly was amazing!
After the aquarium we were pretty tired, so we grabbed a quick bite, hotdogs and chips at a place across from the aquarium, and headed back to our hotel rooms. We then had our desserts that we took home from The Spinnaker restaurant the night before. I had a chocolate pie thing and Mike had the cheesecake. Yummy and rich!
The weather in Monterey was overcast all day and rather chilly. I think the high was only 65 or so. I hope it clears up as we go south.
One really cool thing about our hotel is that we saw dolphins, otters and seals in the bay all from our hotel room! I tried to take some photos, but they were all too far away.
Today, Tuesday, Sept 9th we didn't have to drive anywhere, well, not very far anyway. Yay! We spent the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Fantastic! I've been wanting to visit this aquarium since I was a kid.
We had room service breakfast in our hotel room to save some time so we could head out to the aquarium as soon as possible. The food was really good too! I had a Belgian waffle with a side of bacon and Mike had a Denver omelette with a side of bacon. Yummy!
The aquarium was pretty busy, but we were able to see everything before the place closed at 6pm. We also had lunch at the aquarium, cheese pizza, which was not very good and expensive. :( The pizza sauce tasted like Chef Boyardee.
Most of the areas in the aquarium were too dark to take photos, but I was able to get some pretty amazing pics of the jellyfish since they were lit up pretty well. The kelp forest and outer bay aquariums were huge and fantastic! Check out their website for live webcams of the kelp forest, otters and penguins.
There was even a cool exhibit displaying art inspired by jellyfish. The glass by Chihuly was amazing!
After the aquarium we were pretty tired, so we grabbed a quick bite, hotdogs and chips at a place across from the aquarium, and headed back to our hotel rooms. We then had our desserts that we took home from The Spinnaker restaurant the night before. I had a chocolate pie thing and Mike had the cheesecake. Yummy and rich!
The weather in Monterey was overcast all day and rather chilly. I think the high was only 65 or so. I hope it clears up as we go south.
One really cool thing about our hotel is that we saw dolphins, otters and seals in the bay all from our hotel room! I tried to take some photos, but they were all too far away.
No flowers in our hair for San Francisco
On Monday, Sept 8th, we drove from Fort Bragg to Monterey, CA. This drive was also much longer than I had expected. It was less mileage then the previous day, only 296 miles, but we didn't reach the hotel that night until 11pm! But we were a bit smarter this time and found a faster route after the sun went down so that we didn't end up on another winding road in the dark.
Since we were in so late the night before, I took some pics of Fort Bragg this morning. The view from the room was fantastic and there were some pretty pink lilies growing wild near the shore. I would highly recommend staying at the Sand & Surf Hotel. The room was nice, had a great view and the owners were super friendly.
We wanted to have breakfast at one of the local restaurants but we drove up and down the main street and couldn't find the place so we found a Denny's and ate there instead. They have really great breakfasts for a chain restaurant!
After getting some gas, which seems to be changing price more often out of Oregon (most of their stations were $3.89 whereas the prices in CA have ranged from $3.91 to $4.29), we headed down the coast once more. We really tried not to stop too many times today so that we wouldn't get to the hotel to late, but it didn't work out. At least I got quite a few good pics of the ocean and several other places along the way. I wish we had another week to look at more stuff!
I had planned for us to be in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco for lunch, but we ended up having dinner there instead. Since we had a late breakfast, we skipped lunch and stopped in a little state park for cheese and crackers that we had brought along with us. We ended up stopping at Fort Ross and looking around at the exhibits. Did you know that Russians came to this area to work with the Americans at this fort? We didn't know that. Pretty interesting. But we couldn't stay long and had to get going.
We had some more winding roads near the coast but we finally made it to San Francisco before the sun went down. I was hoping to get some great pics of the Golden Gate Bridge with the sun shining on it, but no luck. Too foggy here too. I still took some pretty good shots of the bridge with the city behind it from the Marin Headlands though.
The bridge is a toll road going south and we had only planned on crossing it once, but the freeway became super hectic near the bridge as it was rush hour and we missed our turn. So we ended up paying the $6 toll twice since I wanted to get some pics from the north side and we had to go back. Poop! There's our donation to the bridge. :)
Anyway, before we went across for the third time, we had dinner in Sausalito at a restaurant called The Spinnaker. The stupid AAA guide book said that this restaurant was casual, but I think casual in SF is different that casual in Phoenix. Everyone was dressed in office casual and the place seemed a little hoity toity for me. We stayed and ate there anyway. The food was pretty good and the view across the bay was spectacular! I was able to set my camera on a rock near the restaurant and get a couple of really great pics of downtown! So that made our $50 dinner bill worth it! :)
I was glad we had dinner before crossing the bridge into SF as rush hour had ended and the traffic was way less hectic. I don't know why it seemed so intimidating, but it was pretty crazy!
This night we were staying at a Best Western right on the Monterey bay and received a package deal that included tickets the the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The room was a bit smaller than we had expected, but seemed quiet and had an awesome view of the bay! We could hear the waves crashing on the shore below which kept waking me up! They seemed to get louder and softer and I'm not sure why. The view of Monterey is pretty cool though.
Since we were in so late the night before, I took some pics of Fort Bragg this morning. The view from the room was fantastic and there were some pretty pink lilies growing wild near the shore. I would highly recommend staying at the Sand & Surf Hotel. The room was nice, had a great view and the owners were super friendly.
We wanted to have breakfast at one of the local restaurants but we drove up and down the main street and couldn't find the place so we found a Denny's and ate there instead. They have really great breakfasts for a chain restaurant!
After getting some gas, which seems to be changing price more often out of Oregon (most of their stations were $3.89 whereas the prices in CA have ranged from $3.91 to $4.29), we headed down the coast once more. We really tried not to stop too many times today so that we wouldn't get to the hotel to late, but it didn't work out. At least I got quite a few good pics of the ocean and several other places along the way. I wish we had another week to look at more stuff!
I had planned for us to be in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco for lunch, but we ended up having dinner there instead. Since we had a late breakfast, we skipped lunch and stopped in a little state park for cheese and crackers that we had brought along with us. We ended up stopping at Fort Ross and looking around at the exhibits. Did you know that Russians came to this area to work with the Americans at this fort? We didn't know that. Pretty interesting. But we couldn't stay long and had to get going.
We had some more winding roads near the coast but we finally made it to San Francisco before the sun went down. I was hoping to get some great pics of the Golden Gate Bridge with the sun shining on it, but no luck. Too foggy here too. I still took some pretty good shots of the bridge with the city behind it from the Marin Headlands though.
The bridge is a toll road going south and we had only planned on crossing it once, but the freeway became super hectic near the bridge as it was rush hour and we missed our turn. So we ended up paying the $6 toll twice since I wanted to get some pics from the north side and we had to go back. Poop! There's our donation to the bridge. :)
Anyway, before we went across for the third time, we had dinner in Sausalito at a restaurant called The Spinnaker. The stupid AAA guide book said that this restaurant was casual, but I think casual in SF is different that casual in Phoenix. Everyone was dressed in office casual and the place seemed a little hoity toity for me. We stayed and ate there anyway. The food was pretty good and the view across the bay was spectacular! I was able to set my camera on a rock near the restaurant and get a couple of really great pics of downtown! So that made our $50 dinner bill worth it! :)
I was glad we had dinner before crossing the bridge into SF as rush hour had ended and the traffic was way less hectic. I don't know why it seemed so intimidating, but it was pretty crazy!
This night we were staying at a Best Western right on the Monterey bay and received a package deal that included tickets the the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The room was a bit smaller than we had expected, but seemed quiet and had an awesome view of the bay! We could hear the waves crashing on the shore below which kept waking me up! They seemed to get louder and softer and I'm not sure why. The view of Monterey is pretty cool though.
Land of the Giants.
I'm back! We had a couple of very long driving days and had no time to update my blog. The last time I was online, I thought we had a pretty good internet connection, but it wasn't. I was not able to upload all of the pictures that I wanted to until now. This connection sucks too. I hope to upload my pics soon!
Update: The helicopter rescue we saw at Ecola State Park was the Coast Gaurd rescuing a 68-year-old woman from one of the trails. Someone must have thought it was serious at the time, but she was only diagnosed with fatigue at the hospital.
On Sunday, Sept 7th, we drove from Bandon, OR to Fort Bragg, CA. Before we left, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and the service and food was still just as bad as the dinner we had the night before. If you are planning a trip to Fort Bragg, do not eat at the Bandon Bill's Grill at the Best Western Inn at Face Rock. Awful!
The view from our room was pretty bad too. It said "ocean view" but the ocean must have been a 1/2 mile away with houses and electic wires in between. We drove down the road and took some pics of Face Rock. It looks like a womans face looking toward the sky.
Update: The helicopter rescue we saw at Ecola State Park was the Coast Gaurd rescuing a 68-year-old woman from one of the trails. Someone must have thought it was serious at the time, but she was only diagnosed with fatigue at the hospital.
On Sunday, Sept 7th, we drove from Bandon, OR to Fort Bragg, CA. Before we left, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and the service and food was still just as bad as the dinner we had the night before. If you are planning a trip to Fort Bragg, do not eat at the Bandon Bill's Grill at the Best Western Inn at Face Rock. Awful!
The view from our room was pretty bad too. It said "ocean view" but the ocean must have been a 1/2 mile away with houses and electic wires in between. We drove down the road and took some pics of Face Rock. It looks like a womans face looking toward the sky.
As we were leaving Bandon, we found some cranberry bogs. I took a few pics of them, but you can't tell what the fields are from the road. They just look like fields full of weeds with a ditch dug around them. Weird. I'll have to look up more information about growing and harvesting cranberries. The internet sure makes finding this info convenient. :)
The drive to Fort Bragg took a lot longer than I thought it would. It's only 327 miles, but the section on Highway 1 is unbelievable! We ended up driving this section in the dark and I do not recommend it. :) The road winds all around up and down some hills. Luckily we had very little traffic, but we could only drive 15 to 20 mph around most of the turns, there were several small deer on the side of the road and it became a little bit foggy in some places. We were both pretty worn out by the time we reached our hotel at 10pm. We were afraid that the hotel would be closed by the time we got there. It was just a small hotel and their office closes at 10pm. We were able to call them earlier to let them know we were running late, but we had no cell phone service once we got onto Highway 1.
Earlier in the day though, we had a really nice drive. We drove through tons of redwoods and stopped and had a picnic lunch at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park next to the the Smith river. This park is near Crescent City, CA. The redwood trees there were amazing and the weather was a sunny and pleasantly warm 75!
Further down the road, we drove down the Avenue of the Giants. This is a beautiful drive between Fortuna and Garberville, CA next to Highway 101. The redwood trees were stunning! There were tons of them and at times made day turn to night as it was so dark in the forest. We started to say "Lions and tigers and bears, Oh My!" :) It made us laugh anyway. :)
We didn't get back to the 101 until about 7pm so we grabbed a quick fast food dinner at McDonald's and headed down to Fort Bragg.
We stayed at the Sand and Surf Hotel right on the ocean. The room was really nice with lots of room and a fantastic view of the ocean. Too bad the fog wouldn't go away. Ever since we left Manzanita, we have had nothing but fog along the coast. The weather inland was sunny and 75 but the weather near the coast was foggy, sometimes windy and between 55 and 65 degrees.
The drive to Fort Bragg took a lot longer than I thought it would. It's only 327 miles, but the section on Highway 1 is unbelievable! We ended up driving this section in the dark and I do not recommend it. :) The road winds all around up and down some hills. Luckily we had very little traffic, but we could only drive 15 to 20 mph around most of the turns, there were several small deer on the side of the road and it became a little bit foggy in some places. We were both pretty worn out by the time we reached our hotel at 10pm. We were afraid that the hotel would be closed by the time we got there. It was just a small hotel and their office closes at 10pm. We were able to call them earlier to let them know we were running late, but we had no cell phone service once we got onto Highway 1.
Earlier in the day though, we had a really nice drive. We drove through tons of redwoods and stopped and had a picnic lunch at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park next to the the Smith river. This park is near Crescent City, CA. The redwood trees there were amazing and the weather was a sunny and pleasantly warm 75!
Further down the road, we drove down the Avenue of the Giants. This is a beautiful drive between Fortuna and Garberville, CA next to Highway 101. The redwood trees were stunning! There were tons of them and at times made day turn to night as it was so dark in the forest. We started to say "Lions and tigers and bears, Oh My!" :) It made us laugh anyway. :)
We didn't get back to the 101 until about 7pm so we grabbed a quick fast food dinner at McDonald's and headed down to Fort Bragg.
We stayed at the Sand and Surf Hotel right on the ocean. The room was really nice with lots of room and a fantastic view of the ocean. Too bad the fog wouldn't go away. Ever since we left Manzanita, we have had nothing but fog along the coast. The weather inland was sunny and 75 but the weather near the coast was foggy, sometimes windy and between 55 and 65 degrees.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Where are the cranberries?
Yay! We have high speed internet again so I hope to upload some photos again.
We really dragged our feet today and didn't leave Manzanita until 11am. We wanted to leave at 9am. Oh well, we were able to talk to Harvey and Sandy some more and take some more pics of their restaurant, the Terra Cotta Cafe. We then bought some more milk, juice and bananas at the grocery store across the street and headed to Bandon, OR. When we left Manzanita, the sky was clear and sunny with a slight breeze. As we headed south, the weather became more foggy and the wind really kicked up. We were pretty chilly by the time we reached Florence. I got some pretty cool pics of the fog, but couldn't get much of the ocean.
The drive was much better than we though it would be. It was busy as we reached some of the towns along the way, but in between was pretty nice and no big trucks! There was a group of about 10 vintage convertible Corvettes that passed us when we stopped at one of the viewpoints. We were hoping to see them again along the way, but we lost them.
For lunch, we stopped in Newport and had clam chowder at Mo's on a tip from my sister and a coworker of Mike's. The chowder was ok, we've had better. It was a little bland. Newport is a funky town too. The street that Mo's is on is like a little street fair or something, all kinds of weird people and places. We found a great view of the bridge in Newport and took some pics of the noisy sea lions lounging about. The harbor had several seafood companies along it including Trident Seafoods.
We didn't have time to do a whole lot like tour cheese factories or climb lighthouses, so we just dove along and took in the views. One spot had a water spout (the spouting horn at Cook's Chasm) and another had a long crevice created by the waves (Devil's Churn). Pretty cool! At one viewpoint we thought we were going to be blown away! That wind was just whipping right over the cliff and blowing us toward the ocean! Crazy!
One thing that would seem obvious though I have never seen it before is that rivers and creeks drain into the ocean. You don't see this in southern California where they have built canals everywhere to channel the water. So it was pretty weird to see all of these rivers and creeks flowing out to the ocean.
Another interesting item that we come across a lot along the coast is all of the tsunami warning signs. They let you know when you are entering a tsunami hazard zone then when you are leaving it and then they also tell you where the tsunami evacuation area is. Even our hotel has a sticker on the door telling us what to do in case of a tsunami. We've never seen this stuff before. It's bad enought to worry about earthquakes, now we have to worry about hauling our butts up to higher ground if a tsunami comes too!
It was about 7:30 when we reached our hotel in Bandon. Our room is enormous! When they said suite online I though they meant just a half wall between the bed and the couch and tv, but nope. It's an actual suite with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two tvs and a little kitchen. Oh, well. At least we have plenty of room and can get ready in the morning at the same time without getting in each other's way. We also have an ocean view, but there was too much fog by the time we reached the hotel to see anything. Maybe we'll see it in the morning.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, Bandon Bill's Seafood Grill. The service was so slow that by the time we got our dinners, I wasn't even hungry anymore. The food wasn't that great and pretty greasy too. We want to have breakfast there in the morning. Hopefully the service will be better.
Oh, yah. I almost forgot. Bandon is supposed to be a huge area for growing and harvesting cranberries. They are even having a Cranberry Festival next weekend. I'm not sure if it's a good thing that we missed it or not. :) But I can't find any information about the cranberry farms. I wanted to go look at one. Maybe we'll see one tomorrow if we have time. We'll be driving down through redwood country to Fort Bragg, CA tomorrow.
We really dragged our feet today and didn't leave Manzanita until 11am. We wanted to leave at 9am. Oh well, we were able to talk to Harvey and Sandy some more and take some more pics of their restaurant, the Terra Cotta Cafe. We then bought some more milk, juice and bananas at the grocery store across the street and headed to Bandon, OR. When we left Manzanita, the sky was clear and sunny with a slight breeze. As we headed south, the weather became more foggy and the wind really kicked up. We were pretty chilly by the time we reached Florence. I got some pretty cool pics of the fog, but couldn't get much of the ocean.
The drive was much better than we though it would be. It was busy as we reached some of the towns along the way, but in between was pretty nice and no big trucks! There was a group of about 10 vintage convertible Corvettes that passed us when we stopped at one of the viewpoints. We were hoping to see them again along the way, but we lost them.
For lunch, we stopped in Newport and had clam chowder at Mo's on a tip from my sister and a coworker of Mike's. The chowder was ok, we've had better. It was a little bland. Newport is a funky town too. The street that Mo's is on is like a little street fair or something, all kinds of weird people and places. We found a great view of the bridge in Newport and took some pics of the noisy sea lions lounging about. The harbor had several seafood companies along it including Trident Seafoods.
We didn't have time to do a whole lot like tour cheese factories or climb lighthouses, so we just dove along and took in the views. One spot had a water spout (the spouting horn at Cook's Chasm) and another had a long crevice created by the waves (Devil's Churn). Pretty cool! At one viewpoint we thought we were going to be blown away! That wind was just whipping right over the cliff and blowing us toward the ocean! Crazy!
One thing that would seem obvious though I have never seen it before is that rivers and creeks drain into the ocean. You don't see this in southern California where they have built canals everywhere to channel the water. So it was pretty weird to see all of these rivers and creeks flowing out to the ocean.
Another interesting item that we come across a lot along the coast is all of the tsunami warning signs. They let you know when you are entering a tsunami hazard zone then when you are leaving it and then they also tell you where the tsunami evacuation area is. Even our hotel has a sticker on the door telling us what to do in case of a tsunami. We've never seen this stuff before. It's bad enought to worry about earthquakes, now we have to worry about hauling our butts up to higher ground if a tsunami comes too!
It was about 7:30 when we reached our hotel in Bandon. Our room is enormous! When they said suite online I though they meant just a half wall between the bed and the couch and tv, but nope. It's an actual suite with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two tvs and a little kitchen. Oh, well. At least we have plenty of room and can get ready in the morning at the same time without getting in each other's way. We also have an ocean view, but there was too much fog by the time we reached the hotel to see anything. Maybe we'll see it in the morning.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, Bandon Bill's Seafood Grill. The service was so slow that by the time we got our dinners, I wasn't even hungry anymore. The food wasn't that great and pretty greasy too. We want to have breakfast there in the morning. Hopefully the service will be better.
Oh, yah. I almost forgot. Bandon is supposed to be a huge area for growing and harvesting cranberries. They are even having a Cranberry Festival next weekend. I'm not sure if it's a good thing that we missed it or not. :) But I can't find any information about the cranberry farms. I wanted to go look at one. Maybe we'll see one tomorrow if we have time. We'll be driving down through redwood country to Fort Bragg, CA tomorrow.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Getting to know you
Update: The Oregon Capitol in Salem was closed because of a fire that damaged the governor's offices last weekend. The main floor rotunda opened on Friday, Sept 5th, but the rest of the building is still closed.
The weather has been absolutely fantastic in Manzanita, sunny and in the upper 60s! The beach is cold with the wind blowing, but not too bad with a wind breaker on.
We didn't do much at all today. We woke up late, around 8:30, had breakfast and chatted with Harvey and Sandy for awhile. We can't seem to convince them to get hi-speed internet. Oh, well. I did some laundry while Mike played with his email.
After a shipment of wine came in for H & S's restaurant, Terra Cotta Cafe, we all walked up to the Post Office and toured around Manzanita a bit. We then headed over to the Tavern for lunch. Mike and I had their yummy cheeseburgers and made a big mess, so I had to do more laundry. :)
We then went back to H & S's and chatted some more. They are working on some plans for building another house on their property and possibly selling the restaurant in a couple of years. Harvey also wants us to buy a time share with Marriott and he got us a rewards card, but I think I'm mostly confused about it. Maybe we'll look into it when we get home.
The weather has been absolutely fantastic in Manzanita, sunny and in the upper 60s! The beach is cold with the wind blowing, but not too bad with a wind breaker on.
We didn't do much at all today. We woke up late, around 8:30, had breakfast and chatted with Harvey and Sandy for awhile. We can't seem to convince them to get hi-speed internet. Oh, well. I did some laundry while Mike played with his email.
After a shipment of wine came in for H & S's restaurant, Terra Cotta Cafe, we all walked up to the Post Office and toured around Manzanita a bit. We then headed over to the Tavern for lunch. Mike and I had their yummy cheeseburgers and made a big mess, so I had to do more laundry. :)
We then went back to H & S's and chatted some more. They are working on some plans for building another house on their property and possibly selling the restaurant in a couple of years. Harvey also wants us to buy a time share with Marriott and he got us a rewards card, but I think I'm mostly confused about it. Maybe we'll look into it when we get home.
We noticed a lot of signs about tsunami zones along the Oregon coast. Harvey was happy that his house and restaurant are in a tsunami evacuation zone. He wanted to draw martini glasses on the sign. :)
At around 4pm a shipment of fish came in for the restaurant so H & S had to get busy again. I started to read a book that I found in the guest room, "Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow." It's pretty interesting, she had a pretty sad and short life. Sandy is letting me borrow it and I will return it when they come to visit in Phoenix or someone in Phoenix goes to visit them.
We had dinner at their restaurant at 5:30. Mike had the spaghetti and huge meatball and I had the shrimp scampi. We shared dessert, berry cobbler. All was delicious! Yummy, yummy!
Now we have to pack up again as we will be heading to Bandon, OR tomorrow. These couple of days really sped by! We had a great time and really appreciate Harvey and Sandy letting us stay with them!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
To the Beach!
Today was a lazy day. We didn't have to drive anywhere and had no schedule, so we slept in late and had a late breakfast. Sandy was making desserts for their restaurant and we chatted with her while we ate Cheerios. She suggested that we walk around Manzanita and check out the beach and shops, so that's what we did.
There are a lot more houses in Manzanita than I had imagined. Quite a nice little town and some of them had great views right on the ocean. We walked along the beach a little, but the wind was a bit chilly so we headed back up the main street past all of the shops and restaurants. It was getting close to about 11am and many people were driving and walking about down the beach and into the shops. We went back to Harvey & Sandy's and decided to get some lunch over in Cannon Beach. They suggested that we try Wayfarer's and then Ecola State Park. So that's what we did.
Wayfarer's had great clam chowder and a fantastic view of the ocean and Haystack Rock. We were surprised that we didn't have to wait to be seated as the place wasn't very busy at all. I guess the summer season is winding down for them, even though the weather seems to be perfect!
We then headed north to Ecola State Park. The forest in this park was amazing! So thick in places it seemed like it was getting dark even though it was 1 in the afternoon! The trails in the park follow some of the trails that Lewis & Clark walked in 1806 searching for a beached whale. Ecola means whale in Clatsop and Tillamook tribal languages. We also had great views of the beaches and the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
The hike was a bit steeper than we thought it would be, but we made it ok. In the middle of our hike we heard sirens that seemed to stop nearby. About an hour later as we were heading back to the parking lot, we heard and saw a rescue helicopter fly over and then hover nearby. We thought it would fly away by the time we reached the parking lot, but it was still there. Someone had to be rescued from one of the other hiking trails in Ecola Park. They airlifted the person out and flew off. I overheard one of the paramedics who arrived earlier say something about heart trouble. I guess Phoenix isn't the only place where stupid people hike.
On our way back to H & S we stopped at a couple of pullouts along the road and got some great pics of Manzanita and the beach. We then had another great dinner at the Terra Cotta Cafe. Mike had the special: horseradish encrusted porkchop and I had Harvey's famous spaghetti and meatball. Yes, only one huge meatball!
Tomorrow we sleep after all of that hiking about! I also hope to add some pictures in a couple of days when we have access to high speed internet. Harvey only has dial-up, ridiculous! Maybe we can get him into the 21st century while we're here! :)
There are a lot more houses in Manzanita than I had imagined. Quite a nice little town and some of them had great views right on the ocean. We walked along the beach a little, but the wind was a bit chilly so we headed back up the main street past all of the shops and restaurants. It was getting close to about 11am and many people were driving and walking about down the beach and into the shops. We went back to Harvey & Sandy's and decided to get some lunch over in Cannon Beach. They suggested that we try Wayfarer's and then Ecola State Park. So that's what we did.
Wayfarer's had great clam chowder and a fantastic view of the ocean and Haystack Rock. We were surprised that we didn't have to wait to be seated as the place wasn't very busy at all. I guess the summer season is winding down for them, even though the weather seems to be perfect!
We then headed north to Ecola State Park. The forest in this park was amazing! So thick in places it seemed like it was getting dark even though it was 1 in the afternoon! The trails in the park follow some of the trails that Lewis & Clark walked in 1806 searching for a beached whale. Ecola means whale in Clatsop and Tillamook tribal languages. We also had great views of the beaches and the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
The hike was a bit steeper than we thought it would be, but we made it ok. In the middle of our hike we heard sirens that seemed to stop nearby. About an hour later as we were heading back to the parking lot, we heard and saw a rescue helicopter fly over and then hover nearby. We thought it would fly away by the time we reached the parking lot, but it was still there. Someone had to be rescued from one of the other hiking trails in Ecola Park. They airlifted the person out and flew off. I overheard one of the paramedics who arrived earlier say something about heart trouble. I guess Phoenix isn't the only place where stupid people hike.
On our way back to H & S we stopped at a couple of pullouts along the road and got some great pics of Manzanita and the beach. We then had another great dinner at the Terra Cotta Cafe. Mike had the special: horseradish encrusted porkchop and I had Harvey's famous spaghetti and meatball. Yes, only one huge meatball!
Tomorrow we sleep after all of that hiking about! I also hope to add some pictures in a couple of days when we have access to high speed internet. Harvey only has dial-up, ridiculous! Maybe we can get him into the 21st century while we're here! :)
Taking the long way to the Pacific Ocean
Day 4 of our summer vacation. We had a great breakfast at the Comfort Inn; biscuits with gravy, juice, tea and fresh Belgian waffles! Yum!
After breakfast we gassed up the Prius, no-touchy-the-pumps in Oregon, and headed to Mike’s aunt and uncle’s house in Manzanita, OR. The drive was beautiful! Lots of forested areas with tons of trees; pines, oaks, maples, spruces, firs and cedars.
We passed more agriculture areas too including apple orchards. We stopped at a really nice rest stop and had our leftovers from last night’s dinner.
Since we were driving through Salem, we decided to stop at the capitol building there and take a tour. Unfortunately the building was closed to the public. They had some carpet cleaning crew outside and some other moving vans. Not sure what was going on. The park around the building was super nice and the weather was great so we walked around and took some pics of the outside.
On our way to Portland, we had some great views of Mt Hood, so I took some pics of that.
The traffic around Portland was awful and it was only 3pm. I guess Phoenix traffic gets pretty bad by 3pm too. I would sure like to know how all these people get to leave work at 3pm everyday!
From Portland we headed west to the coast and we reached Cannon Beach at around 5pm. What a cute little town; lots of restaurants and little shops. The beach and view of the ocean from there was fantastic! I’m so glad we stopped there. We were low on gas, and Cannon Beach does not sell any, so we went down Hwy 101 to an RV park where they sold gas for about 20 cents more than the normal price. We bought 2 gallons and headed down to Manzanita where we’ll get cheaper gas in the morning.
We met Harvey and Sandy in their restaurant around 6:30pm and the place was hopping. They saved a table for us and served us right away. We both had halibut dishes and shared a chocolate parfait with brandy soaked cherries. All was very delicious! We can’t wait to eat there again tomorrow! Sandy is a great chef! :)
After breakfast we gassed up the Prius, no-touchy-the-pumps in Oregon, and headed to Mike’s aunt and uncle’s house in Manzanita, OR. The drive was beautiful! Lots of forested areas with tons of trees; pines, oaks, maples, spruces, firs and cedars.
We passed more agriculture areas too including apple orchards. We stopped at a really nice rest stop and had our leftovers from last night’s dinner.
Since we were driving through Salem, we decided to stop at the capitol building there and take a tour. Unfortunately the building was closed to the public. They had some carpet cleaning crew outside and some other moving vans. Not sure what was going on. The park around the building was super nice and the weather was great so we walked around and took some pics of the outside.
On our way to Portland, we had some great views of Mt Hood, so I took some pics of that.
The traffic around Portland was awful and it was only 3pm. I guess Phoenix traffic gets pretty bad by 3pm too. I would sure like to know how all these people get to leave work at 3pm everyday!
From Portland we headed west to the coast and we reached Cannon Beach at around 5pm. What a cute little town; lots of restaurants and little shops. The beach and view of the ocean from there was fantastic! I’m so glad we stopped there. We were low on gas, and Cannon Beach does not sell any, so we went down Hwy 101 to an RV park where they sold gas for about 20 cents more than the normal price. We bought 2 gallons and headed down to Manzanita where we’ll get cheaper gas in the morning.
We met Harvey and Sandy in their restaurant around 6:30pm and the place was hopping. They saved a table for us and served us right away. We both had halibut dishes and shared a chocolate parfait with brandy soaked cherries. All was very delicious! We can’t wait to eat there again tomorrow! Sandy is a great chef! :)
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
It was a Capitol Day!
We started our day with the so called breakfast at the Super 8 in Sacramento and then headed over to the state capitol building to take a tour. The park around the capitol is beautiful with enormous trees! We wished we had more time to walk around the park. The weather was gorgeous! The tour at the capitol was free and we were the only two, which is kind of weird, but ok. The older part of the building had a lot of nice woodwork, marble, murals and decorated ceilings. We even went into the Governator's reception area, but we didn't get to meet Arnold. Oh, well.
We then headed out of town to our next destination, Medford, OR. We passed through more agriculture, lots of almond trees and olive trees, and over rivers and through the woods, but we aren't going to Grandma's house. :) 
Anyway, we drove past Mount Shasta which is very impressive! I took a few pictures of that (about 40 :)). We also drove over/past Lake Shasta. The water seemed to be about 30 to 40 feet lower than it should be. I guess they are having a major drought too. The temperature around Mt Shasta was surprisingly warm, in the low 90s and didn't cool down to the 80s until we entered Oregon. I hope it stays cooler now that we are so far north. Of course, we'll be going to the coast tomorrow and 
staying along that the rest of our trip, so that will definitely be cooler! 
As we came closer to our destination, we drove through Phoenix. Phoenix, Oregon that is. We thought that would be funny to stay in Phoenix, but their selection of hotels was slim. Our hotel tonight is 100 times better than the last two nights! I am soooo happy! We are staying at the Comfort Inn South and I can't wait for their free breakfast in the morning! The room is twice as big with two queen beds and lots of room for our luggage, amazing! I don't want to live like I'm poor ever again! Being poor sucks.
So overall, I'd say that we had a pretty great day. Great weather, great tour, great drive, great hotel! Yay! See you tomorrow!
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