Category: Travel

Whoa!! July is almost gone and I’m just getting started on June.  In my defense, July has been busy, just not with many adventures.

Adventures

Back to June. We did have a wonderful adventure in June.  With David’s surgery looming at the end of the month we had to get out of town but not far.  This of course meant the coast. 

Side note here:  I spent nearly 56 years in Washington state and we always referred to going to the Pacific as going to the ocean . In Oregon you go to the coast.

After days of perusing different campgrounds we found a site at Cape Lookout State Park.  The park is located just south of Tillamook and north of Pacific City on Oregon’s north coast.  The tent camp sites are all surrounded by high shrubbery on three sides giving privacy.  The RV sites across from the beach access not so much.  We knew nothing about the park when we reserved it.  Since we are completely self-contained we took a tent site.  Best decision we could have made.  The bushes around us were full of birds.   I spent hours just listening to and watching birds; robins, red wing black birds, what may have been swifts or swallows, and a cedar wax wing (thank you Rebecca for the identification). 

Fortunately, the weather was lovely the first  two days. The beach is flat leaving it quite shallow and relatively warm when the tide starts coming back to shore.  Walking southward there is a small waterfall from the bluff above. We could hear it from the tide line. It was so pretty.  Further south is a cave we were too late to enter safely. 

We walked the beach the first day for over an hour, about the maximum David could tolerate.  He also sunburned the top of his feet.  The following day David had a problem with shoes and was still tired from the previous day’s activities, so we kept the walk to a much shorter trip.  

Much of that second day was spent at the campsite reading and listening to birds. We also managed a camp fire that evening.  One of the few we’ve been able to have over the past two years of travel. Fortunately, it was early enough in the year that the fire hazard was low for the coast.  Fires have been burning in Oregon since our May adventure.

Our last day was our leaving day.  We took our time since we knew this would be the last trip for a very long time.  The weather was cool and overcast, which is perfect for the day you leave such a beautiful place.

Since we were heading home and we had time we stopped for lunch at Pelican Brewing in Pacific City.  If you like beer or just good food in a beautiful setting this is the place.  We stopped here with our daughter and her family – at that time there was only one grandson – back in 2019. It was August, the height of summer, and a very beautiful warm day at that time.  The wait was long but did not disappoint.  Much shorter wait in early June. 

As I mentioned; this was the last trip for a very long time. Once again we found ourselves waiting again.  This would be the biggest, scariest  adventure we’d ever faced together.  I think it may have topped the birth of our first child on the scary scale.

On June 23rd David had open heart surgery.  There were a few things going on that I will not reveal as I know David would not appreciate that but the surgeon gave him his life back.  

Shenanigans

Let me go back a bit in the month.

Our adventures for the summer may have come to an end with Cape Lookout, that does not mean we were done with shenanigans,  

Our anniversary is smack in the middle of June. When this happens we usually go out during the week to avoid crowds.  This year it was on a Monday.  There are very few restaurants open on a Monday evening in Eugene. So we decided to start our celebration the Thursday  before Father’s Day with pedicures.  That’s right, pedicures.  David had never had one and I hadn’t had one in 10 months.  It was great. The ladies at Tippi’s Nail Bar were wonderfully sweet and wanted us to pose for photos.  I think David is sold on pedicures. 

Dinner was planned for Friday night at a  favorite restaurant , one we rarely go to since it is out of our usual price range:  rye. (proper spelling and punctuation, look it up) The restaurant is under what may be the management of the third owners.  When David and I first found rye the owners were a chocolatier and a whiskey expert. Two of my favorite sort of people.  They served preprohibition drinks as well as the usual spirits.  (This is where I first had one of my favorite cocktails – the Mikado or also known as a Japanese.).  They pair their hand made chocolates with whiskeys for dessert.  Chocolate and whiskey.  How could a person go wrong? The current owner/management team no longer offers my favorite; dark chocolate peanut butter cup topped with cayenne pepper.  The milk chocolate peanut butter cup with chipotle salt was an  adequate substitute.  And it is still served with a short shot of Red Breast Irish Whiskey ( yes it’s from Northern Ireland but still a heavenly Irish whiskey. 

Even though David  is still in the recovery period I can already see dramatic changes in his health.  We can’t wait to get back on the road again. So stay tuned in and I will post alerts on Instagram.

We are already in May.  The seasons are starting to whip past and we are still in Oregon. The phone call we had been waiting for from the cardiologist finally happened. Actually, David decided to be a squeaky wheel and called two days in a row. So he has an appointment and we can get out of town for a bit. We checked out Harvest Hosts and made a reservation for May 8th at Bridgeview Winery off the Redwood Highway.

Little side bar here: If you travel the country in or with an RV and you’ve not looked at Harvest Hosts you really should.  It’s not just wineries and breweries, it’s also golf courses, farms, and monument sites that you can stay over night.  There are churches also.  So do yourself a favor and at least look at them.

The van was pretty much ready. It was clean. The linens were clean.  There was propane.  The composting toilet was back in place.  But it was empty.  The day after the doctor call we topped off the water and loaded our clothes.  Food – for some reason – never goes in until the morning of take off. 

We are not morning people. Not since we retired. Let me rephrase that last statement.  I was always a morning person until David retired a month after I did. Now we are NOT morning people.  I miss it.  And since we are not morning people we rarely leave the driveway before 10:30AM. May 8th was no different.  Fortunately, our destination was only 3 hours away. 

As I said we rarely leave the driveway before 10:30.  That does not necessarily mean that breakfast is always late. It’s usually before 9:00 AM because I am hungry and I start the coffee. This means by the time we hit Roseburg it was really and truly time for lunch. Because we’ve been home for 7 months I’m a little rusty at being “lunch finder”.  However, I did not disappoint.  I pulled up at Little Brother’s Pub in old town Roseburg.  This was a wonderful little pub east of the river.  It was quiet – Thursday afternoon – only the cook and presumed owner and the barmaid.  Lunch was great!  Hamburgers and salad. Took us all the way to Cave Junction and Bridgeview Winery.

What a serene setting. The winery is off the road far enough that you barely hear the occasional passing car.  When you pull up the pond is in front of you with two swans gliding along the surface.  There is a large outdoor deck.  Can’t get much more romantic. 

The wines were unexpected.  David and I live in the Willamette Valley, known for it’s pinots.  We are not big pinot folks and I didn’t expect to find it so far south in Oregon. But the two pinots we had were interesting and I could see myself opening a bottle of the pinot noir some afternoon, before dinner.

Following a very quiet night the morning was beautiful.  We discovered that swans sleep later than we do.

After breakfast and coffee it was time to head west to the coast.

David and I have not driven the Redwood Highway since 1995.  Due to fires in recent years the highway was not how we remembered it.  Many areas on both sides of the road were seriously scarred by fires. So not quite as beautiful as we remembered.

The Redwood Highway took us to Crescent City, CA. We spent some time on the pier across from the lighthouse. At this point our empty stomachs took us to Seaquake Brewing for lunch.  We’ve been here before on our way down south, so there were no unpleasant surprises.  Very yummy food and great beer.  While we were having lunch we took advantage of the wifi to book a campsite on the Oregon Coast.  Well that was my goal anyway.  David – because this is the way he rolls – decided it wasn’t necessary to book a site ahead since it was still off season.  

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Before crossing the California/Oregon state line a stop at All Star Liquors was required.  This is always a must stop location if you live in Washington or Oregon and you are returning from California.  We stocked up for most of the summer here.

My first choice was Harris Beach.  It was full and driving by I could see why.  It’s beautiful. 

Onward to the next campground: Humbug Mountain.  

Humbug Mountain had vacancies, but; you still need to make reservations online. This is why you stop at a brewpub in a town with wifi.  The Humbug Mountain campground is in what might be considered a ravine or a canyon between Humbug Mountain and another foothill (mountain). The wifi at was sketchy to say the least.  So after finding a campsite that suited us we drove back to the entrance to make our reservation before someone else did.

We spent a quiet, peaceful night.  The next morning we left for Bandon OR and Sunset Bay Beach State Park – a favorite spot for us.

Once in Bandon we perused a couple of shops, because that’s what you do in small coastal towns.  This is where I usually pick up a pair of earrings.  Earrings are a safe souvenir purchase because they are small and non-breakable.  Not a lot of room in the van.

As I stated earlier; a brew pub, or tavern, or some sort of eating establishment is a good place to find free wifi for making camping reservations.  Wanting to avoid the previous night’s shenanigans with connecting to wifi, I steered us toward Foley’s Irish 

Pub. We found a couple of stools at the bar and ordered a Guinness each.  

I love sitting at the bar when we travel.  It’s an opportunity to talk with local folks or fellow travelers.  I struck up a conversation with three local women.  I mentioned that David is my cook and had been cooking since he was a kid and from that point it became a conversation about cooking and I was out of the conversation.  Folks that know me well know that I do not enjoy cooking or cooking shows.  Therefore, I have no recollection of this conversation.

Because we were still off season we were not able to get a site deep in the campground.  The park was still undergoing cleanup from some major winter weather events.  One campground loop was completely closed off for construction.  When we spoke to a park employee we learned the campground had suffered three major floods during the winter.  Along with this cleanup the park was having to remove several large evergreens due to disease and end of life for many of the trees.  It is definitely sad to see this but absolutely necessary for safety.  No one wants a dying 50 to 100 foot evergreen landing in their campsite.

Sunset Bay is a favorite for a few reasons.  The first being in the name.  The photos I have taken of the sunset are beautiful.  This beach can be empty all day and all of a sudden right before sunset the day use parking lot fills up and the beach is full of people just waiting for the sunset.  The second reason is the campground itself.  It’s large wooded and has dozens of sites including; full hook up rv, tent, group, and yurts.  Last but not least is the trail to Shore Acres State Park. The trail s is two miles with non-stop breathtaking, jaw dropping views of the rocky cliffs and the Pacific Ocean.  The end of the trail brings visitors to the remains of the remains of the Simpson estate.  First you encounter a wide viewing area where – in the correct season – you can see migrating Grey Whales and off to the south on a large rock off shore massive sea lions in large numbers.  When we would come here tent camping we could hear the huge beasts barking at night.
If you follow the walkway south and slightly east the Gardens are waiting.  Louie Simpson, a timber baron, purchased this land and built a mansion (no longer standing) for his wife.  Then he brought in plants from all over the world.  The plants were planted in the fashion of the elaborate gardens of Britain and Europe.  There is something in bloom all year.  There is a gorgeous rose garden.  There is also a lovely pond with coi fish in the Japanese Garden.  Also onsite is The Cottage.  The park used to raffle off New Years Eve lodging at The Cottage.  I don’t know if they still do.  During the Christmas season the Gardens are lit with thousands of lights.  We still have not seen this, but I hope to some year.

Of course we had a relaxing trip.  This was the break we needed.  It is truly a blessing to be so close to so much beauty.  This, along with the weather, is why I cannot image living somewhere other than the Pacific Northwest and since we started traveling the country we have seen some incredible natural beauty.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoyed the read and the photos. There will be more coming in June.