Pike, Needle and Glass

Friday was our big day in the big city of Seattle. Due to all the traffic we had driven in and witnessed, we chose to use the mass transit system to get downtown. The express bus ride took about 33 minutes but we didn't have to drive or park, just step off and start walking. We did have to drive about 20 minutes to get to the park n ride lot.

Our first stop was the Pike Place Market. It's at least two blocks long and packed with people. The flowers were the most prominent item being sold (and smelled) then the fresh vegetables and fruit. There were several fish counters, one of which is famous for tossing their fish around and we found one meat counter. We did not buy anything as we had no way to carry it all day and keep it fresh. All the blocks around the market were full of people and shops. Even the original and new Starbucks. The smells emanating from the many food stands and restaurants made us hungry long before lunch time. We snacked on cinnamon rolls to hold us over to a late lunch when the crowds would be thinner.

After lunch and a stroll along the waterfront, we walked to Seattle Center where the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum and Space Needle are located along with several other science, kids and Sci-Fi museums. This center was the main grounds for the 1962 World's Fair with the Space Needle the centerpiece. Dale Chihuly is a prolific artist in blown glass getting a lot of his inspiration from the sea and flowers. The indoor exhibits had wonderful lighting while the outdoor pieces in the garden were sparking and glorious in the mid-day sunshine.

John visited the Seattle Space Needle as a child he thinks to attend the world fair. We rode up the elevator in 41 seconds to a viewing station that circles the tower. One floor below the viewing platform is the rotating restaurant where you must have reservations to enter. The views were awesome on this very clear and sunny day.

A bus ride to Pioneer Square and a short walk found us dining at Brooklyn Seafood, Steak and Oyster restaurant. We were seated at the Chef's Counter in comfortable, overstuffed, high backed chairs where we watched the seafood entrées being prepared. We started with a tasting of white wine and oysters for me and beer and oysters for John. Each oyster came from a different part of the Washington or Oregon coast and was raised in different ways such as on a rope or in a tray. We then dined on small plate and salads with lots of crab, shrimp and scallops. Oh, and a bottle of wine. It was such a fun evening and we didn't have to drive back, just hop on the bus.

Seattle Area

Wednesday was a long, unproductive day, or so it seemed. We were slow getting away from our campground and into an area where we had better cell phone reception to the internet. We stopped in the parking lot of a gas station near the interstate and started calling all the campgrounds we could find in the Seattle area. One told us they gave their last site away just as we called and another gave one away 20 minutes before we called. If we had just moved a little faster! We finally found a campground called Tall Chief in Fall City that claims to be only 25 minutes from downtown. But after we had set up, John discovered that the power was bad on our site so we had to move sites. And all the roads in the campground are gravel and gets our vehicles all dirty. And its almost too far to walk to the showers and . . . . Oh, well, we are here and settled in.

The traffic here is HORRIBLE! Even on a late Wednesday morning we got caught up in a jam and then after supper the traffic was slow as we tried to get to a grocery store. At least today we traveled against the worst of the traffic jams and didn't get caught in one.

On the top of our list of things to do in Seattle was the tour of the Boeing Aircraft Plant where the 707's, 747's 787's and all the other huge airliners are assembled. The plant is in the suburb of Everett. The building is the largest building in the world by volume. Imagine placing California's Disney World and its parking lots inside this space and still have room for 100 cars. The plant takes up about 95 acres of land and is about 1/2 mile wide and we're not sure how long but probably close to 3/4 mile. Parts of it are 11 stories tall. We stood on an observation deck four stories up and there were still at least three stories overhead. We watched them assembling six 777's and six 787's and there were at least 4-6 jumbo jets in each of 2 or 3 other bays. They employ over 29,000 people and work 24 hours a day 365 days a year. They even have space to test the engines and test fly every jet that leaves the plant. We saw 3 buildings where the jets are painted and rows and rows of planes ready to be picked up by airlines all around the world. When they move the jets out of the building and onto the tarmac they have to cross an interstate highway so all that distraction of a jet over the road is done at night when few cars are on the road. You are not allowed to take any cameras or cell phones on the tour so the picture we took doesn't show the magnitude of the operation.

We had lunch in Mukliteo on the Puget Sound. This lighthouse has been there since 1906. The Sound is so pretty with the surrounding mountains reflected in the clear blue water.

Just a short drive to Woodinville we found over 100 wineries. We were just looking for Chateau Ste. Michelle and found it and the Columbia Winery nestled in among all these other wineries. All of them are tasting rooms with the grapes coming from the Columbia Valley in the east central part of the state which makes sense if you consider where all the people live. They are not likely to drive four or five hours to taste wine when they can drive 30 minutes to Woodinville. We also stopped in J. Bookwalter Winery.

MSHNVM

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument - It took some persuading but I convinced John that we should see this national treasure and I'm glad we did!

On Monday we drove from the Washington coast back into Oregon. We stopped in Astoria to view the Columbia River Maritime Museum. We particularly liked the displays about the Coast Guard.   

We then crossed the Columbia River once more to drive to Mt. St. Helens . The weather is so much nicer here! It was in the mid-70's with the sun shining in the afternoon but cool enough in the evening to enjoy a roaring fire. We are staying in the Seaquest State Park which is 45 miles from the National Park.

Right across the street from the state park is the state run Mt. St. Helen's Visitor Center. They have a great museum with the story of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens beginning with the earthquakes that started in March 1980 up to the actual eruption on May 18. Then, today we drove the 45 miles up to the National Volcanic Monument where they continued the story of the eruption and the devastation it caused. They also had stories from survivors that told of the perils of camping and living near an active volcano.

We could see the former mountain and the gap and crater created by the explosion. Mt. St. Helen began showing signs of an impending eruption in March with nearly continuous earth quakes. Then a huge bulge began showing on her north side. It grew about 5 feet everyday until it was about a mile across. Of course the people in the area had been evacuated but the day before the eruption, the government let a caravan of people return to their homes to collect belongings. Early on the morning of May 18 the eruption started with a plume of smoke and ash coming off the top but then the bulge slid down the mountain and release the magma, gas, and ash that had been building under that bulge. The explosion shot out to the north parallel to the land, not straight up as one would imaging. The hot wind, gas and ash shot out over the land at about 300 mph blowing down all the trees and scrubbing the land clean. Then the hot magma melted all the snow and hot water and mud crashed down the mountain side and into the river sweeping up the fallen trees and everything else in its path including bridges, cars, lumber trucks and people and moving it down stream at about 100 mph. The billowing ash column followed, rising over 12 miles into the air, and causing thunder and lightning. That ash eventually circled the globe. The devastation reached over 13 miles north from the volcano. Lava domes have formed inside the crater and snow is trapped there creating a glacier. A nearby lake, Spirit Lake, was pushed up the sides of the surrounding mountains over 200 feet and when the water fell back down, the mud and ash had raised the floor of the lake by 300 meters. 33 years later the lake is still clogged with fallen trees floating in the water.

We hiked the boundary trail and then went out on Harry's Ridge to get a better view of the volcano and Spirit Lake. It was a long 7 mile round trip hike over ash, basalt rocks and up, down, and along a ridge. But the flowers were beautiful and nature is trying to make a comeback.

Cape Disappointment

Another gray, foggy day. We're dressing better for this cool, damp, windy weather so we are not put off too much by the 61°temps. We were very lazy this morning so didn't start exploring this peninsula until after 11 AM. We drove on the beach as far north as we could and then on the road to a state park and wildlife refuge on the point where we took a mile walk along the inlet and forest.

We stopped a couple of times on the drive back to the south end of the peninsula and had a nice picnic lunch before going to Cape Disappointment State Park. This is where Lewis and Clark first saw the Pacific Ocean and were disappointed that there were no ships at the mouth of the Columbia River. It took Lewis and Clark 10 days to travel the last 16 miles of their journey due to extreme storms.

This area is known for its very, very bad weather. They can experience 100 mph winds during the winter and lots of foggy weather the rest of the year. Most of this is due to the cold Pacific waters and winds coming into contact with the warm inland winds. Cape Disappointment is also known as a ships graveyard. Because the river was so wide, the water at its mouth moved slowly and sand bars built up. In the 1800's, the ships could not see the sand and would get stuck on the river bar on its way into the river or they might get over the river bar at a high or flood tide and not be able to get back out. And then there are the horrible winter storms. During one week in January 1853, four ships hit the sand bar and sank. Today there are two long jetties that narrow the river mouth so that the water flow is faster and washes the sand out making it better for ships but it is still a very treacherous crossing. We learned that container ships coming into the river must use a Bar Captain to maneuver it thru the jetties and then a River Captain must pilot the ship up the river.

It became obvious early on that light houses were needed. There are two located on this headland. We only saw one since the weather continued to get wetter and the fog dropped down to completely obscure the view of the second one.

At the end of the day, John got out his newest toy and played with it on the beach.

Long Beach Peninsula

A friend and business acquaintance of John's has a beach house in Long Beach, WA and has invited us to join him and a couple other of our mutual friends for the weekend. We are staying at an RV park that is close to the beach and less than one mile from Mike's house. We arrived on Friday just in time to have a late lunch with Mike, Ray, Bart and 8 other men who were at Mike's for a business meeting. We then decided it would be fun to play 9-holes of golf at the local course. There were four guys and me but it was fun even though the weather was very cool and windy. Since we didn't start the game until after 4 PM it was after 6 when we finished. We went back to Mike's where the rest of the group joined us for drinks and then a very late dinner.

Saturday morning dawned foggy and cloudy. Despite that, John and I took off for a 3.5 mile walk along the beach. This beach is considered the "longest beach in the world" and is very broad, flat and hard. We spotted cars driving on the beach so checked it out. The beach is considered a Washington state highway with a speed limit of 25 mph. The only place we cannot drive is in front of the boardwalk in Long Beach. So we got the Jeep and took advantage of this highway and drove into town on the sand. Long Beach is your typical tourist town with lots of junk shops, restaurants, and t-shirt boutiques. Mike called about 2 pm and said their business meeting was over and that we were going to drive over to Astoria, OR for lunch at the Wet Dog Bar and Grill.

  

Astoria is only about 25 miles away and across the Columbia River on the four mile Astoria Bridge. We had a boisterous lunch. They all had to finish their meeting so John and I stayed in Astoria to explore this quaint town that is built on the hill side overlooking the river and Pacific Ocean. At times it felt like we were driving in San Francisco with lots of long, steep streets, some of which wound around the hill top. Of particular interest was the Astoria Column at the peak of a hill where we had a fantastic 360° view of the Columbia River and the valleys behind it. The column itself was covered with a spiral pictorial story of Lewis and Clark's explorations.

We spent the evening at Mike's, drinking his wine and sharing our tall tales and stories.

Broadmoor Golf

A very nice gentleman from this RV park organizes a golf outing for every Thursday so I signed John and I up to play today. It was a beautiful day to play with the temperature in the low 80's and a nice breeze from the west to keep us cool. The trees lining the fairways at Broadmoor were awesome. Mother Nature had trimmed some of them into perfect cone shapes while others looked like they were sporting feathery leaves. The fairways were straight and long with few obstacles but since we hadn't played for about 6 weeks, that didn't help our scores much. One very interesting fairway had two greens, one for the forward tees and a different one for the back tee boxes. This had me really confused for a while.

We ended the day eating at one of Portland's higher rated seafood restaurants and had a great meal.

Mt. Hood

We visited Mount Hood today. As we were driving eastward this morning the sky was gray and clouds were hanging pretty low to a point where we couldn't see the mountain. We almost turned around to head home when the clouds parted then lifted and we spotted the mountain close up. It is magnificent. The whole area surrounding the base of the mountain and part way up is ski, snowboard and snow mobile country. The towns are ski villages and there are many parking areas for the snow mobiles along with paths to travel. We thought of trying one of those paths with the Jeep but signage warned us off.

  

We found some gravel roads winding up one side of the mountain to a point where we could spot Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helen and Mt. Adams in Washington to the north of us. Later, at the Timberline Lodge Ski Area we spotted Mt. Jefferson to the east of us. All are snow capped and tower over the 11,000 foot mark.

At the Timberline Lodge we ate lunch with a view of Mt. Jefferson and then we watched the skiers and snowboarders coming down the mountain. This is the year-round training area for the Olympic ski team and other professional skiers as well as a training area for youth and other groups. At 6,000 feet hiking up the mountain was hard for me, especially since we did it right after lunch. John had the opportunity to stand in some snow which he absolutely hates! Ha Ha!

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

We picked the perfect day to explore the Columbia River Gorge Highway as it was cloudy but warm. This makes for better pictures and pleasant sightseeing. Our route took us on the old Historic Scenic Highway for most of the drive. It was a narrow, winding road (have I said that before?) that mostly followed the Columbia River Gorge.

We stopped at several view points along the road. One of these is called The Crown Point Vista House which was built in the 1920's as a rest area for the tourists and was refinished in 2004. The highway circles around a three story round house with a balcony viewing area at the top. It is all marble and stained glass windows for a very elegant resting place. And the views of the river really are awesome.

There are about 11 waterfalls along this route but we only stopped at three of them as we didn't want to get caught up in the tourist crowds. Plus John has a saying, "You've seen one waterfall, you've seen them all!" We saw Latourell Falls, Shepperds Dell and Multnomah Falls. At 620 feet, Multnomah is the second highest year-round waterfalls in the country. We chose to hike up the mountain to view the falls from the top down. It was about a 1.5 miles hike and seemed pretty strenuous going up with 11 switchbacks. Even though this falls is very tall, it does not have a high volume of water, but that doesn't stop it from being spectacular.

After a picnic lunch we stopped at the famous Bonneville Lock and Dam which spans the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington, built in four sections with three islands in-between. Not only does it provide power for 900,000 homes but also features a lock to move barges up and down the river and a set of fish ladders which is used not just by salmon but by many other fish such as steelhead trout, sturgeon, and lamprey. There is a viewing room in the visitor center where one can watch the fish underwater 'climbing' the ladder. We also got to watch a barge going through the locks from the lower to upper river.

A short drive to the town of Hood River, a short drive through town and we turned around and headed home. We had originally planned to drive around Mount Hood and back but ran out of time.

Downtown Portland

The mass transit system for Portland is very well run and very extensive. They have trains, buses and trolleys that can be used on one day pass. We drove four miles to a train stop and rode the train to downtown Portland in about 45 minutes. No hassles fighting traffic and finding parking places. After a stop at the visitor center to get a map we walked around Pioneer Square and then headed for the Pearl District where we wanted to stop in an R.E.I. store. Along the way, a stranger directed us to a nice coffee shop and made a lunch recommendation for us. She was very friendly.

We picked our own lunch stop, however, and were disappointed. We explored the shopping area a little more and then caught the train to go to Washington Park where I wanted to visit the International Rose Test Garden. Washington Park and its extension, Forest Park is the largest forested natural area within a city limit. It covers over 5000 acres of hills and ravines, forest land and undergrowth with no vehicles allowed in the park and over 70 miles of trails through the forest. Washington park is home to the Rose Garden, Zoo, Veterans Memorial and a couple of other attractions. We got off of the train at one of the stations near the zoo and ended up walking about 2 miles on one of the trails to get to the Rose Garden.

The walk was through a nice shaded forest so was cooler than the city streets. But the rose garden was fabulous! Such beautiful flowers and such a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. We rode a bus back to the train and then an hour ride back to our stop. Long, hot day.

Portland OR

It was only a 64 mile drive from McMinnville to the Portland Fairview RV Park in NE Portland but we hitched up the Jeep anyway. We heard on the news that part of a freeway we would have traveled on was going to be closed over the weekend and we weren't sure what the traffic would be like. So instead of getting separated, we joined up.

We arrived at the RV park before lunch so had time to figure out what we could do today after John fiddled with the cable TV hook up for over an an hour. We rode our bikes along the Columbia River and explored the area we are living in for the next five days. It is unseasonably warm for Oregon so the heat and wind beat us down. An 11 mile ride was good enough for the day. The river was very busy with boats and jet-skis, the shores crowded with sun bathers and the picnic area was packed. Portlanders must lover their river! The bike trail, unfortunately for us, was along the marine highway, so we did not get to the path that was just past where we turned off and headed back to the RV. We'll leave that for another day.

Wine, Wine, Wine

We were only going to try three wineries this afternoon but ended up trying four. First we had some really good hamburgers at the Golden Valley Brewery. They raise all their own beef and produce. One can count on it being healthy and good. 

Last night we had a very good Pinot Noir with dinner so we stopped at that winery first. Penner-Ash Wine Cellars are putting out some very nice Pinots so a mixed case will arrive at our house this fall.  

Next stop was  Bergstrom Wines where we had the best Chardonnay we've ever tasted. Guess what we'll find on our doorstep in the fall plus some more Pinot. Adelsheim Vineyards was right down the hill and, again we tried some nice wines. Their Syrah tickled our fancy so we got a couple of bottles for the RV. 

We passed Domaine Trouvere and tried their offerings but did not buy anything. 

When we left home about 35 days ago we had 42 bottles of wine in the RV. Today we have 39 bottles. I KNOW we have drank more than 3 bottles on this trip!!

Good thing this is our last day because you really can have too much of a good thing, besides it's getting kinda expensive. 

Spruce Goose

Since we don't like to start our wine tasting until early afternoon, we had the whole morning to explore the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where Howard Hughes' all wood "Spruce Goose" is now housed. The museum is actually three buildings, one housing the Spruce Goose along with numerous other aircraft, one an I-Max theater and the third is the space museum. The fourth building in the complex is the Wings and Waves Waterpark which has two water slides exiting from an actual 747 airliner located on the roof of the enclosed water playground.

Our family had been thru the Spruce Goose when she was housed in Long Beach, CA alongside the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship so it was fun to see it again in her new setting. There were lots of other aircraft from the very early days up to present times. Some were actual planes and others were reproductions or models. We skipped the movies in the theatre but did take in the space museum which had a complete history of outer space flight by all countries involved - US, Germany and Russia. It was all quite interesting.

After our picnic lunch we headed to the wineries. Our first stop was at Archery Summit Winery then to Domaine Serene. Both of these wineries are in the Dundee AVA and, personally, I think we don't care for that wine. It seemed to taste like dirt, limestone and was very acidic. Our last winery stop was at Roco Winery. The young lady who waited on us was originally from Kansas City and attended school at MU. I tasted one wine there that I liked but the grapes were not from their vineyard. John liked the taste of their Private Stash 2011 and may order some at a later time.

On our way back to the RV we stopped at the Carlton Farms Meat market and got what we hope will be really good bacon, pork chops and a monster rib steak. By the time we fought rush hour traffic to get to the RV, we had to turn right around and head to Joel Palmer Restaurant for our excellent dinner! Best mushroom tart, mushroom soup and mushroom and filet stroganoff we have ever had! Plus an excellent bottle of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

Willamette Valley

We have been pronouncing Willamette the wrong way for so long that we have to use the following saying to remember the correct way. It is "Will-am-it - Damn It!" (note the accent on 'am').

Now that we have that straightened out, on to the wines. The Willamette Valley is well known for its Pinot Noir wines. We have been told by several sommeliers that it is due partly to the soil but mostly its the cool weather that favors the pinot grape. When it does get warm, like now, the cool winds from the ocean are channeled into the valley at night to cool things down again. When it gets hot, the pinot grapes shut down and don't grow but as it cools off, they come alive again. There are 7 AVA's (American Viticultural Areas) each one having different soil properties and weather so that a Pinot Noir from one area will taste different than those from another area. Even vineyards next door to each other can have distinct differences to the experienced palate.   Our inexperienced palates can't tell the difference in the AVA's but we can differentiate between wineries and even some wines. We have also tasted Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Riesling.

We arrived in the Willamette Valley and our RV park outside of McMinnville about noon on Wednesday after shopping at Costco, Safeway and Walgreens in Salem. We struggled setting up as the first site they gave us was too narrow and close to our neighbor so when when we reset the slides, I didn't see the slide roll into John's captain chair and tilt it over. Now he sits at an angle and not sure he'll be able to drive that way. The trials of RV ownership.

Our first stop was in the town of Carlton where we tasted wine at the Troon Tasting Room, Ken Wright Cellars and Carlton Cellars. We had a nice visit with the lady at Scott Paul tasting room but they were not having a tasting. She directed us to a local meat shop which was closed by the time we got there. But we intend to shop there as they grow their own bacon! We stopped in McMinnville for dinner at LaRambla after having a beer at The Golden Valley Brew Pub. Both of these places were recommend by almost everyone we asked.

Today we tasted at Ponzi Wine Bar before having lunch at the adjacent Dundee Bistro. Then Argyle Winery that features lots of bubbly wines, Lange Estate Winery, Carlton Winemaker Studio where 12 individual vintners come to make their wines and Alexana Estate Vineyards. This last had the best Pinot Noir that we have tasted so far. In two days we have bought 4 bottles of wine to take with us and are having 2 cases shipped home. So far. . .

As we were driving into Dundee today we saw snow-capped Mt. Hood in the distance and took the picture from the Lange Vineyard patio. What a beautiful site!

Howard Creek, Buck Mtn., Smith Creek Loop Trail

Shortly after we arrived at this park, I questioned a park ranger about the best trails for bike riding, explaining that we didn't want a mountain trail but it didn't have to be really easy either.  I think she totally misunderstood me!

Late this morning we were ready to take off on what we thought would be a short but pleasant ride in the forest. And it did start off that way with some hill climbing and some down hill cruising. But then we started climbing more and then it got really steep and rocky. When we hit the 'cut-off trail' we thought it would be an easier trail but we were wrong again. We both hiked our bikes about a mile and a half up a steeper grade before we got to Smith Creek. We think we made a 1000 foot climb!  Luckily it was a smoother down hill ride but I still rode my brakes all the way down this very narrow dirt path. 

The ride was only 7 miles but it took us over 2 1/2 hours to make the trip. We were both drained of energy this afternoon. And I'll bet we go to bed early!

Summertime Weather

Today has been a wonderfully warm and pleasant summer day -- one we haven't experienced very often on this trip.

We changed sites early in this morning and lucked out to get one open for 2 more days, probably because it is a non-electric site but we don't care. After a lazy morning we rode our bikes about 6 miles on a paved trail through a lush, green, shadowed and flowered forest. The pink lupine and white daisies are in full bloom, I tasted salmonberries and was awed by the many varieties of fern covering the forest floor. John, on the other hand, speeds ahead and has to stop and wait on me.

This afternoon we napped, we planned the next week or so of our trip and read books or magazines. John split wood and built me a great fire for the evening. This is what camping is all about!