Great State Oregon!!!

August 6, 2007

We drove to a Sam’s parking lot near the city center and parked the RV and car for the day. Talked Doug into taking the bus downtown. He is really not comfortable taking public transportation, but the gal at Sam’s convinced him it was the best way to go!

Went to the Space Needle and it was OK, having been to the Empire State building, it was anticlimactic!!!

Then went to the Underground!! That was really interesting. They rebuilt the city after the fire in the late 1800’s, but knew they would have to raise the city so the 2nd story of most of the buildings was what we see now as the first story. We only got to see three blocks of 33 that are underground. If we had more time we could see more.

Doug is not really great in cities so I am glad we saw what we did!!!!

Will camp at another Wal-Mart tonight and head for Mt. St. Helens tomorrow and find a real campground!

August 7, 2007

What a night!! We got to the Wal-Mart in Renton and they said there was an ordinance that prohibited overnight camping, Renton, WA is not very RV friendly – campers stay away!!! We hunted for a campground and could not find one. By this time it was dark and Doug was having a terrible time seeing. In frustration we went behind a large tire company and parked in their parking lot!! So we wouldn’t get caught, we didn’t use any lights, and I slept in my clothes!!! We were out of there by 5AM!

We drove to Mt. St. Helens and because we got such an early start we were there very early!!! Found a spot at the State Campground and decided even though we were tired we would do the mountain today.

The road out to it is about 50 miles and there are about 5 different visitor centers along the way. We only stopped at the first one going out as it was overcast and predicted for rain. The area is absolutely beautiful. You can still see some of the trees that were destroyed, but most of them have been replaced and the area is coming back very well. I did not realize that there were two new lakes formed after the blast and that the large lake right near the blast, Spirit Lake, rose 150 feet!!! The water was pushed right out of it and before it came back in it was filled with debris from the landslide. The lake is now almost double in surface size and 150 feet shallower.

Went to the over visitor centers and we were so impressed, but I told Doug I was on brain overload!! By 4pm we were both so tired we could hardly understand anything that we were being told.

Went back to the campground and were in bed by 8pm!!

August 8, 2007

We both feel a whole lot better today after about 12 hours sleep.

We drove to the coast and I started calling around for a camp site early with no luck. Found one place that wanted $60 a night!!! No wonder they had space!!! Finally found a county park that had space and got directions.

It is 12 miles outside Tillamook, but we did not realize that 12 miles was on a narrow windy country road. The scenery was wonderful, but we were sure we had made a mistake as we kept going!!! We decided that we would only stay the one night since it was out so far, and I was sure we would be the only ones here.

However, when we got here it was so nice and we got the next to the last spot!!! It is right along a stream and lots of shade from huge old trees.

After we set up we went into town to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Kind of interesting, don’t get to see too much, but got to taste some good cheese. Since Doug doesn’t eat cheese I got his share!!!

Will drive the northern part of 101 tomorrow to the WA boarder.

August 9, 2007

Drove north on 101 today and what wonderful views. We just could not get over the huge rocks in the water just off the coast. Went a little ways into WA as we did not do the coast when we were there, but didn’t go very far as Oregon was nicer.

Stopped in Astoria for lunch and headed back to try and catch the low tide to see some of the tidal pools. I walked out into the water to get around some of the protruding rocks, and the water was so cold it made my feet ach!!!! Tide was starting to come back in by the time we got there, but we did manage to see some interesting sea life. The star fish are just huge and were a pretty redish purple color.

We could not get over the beautiful old forests. I told Doug that I would never have believed that rotting trees with moss on them could be beautiful, but it sure is. Some of the very large rotting stumps had trees growing out of them.

The beach area was so interesting too because you have to walk across about 12 feet of large rocks before getting to the sandy beach.

When we were driving back over the bridge from Washington, we followed a large flat bed truck with a boulder on it that must have been about 10 tons. We speculated where it would be going and who could afford to pay to have such a large rock hauled. We were sure it was for a monument someplace. As it turned out, the rock was going to a state park that we were going to!! We followed it and it turns out it was being used in the repair of a jetty!!!! There were hundreds of these boulders being transported one at a time, dropped off, a loader picked them up and one at a time they where put in very large dump trucks, and one at a time where driven out to the jetty!!!! Only our government can spend that kind of money!!!!

Made reservations for a campground south of here about 70 miles. It was again very difficult to get something. This is a private park, all the local and Fed. Parks are full.

August 10, 2007

Got to Agate Beach around 1pm and after setting up went up to a park that we were told had great tidal pools. We ended up walking for almost three miles!!! The tide was a bit high so we are planning on going down around 6am tomorrow when it is real low.

We saw a gentleman walking a long the beach with a scoop and asked what he was looking for. Turns out he is a rock collector and was looking for agates. He was used to live in this area so is very familiar with what is out there. He spent a lot of time showing me what to look for and giving me what he found. What a nice man!!!! We will come back to this area tomorrow.

August 11, 2007

We got up real early today and went to the tidal pools about 6am. What a lot of fun that was. The life in the pools is just fascinating. The array of starfish was amazing. They were purple, red, orange and yellow. There is a naturalist that was giving a talk around 9am. We were going to stay for it, but by the time we got up from the beach (quite a hike) we were both so tired we decided not to go down again.

Doug is not feeling too well again today so we will just relax the rest of the day. I have cleaning to catch up on. I have also bought some books on rocks and will do some reading. If we feel up to it we will go to the beach tonight.