The Journey Home: Day 2

When I woke this morning I pulled back the windows and found that we had stopped no more than 30 meters from a very large, very cool looking old bridge. Neither Sarah nor I had seen it last night, which probably means that it was a good time to stop driving. From our hotel room, we had a spectacular view of the coast.



We weren't the only ones looking for breakfast at this point.



The Oregon coast would be an awesome place to go on a family vacation with a couple of 8-12 year old kids. In the two hours that we drove between Gold Beach and Coos Bay, we passed a Dinosaur park, a Wild Animal Safari (specializing in big cats) and the Oregon Sand Dunes. The Dunes were by far the coolest of the bunch. I regretted bringing the cat along as we watched the tourists crawling over the dunes like little ants on their ATVs and Dirt Bikes.

The 101 is a very different highway. Most roads I've driven are long stretches of nothing, dotted with gas stations and the occasional major city. There's rarely a shoulder to speak of, and the emphasis is definitely on getting from wherever you've been to wherever you're going.

The 101 is a highway designed for travel, not just transportation. At every opportunity, the highway planners chose scenic over direct, and planted small towns and coffee shops every 20 miles. The space around the towns is filled in with picnic stops, hiking trails, and seaside beaches. The road is noticeably absent of transport trucks, who all opt for the more direct I5. And, most remarkable of all, there is a bike lane that runs the entire length of the state of Oregon, allowing people to casually cycle, explore, stop, chat and really experience everything.

We stopped a few times to take a picture, or dip our toes in the water. This is definitely a trip that I'd like to do again, but without a pet in the car so we can really get out and see what's around us.



Just before leaving the 101, we made one final stop to run out to the ocean. The water was coming in huge waves (we later found out this was another Tsunami zone) and the tide was powerful enough to make it difficult to walk into shore, even when it was only a few inches deep.

Just as we were leaving, I spotted something in the water that surprised me. As the salt water swooshed back out to the open ocean, a rock stood up and ran along the sand, following the tide out to sea. In retrospect, I think that it might have been a clam, but at the time I jumped up and down pointing at a bare spot of ground yelling "Sarah!! That rock totally stood up and ran!!" She probably thinks I'm crazy, but she did take a picture of the sand so we can examine it later.



Off of the 101 is back to boring old Oregon (Boregon?). The traffic moves too slowly, and there's not a lot to see. The only thing notable along route 18 were the two dozen or so wineries that appeared around the Newberg area.

Sebastian

On the way down to Reno, and again on the way back, we stopped at my Aunt and Uncle's place in Seattle. We lucked out on the timing, and bumped into my Cousin and her pets on the way down. She is a recent law school graduate, and will be starting her career in two weeks. Before hunkering down for the next two vacation-free years, she wanted to take a short trip to Europe.



She's leaving her dog, Sebastian, with my Aunt and Uncle while she's away. He's a super friendly, awesome dog. The sort of pup that makes you think 'picking up fresh poop with a plastic bag twice a day isn't /that/ bad."

The Journey Home: Day 1

Every time we've come to Nevada, we've always taken the I5 there and back. During that entire trip, I complain about how cool it would be to take the 101 instead of the I5. This year, we finally did it.

On the route from Nevada to California, we watched the temperature climb almost as fast as the gas prices. Everything culminated just pass the I5 at Redding. Sarah's Starbucks sense had guided us well, and we pulled into the parking lot to get a Venti, double-caffeine, extra cold, I-don't-care-what-it-tastes-like-just-make-it-snappy (with a hint of hazelnut). We stepped out of the car into a sweltering 43; much higher than the, comparatively cool, 32 of Sparks.

The people of Redding are biologically immune to heat stroke. While we waited for our cup-o-ice, the people after us came and ordered a Grande Latte extra hot, and a Venti Mocha, with extra whip. We left the store at the same time as a another man, dressed in a sweater and jeans, stepped in. I wonder how they'd handle winter in Ontario?

Outside of Redding is an area that was very likely the Happiest Place in California PMM (Pre-Mickey Mouse). Three towns in a row, Whiskeytown, Whiskeycreek and Brandy River, made up what was very likely a bootleggers camp during the gold boom.



The road out of Whiskeytown was clearly designed for donkeys and drunkards. This is, without a doubt, the windiest mountain pass I've ever seen. Sort of like Lombard St through a mountain range. Several of the turns along this pass must have been close to 300 degree hairpin turns. The cat was not happy with us at this point - she gets car sick when we drive through parking lots.

Note to self: Next time, take an alternate route to the coast.

An hour out of Whiskeytown is the community of Weaverville. Weaverville is a very cute little town, and definitely worth a longer visit than we gave it (less than 8 minutes from end to end).

It's clearly a logging town at heart. As we passed by the mill, we noticed that the logs were covered in something black. Tar, maybe? It was hot, so we imagined that they were covering the logs in something to lower the chances of fire, but nothing we could think of made much sense. As we left town, it became clear that the black stuff was char.



I gather there had been a substantial forest fire here in the past year or so.

It was another hour or so to the coast from here, and when we finally hit the water it was spectacular. I totally understand where the surfer culture came from -- with waves like these, I'd want to find some way to play in them too. We stopped off at a beach, and spent some time running through the water. The sand was wonderful, and the water was warm enough.



Sarah, being smarter than me, wouldn't get too close. I ended up getting drenched as I followed the water out, and then got hit by a huge swell coming back in.

This beach was right on the border of Redwood national park. It was almost too foggy to see anything as we went, but it was too early to stop driving. Even with the low visibility, you definitely got a sense of how massive these old trees were. It was reminiscent of the drive to West Vancouver through Stanley Park, but the highway was cut closer to the tree line than back home, making the trees much more imposing.

It was hard to stop and take any photos as the fog had totally rolled in over the highway. This also made it difficult to see the Elk that was standing in the middle of the road as we turned a corner. Luckily, Sarah's eyes are good, and we ended up coming to a stop about 2 feet from it's fuzzy little tail. Stupid elk.

Redwood National park is fairly close to the border or Northern California. There's no place worth stopping along this stretch of highway, so we made a decision to push on to Oregon. Just inside of the Oregon border is the town of Brookings. Home of the Holmes B&B (which we, sadly, couldn't find). There were a number of decent looking hotels here, as well as a Taco Bell, which was pretty crucial by this point. We stopped at the Best Western, and the lady at the counter directed my attention to the No Pets sign on the counter. She suggested a place a few miles away, in Gold Beach that would take our pets and be a clean alternative to other roadside motels. Ultimately, this is where we stopped for the night, at the local Motel 6.

On an unrelated note, Sarah has now permanently sworn off of Taco bell.

Rib Fest

One of my favourite events in Reno is the Nugget's Best in the West Rib Cookoff. This was the 20th anniversary of the event, and was every bit as tasty as the other years I've been down.

A Rib Fest is basically an exercise in gluttony. Our hosts secured a private table in the all-you-can-eat area of the event. We tucked in at 4, and the food kept coming until 9 pm. Live music and the beautiful Nevada sunshine help put the final polish on an amazing event.

On the menu was:

25 kinds of ribs, and 25 different sauces.
Cornbread and Biscuits
Baked Beans
Watermelon
Coleslaw
Roasted corn swimming in butter
Several kinds of beer, wine and Jack Daniels coolers
Ice Cream

From Road Trip '08

From Road Trip '08

I bought a macro lens

I bought a Macro lens off of Craigslist today. It was $50 for a Sigma 28-80mm, 3.5-5.6 Macro lens. I was hoping that it was a Macro Zoom, in the sense that it zooms while in Macro mode, but it turns out that it's a zoom lens that does Macro mode at 80 mm. Still fun though.

We took the new lens out for a spin on a trail up the back of my In-law's property and grabbed some fun pictures of bugs and lizards and such. More of those up on the picassa site.

A River Runs Through it

We woke up pretty late this morning, and decided that the best way to celebrate Wednesday was to pop over to the local All-you-can-eat Sushi Club. I still haven't figured out why, but the Sushi restaurants in Reno are the best I've ever eaten at. Probably something to do with being on a major east-west shipping lane.

After the gorging, we split up by gender and went our separate ways. The ladies went shopping with a friend of Francine's, and Bob and I toured around Downtown core of Reno.

Downtown Reno is much nicer than I had expected. It's everything that an up and coming neighborhood should be. A river runs through the center of town, and has been artificially enhanced to include a white water kayak area, and nice beaches/tanning areas for the residents to play in the water or relax with their families. Coffee shops, cafe's, and Theatres (movie, musical, and live) line the river on either side. Thirties era apartments outnumber modern housing or condo developments 4-to-1, giving the area a classic feel that behooves a city with as much history as Reno.

I've been to winnemucca man

The first day after our road trip down to Reno started with more traveling. Sarah's Dad was hosting a pirate-themed company picnic in Winnemucca.
An interesting note about winnemucca - there are no sidewalks in this town. I guess the idea is why would you need a sidewalk when you have a truck?

As part of the party, we were broken out into groups and asked to build boats out of two, very large, sheets of cardboard.

From Road Trip '08

I figured that a sail might help.

From Road Trip '08

It didn't. I sank about 2 seconds after putting my full weight in the boat.