After the excitement of the sand dunes, we (and of course I mean "me") needed some relaxation. And what could be more relaxing than sea lions? They lay on rocks, letting their flab fall where it may, the bark a bit, roll into the water, play, clamber back up on the rocks and take a quick nap and then start all over again. I'd like to be a sea lion. So after we cleaned as much of the sand out of our crevices, we headed off to The Sea Lion Caves.

A pretty amazing place. The Florence Sea Lion Caves were first opened to the public in 1932, and an elevator was added in 1961 to take visitors 208 feet down, through solid rock, to the viewing area. It's an odd feeling, taking an elevator deep underground, especially when you are a bit claustrophobic. Once down there, however, there are places where you can look outside, plus, if worse came to worse (and I always prepare for that), you could dive into the smelly water where the sea lions hang out, and swim out the entrance to safety. You know, in case worse came to worse. I always know where The Nearest Exit is. Always.

From the elevator you walk along a short passage, where there are displays about the sea lions. This takes you to a dark area, where there are holes in the rock looking right inside the world's largest sea cave. And the cave is just filled with sea lions. Some of them are only a few feet away, seemingly unaware of the visitors there in the semi-darkness. You're asked not to use flash photography, so as not to disturb the animals. It was not crowded that day, so we were able to take our time. They barked and snorted and carried on, oblivious to us, I could have stood there for hours.

I'm not 21 anymore.

As you drive through Florence and that whole section of the coast, you see sign after sign after sign touting the joys of riding on the sand dunes. I knew about these, even before we left home, and I knew that Steven would enjoy something like this, and as we were whipping down one piece of highway, he didn't spot the signs, but rather, the buggies themselves. We turned around at the nearest wide spot, but by the time we got to where they were, they were gone, but needless to say, that was # 1 priority on the next mornings agenda.

Next day we pulled into Sandland Adventures and were "lucky" enough to be able to have a choice of 2 "adventures". The big buggy takes you on a 2 and half hour tour, la-di-da, through the dunes, and to the beach, in a buggy that holds about 30. And it was $14 each.

The other, the "X-Treme!!", is a half-hour, speeding through the dunes like you see on bad James Bond type movies, and was $38 or something each. Now normally Steven is a Man Who Looks for Deals, and he said that I'd hate the "X-Treme!!" and he'd be pleased to go on the other, but the wistful way he stared at the pictures of the "X-Treme!!" made me say that I'd be fine going on the "X-Treme!!" It's the least I can do, I mean he pulled over at every viewpoint and bookstore for me.

*sigh* The man strapped us in, gave us goggles, gave us all the warnings about hanging on and off we took. And I do mean OFF WE TOOK. I think we must have been going 50-60 MPH, and how we didn't flip and roll is anyone's guess. The sand was flying, the machine was "taking air", as the cool kids say, and I was shrieking and laughing, albeit the laughter was somewhat hysterical. I was trying to not holler "Slow down!", but no guarantees on what actually came out of my mouth. Besides, opening your mouth was a sure fire guarantee on getting a lung full of sand.

Our driver did stop at the top of a hill so we could catch our breath, shake out some sand and enjoy the view, and then, Zoooom...off we went again. I do have to admit that it was sort of fun, but I also have to admit that my eyes were squeezed shut for the majority of the ride. I am not a speed demon. Or a daredevil, and this was a very demony-devily adventure.

I will say though, that all that fine sand blasting against my face was good for my complexion. It was rosy-red and really SO smooth. I think it sandblasted the top layer of skin right off, and I looked pretty damn good for the rest of that day, if I do say so. Not that I could see much however, as my my eyelid muscles were still clenched in fright.

There are an extraordinary amount of signs saying "Scenic Viewpoint 1/4 Mile" as you drive along. At first we stopped at every one, and at the end of an 8 hour day, we'd find ourselves only 20 or 30 miles down the road. Now, we were in no rush, and that was part of the enjoyment of this trip, coming and going as we pleased, no reservations, no itinerary, no plans, but still...we wanted to get to California before August. So, we decided to not stop at every one, but rather, to stop at the ones whose names intrigued us. Or, I should say, intrigued me, since I often go places and read books solely by the way their name makes me feel. The Synesthesia thing, where I see colour when I speak or read a word. Thus, these two places are Cape Perpetua (a deep and gloomy purple) and The Devils' Churn. (writhing shades of red and yellow) Both loaded with the infamous barking sea lions.

Notice in the top picture (remember to double click) the lonely one by himself on the rock on the upper right. I wonder if he was misbehaving, eating too many fish? Picking on his brothers and sisters? Perhaps he was grounded and is having a sea-lion version of a Time-Out.

So we stopped and started for the better part of the day, and eventually pulled into The Jessie Honeyman State Park where we sat around our little fire and got thoroughly (Ha! Did you think I was going to say 'sloshed'?) No, thoroughly smokey smelling. But I do love a fire.

Oregon. Still at the lighthouse.

Tide Pools! I was so happy that the tide was low whilst we were at the lighthouse. (note my use of the word "whilst", I'm not quite sure if I've used it in the correct grammatical way, but my friend Kayleen uses it often and it always sounds so elegant. I wanted to attempt it.)
I was thrilled to scramble down and explore the pools before the tides came rushing back in. To my delight I found some colourful starfish and some sea anenomes. The anenomes are a bit creepy really, because if you put your finger in the middle (and yes I did, I'm sure my gentle touch was no worse than whatever they actually eat) they close up on it and sort of suck. Icky, yet childishly fun.

Oregon Coast Day 3

We wandered through Lincoln City, which has the distinction of having the worlds shortest river, The River D, which is 120 feet long. You can see the entire thing in the above photo. I'm standing on a bridge, and the river originates in a small lake directly behind. me.

We packed up and headed south, you know, the entire coast is only 363 miles long, but there are so many fantastic things to stop and see that we would sometimes only travel 50 miles, and it would be time to stop for the night! Seeing at least one of the 9 historic lighthouses on the coast was one of the things on my list of "must see's". This is the Yakina Head lighthouse. It was built in 1871 and is still in use today. It's been in a few movies, the most recent being 2002's The Ring, which scared the bejesus out of me.

Below, the prism light at the top, which was made in France. The flash is visible for 19 miles out to sea, and I learned that every lighthouse has a distinctive "flash" so that the ship knows which lighthouse they are seeing. This one is 2 seconds on, 2 off, 2 on and then 14 seconds off. You can tour the lighthouse for 2 hours each day, during which time the light is off. I imagine it would be pretty blinding if one were to be up there looking at it while it flashed.

The climb down was a snap, but the 93 feet up (I think it was 128 steps) just about did my poor knees in.

Oreogon Coast pictures from day 2

The RV Park we stayed at in Lincoln City was a short walk, less than 5 minutes, to the beach.

A gaggle of gulls?

The waves were pretty high, the crashing roar was great!

We went for dinner and ended up having steak, but I did try some seaweed salad. It tasted about as good as it looks, by which I mean not so good.

Oregon Day 2

We packed up and left Boardman at 9:15AM. It was a bit cloudy and there was a slight drizzle, off and on. A good day for travelling. I noticed two things about Oregon right off the bat:


One: I don't know what kind of trees lined the road, but the air smelled like white lilac, it was so lovely to have the window down and smell that air. I just kept breathing deeply, it must be how a dog feels when it's head it hanging out the window, but I refrained from letting my tongue flap in the wind.


Two: In Oregon it's illegal to pump your own gas...what a treat! It's been a long time since you can get gas pumped for you in BC.





We travelled down the freeway, parallel to the Columbia River, the river is the border between Washington and Oregon, and there is a highway on either side. Both sides seemed equally scenic, but of course the other side looked "more so". The old "grass is greener" syndrome.





We were making good time, and the drive was enjoyable, no traffic to speak of, so instead of stopping halfway through the gorge to spend the night, we decided to drive straight through to Lincoln City, which is about 1/3 down the Oregon Coast.





We took a "scenic detour", leaving the Gorge (which runs west to east through Oregon) and dropped down south to the Mt Hood area. It is wine country, and there were wineries scattered all over, with beautiful vineyards. Then the road rose, higher and higher, winding through mountain passes until we were in the snow belt. And there was a LOT of snow. It was odd, seeing vineyards and spectacular rhododendrons everywhere, to driving through snow, in a matter of 20 minutes.





We eventually pulled into Lincoln City around dinner time, and found the RV Park that I had seen on-line, found it with no trouble, which is a bit unusual for us. We set up our little home and went for a walk, and some dinner.

Oregon Day 1

We left home on June 7th, from BC and drove into Washington. The first part was pretty boring, it's a 4 hour trip to Spokane which we have done many, many times, and then another 3 to Kennewick, where we planned to stay the first night. However, nothing starts a trip out like looking for gas in a place where there are no gas stations.

Let me explain. Steven always wants to find the best deal on gas, plus he says, why fill it up and pack all that weight? Better to wait until it's low and then fill it. So we pass through Spokane...pass through a few other towns...pass through a place where I say: "This looks like the last town coming up, after that, nothing for quite a while." This town, on the map, was called Lind. We see a sign that says LIND-2 MILES and it points off the freeway.

Off we go...2 miles, more or less, and we are in this creepy little town, population about 200 and tumbleweeds rolling down the street, a few empty looking old buildings and not a soul in sight, never mind any sort of recognizable gas station. How can you get lost in a place that's less than 10 blocks from end to end? *sigh*. Finally we spot a huge, metal building with 2 pumps out front...no sign, no other people. We looked at the pumps and there was a sign saying: "No MC, Visa, Discovery, American Express. No debit." ?what? I went inside where a fellow was talking on the phone, he ignored me for a few minutes, then explained that it was a fleet gas station and that we could get our gas around the corner, up the hill.

We drove around and around, and finally found a live person, of course he didn't speak English, I think he was speaking Spanish, who told us that the station was around the corner and up the hill. Jaysus! We eventually found it, no one worked there, you had to pay by credit card and you get a maximum of 18 gallons. Strangest thing I ever did see. I guess they figure that 18 gallons would get you to the next town, and maybe gas was at a premium here? Anyhow, we filled up and got the hell out of Lind. And Steven never let the tank get belwo half again. Not that I said "I told you so" or anything....

We crossed into Oregon and decided the stay the night at Boardman, a pretty little spot with a beautful campground right on the Columbia River at the start of the Gorge. But WINDY? Holy Cow, the wind was strong enough to blow me over, but we set up out little home, BBQ-d some pork chops and curled up for a good night's sleep, tummies full and gas tank full, and pleased that this peaceful (albeit WINDY) spot only cost us $23.85.

Crooked, wind blown trees.

Beautiful spot, so green and clean.

Wicked!

What can I say? "Wicked" was wicked!

Spokane.

I love Spokane. If one only listened to the news you'd think it was a gang-ridden, crime filled, drug addicted city, but we spend a lot of time there and I've never seen any of that. Not to say it doesn't happen, it happens everywhere, but Spokane is a gorgeous, walkable, friendly city. My friend teresa and i came down to see the Broadway Show "Wicked" and to do a bit of shopping. Our hotel was right beside Riverfront Park and Teresa and I spent a pleasant morning there.

Canada geese and a Canadian flag...how welcoming!

Wow! Spokane is lucky enough to have an original 1909 Looff carousel. It's still operational and just awesome! 54 horses, a giraffe, a tiger and 2 Chinese dragon chairs. It's on the National Register of Historic Places, and I can't imagine how much money it's worth, but kids seem to love it as much today as they probably did in 1909.

Spokane.Washington

We wandered over to The Steam Plant, an excellent restaurant in Spokane's old,... steam plant. It was originally built in 1916 and was coal fired, and over the years it was powered by wood, natural gas and oil. It provided Spokane with heat until 1986 when it finally shut down.

Some brilliant entrepreneur turned it into an amazing restaurant, almost like a small museum. You can still wander the cat walks that are high over the tables, and peer up into the smoke stacks. There are what seems like old metal staircases and corridors everywhere, most of them you can explore, but I'm not sure if I'd like to be there after hours or not, it almost feels like it could be haunted.

The menu is pretty extensive and they have what appears to be a great micro-brew onsite, with a pub. We didn't check that out, we just had dinner, which was a fantastic pasta with mushrooms (all sorts) and asparagus in a wine sauce. Really tasty.