Monthly Archives: July 2016

When we were planning this trip, our friend Christie Morrow told us about a place we needed to see and Spokane happened to be within 50 miles so that was the plan for today.  We were headed to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to check out the lake, the shops, the restaurants and anything else we find.

view from boat dock

Once we got there, we decided the best way to see the lake was on the lake so we got tickets for a 90minute boat ride.  First we stopped into the Collective Kitchen and had a wonderful lunch.  I had a salad of arugula with candied baby beets, grilled salmon and goat cheese and Jim had fish tacos with sweet potato fries.  Now off to the ship.

View of Sherman Ave in Coeur D’Alene from patio where we ate lunch

The lake itself is just under 50 acres and is ranked within the top three cleanest lakes in the US.  The vistas are a perfect blend of water, mountains, and trees with rocky shores and some man made beaches.  The city itself is the main hub and the lake boasts about 135 miles of shore line that include a State Park, gated communities, and luxury condos with 6300 square feet each next to the famed Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course (Golf Digest’s “Best Conditioned Course”) with its famous floating golf green on the 14th hole.  They can actually move this hole anywhere from 75 to 150 feet from the tee.

Golf Course at Lake Coeur d’Alene

Floating hole #14

After you tee off, they take you by boat to the green to finish the hole.  If the water intimidates you and you miss the green, you get two shots to try and they you are required to lay up.

There was one section that boasted of a being so elite, there were four big houses that had formed their own gated community within a gated community.  Now that is exclusive.

Large private home on Lake Coeur d’Alene

That sail boat you see parked at the end of the dock is custom made.

One really interesting house was built into and on a rock as a guest house but later sold separately.  The current owners come out to wave to the cruise ships and arrived after this picture was taken.

House on the Rock – Lake Coeur d’Alene

Homes along shoreline of Lake Coeur D’Alene

One final view from the ship was the bridge expanse over the lake on I 90.

I-90 bridge over Lake Coeur d’Alene

This will be the bridge we drive over on Monday to get to our next destination.  I hope it isn’t as scary looking from up there!

RV park in Spokane, WA

We left the desert of Kennewick, Washington and moved north to Spokane.  Actually, we are in North Spokane past all the city stuff and more in the country.  The weather is inflicting us with those 95-100 degree temperature but the humidity is 30% and it really doesn’t seem that hot.  According to the brochures, there is lots to do here so we made a plan.

At Frank’s Diner, the railroad car restaurant, the waitress told us we had to go to GreenBluff which is an unincorporated town sitting on a plateau.

Orchards in Green Bluff

The big claim to fame of this town is that over 50 family farms on this plateau have formed an affiliation and open to the public, local and travelers, to sell their produce either picked or u-pick.  There are farms specializing in every thing from Christmas trees to herbs.  Our first stop was a lavender farm called Fleur de Provence Lavender Farm.  The owner came to greet us and told us all about the culinery vs the oil types of lavender and even gave us a bundle to put in our RV.  Very gracious!

Lavender farm in Green Bluff, WA

We spent the next few hours traveling the two loops visiting farms.  We found out that cherries are all gone and the crop right now is peaches, apricots and blueberries.  We stopped at the Hansen Farm and decided to do some u-pick peaches and blueberries.

Large sweet blueberries

Jim picking peaches at Hanson’s Orchard – Green Bluff, WA

One farm, the Harvest House has actually turned into a destination with bakery goods, drinks and lunch items.

We took the fruit home and then headed to the Spokane Riverfront Park.  The first order of business had to be lunch or I was going to faint.  It was close to 2 pm.  Lucky us, we found a great restaurant with outdoor seating, (remember low humidity).  Jim ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with apple slices and onion which looked and sounded good to me.  No picture because we were so hungry, we just ate as soon as the food was delivered.

Just up the street from the restaurant was the park, well within walking distance.  This park is over 100 acres of urban park originally property owned by the Great Northern  Railroad and donated and converted in 1974 for Expo ’74.

Butterfly sculpture left over from Expo in 1974

 Clock Tower in Riverfront Park – Spokane, WA

This is a beautiful park with lots to do and see including a historic carrousel ride, IMAX theatre, a park tour train ride and a Skyride tram that takes you to a viewing point of the falls on the Spokane River.  We opted for the train ride which gave us  a general overview of the park and then we walked to the falls.

Water Falls in Riverfront Park – Spokane, WA

There were young people everywhere in the park and everyone of them had their cell phones out.  According to Fitbit, the walk to the base of the falls and back up was the equivalent of 15 fights of stairs.

Also in that general area is the Davenport Hotel once a 5 star hotel that had been allowed to fall into disrepair and in the last five years been totally restored as close to the original as possible.  We thought a coffee would be a good idea and we could see the hotel and relax for a few minutes at the same time.

Street view of Davenport Hotel originally opened in 1914

Lobby of Davenport Hotel – Downtown Spokane

On our way back to the RV we had to stop and get some vanilla ice cream to go with those peaches we picked earlier in the day.

It may sound weird, but we had to take a rest from having fun.  We left Eugene on Tuesday morning and drove North to Kennewick, Washington to a really nice park and did nothingfor two days.  No sightseeing.  No fancy dinners.  No shopping.  Just pure R & R.                                                          Campground in Kennewick, WA

It helped that there isn’t anything to see or do in Kennewick, or anywhere nearby either.  Once we got over the mountain, the views changed drastically.  We went from lush evergreens an river views to desert-type views.

And we went from low 50 degree temperatures at night and highs in the high 70’s to high 60’s at night to high 90’s to 100 degrees in the day.  Since we had experienced such cloudy, damp temperatures on the Oregon coast for so long, the warm temperatures actually felt good.

Today we arrived in Spokane, Washington to almost the same temperatures but lots more to see and do.  Just across the street from our brand new RV Park is a diner that renovated a turn of the century railroad car as its main dining area.  Besides having really good food, the interior is beautiful.                                                      Frank’s Diner in the Train Car

We missed the opportunity to take a picture of Jim’s lunch but maybe the description will be enough.  It was called the Conductor Derailer and consisted of two extra large eggs with sausage patties, hash browns with gravy and a Belgian waffle with whipped cream and fresh strawberries.   He did manage to eat most of it too.

We are making plans tonight to try to fit in all the fun things to see and do in this beautiful city.

It seemed like a missed opportunity to come all the way to Oregon and not see the remainder of the Oregon coast, so that was our plan for our last day in Eugene.  We set out early enough to be in Reedsport for lunch where Jim had a Seafood Pot Pie filled with every manner of seafood in a light cream sauce covered by a light crust top and I had a halibut burger with capers and avocado.  Just right to give us the energy for our day’s adventure.

Downtown Reedsport, OR

Woodcarving Place in Reedsport, OR Home of Chainsaw carving champion

Just up the road from the restaurant is Dean Creek Elk Viewing Center where they boast of 100 elk living free.  Although we had to come back by on the way home, Jim did get good pictures and we did see a small piece of the herd.

Herd of Elk at Dean Creek Viewing area

As we continued South, we were suddenly confronted with massive sand dunes washed ashore from the Pacific Ocean and blown by the strong winds into huge mounds just off the coast.

There are three lighthouses we decided to add to our rapidly growing list of visited structures.  The first was Umpqua lighthouse.  (You can add that to your list of names to practice your pronunciation skills.)

Umpqua River, Lighthouse near Reedsport, OR

View from Umpqua River Lighthouse

This hilltop is also a whale watching platform and there was a bottom jawbone of a Sperm Whale that was at least 10 feet long and the sign said that means the whale had to be at least 60 feet long.  Just a reminder of how huge these giants of the sea really are.

The next lighthouse was the Arago Lighthouse but as we got closer to the location, you could see and feel the fog roll in from the sea.  We got out of the truck and all we could hear was the barking of either sea lions or seals coming from the rocks.  There had to be a bunch of them because they were really loud but it was  hard to see them.

Rocks off the coast at Aroga Lighthouse, seals on rocks

seal on rocks at Cape Arago Lighthouse

Then we got this picture of the lighthouse!

View of Cape Arago Lighthouse socked in by fog

Don’t be surprised if you can’t see the lighthouse, we couldn’t either.

The last lighthouse to visit was the Coquille Lighthouse which is no longer active and the lense is reported to be at the bottom of the Coquille River.

Coquille River Lighthouse – near Bandon, OR

Tomorrow we leave for Kennewick, Washington where we will catch up to your 95 degree temperatures.

This is such a nice park and the weather so perfect that we decided this afternoon we would do the “camper” thing.  That included relaxing in lounge chairs and reading, then going for a long hike around the park which took us to a fast moving rock-bottomed river filled with Oregonians with their white bodies in bathing suits.  The weather here is more moderate than I thought with little snow, but cloudy is the more the norm.

Then we grilled a nice piece of halibut we bought at Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle seasoned with dill, lemon, garlic vinegar  and summer squash and zucchini we bought at the Market yesterday.

Then after dinner it was my turn to cut Jim’s hair!

Finally dessert was a small marionberry pie also bought at the Market.

Kinda a nice day.  No wonder all these people flock to State Parks every weekend.

Eagle’s nest on old railroad bridge near Armitage RV Park

Eugene, Oregon is a city of about 157,000 people and home of the University of Oregon, but it has turned out to be one of the nicest places this trip.  The State Park  we are staying in has RV sites that are big and open so we are not cramped in but have plenty of privacy.

Last night we found a restaurant called Cafe 440 that was a true anomaly.  The Host who took our name, although really busy cleaning tables and seating people, was very personable when we did get a table asking us if we had been there before and where we were from.  He in turn, gave that information to our server who continued the conversation and was every bit as friendly, while also being extremely busy.  It didn’t take much extra time, but we felt we were going to our favorite restaurant where they knew us well.  The food was delicious as well, which is maybe why this place was packed with a waiting list.

After dinner “we made fire” and enjoyed our peaceful home away from home.

Campfire at Armitage Campground – Eugene, OR

This morning we decided to visit their Farm Market and get some fruit and vegetables.  What we discovered were four blocks of booths set up with every craft, food, and jewelry you could imagine.  In the parking lot we ran into a woman who occasionally comes to this market from her home in Northern California as a day trip.  I call that well attended.  Check out how good these berries we bought look and they taste even better than they look.

Fresh Berries from Farmer’s Market – Downtown Eugene, OR

After lunch, we found another “best” of Eugene, called the Owen Rose Garden.  This garden included almost 100 varieties of roses that were beautiful.  Climbers surround the perimeter of the garden and beds of 8-20 bushes formed  two rows in a circle.

Entry way to Owens Rose Garden – Eugene, OR

In the center of the garden was this huge tree supported with all kinds of wires and braces keeping it from cracking from the shear weight of itself.

Black Tartarian Cherry Tree – 150 yrs old

Owen Rose Garden

After the Rose Garden, we made our way to the oldest park in Eugene with 78 acres of trails for some hiking.  Huge trees and native flowers at every turn made this a fun afternoon, even though I did check with Google to see what snakes lived in this neighborhood.

MG holding up a Douglas Fir

Douglas Fir

White wild flower along path

Cone shaped Hydrangea

White flower along the path – 4 o’clock

Lace Capped Hydrangea

Large Douglas Fir Trees in Hendricks Park – Eugene, OR

Wild flowers along the path in Hendricks Park

By the way, I did get my 10,000 steps in today.

I think today is one of my favorite days of this trip.  First of all, we didn’t have to leave early so I was able to do some things around the RV before we left.  Secondly, we finally found a meal to entice our Foodie Friends and us alike.

We arrived in Eugene, Oregon yesterday to a comfortable sunny day with soft breezes and found our RV Park to be a State Park with large sites and with full amenities.RV site in Armitage County Park -Eugene, OR

The combination of location and weather immediately made me happy.

Today the weather was supposed to be similar to yesterday so we thought it would be a good idea to take up where we left off on the Oregon coast the other day.  We stopped at Tillamook and thought we would pick up again at Newport.

By the way I have more Native American names for you to practice.  Try Yaquina, Yachats, Nehalem, and one of my favorites, Tokatee Klootchman.

In Newport we found a retail fish market that gradually became a restaurant and served the most interesting and delicious food we think we found so far.

Restaurant in Newport, OR

View of Newport Harbor from Local Ocean Seafoods restaurant

Absolutely a “best”.  Look at this presentation.

Dungeness Crab Soup

Fish Wives Stew at Local Ocean Seafoods Rest

Black Cod on Sweet Potatoes, Beans & Spinach

Believe me when I tell you it tasted as good as it looks!  By the way, the weather on the coast turned out to be more usual Oregon weather of cloudy low 60 degrees.

Then we backtracked to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse to be delighted by some of our “best” nature sightings yet.  The rocks along the coast were covered with sea birds of all varieties and had been for a long time (based on the white smudges all over the rocks).

View of Cove from Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Yaquina Head Lighthouse – Newport, OR

Thousands of Murres on rocks and flying all around

I was using our binoculars and noticed some of the lighter colored creatures were not birds but Harbor Seal pups.  There they were just laying about without a care in the world.

Seals on rocks off Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Then we were told that there were whale sightings all week and we started looking for them.  Being a big city kid from NY I was looking for whales breaching out of he water like Florida mullet jump.  Then I saw the spray.   This mist of water puffs up and thought, Oh big Whoop!

Whale off Yaquina Head Lighthouse

We watched several more of these puffs and then I noticed after the puff came a black ridge and realized that was the whale diving back down.    Then it occurred to me that the length of time the black ridge stayed on the surface was an indication of just how big the whale was because you saw the ridge from head to just short of the tale.  I counted most ridges remaining about 4 seconds which could be a big whale.  My education was painfully slow.

Finally, just before we left, we saw the puff, the ridge and then the tail.  Unfortunately the camera was not poised and we missed the shot.  You’ll just have to picture it.

Here are the pictures from our other stops which I think were beautiful.

View of coastline from Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Tide pools at Yachats State Park

Heveta Head Lighthouse – Florence, OR

View of coastline from Heveta Head Lighthouse

Finally about 7:30 pm we were lighthouse and beach coast weary and decided to head back to the RV happy with our day.

We had a slow start because Jim had to take the truck to the dealership early this morning, but once we got started to was a jammed packed day.  We found a single highway that runs from the Canadian border all the way to the Mexican border all along the coast and that was our destination.

The Columbia River runs east and west along the border between Washington and Oregon, and then runs out into the Pacific Ocean at Astoria.  Astoria dates back to 1792 and is considered one of the oldest cities in the west,  before Lewis and Clark made their way here to explore the Pacific Northwest.  This Astoria-Megler Bridge is four miles long connecting Washington and Oregon and considered the second longest continuous three-span, through-truss bridge in the world.

Bridge connecting Washington and Oregon over Columbia River – Astoria, OR

The bridge spans over the Columbia so our first real sighting of the Pacific Ocean was when we stopped at Mo’s for clam chowder.

Mo’s Chowder Restaurant – Cannon Beach, OR

It was a good hair day so I let him take a picture of me.

This is what our view was as we ate lunch on the deck.  Evidently this is a favorite of Oregonians and visitors alike.  There were people all over the beach and several really pretty kites being flown.

Rock Formation at Cannon Beach

Grilled Halibut – Mo’s Seafood Restaurant

After lunch, we continued south looking for more beautiful coastal beaches and two lighthouses.  The Tillamook Rock Lighthouse sits on a rock formation out in the water off the coast of the Cannon Beach.  These Native American names have been giving our pronunciation skills a workout.  Try saying Multnomah, Tualatin, and Tillamook fast, then try Nehalem, Netarts and Neskowin.

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse in the distance

View of Pacific from Ecola State Park, Oregon

The Ecola State Park was actually named by Lewis and Clark  after the Chinook Indian word “ekoli” for whale.

If you look hard in this next picture you can see black and white Murres nestled in the rocks.  At first we thought they might be Puffins, but a sign soon corrected us.

Murres on rocks off Ecola State Park

View of landscape from Ecola State Park

Onward farther south to find the Cape Meares Lighthouse.  They certainly don’t like to put these lighthouses in places that are easy to find or get to.  The winding road with all manner of switchbacks and tight turns made us really glad we weren’t dragging our RV behind us.  But oh was it worth it when we got there.

View of cliffs at Cape Mears Lighthouse

Cape Mears Lighthouse near Tillamook, OR

View of coastline from Cape Mears Lighthouse

This tree is called the “Octopus Tree” and is estimated to be 350 – 400 years old.  They don’t know whether it grew like this naturally or if the Indians did something to promote it but check out the base of this tree.  There are six trees growing out from the root and each one curves upward.

Check out the whole in the base of the largest rock.  We didn’t get home until after 9 pm after a dinner at Subway at 8, but I’m so glad we went.  By the way, did you notice once we got past the mountains we actually had sun.

Tomorrow we move farther south and a little closer to the Central Coast of Oregon.  Plenty more to come!

Another cloudy day today, so we decided to just ride around the agricultural valley and see some sights.

Vineyard in Tualatin Valley near Portland

Not sure what this is.

Clover in Tualatin Valley

Apple Orchard in Tualatin Valley

Apple tree with fruit growing

Nice easy day!