Driving trip to Oregon, July 17-25, 2017

Mary Ann and I drove to Portland in July. We drove because we wanted to transport some ‘stuff’ back home in our car, and decided to make an ‘adventure’ of it on the way.

We left early Monday morning on July 17. We had a minor catastrophe when our old faithful car top carrier (very old, and not so faithful anymore) popped open and sent a duffel bag with shoes and camera accessories bouncing along the freeway at 75 mph. We recovered from this (long story – the major fatality was my binoculars), but were delayed on our trip by about three hours. We arrived in Monterey and checked in to our Super 8 motel at about 11 pm.

On Tuesday morning we checked out, and spent the morning at the Point Pintos area of the Monterey Peninsula. It’s very beautiful there. In the afternoon we went to Fisherman’s Wharf and had lunch at Crab Louie’s, and walked around the wharf. Next we drove to Salinas to see Sam, and stayed the night at the Super 8 in Salinas.

Wednesday morning we headed out for a 13 hour drive to Rockaway Beach Oregon. We checked in to the Tradewinds Motel at about 10:15 PM.

Thursday morning we ate breakfast at Grumpy’s, and hiked on Rockaway Beach. In the afternoon we visited Manzanita Beach. That evening, we photographed the sunset. I used a photographer’s ephemeris app in my phone (called ‘Plan It!’) to tell me where I needed to be on the beach so that the setting sun lined up with Twin Rocks. I took a ton of pictures of the setting sun. I included 4 of them (sorry so many) of different phases of the sunset.

On Friday we ate breakfast at Grumpy’s again, spent some more time on the beach, and then headed up to Portland, arriving at about 2:30 pm. We stayed at Bob and Terry’s (thanks!). I went with Bob to the Tualitan River National Wildlife Reserve and ‘helped’ him collect data for the Prescott Western Bluebird Recovery project. We came home to a nice dinner at Terry and Bob’s. We visited Ricci, who was watching the twins, and then went to Jim and Felicia’s.

On Saturday Mary Ann and I went over to Bob and Garnet’s and visited (Danny was also home). We had lunch from the famous culinary destination of ‘Angel’s Food and Fun’. But, seriously, it was very good and authentic Mexican food. Big Bob, Little Bob, and I went golfing at Rose City Golf Course. It was a lot of fun. We also loaded up the Forester with the ‘stuff’ that we were transporting back home. That night Mary Ann and Terry cooked one of Mary Ann’s recipes for another great dinner, where we were joined by Ricci.

On Sunday we went to Mass with Jim and Felicia and the girls, and then had a fantastic late breakfast at their house. That afternoon we went to a family gathering at Tony and Christy’s. Thanks Tony and Christy. It was a great party, with great people, and great food.

Monday morning we headed back home for the first leg of the trip, which was a 13 hour drive to Tulare, California. We hit a lot of road construction on the interstate, and also congestion in Sacramento. Tuesday we made the last leg of the trip (approximately 8 hours) with smooth sailing the whole way.

Total miles for the trip: 3059.

I have the pictures in three galleries. First from the family party:

Then from Monterey:

And then from Rockaway and Manzanita, with a Mt Shasta picture thrown in: