Cortez, CO - next to the hot spot, Durango (which was expensive and not dog-friendly). Stayed the night and then went to Mesa Verde National Park. If you're ever in CO, this is one place to put on your must-see list.
Page, AZ - here we stayed with our great friends, John and Bea. They live on Lake Powell and we spent one day out on their boat on the lake. Beautiful day in a beautiful place with beautiful people.
While on our way out of Arizona to California, we took a little detour through Zion National Park on our way to stay in Nevada. Of course we had to detour because Zion was kinda-sorta on the way and who can resist.
Elko, NV - this was a surprise. It was a stop-over, but we found a dog-friendly pub and met the owner, Scott, who bought us drinks. We also got coffee from a great little coffee shop. It's a mining and ranching town, but there was a lot to do if you need to stay more than one day in this town tucked away in the Northeast corner of Nevada. On our way out of town, while driving on the highway, we saw two antelope males facing off in a field on the side of the road. As we drove by, the one closest to the highway started to charge at the other in a fight for territory or females. I'm guessing they were fighting over girls.
Susanville, CA - stopped here for the night on our way to the coast. On our way out, we stopped at Lassan National Park. Lassan still had snow (what, what???!!!) and part of the road was closed while the parks service was still trying to clear it. Lassan is a volcano that, appa
rently, is still active and could go any time. It was another surprise on this trip as we had no idea this park was here until we booked the room and it is a stunning park. I recommend if you travel around the country, look up all the national parks, as well as state parks. There are some interesting ones to be found.
This last picture is the volcano. Still active - or could be any time.
Eureka, CA - not what we expected. We were here two days. Everything looked like it was stuck in the 70s (that could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it). They are reviving their downtown and we had dinner at Cafe Nooner, a place that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives because it had an outside patio and we could sit with the dog. The downtown was quaint and there were two bookstores, some clothing stores, and restaurants, as well as a theater that was advertising a local play. Oh, Lost Coast Brewery has their brewpub here. Cass and I stopped there for a beer. We also went to Six Rivers Brewery and had a delicious flight and then a combo beer of their Chili IPA with their Raspberry Lambic. Sweet and spicy! While here we went to see the redwoods. We looked for Bigfoot, but he was as elusive as ever. We settled for gazing at redwoods that are quite humbling when you think about it. Some of them are 1,000 years old.
Waldport, OR - beautiful little beach town among many little beach towns along Rt. 101. The water is colder and very few people are on the beaches hanging out like they do in Wilmington. Maybe because it has been, on average, 60 degrees. Not really bathing suit weather (for me at least). We drove on 101 to get here and to most of our destinations around Waldport, which is the scenic route. We saw a lot of people on bicycles riding down from Washington. According to my sister, this is a trip a lot of people take. We saw one family of four and the kids looked like they were no older than eleven. They were all winning at life. What a great family trip!
So in the beginning of my post, I said we were here. We are, but at the end of the trip. Tomorrow we leave. We packed a lot in. Unfortunately, where Waldport is located, we had to drive at least 1 1/2 hours to get to anything we wanted to see. Some of the highlights of this week in Waldport were:
Depoe Bay where we saw gray whales, driving the Three Capes Scenic Loop and seeing the smallest lighthouse in Cape Meares, going into the Devil's Punchbowl (which Cass called the Devil's Washing machine because if you got caught in it you would have to be rescued by the Coast Guard), went to Blue Heron French Creamery and Tillamook Creamery (Blue Heron was the better of the two), went to several breweries - Block 15, Yachats Brewing and Farmstore (which was amazing), Pelican Brewery, and one winery - Airlie Winery - where Mom sampled some Willamette Valley Wines and ordered a case to be shipped. According to a woman also sampling wine, Willamette Valley is known for its Pinot Noir wine. Saw sunsets every night and one night saw seals. It was a great, lazy vacation, but I think if I come back I would stay in different areas for a few nights, traveling around the state so I could see Eugene and Portland. Tomorrow we leave for home, headed to Boise, Idaho. We'll stop halfway in Bend, OR. Looking forward to getting back to Wilmington.
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