Road Trip 3 -- Friends in Beautiful Places

Murphys, Ca. -- From Coos Bay north along the Oregon coast is an endless encounter with beautiful beaches, ocean, cliffs, trees and a great place to visit old friends.
The next few days of our journey in our white VW van "Snowflake" took us to a reunion with a former Bee colleague after almost 20 years, and a graduate school classmate we first met in Michigan 40 years ago.
Getting there was half the fun.

Just another beautiful stretch of coast

The drive along the coast continued to stun and entertain us. Oregon is truly a wonderful place, exactly as I pictured it when I wrote a sixth-grade paper on "Oregon the Green State."
Near Winchester Bay we diverted briefly to see the Umpqua Lighthouse, tucked inside a state park and next door to the Coast Guard Station. Every one of these picturesque lighthouses has dramatic stories to tell of storms on the ocean, boats in danger  and people lost or saved by the efforts of the keepers. 
Being a lighthouse keeper was much like the military. Uniforms were required, and inspectors could show up at any time to make sure the  cap was on the head properly and the requirements for precision were met.

But we just looked,and drove on. Past Florence, Yachata and Seal Rock.  Tourists and retirees and people who avoid big cities live in these places today. Once in a while we would spot a lumber mill on a river, but the dominance of logging has given way to a new economy based on multiple endeavors, particularly tourism, and the company towns are disappearing.

Dave and Cheri Hill at home

The "welcome mat" was out

Our destination was the small town of Gleneden Beach, near Lincoln City, where a former newspaper colleague Dave Hill has retired with his wife Cheri and his carefully kept Porsche.   Dave held various editor slots at The Modesto Bee, eventually became the editor of the Merced Sun-Star before retiring a couple of years ago.
Always lovers of the northern coasts, they found their dream retirement home on a ridge overlooking the ocean in a resort development called Salishan.
The Hills had just finished hosting a large family reunion, and we got to meet family members recently retired from the military, ready to head off on a one year adventure touring America in a motor home with their children. The first stop would be Alaska, a dream we share.
Their niece is skilled at doing facials and skin treatments so she provided one for all the women and girls, which provided a good evening of entertainment. The men declined.

A special treat: a facial

The Hill's new home is pretty awesome. Perched on a hilltop near the ocean, surrounded by big trees, and part of the Salishan  Resort complex that includes a golf course and clubhouse with a restaurant and bar and  anything else you might want.


  Dave took me  downstairs in their home where they have a big room for entertainment, pulled out his guitar and started serenading me. It turns out he has taken guitar lessons in retirement, loves folk music, and was happy to share his new skills.



Showing us the area the second day they took us straight to a nearby town where the sidewalk edges the bay, which was active with  whales. It was a first for us, standing within 50 yards of these wonderful animals, rolling and blowing while they found food among the kelp.

There's whales out there - somewhere

I could not capture the whales on camera, but I got one of Dave, Pat and Cheri looking for more whales. (I violated a rule not to take butt shots, but it was all I could see.)

After two great days and nights with the Hills we loaded up once more, and drove north heading for more friends. The destination was Seattle and I was worried about how lousy the traffic there would be.
Then we ran into Portland. We had managed to drive around the south side of town and avoid some traffic, but when we got on the freeway just into Washington state everything came to a stop. It turned out that the highway department was working on a  bridge on the freeway, routing bumper-to-bumper traffic off the road onto a long slow detour. After almost two hours edging along, and just before reaching the detour, they reopened the road and we drove fairly easily through downtown Seattle during rush hour.





Our destination was the home of Warren and Marsha King, both former writers at the Seattle Times newspaper, now retired. 

LaMonts and Kings in Seattle

We first met when Warren and I were National Endowment for the Humanities Fellows at Michigan in 1977. It was a program actually initiated by the university and  federal government to provide mid-career journalists with a chance to go back to school for a year. We were lucky enough to win the competition along with 12 other American fellows and two international fellows. (The program continues today with private foundation financing.)
Warren was for many years the senior medical writer for the newspaper, one of the first to cover the AIDS epidemic. Marsha developed one of the first assignments at any metro paper specializing in the interests and needs and lives of older Americans.  Both did ground-breaking work that helped people, enhanced the reputation of their newspaper and were "award winning" as the papers like to say.

We became good friends in Michigan, sharing a lot of classes and seminars and spare time together. At the time Pat and I had our seven-year-old daughter Ruth and one-year-old adopted baby Zack, and they were investigating adoption. Like good reporters, they made an appointment, interviewed us throughly, took notes and then went home an adopted their beautiful oldest daughter. 
Since those years we have visited each other, watched the children grow and the grandchildren arrive, sailed in the San Juan Islands and San Francisco Bay, and shared lots of good meals and stories. Warren tells tales from his brief Navy career, and Marsha is a compassionate person and story teller.

We shared a meal with their younger daughter ( recently returned from social work in Sudan) and her beautiful baby, went off to a motel to get a good nights sleep, and took off together for sightseeing the next morning.
We went to the locks that connect Puget Sound to Lake Washington, watched the parade of boats for a while, and then visited the salmon ladders nearby. From there you can see the salmon as they work their way through the man-made ladders to get to spawning ground upstream. It was sort of a chance to invade salmon privacy, up close and real.
We discussed returning the Pikes Place Market where we had been together in years past, but decided watching fish fly was not enough incentive to test the traffic.
A day of visiting and checking out their home area ended with dinner on the waterfront where we were joined by the younger daughter and her child. A perfect ending, sunset and all, to a happy visit.
As we were getting ready to leave they delivered a couple of bottles of wine as a parting gift. Wine and good friends get better with age.

Warren likes to point out that I am  older than he is -- by three days.  I cannot deny it. He's taller too.

Next on our journey: Heading east through Washington and Idaho into Montana.

Road Trip -- Coasting Oregon toward Seattle

Murphys, Ca -- We ended our   week of camping on the North Coast of California on a Saturday and headed north following Route 101 along the ocean.

The trip took us past California's Prairie Creek State Park where we first met Banana Slugs 30 years earlier, and we spotted a few herds of elk grazing in fields along the roadside.
As we left California we could see off to the South dark smoke moving out over the ocean, a sign of the fires that were just beginning to ravage the west coast. It was the last time we would see that for the next two weeks.

Saturday is not the best day to look for a motel room on one of the busiest vacation weeks of the year, but we landed in a soft bed in a clean room in Gold Beach, Oregon, just a block or so away from the Rogue River and about 40 miles above the state line.

Gold Beach is not close to any major population area, but it is popular for fishing and camping, jet boat trips up the river and great scenic views.

We like it as a good spot to clean up, take care of some minor restocking of food supplies for the camper van, and good places to eat.  On our last trip through town we ate dinner at an all-you-can-eat fundraiser for the local high school, but we missed that this year.

We stayed in a 1970's-styled motel, refurbished, clean and available, just off the main drag. The place we stayed before, right on the river, was booked solid. The new/old motel had the added charm of a fenced-in backyard just outside our window filled with chickens. The people were courteous. The room was ample and not too expensive. Just right.

We are particularly fond of a breakfast cafe and bookstore we found on an earlier trip on this route. You can get fresh brewed coffee, bagels or burritos and a big variety of books and other readables all in one place. The customers included us, a few other tourists, fishermen and a Sunday school class of teenagers getting ready for church.

Books and coffee in Gold Beach

We headed north, primarily because there was no room in the inn for a second night in town, so  we took our time along the spectacular Oregon coast. It's hard to describe how each turn in the road brings another spectacular cliff over the ocean, or a sandy strip of beach, or a turnout to a park or a lighthouse.

It is a glorious part of the U.S. that everyone should see. Oregon loves visitors, and treats visitors and residents to an amazing number of parks, large and small, scattered along the coastal road. It seems there is a chance to stop and look every mile or two, and a campground or state park every ten miles or so. Even so, it was peak vacation season and the road was busy and the stops fairly busy with people -- not crowded, just busy.

Out by the rocks is a marine sanctuary

There are so many lighthouses along this coast, maintained primarily as historical sites now that GPS navigation rules the waves, that you could spend a week and never see them all.

We stopped briefly at Umpqua Lighthouse where our in-laws had served as volunteers, but stopped and explored at Cape Blanco which showed on the map as being on a point out over the ocean. It probably was, but when we got there a blanket of fog had rolled in, the wind was howling off the  cold ocean, and we only had the sound of waves crashing on the cliffs below to assure us the water was there. It did not matter, it was still spectacular.

Pat walks to the lighthouse at Cape Blanco

The docents were well-informed and helpful, full of history and enthusiasm for their beautiful part of the world.

The coast is thinly populated in this area, but towns such as Sixes, Langlois, Bandon and Port Orford offer anything a visitor could want.

We took our time and arrived in Coos Bay, a larger and somewhat industrial town, in the afternoon, found a motel room and settled in.

Here a happy surprise caught up with us, thanks to Facebook. We discovered that old friends and colleagues from The Modesto Bee -- Bob and Becky Bazemore -- were in Oregon working at their jobs for the Good Sams Club.  Basically, they travel in their very large RV all over Oregon and evaluate Recreational Vehicle Parks for the organization. Their "home" near Coos Bay was right on the beach at a town called Charlestown, and they just happened to know of a good place to eat seafood.
A meeting, as they say, was quickly arranged.

The place, Jack's Crab Shack, was closing soon so they went ahead, got a table and arranged for beer while we drove over to meet them. We were the last customers in the place, and the hosts were gracious and the food delicious. Bob ad I both had Dungeness  Crabs and Becky and Pat had the Crab Cakes. It was the real deal, a great meal and a great reunion.

Bob and Becky love what they do, traveling much of the year, some for work and some for pleasure. They live in a giant 45 foot motor home with their happy dog. They spend part of the year working in Oregon, part traveling to see daughters and grandchildren, and part hanging out with friends in the Florida Keys. They both look 20 years younger: trim, fit and tanned. They took an early retirement from The Bee more than 20 years ago, and have clearly been living the good life on coasts, ski resorts and Alaska -- wherever the spirit moves them.

The dog in Becky's lap was eating Bob's ear -- no damage done

Back when Bob was a city editor at The Bee, and Becky a reporter, he gave me the best ski lessons I ever had -- all in one weekend day. I never became an expert -- he had been on ski patrol -- but he helped me move from novice to comfortable intermediate as a skier and I always will be grateful.
It was a great mini-reunion, which we hope to continue in the Fall.

After  a big seafood dinner, a lot of catching up on families and friends, we got another night's rest ad headed north again.
Next: More coasts, more friends waiting.

Road Trip -- Part One

Pat in our van "Snowflake"

Murphys, Ca -- If you can temporarily cut the ties that hold you down, you could take a road trip.
Pat and I did that and enjoyed almost every one of the 3,000 plus miles traveled in 24 days through seven states of the beautiful  Northwestern U.S.
The trip started with a week on the California north coast, then easing along the Oregon coast and on to Seattle.  Then to see family we turned east for a few days and ended up in Montana, then back south toward home through Yellowstone and the Tetons, and smoky Utah.
We made the trip in our new-to-us 2002 Volkswagen Eurovan, and camped about half the time and stayed with friends and family or in motels along the way.
The good news: all went well. It was a real vacation.

There is no bad news.



Here is what we saw for a week:

The ocean is never far away

One of many hiking trails

Cynics might suggest that retirees do not need a vacation. Au contraire, my friends. We get just as married to our calendars and schedules and meetings and obligations as we did when working every day. Not to mention the every-present computers and iPhones that seem to suck our brains out. But then, there is a beach.

A view of Agate Beach from our campground

The journey began with a reasonable travel day from Murphys to Garberville, a small funky town just into the edge of the Costal Redwood territory of the north coast. If you have never been to Garberville,  check it out. It is welcoming, consistent and a little strange.
The strange part is the mix of people on the streets, actually one street carrying Highway 101 through town.  It is a town that sees a lot of travelers, and many of them have dirty backpacks, rumpled clothing and look as if they just stepped out of the woods. They hang out near the grocery store, sitting in the shade, waiting for something. They are mostly young, non-threatening, not too clean and  sometimes a little on the strange side. The old joke "They are not like us'" probably should be turned around to "We are not like them" to be fair. Are they just happy travelers with a backpack and a friend and a yen to see the world, or maybe part-time employees at a local pot farm? We'll never know.
The good part of Garberville is plenty of moderately-priced places to stay (plan ahead in peak season) and a great little restaurant that we found, for the second time, that provides good Italian food and has a fiddler on the balcony overhead playing every tune he knows, Local color, plus red wine.

Our destination for the first week of travel was Patrick's Point State Park, one of the gems in the California park system.
Perched on a high bluff above the Pacific Ocean, it offers a variety of campsites (sunny or shady, warm or cold), a perfect climate (fog in the morning, sunshine the rest of the day, and temperatures in the 70s),  and great hikes and interesting towns nearby.

Tidal pools a few steps down the bluff

We always camp near the trail down to Agate Beach, a gorgeous stretch of beach known by gem lovers and those who simply want to look at the ocean. (Note to non-Californians: people do not generally swim in the ocean here. It is too cold and somewhat dangerous unless you know where exactly to go.)

The trail south along the coast

We were lucky enough to join our daughter, her family and in-laws (Grays and Todds) for a week of family, outdoor living, good food and great companions. At least 24 people made up our band of relatives.
The hikes along the park's bluff are spectacular, with  views of the ocean every few steps, side trails to tidal pools, and no crowds.
The small closest coastal towns  -- Trinidad and Arcata -- provide everything you need, obviously at tourist prices, but are well worth a visit. It is also a short drive to a park with a resident elk heard, and not far from an Indian casino so there is something for everyone. There is  even a local brewery nearby.

Reliving my past in an Aracata music store

I did not take notes, or many pictures, because the whole point of our week was relaxing.
With extended family surrounding us we spent a lot of time visiting,  catching up, playing cribbage, eating other people's food, playing games, hiking, sleeping, reading and just being.

A "chain gang" is required when one of the Todd family shows up with a load of firewood

For us it is a big family event, one to which we feel welcomed by all my son-in-law's family. One night a relative we had never met showed up, grilled burgers, and fed everybody. Our son-in-law cooked fritatas for breakfast while his dad grilled linguica. His mom cooked Portuguese beans for everybody. We cooked salmon over the fire.
On our final day Uncle Bob Todd  came through the campground collecting everyone's leftovers, cooked them into a great camp stew for the final night's dinner. He flavored it with Bloody Mary mix which was the perfect touch.

Uncle Bob insisted everyone play "Old Fart Baseball"

It was an absolutely lovely week, touching base again with people we care for but do not see very often, visiting a place that is beautiful and cool and welcoming, and relaxing.

The  best thing we did? Stayed in one place for a week so we could really unwind.
There was no  worst part.

Next: Travel along the coast of Oregon to see old newspaper friends, and then to Seattle for a reunion of sorts with  classmates from graduate school.