Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls was a very nice sight to visit. A lovely waterfall and a trail that takes you down to the bottom of the falls for another view. Hiked the trail down twice, once in the evening and once in the early morning. The early morning hike was very peaceful, I was the only person on the trail. Even though the falls was nice, I am a little disappointed that we stopped there instead of Baker City in East Oregon. Baker City has an Interpretive Center for the Oregon Trail, and I really wanted to see that and learn more about the Oregon Trail. Oh well, another time.

 

San Juan Islands - Orcas Island

We spent the next three days in Orcas Island. Because the ferry is first come first serve, we had to get up and leave by 6:00am to make sure we have a spot for the ferry to Orcas Island. It certainly was a beautiful place to visit, and the ferry ride over was equally beautiful. First day was really spent just getting there and having an amazing dinner at the Moran Mansion. I was really looking forward to a hike around the lake nearby in the morning, but I rained most of the next day. However, I did not let that stop me from working out. I walked in the drizzle the 3/4 mile from my room to the lobby to go to the gym. But, when I got there I found out the "Mansion" doesn't open until 45 more minutes. So I jogged back to my room and did some additional exercise there. I was proud of myself for making an effort even though it was crummy weather.

 

Did finally make it to the lake, along with going to the local farmers market and shopping and buying a completely unnecessary souvenir.

 

 

View from my room.

 

 

The real highlight was going whale watching to see Orcas. I didn't get to see any Orcas while in Alaska, so it was fabulous seeing a pod of Orcas.

 



Washington State - Seattle

Our next stop was Washington State, mainly Seattle. We did stop off at the Lewis and Clark Visitor and Interpretive Center for an hour to see some displays and to watch a video of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Again, I wish we could have stayed longer and seen more, but it was a long drive to Seattle and we saw all the Astoria sights that same morning before heading north. We arrived into Seattle that night to rain, what did we expect otherwise, it is Seattle. The next day we were on a non-stop mission to see as much as we could in 1 day. Started with a new Underground Seattle tour, that talks about how originally Seattle was built a story lower than it is today, but due to the city burning down and the tides playing havoc with the plumbing system, they rebuilt the city one level higher, but parts of the original underground city still remains. Honestly, it was a major disappointment, we spent 70% of our time above ground, the other tour company that Stephanie and I used years ago was so much better. Anyway, from there we headed on over to Pike Place Market to have lunch. We got to see the first ever Starbucks and "Flying Fish," you know, the fish guys who throw fish around. Then we headed over to the Aquarium, and then on the MOHAI, The Museum of History and Industry, all about Seattle. Again, very interesting, wish I had more time, then next door to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation visitors' center to see what the foundation is up to. Finally, on to the Space Needle for Dinner. A really good dinner, plus you get to watch the city move by as the restaurant moves a full 360 degrees. We finished the night by walking to the Chihuly Garden and Glass, which was one of the neatest museums I have ever seen. You  know the flower like decorations at the top of the ceiling in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, that is Chihuly. Lastly, we took the monorail back to the hotel. An exhausting but fun filled day.

 

Getting ready to go "Underground"

 First Starbucks, notice it is not a green sign.

 

Throwing fish at Pike Place Market

Giant Octopus at the Aquarium

Seals getting a check over, including getting their teeth brushed.

 

Interesting display at the MOHAI Museum

 Space Needle

 

 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitors' Center - This is an amazing thing, sent in the first wave after a disaster.

 

 

This is all blown glass - blows my mind away.

 

Absolutely an amazing thing to see. Probably my most favorite thing so far on the trip. Especially since it was something new.

I did some research and did find out that the beautiful art piece that was hanging in the foyer of the Disney Magic Cruise Ship was also a Chihuly. It is kind of recognizable, so I did wonder, and I was proven correct.

 



Astoria - Hey...You....Guys...

From Portland we headed back to the coast. Along the way we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and went on a free tour and got us some cheese. The process of cheese making was really interesting to see. I wish we could have lingered, but we other places to see. We did get dinner there, mac -n-cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc... There was a cheese cookbook that I wanted to buy, but I knew it wasn't necessary, so I didn't get it. It ended up being a gift to me. I was very happy, I do like my cheese.

 

Yummy, cheese, There was a sampling section at the end of the tour. I liked the sharp and medium cheddar cheese the most, but I ended up buying some garlic white cheese and some goat cheese with wheat thins as a snack.

Then we continued on to Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach is famous for its rock formation call Haystack Rock. Haystack Rock has been used in multiple films, including Goonies and Kindergarten Cop. "Haystack Rock can be seen in the opening scene of The Goonies, when the Fratellis are fleeing from the police and then enter a race on the beach. It can be seen in the background. Later in the film you can see the Haystack Rock again when Mikey is pointing out some rocks in the distance." Talk about bringing back some memories.

Haystack Rock

 

 

Spent the night in Astoria in a great hotel called the Cannery Pier Hotel. This hotel was right along the water, practically under the Astoria Bridge, which is a great looking bridge, that takes you into Washington. This was the location of a major canning operation. There is a picture in the hotel of a warehouse holding 1.5 million cans of salmon waiting to be shipped out. Now the docks are all in ruins, but it was still really cool looking.

 

Docks in ruin

 

The next morning before heading over to Washington, we stopped off at the Astoria Column, which shows that history of Astoria and Oregon. This included talking about Lewis and Clark making it to the Pacific Ocean with the Corps of Discovery. I was really glad we stopped here because it is so significant in Oregon History. While there, we climbed up 164 steps to the top and had a glider plane competition, the gift shop sells the recyclable planes, and I won. My plane soared over to the nearby woods and we saw it keep catching lifts of air to keep is soaring for a couple of minutes.

Astoria Column

 

 

I love to learn and seeing information in Astoria about shipping, canning salmon, and William and Clark were all great things to see, but my true highlight was ..... Going to the Goonies House. This house is privately owned, but they know that Goonies is practically a cult film, so they have signs at the house, letting you come up and see the house, but to respect the privacy of the owners and the neighbors nearby.  After the Goonies house, we drove by the school that was used in Kindergarten Cop. Too Cool!!!!

 

 



 

Now I need to re-watch the movie, seeing what I can recognize.



 

Portland

Portland is a beautiful city, I would say a blend between San Francisco and Seattle. It is smaller than San Francisco, and warmer than Seattle. In fact, it was quite warm here, about 90 degrees. I didn't know that Portland would get that warm. At first, I was in love with Portland, they have, in abundance, two of my favorite things, books and food. Portland is know for being a town of readers. Powell Book store is an entire city block, by far the biggest and best book store I have ever seen. Portland has also been named the best city in the world for street food. They have food trucks that park permanently in lots. I had Korean Bulgogi Bento Box and it was excellent. They also have a donut shop called Voodoo Donuts. It stays open 24 hours a day, and when I showed up at 4pm, there was a line of at least 50 people going half way down the street. Like I said, at first I loved Portland, but then as I walked more and more around the city, it was overwhelming the number of young homeless people, people in there 20s. It actually really bothered my to see so many young homeless people, begging on the streets when they are fully capable of working. In the downtown area in particular, it was practically on every corner. Besides that, Portland was very lovely and fun to visit. I wish I could have gone out to see Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, but I guess that will be another trip with Stephanie some day.

Yummy Food Carts

 

 

Voodoo Donuts

 

I was in heaven in Powell's Book Store



Florence, Oregon

Next we headed over to the coast of Oregon to Florence. There were two reasons to go to that town in particular. One, there is a Sea Lion Cave that is supposed to be filled with Sea Lions. Of course, after we got there, we found out all the sea lions are out eating all day to prepare for winter, so we decided to not go down to see an empty cave. Instead, we hiked up to a lighthouse. It's surprising how small the lighthouse is up close, you think it must be so big to project its light to protect ships from danger. Our second reason to go to Florence, is that it is located next to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Here we got to ride along in a Sand Rail , which I just call a Dune Buggy. It was 30 minutes of thrills, and thank goodness, no spills. I was certain there were times we were going to tip over as we rode along the sides of some very large dunes.

 

That evening, the wind was so strong, and the sand blowing so hard, it was difficult to walk around on the beach.

 

These trees have already been buried by 20 feet of sand. The dunes constantly shift and change and create new dunes while some are blown away from existence.