Jim had decided about 6 weeks ago that we needed a vacation and asked "Where should we go?" We discussed this for a few days and finally decided we would go to the Oregon Coast. I grew up in Oregon, so it would be somewhat of a nostalgia trip for me, but I didn't live on the coast. I also like to Geocache along the way as it brings us to some interesting sites that we would otherwise miss. So here is the chronicle of our trip to the Oregon Coast.
Friday, Jim decided to leave work early so we could be on our way. It's funny how when we were younger, a 12 hour drive was no big deal, but now....we wanted to break it up. We decided we would drive to the Boise, Idaho area and spend the night. You also have to realize that we had a 3 year old with us...which is another reason to break up the trip. But Xander turned out to be a VERY good little traveler. We only got 2 geocaches on this leg of the trip...and really no pictures.
Saturday, This is where the fun began. We hit 10 caches this day and they brought us to some interesting sites.
Meacham, Oregon wasn't a very big town at all, but come to find out, it was our Nation's Capital for a day...who knew??? This is part of what makes Geocaching so fun.
This Snoopy and Woodstock are there on the side of the freeway and I guess have been there for YEARS. I've never noticed this before and I have driven this road many times, but thanks to Geocaching we knew to look and take a picture. I am a BIG Snoopy fan.
A beautiful view at another cache that we didn't know was there. Very interesting how the hills are bare of trees, but the valleys are lined with them.
Then this scenic overlook just before you drop out of the Blue Mountains...there was a cache. Xander and I hiked over to it and he found these COOL sunglasses. It wasn't until we were back at the car that Xander had figured out that the lenses flipped up and down.
Xander....Lenses UP
Xander.....Lenses Down....Now aren't those just the coolest things you've ever seen? Xander sure thought so!
And in the town of Pendleton, Oregon, we were led to this sculpture. These things were full size and from a distance, it really looked like these cowboys were driving some cattle in. Very cool.
After Pendleton, we finally got to the Columbia River! That is a BIG river.
Our first scenic overview of the Mighty Columbia. We were at a view site called Rowena's Crest.
Jim and Xander at the Crest. Notice Xander still has his sunglasses. We had to teach him how the ear pieces worked and how the curve down when they are ready to be put on.
Next we came upon the small town of Moiser, Oregon. This town looked like a war zone as there was a forest fire going on behind it. There were lots of fire fighting personnel all over and we even saw TV crews. The place was just filled with smoke.
If you look very closely in the center of this picture you will see a helicopter with a water bucket. We watched it come past us toward the river, then fill it's bucket and head back to the fire. That was kind of cool. In the midst of all of this, we had a cache to find. It was this place...
A Porsche Museum. It wasn't open, I'm sure due to the fire and all the activity. I had also heard on the news before we even left home that the "Microwave Fire" (called this because it started by a microwave tower) had somehow cut off the power to Moiser, but they were not sure why. It smelled very much like a campfire there, so we decided to press on, but at this time we were realizing that several of the places along the gorge that we wanted to see would now be closed. We were supposed to make it to Portland, but we decided to get a room...but NOT here! We wanted a NON SMOKING room. LOL
We drove on and were able to see some active burning along the freeway. We even saw some smoldering that was RIGHT next to the road. WOW! We decided to press on and find a better place to stay. The sun was starting to get down closer to the horizon where we REALLY needed our sunglasses just to see. And Xander knew JUST what to do.
Here he is...Lenses down...doesn't he do COOL well? We ended up spending the night in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Found a room and settled in for the night. But this was something new to me.
I had NO IDEA that one needed their sunglasses in bed! The things a 3 year old can teach you.
(Elder Justin Bagshaw...fresh from the Alabama, Birmingham Mission, my bother-in-law, their granddaughter, their son-in-law, and my sister)
(two of Jim's siblings are missing from this picture. One who didn't make the trip do to conflicts, and one because they were serving a mission....in Orlando....which is why we went there in the first place. He and his wife DID play with us a little bit....just never when we got a photo taken.)
Matt and friends,
and Jim and I with Xander. We had a GREAT time.
