Whew! I’m back from my whirlwind tour of the Oregon coast and various points south! All in all, it was a great trip, and we had an absolute blast. We left Friday evening in a snazzy convertible Toyota Solara, and headed south. The first night we got as far as Lincoln City. After a swell (and HUGE) breakfast at a local diner filled with whale bones, and checking out the local underwater aquarium show complete with divers, we continued south and checked out the sea lion caves. It was an awesome sight to see…I got some great film out of it. But man did it stink!!!

We continued south to the Florence area to do some dune buggyin, but we got there too late…so it’s off to a town called North Bank to spend the night, so we could hit the Spinreel outfitters when they opened at noon. Now there’s some fun! We had a great time tearin up the dunes in our little buggies…even though I got stuck twice ><. Apparently they had a choke lock on mine because it was so powerful...and because of it I couldn't make it up any of the dunes. Fortunately we left that part for last, and headed to the beach for some great fast fun.

Next it was off to the Oregon Caves outside of Grants Pass. This took us back to I-5, which means we missed some of the best coast on the 101 route, but it was worth it. We got the last tour of the day before the candlelight tour (we wanted to actually see stuff, so we opted out of that) and ended up getting a private tour since we were the only ones there. The caves are magnificent. Then we found out they actually have rooms there, so we stayed the night and had a fabulous breakfast at the little diner which looked out on a little waterfall pool. Ahhhhhhhhhh. So peaceful.

Nice view outside our room and the cozy retro diner where we had breakfast

Then we headed for Cali. WE spend the next day cruising through Redwood territory. We were worried we wouldn’t know when we hit the redwoods…but smacked ourselves when we did. Cuz they are HUGE. I mean…HUGE!!!. Ginourmous. All other trees look like bonsai next to them.

The next day was hopping vineyards in the Sonoma Valley. Hic! We hit about 6 of them. That was great fun, and we spent way too much money on really great wine.

Winery number 1! Still sober.

Then we finally made it to The City By the Bay! We spend a couple days there, cruising Fisherman’s Wharf, the Castro district, the Mission district, and we even squeezed in a drive through the financial district, haight-ashbury, and Chinatown. All in less than two and a half days! Phew!

Is that a little tiny flash of rainbow down that street?

We headed to San Jose and found a hotel by the airport. They had a great little pool despite the french speaking family with a teenage boy who kept hanging around just sort of lurking there with a camera. I may have even learned how to swim without plugging my nose!

The next day, we dropped off the car, hopped the plane, and flew home. A quick taxi ride home, then we were back on the road to head to Dr. Hesla’s office…but that is the beginning of another story….

Category: Family