Dave and I love to travel, so we thought we’d take one final trip before our first baby arrives (due Sept 1st) – hence the term “Babymoon.” We started in Portland, Oregon for the USA Triathlon National Championship race (Dave qualified in 2006 for this race) and then spent the following week driving down the Oregon and California coast. My parents joined us for the adventure, and were kind enough to drive my Subaru all the way up to Oregon while we took a quick Southwest airplane flight.
Day 1: Friday, June 29
Because my parents drove up to Oregon, Dave didn’t have to send his bike via airline bike-box, which is a pain. So, his bike was all put together and ready to ride. He spent the day with his triathlon buddies analyzing the course, standing in lines, etc. Meanwhile, my parents and I drove a loop through the Columbia River Gorge. We saw waterfalls, the best of which were Multnomah Falls. The Columbia River provides a windy haven for windsurfers and “kite-surfers” (think of a wake-boarder attached to a para-sail). The famous Timberline Lodge halfway up Mt. Hood houses plenty of snowboarders and skiers. And, believe it or not, there was SNOW at the top of the mountain!
It was raining and very cold while we visited Mt. Hood – we were anxious to get back down to sea level and to Portland where the weather was perfect.
We did the usual pre-race dinner at Olive Garden. I think it must be a USA Triathlon requirement for an Olive Garden to exist within a 10 mile radius of a triathlon. Thank goodness for that! Dave went through his usual pre-race rituals before going to bed early (and getting up early).
Day 2: Saturday, June 30 (Race Day)
The race was held at Hagg Lake, about 15 miles west of Portland. It was a beautiful setting, perfect weather, no wind, but lots of hills. Dave’s wave started at 8:32am, an hour and 15 minutes after the first wave of the day. The swim course was kind of a disaster – they didn’t try to separate outgoing from incoming swimmers and we witnessed collision after collision. Many swimmers didn’t even know on which side of the buoys to swim, and Dave got caught up in following some other swimmers that headed in the wrong direction and had to course correct. The sun was so strong that no one could really track the buoys and figure out where to go. Dave probably lost 30 seconds because of this confusion.
The bike went around Hagg Lake twice and had a lot of short, steep hills – probably not Dave’s specialty. He rode the course several times on the CompuTrainer at home, and thankfully it wasn’t THAT bad. But he made it through in just under 1:10.
The run course mimicked the bike course, an out-and-back hilly 10K. Dave’s run went well, finishing in just under 41 minutes, the 16th fastest run in his age group. Overall, he placed 30th in his age group and 235th overall (out of 1061). This race includes the best of the best in the nation, so the competition was much tougher than the other races Dave has done this year.
The usual cast of bay area characters were present – Kyle Welch took away a 5th place in his age group, qualifying him for the World Championships in Germany in September. John Madden also landed a spot at Worlds with his 12th place finish. Keish Doi, Tim Naylor, Andrew Ferguson, Jimmy Dworkin, and Ann Miller all raced very well.
Day 3: Sunday, July 1
We ventured to Mount Saint Helens today. There are three main entrances to the mountain, and came in from the west side and hit the Johnston Ridge Observatory – a good film describing the mountain’s history and activity, a couple funny guides, and a hike to view the surrounding area. Mt. Saint Helens is one of the few volcanoes that is constantly erupting – most people just don’t realize it because lava isn’t flowing out from the mountain. The largest eruption was in 1980, when the mountain really exploded. Since then, glaciers are moving and growing around the center dome of the mountain.
That night we stayed in a dumpy little hotel in Kelso with bad orange juice for breakfast.
Day 4: Monday, July 2
We drove just over 50 miles to Astoria, Oregon to see the Maritime Museum. It is all about shipwrecks here. Where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean is considered to be one of the most dangerous bars to cross for shipping. There are only a few “certified” ship captains – captains which guide the barges out past the bar into the Pacific Ocean and then hop on a smaller boat to get back to land. The Coast Guard is busy here – making rescues constantly. Over 2000 ships have sunk here since 1792. The Peter Iredale shipwreck is the most photographed shipwreck around. It is a bit hard to tell it was a boat!
We drove across the Astoria Bridge to Cape Disappointment, yet another indication of the dangerous conditions of the area, to see the lighthouse. We thought that was a disappointment – not much to see, the water was calm and flat, and the lighthouse was lame.
Just outside of Astoria, we went to the Lewis and Clark Trail. We watched two really bad movies about the native Indians. We toured the Lewis and Clark cabins – they had some old guys all dressed up in timely garb, re-enacting what life was like in 1804-1806.
We drove another 65 miles and stayed in Tillamook for the night.
Day 5: Tuesday, July 3
We started the morning with CHEESE! We visited the Tillamook Cheese factory. The Cheese factory has been around since 1894 and is pretty cool to watch. Most of the process is automated, but a number of factory workers keep the lines moving and make sure all the blocks of cheese are the right weight, size, shape, etc. We wondered what they did with the big buckets of cheese scraps!?
Next on our trip was the Tillamook Air Museum. It is the largest wooden structure in the world – built in 1943, it is more than 10 football fields long, 200 feet tall, and 400 feet wide. It now houses old World War II planes and blimps. Since my Dad flew navy sea planes, he had quite an interest in seeing all the old planes and telling us about them. We also watched a pretty good video showing how the hanger was constructed and the history of the planes kept there.
On our drive south toward Florence, we stopped off on the side of the highway to view the “Devil’s Punchbowl.” It is a natural rock bowl which has been carved out by the ocean over time. It was low tide while we were there, so it wasn’t quite as devilish as it could have been.
Our last stop of the day was at the Heceta Head Lighthouse. It was a very picturesque spot. Mom did some “reading” on the beach, while the rest of us hiked up to the lighthouse.
We stayed at the Landmark Inn in Florence. Florence is one of the nicest little towns along the drive down the coast. We don’t recommend Bridgewater Restaurant, but we do recommend the ice cream shop! Yum!
The Landmark Inn was fantastic. The staff was nice, the rooms were clean and updated, the breakfast was tasty, and the raccoon we watched out the window was totally entertaining.
Day 6: Wednesday, July 4
We spent the morning at the Oregon Sand Dunes. The Dunes cover a 50+ mile area up and down the Oregon coast. The sand is very soft and fine because it was all blown in by the wind (not carried in by the ocean waves). Dave and I walked several miles down the beach – it was one of the longest, flattest, cleanest, emptiest beaches we’ve ever seen!
After a short drive, we arrived in Coos Bay. We ate a wonderful seafood dinner in Charleston and spent some time walking around the docks looking at all the old fishing boats. Coos Bay has quite a 4th of July celebration – we watched fireworks in the Coos Bay Harbor. The whole town came out for the event!
Day 7: Thursday, July 5
We left Coos Bay and headed toward Brookings. On the way, we did a 3.3 mile walk around Bandon Islands – a bunch of strange looking rocks sticking up out of the ocean. It was low tide, which gave us an opportunity to walk pretty far out into the ocean and see lots of interesting sea life.
It was a very, very nice walk – we highly recommend it.
We arrived Brookings in the early afternoon and checked into the Best Western. My Mom’s cousin and her husband spent a lot of time in Brookings over the summer – a big salmon fishing and crabbing area. We spent the afternoon around the Brookings harbor, listening to Ray share his ol’ WWII stories and hearing about fish. It was a relaxing afternoon and good dinner at The Grilled Onion, followed by more ice cream!
Day 8: Friday, July 6th
We got an early start for a 250-mile drive to Fort Bragg/Mendocino. We had some super winding roads along the way. The “Avenue of the Giants” is a 31-mile road which is parallel to 101. The giant redwood trees are very impressive. We had a picnic lunch at one of the stops and Dave had to climb a tree.
We stayed in another Best Western in Fort Bragg, our balcony overlooking the ocean. We spent some time in the evening wandering around downtown Mendocino and had dinner at the MacCallum House – a very fancy old Victorian house. The food was outstanding, the service was good, and it was a great way to finish the trip.
Day 9: Saturday, July 7th
We had a rather uneventful drive home to the bay area in the morning.
Overall, it was a fantastic trip. We drove 2172 miles for 47 hours (that includes the drive from San Jose to Oregon by my parents). The Oregon coast is certainly not as touristy or as expensive as places like Monterey or Carmel. The weather is known to be rainy and cold, but we couldn’t have asked for better weather – every day was 75-58 degrees with sunshine. The people all along the way were friendly and the seafood was usually delicious. It was a great way to take a vacation before hunkering down for the last 7 weeks of my pregnancy!
This sounds like a really great trip and your writeup is really funny. We wanted to visit the dunes, till we realized how far away they were. We did the cheese tour, though! (But it was Sunday, so I think they had just a couple of workers weighing blocks for show.)
We were all about the roadside stands, mostly berries. We passed a jerky stand: beef jerky, buffalo jerky, deer jerky and elk jerky. They all tasted exactly the same so we didn’t get any. Free samples were bad for business.