Vacation in Oregon

We had a great time in Oregon with Steve's brother Bill & family. We flew into Portland last Thursday, settled in at the hotel & then drove into Portland for dinner. Bad idea when you are tired from the trip. We drove around (and around) and decided to go back to the restaurant by the hotel. :-) Traffic around Portland is so heavy and it is very confusing. Not to someone who drives it all the time maybe...but Steve & I got totally lost. After dinner it was back to the room to watch TV & crash.
The next morning we ate at the hotel which had a nice continental breakfast and drove back to Portland (this time with map in hand) and found Powell's Bookstore. It is everything we had hoped it would be. The largest used bookstore in the US. We came armed with a list of books and had a great time browsing through others. Edward Abbey and Sandra Steingraber were a couple of the authors we were looking for.

The weather was great. Warm and sunny. We walked around town after the bookstore. It is a great "people watching" place. There are musicians on a lot of the street corners and beautiful sculptures placed here & there. We found our way down to the Willamette River, watched a juggler, listened a couple guitar players and looked through our books. We ended up buying lunch & bringing it back to the riverfront, it was so nice out. We knew it was in the 40's and raining at home so it made it that much sweeter to be absorbing the rays without coats on.
It was time to leave for Corvallis to visit family. We drove through Milwaukie which is the home of Bob's Red Mill. We had a smoothie at the outlet store. Fun to see the area where the flour I buy comes from.
We arrived in Corvallis about 5:30. It was great to see Bill, Cindy Owen & Mark. They also have Luke, the dog & Blackie, the cat. We were all hungry so we drove into town & ate at Nearly Normal's, Gonzo Cuisine. It is a funky vegetarian restaurant, perfect for us. After filling up at Nearly Normal's, we drove over to Oregon State University where the girls soccer team was playing the California team from Stanford. Unfortunately, OSU lost but we had a fun time watching the Stanford band, who was there for a football game the following day.

The next day it was soccer time for the boys. They had back to back games in the afternoon. They are both great players & it was fun to watch them.

We headed for the coast later in the day, stopping at Mary's Peak. At 4,097 feet, is the highest point in Oregon’s Coast Range and the most prominent peak to the west of Corvallis. It was quite a hike up the mountain, but really worth it.
We arrived at the coastal town Yachats after dark. Steve & I took a walk on the beach. We couldn't wait to see & hear the waves crashing on the shore. In the room, there was a tiny window to open so you could hear the waves. A great way to fall asleep.

The next day, we all explored the beach and played Frisbee with Luke. He is so fast! Really good at catching the Frisbee, too.Sea Anemone

We took a drive in the afternoon to a lookout point down the coast then picked up some food for dinner to take back to the motel.

It was a beautiful sunset.

The next day we drove back Portland, stopping at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville. This is where the Spruce Goose is kept on display. It's the plane that Howard Hughes built in the 1940's. It was interesting to see all the different planes on exhibit, but it made me sad to imagine the consequences of war & the many men & women killed.
We had a relaxing night at the hotel & got up early for the flight the next morning. It was a long day. We didn't get back home until 10:30 that night. Really long layover in Salt Lake City.
Then back to work on Thursday morning & up to the farm Friday afternoon. I'll write about the farm weekend in the next post.