We arrived Wednesday night and have been doing beach things since we arrived. Working in the mornings, but I’m the evening we’ve enjoyed more lobster rolls (campground chef), beach walks (check out the guy with the trident), 2 stand up paddle board rides, sunsets, beach hikes to meigs point, severe weather advisories (campground storm watching), and lots of level paved biking paths. We are on our way now to Pennsylvania.
The past two days, I’ve had to work but we’ve had a great time bumming around after work. The first evening we went to Nauset Beach and Cape Cod National Sea shore. We saw seals, multiple light houses, slanted beaches and intimating jaws signs. We capped off the evening with delicious campground chef lobster rolls.
The next day we grabbed our bikes and took a tour of p-town. We had some oysters, jumbo shrimp little neck clams, and tuna tartar at a beachside restaurant. Then we wandered through p-town.
It was incredibly clear when we got home and we sat outside and looked at stars, satellites and watched shooting stars. No pictures. You’ll just have to trust me.
I’m off today and we headed out of Nickerson State Park towards Hammonasset State Park which is in Connecticut. Before leaving, we got on the Cape Cod rail trail and dipped my feet in every pond along the route (Sheep, Seymour, Long Pond, & Flax). We had beers and pizza for lunch.
Life is really good.
We started our journey last weekend, as we visited Damascus with Mark and Cheryl and their wonderful group of friends. I’ve been slow to post.
George headed out to a guitar camp in New York (‘band camp’ according to George’s sister and ‘divorce dad’ camp according to our kids). I think it’s probably more like ‘retiree camp’.
Since George was already upstate, I flew into Boston and we stayed at Wompatuck State Park. There, we ran into Craig, Jessica and Oskar. We even got the pleasure of car pooling and lunching with Jessica and Oskar on the way to the Cape.
At Nickerson State camp ground check in, we won the ice lottery and grabbed as much free ice that would fit in our cooler. We cried when we left it to melt but there was nothing we could do to save it.
Then we drove to Brewster flats and found hermit crabs and relaxed and the beach.
Life is good.
We went for a run Sunday morning. It was not our best personal records since I kept stopping to take pictures, but Depoe Bay was stunning. It was high tide so we randomly stumbled on to this spouting horn, cliff. Brants cormerant (bird) and 5+ of whale spouts.
This led us to stop by the OPRD Whale Watching Center before leaving Depoe Bay. They had binoculars set up for everyone to use and a video feed. We saw whale tails and spouts;)
Grey whales are the only bottom feeders. They scoop up mud and eat the krill, eating as much as 1.2 tons of food per day.
After our educational whale stop we took a pit stop in Bob Straub State Park for some giant sand dunes and beach time.
Next we stopped at Tillamook and my second ice cream in 2 days. I’ve reached my quota for the summer;)
We got to Portland late afternoon and stopped at the Scotch Church Winery that had music.
As you can see Mt Hood was out when we got to Portland. We ended the day with some fabulous sushi at Bluefin Tuna and sushi on Broadway.
Today has been a travel day. Our flight this morning was delayed so we all scrabbled to get on an earlier flight to Charlotte. George and I got to CLT with a 3 hr layover but Sadira and James didn’t get the same flight and had a 5 hr layover. Then they delayed our flight. So, we rented this bad ass ride for 100 bucks to get home in 2hrs.
Calling this trip a great success. Signing off
We stopped at Heceta head and took a walk about the rocks
We continued up the coast for a picnic lunch and some more beach time.
Then we stopped at thors well, but since it was low tide the kids missed the big event. We did have a sneaky wave surprise James and Fiona which made the stop worthwhile. Fiona really took a hit, she’s always been the lucky hand. We also stopped at devil’s churn and devil’s punch bowl.
We stayed at the Trowler’s Lodge in Depoe Bay and saw a lovely sunset after dinner of halibut and Sadira’s world-famous orzo. Depoe Bay is the smallest harbor in the world and is home to grey whales. We didn’t see any spouts this evening. (Fore shadowing).
The next morning James had to work so we made our way to hike at Sunset Beach SP, Shore acres SP and Cape Arago just south of Coos Bay.
From Sunset Beach we could see the lighthouse, and we got surprised by a bunch of harbor seals with their babies.
This is a picture of the pile of sea lions through the telescope at Cape Arago. They were crawling all over each other.
We finished the day with some pepper jelly tasting.. so very difficult to decide which one was best
James had a work day so we headed out after a big breakfast. We started our day by heading down to the secret beach which was quite stunning. Sea caves, sea stars, sea stacks, sea waterfalls, sea anemone.
After spending the morning in secret we headed to whales head for lunch. After lunch we stopped at the fish market for some fresh salmon, and tuna for our poke bowls which Fiona made. We grabbed James after some turtle time and hit, Harris, the natural bridge and lone ranch Beach.
This morning after a beautiful beach run at low tide with sea stars and fog we hopped in the car and traveled down to redwoods national Park. We started with the lady bird Johnson trail which was dedicated by Nixon (r) after Johnson (d)left office. We spent a good amount of time discussing how far we’ve sunk regarding the civility of our current president. Now we have a thug posting petty insulting narratives under the past presidents portraits. Alas, back to the trees. Here are some lovely pictures.
We couldn’t get passes to Fern canyon. We didn’t know that was required in advance. Our last visit here, we hiked the 10 miles to get there and realized when we got there that people could just drive in. So instead we took the James Irvine to cathedral trees trail right out of the prairie creek visitor center which was truly amazing.
Sadira and James made shrimp tacos when we got home. It’s good to be here in Brookings.
I’ve got a conference in Seattle, so we have taken a week before to explore Whidbey Island for my future book writing home (jk I’m not creative enough to write a novel). But if you were going to write a novel this is where you do it.
I was working by the bird feeder which was a nature channel distraction. Here are a few of my favorites.. downy and paleated woodpeckers and a red shafted flicker.
We did take a hike on Ebey’s landing but somehow missed the mega pod of orcas that just happened to be passing through and the Aurora borealis on last Tuesday, but we had a fabulous hike on the cliffs. We even saw Mt Baker.
At first we were just going to Ouray but realized the hikes we planned were actually on the perimeter trail. It was also a hot day, so we headed for higher elevation. The hike we did yesterday outside Silverton was at 12k feet so we headed back that direction and stopped at Molas lake. It was also less smoky today. (Bonus)
We by-passed Silverton since we had already decided to eat in Ridgeway. We ate at the local brewery (again) and had pizza (again), but it was delicious. The wood fired pizzas are yummy in these small mountain towns.
Headed to Telluride today after an another amazing campground chef breakfast. I do love some eggs at the campground.
It was a great evening chilling at the campground, playing cribbage, and reading books. Dinner was smoked salmon that Fiona brought from Alaska and free dadcation cheese.
We left Cayuga Lake after work on Monday and arrived at Four Mile Creek campground on lake Ontario, before 8. (I can’t help but wonder if these bodies of water will also be renamed by our ignorant dictator?)…
We were hungry but the Shoffners had prepared a feast! I’ve taken very few pictures of food on this trip but our campground chefs have outdone themselves.
I worked Monday -Wednesday but our timing to the parks could not have been better. After work is the best time to see Niagra falls. Our parking pass at Four Mile allowed us to park at Niagara for free. We walked right onto the maid of the midst with no line.
Niagra falls on the Canadian side is a mad house, like Gatlinburg/ Coney Island on steroids. There is a street (Clifton) that was loud, crowded, and tacky. The US side is a sleepy little town. We were a little surprised to see the gaudier side of the Canadians but they sure had some great food. We ate at an amazing Indian restaurant then got to see a sunset.
Wednesday evening we went back to Niagra on the Canadian side and stayed late enough to catch the fireworks from the Canadian side. We were a little surprised that the Americans didn’t return fire…
Bonus, the weather early this week has been amazing. Today I think the heat is going to catch back up with us.
We got up early to hike before the crowds gathered in the canyon. just a few more pics from Glenn canyon.
We had lunch at grist iron for lunch on Seneca lake on our way out of town. Then we traveled north to Cayuga lake State Park.
We stopped at Hosmer and Knapp winery along the way and had a great time grabbing some wines for the trip.
So far we’ve had a great time in the finger lakes of New York.
George and I spent our first few nights of our trip in Pennsylvania at a beautiful state park Francis Slocum. The lake was u shaped and I wished we’d had a boat. We took several great walks.
We left PA after work. George had a weird ear ache vertigo on the way to New York. He felt awful, so I pumped myself up to park the camper myself and just failed miserably. He had to bail me out. The Shoffners joined us at Watsons Glenn late last night. We took a hike this morning in the canyon. The canyon is stunning. Here are a few pictures
Afterwards we biked to some wineries and found some dinosaurs, yeah for real, who knew such treasures awaited us.
My belly is full. My feet and butt are tired.
We’ve found Clarksdale, and cottonwood to be quite accommodating. The food is amazing here too. Pizza is hard to mess up, but it truly was outstanding. The old town is charming and has a history of copper mining up in Jerome. We went to the museum in Jerome earlier in the week.
We have spent the last two nights at Las Cruces. We arrived late the first night, but had all day yesterday to explore and have some much needed idle time. Each site has their own pavilion perfect for playing guitar
We spent the morning on the pine tree trail in the organ mountain desert peaks national monument. Nice four mile hike. The pine trees have a really nice bark pattern.
We had picnic lunch at the base of organ mountains and went back to the campground to play some music and relax. We did take a short walk to the Rio (not-so) Grande. (this-time-of-year)
We upgraded our campground view ( at check out ) for trailhead parking. It was the best office view so far.
After work we took a hike on Margs draw which took us right up to Snoopy Rock.
On our way to Lost Dutchman outside of Phoenix. Ringo was very interested in the trout jerky
Lunch walk literally right from camp ground. Cross roads if Huckaby and munds wagon trailheads.
After work, a short walk had high payoff at airport Mesa. Then we had a picnic dinner at cathedral peak. Our intent was to go to the top but it was busy and Ringo couldn’t scamper up the rocks like a Billy goat… He just looked like a clumsy doodle.
Canada has given us a good run. In Saskatchewan, we visited 2 providential Parks: Cypress hills and Buffalo Pound.
Both were a little hilly nestled in e prairie. Cypress Hills was huge, had multiple campgrounds, had a pool and even a Lodge. Buffalo Pound was smaller but right on a lake. We should be in North Dakota within the hour. Goodbye Canada. It’s been fun
.
We hit all the lakes and found the old hotel in Jasper. Then relaxed at the campground. There, we watched a little girl flat out get down at the taco food truck, played some music, saw the ex-pres was shot, discussed guns, then we played some more music, went to bed early and officially started our return trip home. Still trying to figure out how to never leave Canada but they don’t want us.
Check out the power stations in this bathroom. If the water was hotter they would have gotten my vote for the nicest bathrooms in all of Canada, but the koa in Cranbrook wins (so far)
Crowfoot glacier
Today we had a hearty breakfast with pastries, we hiked a bunch, saw 2-3 bears (we forgot to ask their names so one was most certainly the same dude), almost a moose, 2 glaciers up close… (More far away), several lakes I can name (malaigne, medicine, Cavell), ate a lot of pizza and went to bed tired.
Last night as we went to bed there was a fire raging that created all this smoke in the valley as we left to go back up to the ice fields.
Over the hill at the ice fields parkway, it cleared up and we saw Athabasca falls and Sumwapta falls.
Then, we took the lift to get some amazing views over Jasper.
We ended the day with restaurant food at Jasper brewing company which was just what the dr ordered. Clay and Jenny left today and we’ll miss them.
Started the day with a hike to Chephren lake. George and i had to run to get back to make our pre scheduled time on the sky walk and a walk on the Athabasca glacier.
Today we biked to the ski area and took the lifts to the top of the ski slope. On the way up 4 different people told us there was a grizzly in the meadow and we assumed it was probably fake, but actually, it was real.
After seeing the bear and the electric fence to bear proof the visitor center we naturally decided to still exit through the gate and go for the hike to the kicking horse look out. (We did talk to three rangers about safety before going). We survived.
After dinner, we tried to sneak into the chateau. George and I got in, but they apparently didn’t want our business. It wasn’t nearly as cool as the banff springs hotel, nor as welcoming.
Another great hike in banff national Park at Lake Louise. We all biked to Lake Louise (Ringo was in the dog pack) and then hiked to Lake Agnes where we got tea from the tea house and took a short rest. Then, we hiked to Little Beehive to have lunch. It was pretty strenuous, but absolutely worth it.
We split up after lunch and George and I hiked to the other tea house in the valley of 6 glaciers.
We walked over 30k steps.
I’ve taken so many pictures the last 2 days. I’ll try to limit myself.
Yesterday we started the day with a short hike to lake Minnewanka
Then, whole gang rode the gondola to the top of sulfer mountain. The trip was short 7-8 minutes but just amazing views from the top. That was our last night in the tunnel mountain trailer court.
Today those of us with e-bikes took the road to moraine lake. The biking was easy and the pay off was outstanding.
Banff is gorgeous. It is the birth place of Canadian national parks because of the hot springs. We totally invited ourselves all through the Banff springs hotel. It’s beautiful inside and out, but we couldn’t manage to get into the spa. We did go to the upper sulfur springs which did ( and maybe still does) feed the Banff springs hotel’s spa. So, I’d like to believe that somehow my body cells made it down into their spa to spite them. Today after work, we went to lunch with Clay, Jenny and Joel. After lunch, Joel joined us on a hike through Johnson canyon. Two waterfalls and a canyon with a boardwalk. Very cool
Well, two beautiful days in a row. Our hike today was to Great glacier (aka the illecillewaet glacier) around Rogers pass in Gnp Canada. Unfortunately, the glacier has receded so that you can’t actually view it from the end of the trail but the panoramic views were amazing. The trail was full of wildflowers and ruins of an old hotel. (You had me at ruins). The hotel (glacier house) was torn down after a double avalanche killed 58 people on the train pass and the train was re-routed through a tunnel.
When you get to the town of Golden, the tourist pamphlet is called Golden Rules and it does! Situated between Glacier NP (Canadian version) and Yoho National Park, it’s got quite a lot going on. The first day was a rain-out so we just did laundry, slept in and had a George Austin walk-about-the-town. (Which means… We found the local brewery).
Whitetooth
Today was beautiful, so we went to Yoho NP where dogs are allowed apparently everywhere. First, we went to Wapta Falls. Then we had leftovers for lunch on the porch of the historic lodge at Emerald Lake. We walked around Emerald Lake and took advice from a fellow trail blazer from Seattle who works for Amazon to walk to Takakkaw falls. Takakkaw Falls is the second highest falls in Canada and only a short distance from where we were. All in all a great day.
Pierce Lake was out of the way, but totally with it. We climbed out of the Dworshak pit of dispair (the curvy step road) without incident. We stopped in Moscow, Idaho and had breakfast and shopped at their downtown market for a couple of girl souvenirs and fresh bread and stinky cheese. We even made it down the cussing dirt road that Google took us on… We still got to piece lake before late lunch. The lake was beautiful, like lake Jocassi beautiful. Clear and full of beach goers. The campground was shady and updated. They also had a dog beach. We have made it to Canada and have the Rockies in our view.
Dworshak State Park has been a nice reprieve but I have to admit, I’m going to be soo happy to quit getting up at 4:30 to get to work by 8 edt. The sun is up when I get up at 4:30 and goes down after I put my sleep mask on. Stella, the firefly petunia, is probably glowing so bright the neighbors have to put their sunglasses on, but I haven’t seen her since Fort Collins.
We’ve gotten a couple of good rides on the bikes, took a nice run, took a hike, & played lots of guitar. We leave tomorrow out the steep scary road. Seriously y’all, I have angst.
Watch the video
Yesterday we had freezing rain and sleet and cold doodles
Today after work we found a leisurely walk up 1900 feet (front 5600 feet to 7500 feet) in 3 miles to Louis Lake. Luckily the pay off was beautiful. We were the only souls on the path besides my mountain spirit animal. I missed him at first, but he stood up and yelled at me.
We spent the last 4 days in the Sawtooth recreation Area. The NRA is a great dog friendly beautiful park. It’s got mountains, lakes, dog beaches and great camping facilities.
Off to McCall, Idaho.
Yes. I skipped a great day ( day 2) but will make up for it here.
Yesterday, I worked but then…
We went down to the lake and hopped on the Greenway with our e bikes. We stopped at Dornan (which I’m not sure but might be the best job location in the park… Or out of the park). There were had a cold beverage and brie before heading back up the hill.
Today (after work) we went to taggart lake. It was fabulous weather.
To be clear, I share this because I love the Tetons, but I’ve never seen mosquitos this hungry. So glad to be locked inside working.
Posting some sunset pictures from yesterday
It was another great day in the Tetons. We had to move sites but just right across the street. We finished literally minutes before the rain started. It was 50ish degrees, when we left for a hike at Phelps lake. We left Ringo in the air-conditioning that wasn’t running. We were going to hike the whole lake but I had melt down about whether I had messed up the a/c (I didn’t).
After checking on Ringo, we walked around Jenny lake.
The beginning of our new adventure
I was 14 in French class when the happiest of accidents happened. I sat behind the funniest cute kid who happened to think I was the bees knees(Alphabetical order). I still don’t know how I fooled him but we still have a great time together. 30 years later we throw a much better party than we tried to at 16 (fo shore).
The day only got better from there. Next was Dunvegan castle.
The gardens at Dunvegan castle were amazing, but I am limiting my pics or this would get ridiculous. Next on the bucket list was the Old man of Storr.
Started today with better than expected weather. And the rainy weather we had, was short and came with a whisky shots from locals. (More on those nice Scots later).
George woke up at 3:15 because the light was shining in the window and we both wondered,when does the sun rise (maybe it never really sets in Scotland on the summer solstice). I fought through the sunlight and managed to sleep again till 830. We had more eggs and local salmon/ lox for breakfast. After bfast we wandered through town and started day three of the cycling tour around 10:30.
At this point in our trip, I needed to pee and ventured off to look at the bridge and find a nice quiet spot while George and Tim (our riding companion) went ahead.
I turned on the turbo to catch up. But Tim was waiting for me in the road and said we were taking a pit stop for the rain. Wherein the 90 year old Scottish local not only gave us shelter from the rain, but also whisky.
The rain subsided and we ventured towards kingussie for lunch stopping at the ruthven barracks and pics of more highland coos.
Mostly a travel day, but we did get a great first rainy ride in. The train ride was about 3 hours through the Scottish Highlands. We arrived a we bit early, but grabbed a pint got some lunch and went for a beautiful ride.
After check in we got outfitted for a ride and took one. Look at this beautiful scenery (in the rain no less).
It was a rocky start to a weekend trip. Our 8pm Thursday night on frontier was delayed until it was cancelled after 11pm. After standing in line with angry passengers (with little hope of rebooking), we gave up and decided to go home. We back tracked the airport, shuttle, car and then drove back to Jenna’s for a brief sleep with little hope of returning…until we decided our sunk cost was lost and we might as well try to get an experience.
We got the 430 pm flight on Delta. We were hopeful about a 2 pm possibility until two platinum skymiles members bumped us. Then, our plane had mechanical problems and more mechanical problems and some weather. After a deplane experience, I began to think we shouldn’t go and was on hold with Delta about a refund when they let us reboard.
Woke up today and got busy making memories on Phoenix.
I’m going to share some pictures to prove it.
Sisters with too much sun and wind.
We left papago and went to South mountain park and preserve and hiked the pima canyon trailhead.
Then we picked up Alaska and went to a folk music festival and had dinner before going to a sunset. We didn’t see cocaine bear… Maybe next time Fiona?
This section of the blue ridge parkway is quite beautiful. You either have rolling hills in Virginia or you ride the ridgeline with mountains and valleys on either side. There is a road closure around Roanoke for 30 minutes, but we wanted to run into town anyway so it wasn’t a big deal.
We asked the ranger for a recommendation at peaks of otter and wow, was this a fabulous hike. Sharp top mountain (which we promptly started calling shart stop mountain). We added on buzzard Rock which was well worth the extra 600 feet.
Stone work at shart stop.
We started the day right by going on a low tide run and serving up a big breakfast. So far I have failed to mention the Brookings rental has Pac-Man. Check out is 10 o-early-o-clock and the pac man high score had not been beaten. Right before 10 and before my bags were neatly packed, George started a two man game. I got closer than any other game but eventually killed myself on my bonus life because the house keeper was waiting outside. Sadly, I ended up leaving my toiletries and had to circle back after dropping everyone at the first hike (Cape Ferelo) but sign me up for the Mouth of the Pistol River Beach access. It was amazing.
Next stop was otter point, but we didn’t see any otters, seas lions or seals. Just cool trails
After traveling and hiking we decided to hit 7 Devils Brewery – Where The Oregon Coast Meets The Tap https://share.google/0z8F8emmd4lBkK2By
We had dinner there and called it a night.
George and I walked Mt Tabor a extinct cinder cone volcano/city Park. Then we gathered the kids for breakfast at jams in Hawthorne before heading out of Portland.
The ride into Brookings was long but relatively easy. The Pacifica rides with style. Our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean was by the sand dunes. Then we had an epic feast when we got here, Dinner with a view.
It’s about the Journey….
spending all my money in all the best ways
Roll On
Roll On
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