Fall Road Trip 2023 - Astoria to Victoria

It felt good to be getting closer to home! We splurged and spent a lovely evening at the waterfront Bowline Hotel in Astoria and had a great meal at our favourite Astoria restaurant, the Bridgewater Bistro. 

Evening light over the water. From the lounge/restaurant of the Bowline Hotel.

The Astoria-Megler Bridge is 4 miles long and connects Oregon and Washington.
It's the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

Right beside the hotel, we could hear some sea lions. We went out a while later and found this cutie having a nap on a lower level. We assume he got up there when the tide was higher because it was a long way to the water. 

The next morning, a younger looking one was there. I just love the eyes and whiskers. 

Our view during breakfast at the Bowline Hotel.

We took our time driving to Port Angeles, stopping for coffee again at Elixer Coffee in South Bend, another of our favourite places along this stretch of the coast. 

Relaxing in the lobby of the Olympic Lodge in Port Angeles.

It was surprisingly not very busy on the Coho Ferry coming home. All the American Thanksgiving holidayers were probably going the other way. The water looked ready for a very smooth sailing! 

Home is in sight!

Last blog post of the trip is done! No one is more surprised than me that I actually kept up with posts this time and got to the end of all this. The strategy this time was to post as we went, rather than try to group things into categories (e.g. landscape, flowers, animals, etc.). The past few trips where I've tried to do it that way has meant that trip posts never get finished because, once we're home, I'm on to other things. So, moving forward, hopefully I continue to improve the way I do things. 

Despite being sick most of this trip and some of the things we had planned to do not getting done (e.g. overnight backpacking, Andrew paragliding) it was a great trip. We saw such a wide variety of landscape and I'm really happy with some of the photos I got. Things are improving there too!  :-) 

Fall Road Trip 2023 - Coos Bay to Newport

The bronchitis saga continues. After the American Thanksgiving holiday (when everything was closed) we again found a medi-clinic, this time in Coos Bay, Oregon. And again, it didn't take long to get in with just one person in front of me. The doctor said I shouldn't still be wheezing like I am and recommended I see my family doctor as soon as get home to get x-ray and probably a nebulizer. I explained I don't have a family doctor and the long wait times to get an appointment at any sort of medi-clinic in Victoria. She didn't really respond to that but when she came back with another prescription, much to my surprise she also gave me a requisition for a chest x-ray at the local hospital. So off we went and, once again, the paperwork was the longest part of the process and I soon had an x-ray. Hopefully will know more in a few days when results come back. 

In the meantime, we carry on towards home. 

We stopped in Newport for the night and stayed at the Sylvia Beach Hotel, a grand old building located on a hill above the beach. Andrew had starred it in google maps some time ago as a potential and it turned out to be a great choice! The whole hotel has a book theme to it -- very suitable for two voracious readers. :-) 

Each room has an author or book theme and we got the Jules Verne room. There was obviously meticulous detail put into the decorating, from the porthole window in the door, the small barnacles on the bed posts, the submarine painted on the ceiling in the bathroom, the octopus toilet roll holder, and the jelly fish night light. Not to mention the book shelf full of books by Jules Verne. 

Video tour of our room and the hotel:

Other room choices were Dr. Seuss, The Color Purple, John Steinbeck, J.K. Rowling, Shakespeare, and many more. The Table of Content restaurant serves supper meals family style (we chose to eat at Zurita, a quiet Spanish tapas restaurant nearby) and a nice breakfast. Upstairs has a living room area with big comfortable chairs and couches where we hung out in the evening and enjoyed the mulled wine they serve every evening at 8pm. 

"Books" on the wall in Table of Content restaurant

All this and it was very reasonably priced! Needless to say, we would definitely stay here again. Be warned though, they don't have wifi. Shocking, I know! We simply used our phones as a hotspot when needed. 

The next morning, we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium which we've been to before but always enjoy. The sea otters and their antics are always a favourite, as were some of the birds. Some of the inside exhibits have been under construction since the last time we were here a couple years ago. Hopefully that's finished by the next time we're there. 

A fun video compilation from the aquarium:

We then had a relatively short drive to Astoria to finish the day. 

Fall Road Trip 2023 - Bishop to Newport

While on the road, we usually stay at a hotel every third or fourth night to get cleaned up and have a non-camping meal. We try to find unique, reasonably priced places (e.g., historic or “boutique” hotels) rather than chain hotels if possible. 

In Bishop, we stayed at the Creekside Inn. Which isn’t historic or “boutique” but was much nicer than many. Sometimes the name of a hotel doesn’t match reality but, in this case, it did. A beautiful little creek with walkways beside, bridges across, and several seating areas with lounge chairs and gas fire tables. The lobby had big comfortable chairs and a fireplace. There was a long wood carving of a mountain scene along the front desk. 

Such pretty colours along the creek.

After picking up groceries and a coffee to go, we headed towards Lake Tahoe. This is one of the few short stretches we’ve repeated so far on this trip. Other than another coffee break, we didn’t stop as it was again a very busy area with trailhead or scenic pullouts packed with vehicles. 

We found a secluded pull off north of Truckee to park for the night as all of the campgrounds were closed for the season. 

Brrr . . . time for long underwear! It's getting colder as we head towards home.

The route towards the coast followed a winding narrow road with lots of elevation gain and loss through the mountains. It was beautiful but, now having a sinus cold along with continued coughing, my ears kept getting plugged up and then popping as we went up and down. Ouch! I don’t recall ever having this much of a problem before. 

Stopping for tea on a long stretch with no towns.

We stopped for the night at a campsite on the Van Duzen River that we'd been to before (Swimmer’s Delight) and really like because of the big redwoods. 

A tree growing out of a tree.

American Thanksgiving means that lots of coffee shops and restaurants are closed but we did manage to find a nice local place, Paragon Coffee House, in Crescent City. 

We stopped for the night at Boice-Cope Park by Floras Lake which was also right by the ocean (lake and ocean separated by meters. We had a nice walk around the lake and a very short but windy walk on the beach. The ocean waves were crashing! 

I really liked the sun shining off these plants growing in the sand
and found this feather caught in one of them.

Powerful waves

Calm lake

Sunset on the lake

Fall Road Trip 2023 - Prescott to Joshua Tree

It was raining when we left the hotel in Prescott in the morning, so we picked up groceries and had coffee. By this time, it had stopped raining but was still cloudy. The Highlands Center botanical garden/nature trail was nearby so we went for a walk before hitting the road. 

Cool sculpture on the side of one of the buildings at the Highlands Center 

Finally! Thanks to the rain, a bright jacket that adds a pop of color to my photos. :-) 

The road leaving Prescott is a very winding and scenic before it levels off towards Parker, on the Arizona/California border. Being near Lake Havasu on a weekend meant campgrounds were again a scarcity. We ended up at a “primitive” and “dispersed” camping area for the night which was actually ok as it was a large area for people to park and camp where they wanted, away from others. It was a warm evening, and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset view. 

We continued to Joshua Tree the next day and went through another dust storm due to high winds. 

 

Thankfully we stopped at the visitor center before going into the park as we learned that all campsites must be reserved. We managed to get what seemed like the very last one available! 

 

We hiked a couple hours in the Twin Tanks area, mostly out of the wind, although it would be wrong to say we hiked on a trail. We had both downloaded offline maps but, after much frustration, we finally figured out there was no trail to follow. Basically, just pick a direction and head there. Andrew was very understanding of my “I-feel-like-crap-and-have-no-patience-for-ANYTHING” attitude during this time.

 

We did manage to find one of the tanks which was marked by big white boulders and had a bit of water in it, even at this time of year. 

Joshua trees are such funky shapes

One of the "tanks." Still some water in it, even at this dry time of year.

Large white boulders marked this tank.

At the "cholla garden"

Chollas as far as the eye can see. So much dust in the background from the high winds.

We got to Cottonwood campground and Andrew was thinking of going for a run before realizing that, with the time change, sunset was at 4:30 pm and he really didn’t want to be out there in the dark. 

 

The wind picked up throughout the evening to the point where several people, mostly in un-sturdy tents and vehicle roof top tents, packed up and left. We were very happy for the sleeping and eating setup in our van, but the wind was strong enough to keep it rocking back and forth all night.  

The next morning, we headed back north through the park and tried to stop for coffee at Joshua Tree townsite but everyone else had the same idea and the shops were packed with long lineups. We kept going and the wind finally let up during the day as we got closer to Bishop.