Road Trip June 2026 - Bend to Home

Well, finally getting to the final post of our June road trip. Only because I did a backpacking trip in July and want to post about that! Sigh . . . 

Anyway, after leaving Boise, we stopped to camp at Martin's Landing near the border of Idaho and Oregon. We've stayed there before but this was the first time we saw wild turkeys and their young ones. 

We knew we'd get to Bend, Oregon, early afternoon so we looked for something to do. The High Desert Museum, just outside of Bend, looked interesting. I think because it's on a highway that we don't usually travel on, we hadn't paid attention to it on other trips through this area. It was well worth the visit. 

I loved the colours and the sun shining through this "Finding the Light" exhibit, causing colourful shadows on the ground. 

We enjoyed seeing the birds of prey and learning more about them during a couple of demonstrations. 

It was time for a hotel stay to get cleaned up after camping and we stayed at our usual place, the Riverhouse Lodge which is beautifully situated along the Deschutes River.  Great views from the dining room and lovely murals on the outside of the buildings. 

The next day we stopped for lunch and wine tasting at Andante Vineyard. Another beautiful place we've been to before. Of course, we picked up our allowed two bottles of wine each to take home across the border. 

The Astoria-Megler Bridge, stretching the 6.5 km between Oregon and Washington, is another favourite site. It's the longest continuous truss bridge in North America and second longest in the world. 

The Art Walk at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge is a great place to stop for a short break from driving and is finally open again after being closed for a few years during and after Covid / 2020. There are several metal sculptures and sometimes lots of real birds too. 

And then there's one of our favourites -- Elixir Coffee Shop in South Bend, WA. :-) 

Road Trip - June 2025 - Portland, Oregon

We had a couple extra days to spare so decided to stop in Portland and visit the Oregon Zoo and Japanese Garden. En route, we googled for "winery with restaurant" and found Andante Vineyard which was really nice and both the wine and food were excellent!  Our server, Abby, provided so much information about the wines, was able to answer all our questions about the winery, and did so in a "not rehearsed" or memorized way that many others at wineries do. Highly recommend! 

The egret is the "symbol" for the vineyard and is on the main door, the wine bottles, and in several photos throughout the restaurant. 

Part of the vineyard flower garden. 

From there, we headed into Portland and had just enough time left in the afternoon to visit the Japanese Garden. 

We stayed overnight at the Hyatt House Hotel in Beaverton. We picked it somewhat randomly as we didn't want to go into downtown Portland but still wanted to be fairly close to the zoo. After dealing with major traffic trying to get to the Japanese Garden the day before, we were extremely happy to see that there was a light rail station right beside the hotel. It was just three stops to get to the zoo and we came up from underground immediately across the street from the zoo entrance. Perfect! 

We got there just before it opened at 9 am and started off in the opposite direction of all the other early birds. It was pleasantly quiet for the first hour but by the time we left, just after noon, it was crazy busy with kids and families. 

The Oregon Zoo is definitely one of the nicer and biggest ones we've visited and has very large enclosures for the bigger animals such as the elephants, giraffes, and polar bears. 

Mouse trap!

I liked this unique design on a building across from our hotel. 

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!  :-)