Pacific Coast Byway

September 20 through 22, 2008
We left Tacoma on Saturday, the 20th in a drizzle of rain and quite cool. Traffic in that area is horrendous and we were glad to get south of their to Portland, OR and tour Powell’s Bookstore. Well we got to Portland alright and it really reminds me of Gotham City. There are many, many bridges in Oregon and the first one we saw was the Fremont Bridge in Portland. It’s very gothic, green in color and concrete monuments framing each end. The directions I had to Powell’s were totally off base and we were out of town before we found the turnoff. Since we wanted to make the coast that day, we decided to just go on and not stop until we got to the Pacific Coast Byway (Highway 101). The trees in Oregon are just awesome and are everywhere, even in the cities. I can’t wait to get home and try to re-capture their grandeur in pastels. We got to the coast and discovered that everybody in Oregon decided to go to the coast this weekend, and we had trouble finding a room. We wanted to be on the beach and finally found the last room in town apparently, in Newport, OR at the Hallmark Resort. The last room was actually a King Suite with a full kitchen and Jacuzzi with a private balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean! Just what the doctor ordered. We decided to stay the weekend there because it is such a beautiful area. The sunset was amazing and I am including all shots from Saturday night and Sunday night because I couldn’t just pick one! We relaxed in the Jacuzzi Saturday night and ordered room service. Ah, I love room service! Sunday we slept in and then went to tour the area and take pictures. The lighthouse was just beautiful. We could see if from our balcony, but wanted to take a closer look. Then we went down to the bay and downtown. Everything is so quaint along the scenic byway and we thoroughly enjoyed the day. Since we had a full kitchen in the suite, completely furnished with pots, pans, dishes, etc. we went to the local Fred Meyer, which is Oregon’s answer to Wal-Mart and snagged some shrimp, Brussels sprouts and corn and cooked our supper. It was so good to be able to cook. We have missed that these past two weeks. So Monday a.m. we arose to sunshine and a beautiful day, but also we discovered the battery had died in the Xterra! We called the 1-800 number for Nissan and learned that there is a Nissan dealership in Newport, OR! We took the car in and luckily Newport is large enough to have a dealership but small enough that they got us in, diagnosed the problem, found it was indeed just the battery and even washed it for us after they replaced it. The people in Oregon are so cheerful and friendly and appear to be really happy. I guess the surroundings make a body feel good! We continued our journey and were determined to get to the Redwood Forest on Monday. The Pacific Coast Byway takes you through forests, mountains and then at once you go around a curve and you are on a precipice overlooking the Pacific. Of course it is on MY side of the car and I was doing a lot of “OMG, OMG” as John careened around the curves. At every turn there was danger, if not rocks, slides, elk crossings or high wind gusts, it was a 300 foot drop to the ocean! I was just short of being fearful, so it was very exciting, but not too scary. We made it to Crescent City, CA this evening and have a lovely room at the Hampton on the beach. We are going to get an early start tomorrow and drive through the Redwoods and make our way to Sacramento. We are really having a wonderful time and keep telling each other how glad we are that we decided to do this.