May to July 2024
The Summer House
A cross-county wander visiting family and friends
Last you knew, we were heading for California and parts nearby. It was May and spring was with us, and it had brought lots of beautiful weather. We’d had a great time wandering in the northern parts of Georgia and Alabama, then returning our visiting European friends to the Atlanta area; then in early May we began moving west.
We made a few stops along the way, in Arkansas to get a bit of minor repair work done, in Oklahoma to see an old friend, and such; then plunged ahead, across New Mexico and Arizona. As we got further and further west, spring kept us company. We really enjoyed seeing the desert as it bloomed, bursting into wild colors. Not sure we’ve ever seen the cactus so vibrant and lovely. In New Mexico we passed by one of our favorite and amazing oddities: the Very Large Array, out in the middle of nowhere and very intriguing.
A few days later we found ourselves in Phoenix and then Las Vegas, planning to spend a bit of time with three granddaughters and two great-grandchildren. It was really neat to see the bunch of them — all three sisters grown up and living their own lives and the next generation growing and thriving. We were really pleased to be able to spend a bit of time with them… and were happy to stay inside most of the time: it had gotten way too hot for us.
And then, finally, we had arrived on the West Coast, in the San Luis Obispo area, to begin a series of visits. It was both fun and exhausting to see a bunch of our old friends, who, just like us, were all getting older, with some becoming quite ancient — no names here. All in all a very good reason for us to have come west to see them.
One thing really stood out to us on this visit: everything was bright green and much taller. California had an extremely wet winter last year; all the foliage was luscious, and it was harder than ever to recognize where we were, even in our “home town” of San Luis Obispo. I’m sure you know the feeling — you’ve always turned right at that particular corner to get to your friend’s house — but where’s the corner? Buried in trees and shrubs that no one’s thought to trim back! They even cover the street signs! But we could usually find our way eventually despite the inevitable changes.
We had beautiful spring weather on the Coast, a real relief from the heat we’d been coping with further inland, and had a very good time meeting up with most of our old buddies and spending time with our only offspring still living in CA before moving on beyond the Central Coast.
When we left SLO we drove north, staying in the pleasant, coastal areas, stopping first in the Monterrey area before moving on to the greater Bay Area and Napa, enjoying visits along the way, then heading up towards the redwoods. A real treat was taking the road through the Napa and Sonoma vineyards — St Helena, Cloverdale, etc. — some of the oldest vineyards and most ancient labels in the state. It was beautiful . And then on into the redwoods of the north coast. This area is some of what we love the most about California.
We crossed the Klamath River and stopped to have lunch with friends in Crescent City, down by the wharf; then we hit the Redwood Highway (Hwy 199) heading for Oregon.
Lots of interesting things along the road. One reminder that fires were a danger at all times was a highway sign saying Dragging Chains Starts Fires; Tow Responsibly. Further into the forest we stopped for the night back in the woods a bit off the highway. There was a walk down to a crossing over the Smith River with a viewpoint along the water; the redwood trees were everywhere, and smelling “redwoody”; peaceful and pretty. The spring wildflowers and the forest flowers were in bloom and just everywhere!
After a quiet night we headed on down the road; such a gorgeous drive — we really love the redwoods. Having already done this trip several times over the years, we decided to skip the various attractions (there were chances to stop and purchase Fresh European Products right across the road from Rabbits For Sale — a bit surreal, we thought). Instead, we drove on until we had crossed into Oregon. The road follows the South Fork of the Smith River, a lovely way to cross the border.
Due to some scheduling issues, we had to scurry past Grants Pass, the Rogue River area, and other fun things as soon as we hit Oregon, jumping directly onto Interstate 5 and heading north up the middle of the state. This was to be the first part of driving around in and exploring parts of Oregon and Washington until about the middle of July.
We stayed for a week at one of our favorite Escapee campgrounds, in Sutherlin. It’s in a hilly area north of Roseberg and not far from Umpqua, if you know that wonderful ice cream! and a nice quiet spot. We were parked next to bunches of berry bushes, although it was too early for there to be anything but flowers on the plants — have to come later for the olallieberries.
But there were plenty of rabbits wandering around, munching away on the grasses until the semi-domesticated (some even had names) turkeys came by and shooed them away. Also several deer coming down from the woods in the evenings. The mornings were very nice, but then the days would grow hot. But this is a lovely campground to stay in when you want a chance to regroup… and for us, a place to wait for our mail to come.
The post office having done its job, we moved on to where we have friends who live outside Portland. They are fellow travelers, and spend about half their year in Europe, hitting it in 3-month spurts then returning home for awhile.
We had a couple of really great days with them, with so much to talk about, and we spent one beautiful morning at the Portland International Test Garden, one of our country’s real jewels. It was a gorgeous day; the garden was in full bloom; there were lots of folks there to enjoy the day with us, but it did’t seem overly crowded. And we took a zillion pictures. Couldn’t stop! If you’ve never been to these gardens, you owe it to yourself to make the trip. We only have room for one photo here, but we share around 30 of our Rose Gardens pictures on the Photo Page for this story, so you might want to be sure to go over there to take a look.
Though it was hard to leave, we finally pulled away from Portland, heading north across the Columbia River into Washington State, where we were headed to Chimacum, home to another favorite Escapee park. This park is almost all the way to Port Townsend, northwest of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula, and is surrounded by wonderful forests.
The park itself is beautifully landscaped - with all the work done by volunteers among the residents. We arranged to spend a full eleven days here in order to avoid being on the road over July 4th weekend, and were delighted to find that we were there when the park was at its prettiest, and very easy to love.
Flowers of many flavors, garden sites developed to show off what was in bloom, a moss garden, totem poles celebrating the local indigenous tribes, a Japanese garden, trails through the woods, exotic flowers I’d never seen before; all pretty special.
Friends came to find us, and it was great to see them. One couple lived in nearby Tacoma and the other was on their way back to California from a vacation in Alberta. Neither couple had been here before, and it was a pleasure exploring the campground with them.
After a few more days we left and started out exploring some of the Peninsula. We particularly wanted to spend time in the Olympic Peninsula National Park, but first we were hoping to explore some of the area around us.
Nearby Sequim ( pronounced Squim by most folks) was beckoning. It is best known for its vast lavender fields, definitely at their best right now. We drove through the area, enjoying the brightness of the color and the lovely smells. Really nice. There are also great murals in town… and even a local deer or two.
The biggest town on the peninsula is Port Angeles, where you can catch the ferry for Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island. Port Angeles is also the home of the visitor’s center for Olympic National Park, so of course we visited there, in part to get good information on how best to see the Hoh National Rainforest, a very special place.
A rainforest in Washington? Rainforests are well known in Brazil and other parts of South America. But in the State of Washington? Moss all over the trees? Ferns covering the ground? Fuzzy growth everywhere? Fourteen feet of rain each year? The trees seeming to lean over and be dropping their branches down on you? Yes, the Hoh is one of the largest temperate rain forests anywhere and it’s quite a sight.
At the national park Visitor’s Center we had a good time. There were very nice displays, and you could wander in the forest there. A local deer wandered through while we were on a short walk.
We continued out along the ocean past Port Angeles towards the very furthest point on the northern coast. Along the way we stopped in the small town of Sekiu, with this strange little statue of… we weren’t quite sure what, but it was truly interesting. There were pretty views out over the ocean and we knew there was a pathway to walk out to the lighthouse at the end of the road. We’d been out to the end of the road twenty years before, but this time only went most of the way, before finally giving up on a return visit; there weren’t a lot of people, but the road was becoming too rugged for our comfort level these days.
Further along the way, we took the turn off and started along the road to the entrance to the Hoh Rainforest. The road was lovely and the trees and ferns lush and thick. Sadly, as we approached the entrance, we ran up against the rest of the world… so to speak. The line of cars waiting to get in stretched out ahead forever; the parking lots were full and they wouldn’t let a car in until one had come out.
Would we have to wait until another large motorhome left before they’d let us through the gates? Who Knew? We realized we’d only been okay earlier in the morning because we’d beaten the crowds, or more likely been behind them. Ah… it was a holiday time. And oh… it was nice and cool here, while most of the rest of the country was enduring a terrible, awful heat wave. Hmmm. What to do? We needed to turn around and leave. Down this narrow, tiny road?
Well, okay. No one was moving. Fortunately the end of the line when we arrived happened to be in a bit of a wider spot with a dirt turn off on one side. Rick started making turning-around moves, I got out and chatted up all the cars around us, telling everyone that if we could maneuver around we could get out of this pickle. Every single car was totally wonderful to us. They backed up a bit, pulled to the side, scooted forward, every thing people can do to help each other. Then, when Rick (who is stunningly good at turning around in tiny spaces) got turned and started back down the road, they started asking me if I wanted a ride! A truly great experience!
By now we had given up on our plans for wandering around in the Olympic Peninsula, and started heading south towards Oregon and more adventures there.
All along the West Coast it has become more difficult for travelers to find places to stay the night other than formal campgrounds, for which you have to make reservations well ahead of time. So we traveled south along the coast, enjoying nice cool weather, pretty views, and the local architecture. This part of Washington has many buildings with tribal decoration, both within and around the towns, buildings that have brightly painted totems that are fun to see. It was all quite pleasant. We weren’t in a hurry by now, and spent a couple of days driving south to the bridge across the Columbia River and into Astoria, Oregon.
Astoria is a great town to poke around in, with a marvelous maritime museum celebrating the history of the stormy and hazardous Columbia River Bar, but we’d been here before and were now ready to travel a bit further south. We have family in the Tillamook area, a daughter and son-in-law who raise goats, chickens, geese (!!!) and a bunch of cats that mostly live under the beds, because there are several (five) dogs as well. We really enjoy visiting there, feeding critters, eating very fresh eggs, playing with the goats et al. and enjoying the area.
While there we visited the Latimer Quilting and Textile Center in Tillamook, which was a treat. Small and quite localized, among other things they have a room where work was going on, and treadles that you could learn how to use. Who knew how cool that would be! And outside, in the yard, there were llamas, too. We had a good time.
And now we needed to move east, across Oregon, with a stop in the middle of the state to visit more family (we’re seeing most of our kids and their families this year). It was really good to catch up with everyone, as we’re not sure how soon we’ll be back in the area. My son introduced me to Thai food, we got to sit and chat away the afternoon, and we both enjoyed air conditioning. Oregon was terribly hot as soon as we moved off the coast. And it was only going to get worse.
By this time, we were heading for Utah, but by a somewhat circuitous route due to the heat. We headed north up I-5 to outside Portland, where we turned east onto I-84 to drive along the Columbia River all the way to Pendleton. We like that drive and it was a much better road than driving due east all the way to Baker City, quicker, and not all that much longer. Why Baker City? We wanted a return trip to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, which is located near there.
Why stop there? The Interpretive Center is one of the best interpretive museums we’ve ever visited. We’d intended to stop a year ago, on our last trip through, but it was closed for renovations. But now they’d finished, and reopened just a short time before we were there.
This is such an interesting place. You really learn a lot about the trails west, life on the road, everything that (usually) goes wrong, and can see the very lifelike models of the folks who used these trails to achieve their dream of a better life. We spent a long time in the museum. It continues to renovate additional displays and we will want to return again in the years to come.
From here on we’ve been traveling through very familiar territory, through Boise and Twin Falls, Idaho; then to see friends in the Ogden area of Utah where friend Gary does marvelous things with Rick to improve and dress up Slim Charles; and ending up in Wyoming, where we have finally found some better weather, at least for most of the time.
We stopped for a couple of nights to visit a friend, a fellow traveler who was camping in the Bridger-Teton NF near Pinedale; we were up at 9000 feet, and parked near a pretty lake. Such a treat. There were flowers galore, it was very cool at night, rainy and down to 48 degrees. We had to find our jackets! But at least we were using less ice. We had a wonderful time, and hated to leave.
But leave we did and have now arrived at our favorite summer haunt — the Big Horn Mountains of north central Wyoming, where (relatively) cooler weather can be found and a place we’ve spent part of our summer for the past five years.
This is the place we’ve come to call The Summer House. We’ll be here until mid-August; if you’d like to come on by.
Our best wishes to you all,
Rick, Kathy and Slim
Here are a few views from our front porch, so to speak...
The Summer House
Still a little snow on the Big Horns
Evening rain, complete with rainbow
And a nice sunset to boot.
You’ll want to visit the Photo Page for this story to enjoy the gardens and the rest of the trip.