Mt St Helens

We spent a glorious morning sleeping in and lounging around the condo. Triina and I unloaded our now very full and messy car. We were too tired to do so the night before but we got it all in almost  2 cart loads. Triina's friend Nick on his way to meet us for brunch, found us as we were trying to haul it all in with the random odds and ends falling off the carts, he took pity on us and helped carry it all in. The wine haul for the three of us from our wine tastings along the way in in the side pic.

With everyone showered and the car unloaded, we we off to brunch in Queen Anne. The 5 Spot is a great little spot with a regional revolving themed menu. This month it was New Mexico, so we got green chilies and flour tortilla inspired breakfasts. Afterwards it was time to show Niina the beautiful Seattle skyline from Kerry Park in Queen Anne. Once again, it was a  glorious sunshine-y day typical of Seattle summers that was now lingering on just for us. Triina had a few friends in Seattle to meet up with and Niina and I were headed for Mt. St. Helens for the day.

It was a difficult choice on what to do that day. The original plan was that on the roadtrip we would go up the Seattle coastline and check out the Hoh rainforest before turning our sights to Seattle. However, it didn't quite work out that way, Triina's friends could only meet Sunday and that would also have been a pretty long day for us to go there and back from Seattle. I did give Niina a few options. We could drive out to the rainforest and Olympic national park, but it would be a long day and the ferry lines might be long. Or we could go to Rainier national park and see the big mountain and do a hike, which was much closer. It hadn't even occurred to me to suggest Mt St Helens until I was pointing out all the volcanoes I had climbed in the area and when that one came up, she lit up on that idea and definitely knew that was the place she wanted to go see. 

We still had the rental car and I was game for whatever, so that was the new official game plan. Triina would go see her friends and Niina and I would go see the one that blew. It was a big further than I had anticipated (solid 3 hours), but I myself had only been there once and had only really seen the backside that you climb, so this was a new experience for me too. 

We got to the first visitor center and saw a really interesting short film on the eruption and toured the museum. We passed a winery right near there but since the morning and brunch had been so leisurely, I was nervous that we'd never get to the top visitor center and exhibits before they closed, so we had to pass. 

The blast areas were really impressive to see, the backside I had climbed didn't have any of the destruction that the front side which had exploded and created a landslide had seen. I think the pictures of the matchstick-like trees that still laid on their sides where they fell on the hillsides and the lahar path that steamrolled over a previously forested valley pretty much say it all. It was a crazy huge eruption that demolished everything in its path, but it was all slowly coming back to life. Nature takes care of its own, slowly but surely.

 We did a small hike around Coldwater Lake, which the eruption and landslide had created and then went to the top observatory at the end of the road. We got there just in time to see a few exhibits and watch another well done short film about the eruption (you totally learned different things about the same story, it was nice). And then we were kicked out pretty much immediately when it was over because by this time it was closing time. We took a few more pictures from the top of the observatory  outside and then were forced back to the car by the evening winds which started to pick up and blow a bit too forcefully for people without coats and in shorts. 

As we coasted down the winding road from the observatory, Triina was calling us about when we would be home and what to do about dinner. With a 3 hour drive ahead of us back and everybody hungry, her and Nick went for Indian food back in Seattle while and Niina and I went off to find a brew pub and a few pints of cider on our way home. We found a great place called Fish Tale Brew Pub  in Olympia that served what Triina and I had observed to be Niina's favorite American meal: a big ass burger. This place served organic beef and organic ales, which hit the spot. Niina and I went for the Spire Ciders, a nice dark and dry apple one for Niina and a regular apple cider for me. It was a great meal for just chilling and relaxing in the evening and a short hour ride home from there back to the Emerald city and to pick up Triina. (well actually we dropped the rental car off at the airport, took a cab home, and then drove out to Bellevue to pick up Triina, and then finally made it back to the condo. But that's the extended boring part of the story)

Cannon Beach and the City of Roses

Today was our best day of getting up and at 'em the whole trip, hands down! The crew of this roadtrip are not what one would call “morning people”. Which is fine, except when things close at 5-6pm because its now past labor day and we didn’t get going till noon-ish, you got a little problem and have to hurry. And no one likes to hurry while on vacation. But not today! Today we got in the car and were on the road by 8:15am. No one took an hour to do their hair and no dilly-dallying at breakfast. Just out of the hotel and into the car. I wanted to get out the Cannon Beach (only a quick 1 hour drive), and eat breakfast out there and then go see the beach made famous from the Goonies.

We ate an awesome breakfast at the Lazy Susan Café. Fancy waffles and omelets and blackberry scones. It was well worth getting on the road early for. We were so incredibly full that we needed a good stroll on the beach to work things off as well as checking out the haystack and the tide pools around it. The fog that had still been out when we were driving had lifted over breakfast and the sunshine was coming out. It was a great morning to be out on the water. We spent an hour hanging out, then got a coffee to go and started to make our way to Portland to go to their famous weekend market.

Now there wasn’t much in Cannon Beach as far as services. I’m sure there was a gas station somewhere out in the town, but we didn’t see it and I assumed we would see a gas station somewhere along a way. The odometer said we had 68 miles left in the tank. It was something like 75 to Portland, so I figured it would be ok. Around 15 miles left in the tank and the fact that we were still surrounded by national forest on all sides, I started to get a little bit concerned. Not super concerned, but just a little bit. I started to do silly “strategic” things like letting the car coast down hills and up hills before I started to hit the gas. Trying not to break in anyway (which is hard because some people feel the need to break constantly *I shaky my fist*). About 9 miles from Tank Empty, the trees yielded and we hit fields, and I start to feel less nervous. And at ~8 miles, we finally came across a gas station. Triina was a whole lot more relieved. I was actually kinda disappointed. The adventure and curious side of me wanted to see how far we could push it. You know, Kramer-style in Season 9, episode 11 The Dealership. Was the 8 miles for real? Or was there an additional 30 mile secret buffer in there? I will now never know. I do admit though, for us getting to Portland in a timely manner, it was probably for the best. 

Once we got to Portland we left the car and headed for the Saturday Market. The Saturday Market has something like 200 vendors of art, clothing, jewelry, food, and hipster items. I originally thought the farmer’s market was part of it, but that turned out to be in a different part of the city. We took an hour or so to stroll through the rows of booths of the more high-end artistic/professional vendors. We got some great Nepal momos as a snack. Then went into the second part of the market, which was more like imports and the cheap clothing/incense portion of the market. I got a hipster hat and a necklace. Triina got a hipster shirt with a tree on it. Triina and Niina looked at Indian/hippie imports and I got a tarot card reading as the incense orders were beginning to bother me (apparently I am getting a new job and a bf this year. And a baby. I’m hoping this lady is 2 for 3. I’m keeping all body parts crossed on that last one) 

Niina was disappointed because the charm type bracelet she had been looking for hadn’t really materialized and also that she was promised more of a flea market and wanted to go to some thrift shops and to look for some sort of Dr. Who magic wand(?). The search for this wand was kinda out of control. We kept telling her maybe a comic book shop would have one, but she kept insisting it could be found in a book store, and we were like, but bookstore don’t really exist anymore, we just ordered them on Amazon.

We walked past all the amazing food truck stands Portland is so famous for and got some tasty thai food and then decided our feet were exhausted and we needed to just relax as part of enjoying the sunny afternoon. We found a cute little wine bar that specialized in Oregon wines, specifically the Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs (which also made the list this year as top places to go wine tasting). The valley was along I-5 inland and we, doing the HWY1/101, were on the coast, so we missed that whole region. Chilling out at a nice air conditioned bar totally hit the spot. We had our final wine tasting of the trip, Niina and I had the Oregon Pinot Noir flight and Triina just relaxed with a local white. The Pinots were excellent. Relaxed and ready to go again, it was time to take care of some Apple business.

Triina was having the best day ever. She got to go to hipster shops, she got to have thai food truck soup, and the best of all, she was getting a new Macbook Air. (*Awwwwwwww* *sounds of angels singing*) Yup, with Oregon’s tax free shopping laws, it was advantageous for Triina to get her new laptop tax free and with a tidy work discount in addition, that I get from working at my company for myself and family. So Triina got hooked up! We sent Niina to go shopping while we took care of business in the rest of the mall and she found her Dr. Who wand. This is the wand she had been looking for since the beginning from the trip. Woohoo! 

With all our shopping done and a peck-ish but not starving craving for food, we went to my favorite pizza place for dinner Ken’s Artisan Pizza. This place does things right and its so good. Ken is like the Bo Jackson of food. Ken knows pastries, Ken knows bread, Ken knows pizza. If you can bake it, he can make it. We had a final great dinner on the last night of the road trip complete with dessert. With bellies full and wallets empty, it was a short 2 and a half hour straight shot drive on I-5 home to Seattle. 

By 2am we were all snuggled up in nice warm beds in my cozy condo and dreaming about all the places we had seen, the food we had eaten, the wine we'd drank, the friends we'd met, the sunshine that had lit our path, and the open road; all of which had been so good to us. 

The Oregon Trail

Today was another mileage day. A kinda ambitious long mileage day. The final grand finale of our time on the coast was one finishing up in Cannon Beach in Oregon. The only problem was, we were still in CA. So we had like, 417 miles to go on a twisty turney two lane coastal highway that google maps says will only take nearly 9 hours, no biggie right? We got a pretty decent start in the morning, finishing up our camping breakfast foods like bagels w/Brie and muesli w/ yogurt. Triina a brewed pot of her mountain goddess tea and we got on the road. 

Up the coast we went, trying not to stop till we at least got out of CA. We didn’t make it, we had to stop in Klamath for a restroom break. We stopped at this really kitschy site that had a giant Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues that moved and talked to the people passing into the gift shop. Inside there was a surprisingly well put together Native American museum with a pretty impressive collection of local and regional north American native costumes, jewelry, and photos, presented in a collage type display. It was really well done and complete surprise, as we were just expecting elk hats and bear themed candy. We probably ended up spending a full hour out there in total before moving on. When we finally got to the OR-CA border, I made a quick dash into the visitor center to pick up some Oregon info, specifically where the Willamette Valley was that had made the “2013 Best places to go wine tasting in the world” in Wine magazine were located and to see if any would be on our path. Turns out, that that whole region was along the I-5 corridor and there was only 1 located along the 101 coastal highway. We were kinda bummed, but I really wanted to see the full Oregon coast instead of just hitting the boring interstate all the way to Portland and missing all the amazing coastal views. So we had to choose: wine or views. I, the all powerful driver that day, went with views. 

From there we made great time to our next stop which was for what was rated the best fish ‘n chips on the pacific coast. It was this little tiny place called, The Crazy Norwegian’s Fish & Chips in Port Orford, OR. This place seriously was all that it was cracked up to be. I got a fish n’ chips and Triina got a massive seafood dinner plate. We also got a cup of the clam chowder to share and sample and to top things off I got a razzleberry pie (raspberries and blue berries and some other berry). Everything was excellent. The fish was flaky and lightly breaded, the pie was that combo of berries that led itself to be sweet and tart, the chowder was creamy and comforting without being heavy or too rich. The cold slaw had crunch, the fries were golden, and Triina had to massive pieces of shrimp in addition to her fish and fried oysters and clams. Niina was super excited to get a monster sized root beer float with a whole mug full of ice cream and the beer to just pour on top. We The whole place was cutely decorated with Norwegian memorabilia and kitschy Scandinavian troll and elf items. It was adorable. were suffice to say, completely stuffed when we left and completely satisfied.

 

The next town we stopped at was an effort to walk off some of the food and to help Niina find a replacement charm bracelet for the one she had bought in Monterrey and had lost. We had been doing this search somewhat informally for a while looking at small gift shops along the way with no luck. We stumbled upon an exhibit about sculptures made of washed trash found on the beach made into amazing sea creatures. It was really fascinating all the part and information about trash that washes up on the shores from things dumped or blown into the ocean. We kinda took too long in this small town and with no luck had found no bracelet.

So we got bak in the car and started up again. Our next stop was this tidepool state wayside area along the highway. We stopped and took fun picks and tried to get Niina closer to the ocean (which while was churning up waves was at low tide so she could see the sea anemones and starfish. We had a good hour here as well. . . . . You can see the trend here. Tik tok, time was going fast!

After we finished that walk, we got back in the car and start up again. Our sunny day was fading fast and clouds were moving in. At this point, we had to figure out where we were going to stay for the night. I had planned to just stay at a campsite at one of the many coastal state parks along the seashore. However as the skies got darker, it began to drizzle and get even darker. We all agreed we really didn’t want to camp in the rain and we all agreed we probably weren’t going to make it in Cannon Beach that night. We decided to keep driving till it got too dark, to make the best our light situation and the windy road. We finally stopped for dinner in the small town of Lincoln City at a roadhouse (meh dinner review) and decided we better make a hotel reservation in Tillamook and just call it a day from there. We found a place with two queen beds at the Shilo Inn. It was getting late and we were all tired. Once we got there, we all pretty much showered and went to bed. The long day of mostly sitting and power-stops had tuckered us out and we had an early morning to make up the time of not getting to Cannon Beach that night.

Tall tree and tall tales

We woke up to a more traditional Pacific Northwest weather pattern of being cool and foggy this particular morning. This was a sign to get a hot breakfast at Golden Harvest Cafe. I got an insanely delicious Crispy Caspary Benedict. Just picture it: fresh spinach, tomato, and double battered fried chicken, bacon and poached eggs on a homemade biscuit and garlic cream sauce. I will be making this at home sometime in the future. With full bellies, it was time to go find some tall tall trees.

Bre had to work, but the evening prior, she had given Triina the scoop on where we should hike in the Redwoods National Park. The plan was to hike to the small grove of the very tallest trees. It required a special permit, a 45-min drive deep into the park, gate access code, and a hike in. We went to the particular visitor center that was the only one that issued the permits sadly to find that the sequester had hit this National Park. Due to the NP getting cut of all that “unnecessary and wasteful” funding it had received years prior, it could no longer maintain the road that led into the park and hence, we could not drive to the trailhead. Technically, we could still hike into the park and after miles and miles, we could link up to the trailhead using other trails, but that would be over 32+ miles to do roundtrip and it was already past noon. No tall tree trail for us. We had to settle on a different 7.5 mile RT called Berry Glen Trail that took us into some other old growth tree groves and linked up to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail loop.

Now trees have such a special place in my heart, I just love being with them in nature. They make the forest smell so good and clean the air, they make shade, they protect smaller plants that grow at their roots, they make homes for animals and other plants, they give so many things to so many others! Walking amongst them in the woods, you feel so small and that they are so big and wise from all the things they have bore witness to. The idea from Lord of the Rings, of trees being Ents, tall slow patient creatures who protect the forest resonates with me so. I like to think they are there to watch over and protect everyone, people, animals, and plants alike. Triina also loves the Ents. In the magical redwood forest, you definitely felt like they could come alive at any moment and you just want to run up and hug them and thank them for being so wonderful. We had a glorious afternoon ramble through the trees talking and laughing together as we hiked amongst the giants. We took some time to take tree-hugging photos with our favorite ones.

On the way up, we had spotted a sign for a winery called Moonstone Crossing and made a mental note so not to miss it on the way back to Bre’s. This was a bit different of a place than all the other wineries we had gone to. They grow no grapes of their own but buy all their grapes from other vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Amador areas and then just focus on the wine making part. Their tasting room was in the small town of Trinidad, CA right near the Trinidad Lighthouse and beach. They were hosting a special extended hours for their wine club and we got to enjoy hanging out for as long as we wanted, which was awesome, because they had a 12 wine tasting flight of mini pours. Evaluating 12 wines given in mini samples is a tough job, but Niina and I were up to it. Triina went with the regular pour size of just 6 wines. This place had pretty nice wine. My pick was Dark as Night 2008 California Red. 46% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Franc, 12% Cab Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot.

Afterwards, of course we got ice cream then headed back to Bre’s since she was getting off work and we promised we’d make dinner since she was letting us crash on her floor. I made two pastas, one gluten free rice noodle and the other regular linguini both with a pesto-cream sauce with sautéed heirloom tomatoes and zucchini topped off with parmesan and pine nuts. We also had garlic bread and caprese salad finishing up the napa valley freshies we had. Bre’s boyfriend made a homemade potato salad from scratch and we opened a bottle of wine we had gotten from the Moonstone winery. It was a luscious savory spread shared with new and old friends. Bre and Triina reminisced and shared fun stories about all their naturalist adventures while they were working together mixed in with the new adventures Bre and her boyfriend had experienced while at Burning Man this year (Seriously, it was like everyone and their brother had been there!) We finished the night singing and laughing at songs as Triina and Bre strummed their dueling ukuleles. The song of the night was, “I’m not fat, I’m fluffy” in honor of the quite rotund tubby cat who lived in Bre’s house. It was an entertaining and lighthearted finish to an enchanting day.

Day at car

The next day was a mileage day. We needed to get some highway under the tires if we were ever going to make it to Seattle. Our objective was getting to the redwoods and staying with Bre, a fellow naturalist and ex-coworker of Triina’s in Arcata, CA. Just south of the Redwoods National Park. Where we planned to take the day off and see the tall tall trees, we just had to get there first.

It was a beautiful drive, with the road winding along, up and down the cliffs and headlands of the northern California coast. We did power stops at interesting overlooks and took pics. Power stops are when you get out of the car and run around the area with an almost Chinese fire-drill style frenzy until you got all the pictures you wanted and had seen everything. Then you raced back to the car and waited till we did it again. I love power stops, it allows for short sprints to wake your sleepy legs and lets you see everything without it turning into a half-hour to hour long stop.

We took a longer break for sammies and a small hike around the headlands of Russian Gulch State Park. It’s a really sweet coastline that featured seacaves, tunnels, arches, and blowholes carved out of the sandstone rock. Triina and I had such a great time climbing over the rough rocks and doing a bit of exploring in the warm sunshine. Because it was such sunny and amazing day, it was hard to get back in the car, but we still had more miles to go.

Mid-afternoon, highway 1/101 turns away from the shoreline and heads deep into the forest, where you begin to see the start of the redwood protected state park areas and fun kitschy tourist stops. We didn’t have much time, but I convinced Triina and Niina that we needed for sure to stop at one of these old-school delights. The guides and reviews I had previously read, told us one of the best tourist stops was the Chandelier Tree. It’s a big redwood that they cut a gapping hole out of its base sometime in the 1930s and you get the novelty of driving your car through it for a mere $5/car. It also clearly had restrooms, a gift shop, and you could take hikes/picnic on their 250 acres of redwoods. As silly as it sounded, Triina (who was the all-powerful driver that day), humored my request and we got to drive through it. Yay! I was highly amused.

The brief divergence into kitsch over, we kept on truckin’ and followed highway 101 as it made its way back toward the coast out to Arcata. Bre was still at work and we had yet to fulfill the ice cream portion of our daily requirements (we had decided to take the day off drinking wine) so we headed for the best place in town for such things: the greasy-spoon truck stop known for burgers and shakes called Toni’s 24-hour Restaurant. With pre-ssert taken care of (dessert before dinner), we were invited to tasty vegetarian dishes prepared by Bre’s boyfriend while she was at work. Triina celebrated the well-prepared dinner by opening the sparkling rose she had got from the champagne house. It was a pretty sweet ending to a nice mileage day.

Champagne and Sonoma

The original plan was we were only going to go to one vineyard on our way out of town, just to be able to say we had tasted in Sonoma as well as Napa. But as road trips go, things never go quite as planned. We did our scheduled tasting at Nicholson Ranch vineyard. It was a typical movie-set worthy estate on the hill overlooking their vines. They specialized in delightful Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs and had a chatty wine-tender. We were the only ones in the tasting room for most of the time, so we got to pick the music for the place and hear about wine-tender life. 

Toward the end of the tasting I asked the guy, who was making the best champagne in the region? I figured I would store this info in my Evernote for a future trip (Hopefully an AST long-weekend!). The whole Sonoma/Napa region are a little spread out and on slow moving country roads so I assumed it was going to be far away and we would continue on with out drive right after this taste. To my delight it was the gorgeous chateau Domaine Carneros we had passed just 2 miles prior, that we had hemmed and hawed over whether to stop at, only to instantly regret it as we decided to drive on. We had pressed on because we wanted to "officially" be in Sonoma. When he mentioned that place, we were all on board to throw out the drive plans and go get some spontaneous sparkles. 

Once we got there we found out that they were about to do a proper wine tour of their whole on-site facilities with a combo of education interspersed between tastings. This is what I had really wanted to get to do while I was out there, something more than just a sample or two in the course of 30 min, but a real semi-in-depth look into what it was that they did out there. We booked ourselves and took the 30 min prior to do cheese tasting on their expansive tiered outdoor patio. 

Once the tour started we met the other people who were there visiting as well. We thought we had the far away award won, since Niina was from Finland, but there was another scandinavian kid from Sweden who was also on the tour. He had just gotten back from a week at Burning Man and was "recovering" by going wine tasting (what a way to recover, huh?).

The tour was super informative as the guide we over all their fields, how the weather between the two regions was perfect for champagne and sparkling types, how the sun facing a certain direction was better for certain grapes and in how they grew and ripened. Next we went on to the pressing, processing, aging, bottling, and then final fancy shiny foil capping. The cool part about the tour was that we got not only the local story of that vineyard, but also of how historically they had made champagne to how things had changed. And of course different wines were served through out the passing of knowledge. Since we were the final tour of the day we got to taste all the ones they had open and not just the usual 6 that they generally serve on the tour. It was excellent. Triina and I both loved the Rose, I also loved two other wines, the Blanc de Noir and the Late Disgorged vintage brut (both of which are not part of the usual package).

We made our purchases and it was agreed we definitely needed something to eat. At this point we had made friends with the Swedish kid and invited him to hang with us at our car as we made sandwiches before we headed back for the coast (we definitely got hungry since we had only had pre-tour cheese for lunch). It was now late afternoon we had yet to make it back to Highway 1. The new plan was to setup camp at an ocean view state park before it got dark and to hopefully catch the sunset on the beach.

An hour later we had made it out of wine country and back to the rolling seaside landscape and got a campsite right on the beach in Sonoma Coast State Park. We got the tent up and caught the last glimpses of the sun sliver just as it slipped beneath the waves. We took some playful shots in front of the haystacks.

Back at camp, we made a delicious fresh-made pasta meal of zucchini, heirloom tomatoes, and basil in a tomato sauce. A Caprese salad with local mozzarella, a french baguette, and napa valley olive oil to dip in. Triina strummed the Uke as I cooked and Niina stirred. A bottle of red was opened and we enjoyed a feast of the valley's spoils. Spontaneous days are sometimes the best.