Au Revoir, Oregon! See you soon, Sis! A hui hou, Hoh!

Aloha all,

the mystical Hoh Rain Forest, meeting our hanai sister at Lake Quinault, the colors of fall in Oregon, spending more time with our Maui friends in their new Oregon home…we enjoyed our time in the Pacific Northwest so much that we already know we want to come back here next year. So we say ‘Au Revoir, Oregon! See you soon, Sis! A hui hou, Hoh!'. Until next year when it’s time again to say 'Ahoy, Joy!’

Another road trip in the books,
but there is still so much left to discover...

When we woke up in Oregon this morning, it was 24 degrees Fahrenheit. As much as we enjoyed ourselves here, we are ready to trade that for 24 degrees Celsius, which is the current low of the day on Maui. It’s always bitter-sweet to leave Joy behind, but we found a nice winter home for her and we are looking forward to our own warm winter home on Maui. But first, here is the last blog post for this year:

This is a board of a wood fence,
you can imagine how pretty the actual rain forest is.

We visited three of the four temperate rain forests on the Olympic Peninsula. They were three very different experiences for us: First, we went to the Bogachiel Rain Forest. It’s pretty remote and the road was a bit of an adventure for Joy. We actually parked a mile before the trailhead to spare Joy the last bumpy incline. We went on a hike and had all the trees, all the moss and all the mushrooms pretty much to ourselves; we only met two other humans on the whole trail. 

The Hoh Rain Forest is so pretty,
Sandra and I could not shut up
about how speechless we are.

The next day we went to the Hoh Rain Forest. The trees are even more terrific and the moss is even more mystical, especially on the popular “Hall of Mosses” trail. We had been there 15 years ago and loved it then, but this time it was a little later in the season and in addition to the trees, mosses and mushrooms, it also boasted some beautiful fall colors. But it’s no secret how beautiful the Hoh Rain Forest is, so this time we shared the trail with lots of other humans, most of them equally in awe.

Just 5 of my 500 mushroom pictures

The third day rain forest experience was around Lake Quinault. More towering trees, more magnificent moss and more marvelous mushrooms…and most of all: More Kelly & Paul! They were there for a wedding and we timed our trip to spend a couple of days with them. This time we went on a guided rain forest tour with an excellent tour guide. He told us everything about what we had seen the past few days. I am afraid we already forgot most of it, but I hope we will never forget how pretty the rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula is…and that’s the most important part!

With Kelly & Paul at Lake Quinault, 
the Rest comes Easy.

I can hear some people saying: “Oh, Chris, you like everything!”, but that’s not true: I very much dislike some of the ugly stuff that is currently happening. And over 7 million people seem to agree with me. Ocean Shores was the closest “No Kings” protest for us to join. For a small town, they had a really good turnout and it was very peaceful and respectful, with lots of American flags. Nothing un-American about it in my view. I have no illusions that our attendance makes a big difference. But I am pretty sure a lot of people of our grandparents generation would have been proud if they had a picture of themselves at a “No Führer” rally. Judging by the infantile reaction from you-know-who, not just democracy, but also just regular human decency is under attack. 

No Kings protest in Ocean Shores, WA

We made it to the Mount Saint Helens visitor center, but no further. One of the roads is closed due to a landslide, an observatory is closed due to the government shutdown and the view was closed due to low clouds…three good reasons to go to Mount Saint Helens…next year.

We almost went to Boston. But the two guys who founded that city at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers flipped a coin in 1845; the guy from Boston, Massachusetts lost and the guy from Portland, Maine won and therefore got to name what was to become the biggest city in Oregon. And that’s why we went to Portland instead of Boston.  

Portland,
aka 'Almost Boston, OR'

We almost stayed away from Portland, because not just in the news, but even some reasonable sounding people said, how terrible that city has become. But there was an old house we wanted to see and a Japanese Garden we wanted to visit again, so we went to Portland after all and learned one more time that you just can’t believe all the doom and gloom.

Our impression of war ravaged Portland

Portland is most definitely not “war ravaged”, it is not “burning down” , neither is it in a state of “anarchy”, like some orange guy claims. Apparently, there was a time after the pandemic when Portland had some serious issues, even the locals we talked to agreed. But now, they are just shaking their heads at how their city is portrayed. From what we saw in two days in Portland, it’s a very nice city with less homeless people on the streets than many other cities that size. It felt perfectly safe and offers so many beautiful things: There is lots of public art in downtown, the Portland Japanese Garden is called the most renown and most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan and their history museum was delightful. And offered way more than just the coin that kept us from going to Boston.

Immigrants must have eaten all the cats & dogs,
locals resort to using donkeys as pets in Portland

Looking through the calendar of events in the city, we saw that “Lorde” was playing at the Moda Center. I have to admit that I barely knew who she was, but the first song that popped up on YouTube was “Royals” and that was enough to convince us to go. Lately, we have seen so many bands from the 80’s and even before, it was nice to see a more current artist. Of course that meant that we were amongst the oldest people in a crowd of 20,000 young people and the ones with the least knowledge of any of the lyrics to sing along…but we loved it. Even in a big arena, it felt very intimate and Lorde comes across as a very down to earth human being, just with an above average musical talent. 

Lorde concert in Portland

The “Gorden House” is the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in all of Oregon. It is one of his more modest “Usonian Homes”, meant to usher in a new style of building beautiful homes for the middle class. We love Frank Lloyd Wright’s timeless and unique architectural style. And apparently, we are not the only ones, there were other “pilgrims” on the tour who try to see as many of his buildings as possible (…or at least find one that never leaked: We have seen over a dozen of them now and they all did!). But not everybody loves Frank Lloyd Wright: The Gorden House had to be ‘rescued’ and moved because the people who bought it wanted to tear it down to build a MacMansion. What’s wrong with people? Why not just fix the roof and have the first non-leaking Frank Lloyd Wright house?

Frank Lloyd Wright's Gorden House

I want a bookshelf like that!

Do you like waterfalls? Not in your house, but in nature. If so, do you like walking behind waterfalls? Of course you do, who doesn’t? So if you have not been to Silver Falls State Park in Oregon, we highly recommend going there, they have some of the most spectacular waterfalls that you can marvel at from above, below and behind. Even if you have been there, but not during the fall, we recommend going there again. The water falls might seem silver anytime, but it looks even better with the golden yellow of the Bigleaf Maple trees. We only had time to do the “Loop of Ten Falls”, but it was truly spectacular.

Golden colors at Silver Falls State Park

Most waterfalls are even prettier from behind

Then it was time to get Joy ready for her winter hibernation. We did that in the cute town of ‘Sisters’, which has a very nice campground, great restaurants and a very convenient laundromat. The last three nights we stayed with Mindy in Redmond. Such a nice family, we were glad to spend a little more time with them, get one of the grandkids hooked on one of our games, go bowling together, get to know Mindy’s dog and reminiscent about the good old days on Maui. And by storing Joy close to Mindy in Oregon, we guarantee that we see that beautiful state and that beautiful family again next year.

Oregon is getting cold,
that's why we are leaving.
Oregon is pretty,
that's why we will come back.

For the past five months, we never spent more than a few nights in the same place. So we are excited to be back home; very excited to see our Maui friends again and also excited to do it all over again next year.

And that’s the news from ‘Lake End of the Road’, where all our memories are strong, all the photos are good looking and this, like any road trip, was well above average.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

From Astoria via Olympia around the Peninsula to Victoria

Aloha all,

October in the Pacific Northwest means the nights are longer than the days now. If you just want to know where we spent our nights during the past two weeks, this will be a quick read for you. We spent nights in Joy…

• …at a cheese company,
• …at the only fort on the US mainland that was attacked in World War II,
• …at the “Dismal Nitch”, where Lewis & Clark apparently spent 6 dismal days
• …at a cranberry & blueberry farm,
• …at a winery with a mermaid museum,
• …in the driveway at a friend’s house,
• …outside a closed national park,
• …inside an open national park with hot springs,
• …and at three campgrounds on Indian reservations.

It will be a slightly longer read if you also want to know what we did during the daylight hours, which includes a day trip to Canada and a dam that’s not there anymore. 

Astoria, Olympia, Victoria...
...these places don't just sound pretty

But let’s start where the last blog post left off: On the Oregon Coast: 

We stopped at the Tillamook Creamery again, because it’s fun when you can walk through almost any grocery store in the country and say: “We’ve been to where that was made!”. They revamped their self guided factory tour, so now it’s even more obvious how awesome Tillamook cheese & ice cream is. They make a pretty convincing argument that the cheese is creamier just because it’s still a farmer-own co-op. We also visited the Blue Heron Cheese company, because they also serve wine and because they let us spend the night “for free”. Of course those “free” camp sites come at a price, if you also have lunch, buy some cheese and taste the wine.

Tillamook Creamery, the cheesiest
factory tour we have done

We have friends we don’t see for years, but we know it’s just like the good old times when we reconnect. That’s also true for our friends Meriwether and William. First we went to their reconstructed Fort Clatsop. This is where they spent the winter on the Pacific Coast before returning over the Rocky Mountains to tell Thomas that there is no easy northwest water passage. The fort is a National Park Service site, but we were lucky and got there one day before the government shutdown. 

Fort Clatsop, where Lewis & Clark
spent their winter on the Pacific

Luckily, the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment is a state park, so we were able to re-visit this site, too. Apparently, we do need to go back to these sites every 15 years because there are plenty of things we either missed the first time around or simply forgot. Did you know that Lewis was accidentally shot by one of his team members? Or that “Cape Disappointment” (which is located right at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River!) was named by an early explorer who was disappointed that there was no river…huh??? 

Cape Disappointment
as seen from Waikiki Beach, no kidding!

I was most surprised to learn about a journal entry by Meriwether Lewis on his 31st birthday. Here he was, chosen by the president to lead this epic adventure, viewed today as the most important expedition to open the American West, most of it previously unknown to non-natives. They had just made it to the continental divide and had already discovered and sent back numerous plants and animal species unknown to science at the time. But in his journal entry that day, he laments that he ‘had done very little to advance the information of the succeeding generation.’ Makes you wonder what expectations he had for himself…

Rogue Brew Pub on a pier
 at the end of the Astoria Riverfront

The town of Astoria seems to have it all: A unique location at the mouth of the Columbia River, a riverfront boardwalk, great restaurants, multiple breweries, a great view from the Astoria Column and several interesting museums, including the excellent Columbia River Maritime Museum with the Lightship Columbia. At the local history museum, there was an advertisement from about 100 years ago, when Astoria had only about 10,000 inhabitants: It proclaimed that “unless the laws of gravity will cease to govern the forces of the earth, Astoria will be the largest city on the Pacific Coast.” Do you want to guess how many inhabitants Astoria has today? Despite gravity still doing its thing, they are down to 9,906. I am surprised that this cute town is not more popular, but we are not willing to make it 9,908. 

The Astoria Column,
nice to look at and nice to look down from

I believe more than half of the things I know, I know from traveling. Put cranberries on that list. We’ve been drinking that juice for decades, but we had no idea what a cranberry plant looks like, where they are grown and how they are harvested. Now we have spent a night at a cranberry farm and got a tour at the very cute Cranberry Museum on Long Beach. So hit us up if you want to know why John Deere doesn’t build a cranberry harvester or what the difference between dry and wet cranberry harvesting is.

Everything you always wanted to know
about cranberries, but will you dare to ask us?

Other than for berries, Long Beach was also a highlight for chowder. We had been on the hunt for the best clam chowder since we hit the Oregon Coast. But all the research did not matter: The best clam chowder was at a random restaurant called "The Lost Roo" in Long Beach, where we went simply because that's where the battery of my scooter died. 

Bike & scooter ride on Long Beach

We went to the Westport Winery only because we talked to the volunteer at the Lewis & Clark museum for about two hours. Besides answering all our questions and telling us that he had never seen anyone spend so much time in the museum, he also recommended this harvest host location. Little did he know how perfectly the Westport Winery was for us: It had everything: Wine, martinis, gardens, dogs, art, a mermaid museum and even a Maui connection: The owners are the previous owners of Lahaina Divers!

Who would try a "Flight of Fancy" for just $10?

Have you ever been to a Mermaid Museum?

This furry fellow joined as for our walk
through the gardens at the Westport Winery

Of course we went to Olympia to see our 39th state capitol building. We loved that town, not just the capitol building. Our visit was almost foiled by a random act of vandalism in the capitol the night before, but they only had to close one floor for repairs and we were able to get an excellent guided tour. 

Great tour at the
Washington State Capitol

We learned that the Washington State Capitol is the largest masonry dome in America. I’ve actually been on top of the largest masonry dome in the world in Florence Italy, but I was blissfully unaware of that distinction at the time. 

Largest masonry dome in America

There was also an interesting exhibit about a statue of Billy Franks, a native American who peacefully fought for fishing rights for his tribe. He is scheduled to replace one of the two statues from the State of Washington at Statuary Hall in the capitol in DC in 2025 or 2026. But since this is a native person replacing a white man, I wonder whether this will happen during the current administration. Not the most pressing problem, but a sign of our times. 

Port Townsend 

Port Townsend was another one of those towns that was destined to become the biggest city on the west coast, but didn’t. You can still see the ambition in the grandeur of some of the old buildings. We couldn’t quite get ourselves to spend $260 on a whale watch tour from there, since we can also see whales from our lanai back home. We actually started our whale watching season early this year from along the Oregon and Washington shores. But we always enjoy a boat ride, so we spontaneously jumped on a ferry from Port Townsend to somewhere and back.

Our $9 cruise to somewhere

It can be sad when friends move away from Maui, but it also gives us another place on the mainland to visit. Our friend Greg went on a quest to find a place for his retirement that was safe from droughts, blizzards, hurricanes and tornados. He landed in Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula. We think he did very well: It’s a beautiful area and checks off one more important criteria: His driveway is over 24 feet long and level. 

Fun round of disc golf with Greg & John

Another Hawaii Ultimate player moved just a few miles down the road from Greg. We got to spend an afternoon visiting John’s art studio and playing a round of disc golf together. Turns out he is the slightly better disc golfer and the way better artist. If you ever need one, he makes spectacular wood and stone sculptures.  

The talented John Strohbehn in his studio

From Sequim, it’s a short car and ferry ride to Victoria on Vancouver Island. What a beautiful town! We did not just tour the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (our #2 of the “Canadian state capitols”), we actually had lunch there. Apparently, it’s the hottest lunch spot in Victoria. We also took a stroll through Beacon Hill Park and a long walk from the Inner Harbour to Esquimalt.

BC Parliament building in Victoria

It felt good to be in a country with less insane political drama for a few hours. I knew that Canada is still part of the British Commonwealth. However, I did not noticed the irony until our tour guide mentioned that the official head of state of Canada is King Charles: This coming Saturday, we will take part at a “No Kings” protest here in America. Currently, so many of us wish our democracy was as stable and our leaders as (relatively) sane as they seem to be in Canada….where they actually still have a king. 

Did you know that Canada didn't have
 its maple leaf flag until 1965?

Victoria isn't called the City of Gardens for nothing

With Greg we also went to the local history museum and to the Port Angeles Crab Fest, but without eating any crab there. I don’t want to sound like the old grouchy (or rather crabby?) guy who tells you that a hamburger used to cost a nickel…but $70 for a small crab on a paper plate, really? I guess a lot of people are still doing very well, since there was a huge long line for those $70 crabs.

Back in 2010 we were in the Elwah Valley during what they called “The Last Dam Summer”. This was just before the largest dam removal project in American history. They took down two dams the next year. One thing worked out as planned: The salmon have returned and after a century of being blocked, salmon are running up the Elwah River again. One thing did not work as anticipated: Restoring the natural flow of the river also restored natural flooding events. Four years after the dam was taken down, a flood destroyed the bridges on the road up the valley. But that just meant that we were able to go on a beautiful hike with Greg that took us exactly to the spot where we were during that dam summer of 2010.

The Last Dam Summer 2010

The Elwah River now!

You might have noticed that we have not found yet another new place we want to move to in a while. That might be because it’s getting cold here! We were able to warm up a short while in the hot springs at Sol Duc in the Olympic National Park. Nice soak, but apparently we were not the only ones freezing, it got pretty busy in those pools. 

Sol Duc Falls at the Olympic NP

We took the detour to Neah Bay to explore a part of the Olympic Peninsula we did not know. It is home of the Makah Tribe. Like so many native tribes, they were also pushed off their homelands and decimated by western contact, but at least allowed on a small part of their original tribal lands. 

On the way to Cape Flattery,
the most northwestern point on the US mainland

We enjoyed the little hike to the most northwestern point of the mainland at Cape Flattery, seeing two wild otters play in the waves and visiting the very informative Makah Cultural & Research Center Museum. The pre-contact Makah settlement in Ozette was covered (and therefore preserved) by a mudslide about 500 years ago. This museum displays the plentiful artifacts that were uncovered during archaeological digs in the 1970s, a story reminding me very much of Pompeii. 

Second Beach at La Push

Now we are in La Push, on the lands of the Quileute Tribe. In case you have not been here and have not seen the “Twilight” movies: The rain forest and the beaches are spectacular here. I am not saying this is where the name “La Push” comes from, but they did get a big “push” from the Twilight movies, it’s still a wild and beautiful place, but a little more developed. 

And that’s the news from
Lake Olympic Peninsula,
where all the trees are strong,

all the mushrooms
are good looking,

...and every forest is more 

enchanted than average.

 

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra