Here we are, on the road: September 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009 Lorraine’s report

What a nice week we just had. We were with our friends, Sandy & Steve this week. We had dinners together, they went with us to Long Beach, WA until Thursday; we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Sunday we watched the Seattle Seahawks, they lost; I made up a pork loin roast for all of us, Steve/Sandy, Chuck and I.

Monday, we took off in the rigs with Steve/Sandy for Long Beach; we tried the state park, they were sold out, so we went to a Passport America park, the Sandcastle RV Park. It was actually pretty nice, our first site with lots of grass in awhile. We set up the rigs and went for a ride through town and dinner out, arriving at the beach just in time for a beautiful sunset on the ocean.

Tuesday, we went down to Ilwaco and toured the Cape Disappointment Park and its lighthouse and beach. We had a wonderful day, it was at least 80 plus outside, sunny and very warm. I was the only one to put my toes in the Pacific Ocean; even though Steve tried to push me in; the water was very cold, but once the toes froze, it was okay.

We went to dinner with Steve/Sandy for our anniversary to the Lightship Restaurant. It was on the top floor of a five story building, overlooking the ocean. The food was very good, we were with good friends and we saw another incredible sunset on the ocean. We had a Great Day!

Wednesday, Steve needed to do some maintenance on his rig, so Sandy and I took off to the handful of tourist shops for some shopping. We didn’t find a lot to buy, I don’t think Sandy found anything to buy, but I found a couple of things. We had Bar B Que steaks for dinner that night.

Thursday, Steve and Sandy decided they should head back to Whidbey Island, stopping by Randall, WA to tour Mt. Saint Helens. Steve had gotten a call from his brother-in-law asking him for some help driving his trucks, so back they went. We left right after they did and we came to a Leisure Time/Thousand Trails RV Park here in Seaside, OR. We set up the rig and went looking, after I did a bunch of laundry.

Friday, Chuck and I went back to Warrenton to shop and replenish supplies. We hit Costco and Fred Myers. Once back we put the groceries away, then took off in the car to drive to Cannon Beach and toured that area. I fixed fried chicken and my macaroni for dinner.

Saturday, I went down the block to the outlet mall for some shopping. I found a few things for Christmas for our grand daughter. You may not know but Christmas is only three months away from this Friday.

Once back, Chuck and I went exploring to Astoria. Astoria sits on a bunch of hills, and is quite picturesque. We stopped at a museum, but didn’t have enough time to tour it, so plan another day to do that.

Another week has quickly flown by, it has been nice to sleep in, have leisurely mornings, and not have to be hitting the road to be somewhere in a hurry. I love it. So until next time….Lorraine

9/27/09 Chuck’s Report

We are now in Oregon, having spent over three weeks in Washington. Our original plans were to head to North Dakota after our Alaska trip but once again our plans got changed. We enjoyed our time in Blaine and with our friends Steve/Sandy at their place and in Long Beach.

Last Sunday, Steve washed his coach and got it ready to travel. He found a tire with low pressure, aired it up but it was still leaking. We had plans on leaving on Monday and would stop off at a tire place to have it looked at, if needed. However, Steve found the valve stem extension was leaking, removed the extension and it held pressure just fine.

So Monday morning we headed out for the Washington coast. We didn’t have a set schedule but decided we would stop if/when we got tired. We made good time through Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia so decided to push on. In Raymond, we pulled into a shopping center for a lunch break and Steve’s front windshield screen broke and fell down. This is the same thing that happened to us in British Columbia. We were able to get it rolled up and attached with tie wraps so we could continue on. We made it all the way to Long Beach where we stopped at a Passport America campground. After getting set up, we drove around a bit and went to the beach to watch the sunset.

Tuesday was our 37th wedding anniversary. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LORRAINE! We spent the day exploring the area, went to the beach and went to dinner with Steve/Sandy. Once again, we were able to watch the sunset over the ocean, last year we were at the Oregon coast on our anniversary too. Thanks Steve and Sandy for being there and helping us celebrate our anniversary.

Wednesday we explored the area a bit more. We came back and Steve bar-b-qued for us and we had dinner together outside our coach.

Thursday we decided to continue down the Oregon coast while Steve/Sandy made plans to head up and tour Mount St. Helens then head back home. They wanted to be home by Saturday so wanted a take a couple of days rather than make a quick trip. We haven’t heard from them yet, hope they made it with no problems! We made the short trip down the coast to Seaside, Oregon and are at a nice 1000 Trails campground..

Friday we explored the area around here, mostly the beach. One of the best beaches in Northern Oregon is Cannon Beach, just down the road about 10 miles. We also had to go to Costco and Fred Meyer to stock up on some things.

Saturday Lorraine went to an outlet mall here in town. Afterwards, we checked out Fort Stevens, an Oregon state park at the mouth of the Columbia River. Steve had talked about how nice this park was and suggested we may want to stay there. It is a very nice park, pretty full this weekend but I bet we could have gotten in on Thursday if we had tried. Our park is pretty full this weekend too, probably because of the nice weather. We have had good weather the whole time we have been at the coast, in fact, there was record highs on Tuesday.

We also drove up to check out the town of Astoria on the Columbia river. We drove around just to see what was there. As we were driving in to town, we noticed a tower of some sort on a hill in the middle of town. We found our way up there and saw Astoria Column. We weren’t sure what it was about but soon figured out it was depicting some sort of history about the area. After we got home, a check on Google told us it was built in 1926, is 125’ tall and sits on a hill over 600’ tall. It has 14 scenes spiraling up the column and is a showing history of the area. The view from the hill is pretty open too, with the Columbia River and bridges on one side and the Klaskanine river on the other.

We are now traveling by ourselves for the first time in a long time, with no set schedule or itinerary. I got a call the other day saying we may not have to go back to Mount Vernon for our early November appointment, time will tell about that. We are making plans to stay hang around the area until we know for sure with a stop in Portland for some service work on the coach. There is also a RV show in Salem on October 8th – 11th that we may take in too.

So, for our look ahead for next week, at this time I think we will will still be here in Seaside, Oregon before heading to Portland and Salem the week after. We will probably head back to the coast after that, depending on the weather, it can get sloppy this time of the year with lots of storms heading in. With the way our plans have been changing though, I ain’t making any promises, ha.

And with that, here are some pictures.

Campground we stayed at in Long Beach. Steve/Sandy on left, us on right.