Oregon is Beautiful!

Brian and I are really enjoying the scenery here in the Pacific Northwest. We spent the last two days driving through coastal Oregon, where it's cool and green, unlike home. Here's the rundown of the last few days (sorry no pictures, but my laptop is refusing to cooperate):

Sunday morning, we woke up to a toilet that wouldn't flush and no breakfast as advertised. We didn't complain about the breakfast, since we had stuff to eat and we just wanted out of there. We wandered through Redding, then headed for Arcata. There are fires burning in the mountains, and the smoke was pretty bad. Arcata was just as we remembered it from 6 years ago, and we had lunch in the same place we'd had ice cream in back then. After lunch we headed up the coast, stopping to eat canned soup near the docks in Brookings, Oregon. That was as far up the coast as we'd made it the last time we came up here, so the rest of the trip is new to us. We started looking for a motel after dinner - we decided to be more picky and less cheap after the last night's adventure - and found the perfect one on our third try. It was clean, quiet, and reasonable, and the owner was friendly.

On Monday, we went for a walk on the beach after breakfast and found lots of blackberry bushes, loaded with berries. We ate our fill, then walked back to the motel and checked out. We moseyed up the coast after that, stopping at various shops but not buying much, and stopping to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. The climate changed from high 70's and clear to high 60's and overcast around Port Orford (I think). The plant life got even more lush and green as well. We had dinner at Mo's in Newport - great food, good service and reasonably priced. Our table had an excellent view of the fishing boats in the harbor. We found a decent motel in the same town - nothing special, but acceptable.

Today was busy - the best day so far. We left early and had breakfast in Depoe Bay - huge portions for the money, and good. We drove through some of the most beautiful scenery, and took lots of pictures. I bought some silk and wool yarn in Lincoln City, to go with the handspun I've been working with in the car. We spent a few hours in Tillamook - first at a textile museum where we talked with some of the local crafters, then at the Tillamook cheese processing plant, where we had ice cream and bought some smoked chedddar and honey. We made it into Washington about 6:00, and started looking for a place to spend the night. There's not much between the border and Aberdeen, so we ended up at a place there. The room is large and well equipped, but the building is old (no soundproofing) and the neighbors are noisy.

Tomorrow, we're planning to check out the Olympic Peninsula and the rainforest, then spend the night in Port Angeles so we can board the ferry to Victoria, British Columbia the next day.

I'm on vacation!

Hooray! Brian and I left this morning for a two-week trip to Seattle, to see his niece Kelly get married. The wedding's not until next Saturday, so we have a whole week to get there. We don't want to spend much time in California, since we've done a lot of traveling here already, so Brian drove all the way to Red Bluff today. That way we'll have more time to see coastal Oregon and Washington. We're staying in a really cheap motel - ugly on the outside, acceptable (barely) on the inside. I can't complain too much, though - for less than 40 bucks we get wifi and breakfast. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I will in the morning. I'll post more later, when I have something intersting to report :)