Monterey, California.



Tight squeeze for fuel!



 



Ferrari Spyder in downtown Carmel.





Well we headed south from Crescent City and found an economical campground  about 350 miles south called Walmart!  We actually parked closer to the Home Depot for a little quieter nights sleep. Up and at it the next morning I went into Home Depot for a piece of Plexiglas for the front door.  Norman decided to make his own doggy door with the screen portion of the front door.  This was made apparent to us the day before we left Crescent city, as I found Norman roaming the campground while returning from the laundrymat with a full load of clean laundry in my arms!  I called to Norman, but he was too interested in another dog to come to me.  I walked to the camper thinking Karen was training Norman...Come to find out Norman had taken it upon himself to push the screen out of the door and check out the campground for himself.  The look on Karen's face was priceless when she came out of the camper.  She heard me trying to get Norman to come back!  Hence the need for Plexiglass! 

Back on the road again this time only 150 more miles to go!  We thought we had a reasonably priced campground lined up, but it fell through as the office staff couldn't be reached by phone or even when we drove up.  Off to the next campground 8 miles up the road!  We checked in with a charge of  $62 a night, but we were 300 yards from the beach.  We made our way to the site and...... someone was in it!  Back to the office only to find out the people in our site should be gone by now, so we wait an hour for them to leave.  Finally  500 miles and a day and a half later we setup the camper and relax for the rest of the day!  All this driving and searching for a campground just wears me out and makes me grouchy!  The next morning, I woke up and I told Karen to take the kids to the aquarium without me so I could unwind from the day before!  Karen took the kids to the Monterey Aquarium and Norman and I hung out around the house for some much needed R&R.   We spent the next few days visiting Carmel, The Big Sur and the surrounding beaches looking for that elusive sunshine!

Next stop, Yosemite NP and hopefully some sunshine!

Where is the Sun????

 

Three weeks and we have only seen the sun for a total of maybe 4 days! The temperatures have hovered around 55 degrees during the day with lows at night in the 40s.  The entire inside of the trailer is getting moist and even the widows are wet on the inside! Its official, we have cabin/trailer fever!  We headed south from the Portland area for a 3 day stay in Florence, Oregon and then on to Crescent City, California.  Karen had a show to do in Eugene,Oregon, which is about 1-1/2 hours east of Florence.  This meant Karen was up at 3:30am getting ready for work!  It brings back memories of me getting up at 5:45am while everyone else is sleeping and making my way into work. My how things have changed. The drive down the coast was a nice trip.  We had opportunities to stop and stretch our legs at some beautiful beach front rest areas!  We even popped open the slides and made lunch while watching the waves crash ashore!  The kids and I hiked down to the shoreline to look for sea lions and other marine life while Karen snapped pictures of Norm.  This gave Bryson time to completely destroy his clothes and shoes, but hey he's a 6 years old boy! The only downer is the absence of sunshine!  It really does seem to drain the life out of you!  Karen and I need at least 3-4 days of sunshine or we begin to get a little edgy. Once in Crescent City, we visited the Redwood forest and that was absolutely amazing. The picture of the kids and Karen standing in the left over stump should put it into perspective of how massive these beautiful trees are.  The sun managed to show its face the day before we left so we took the kids to the beach and let them dip their toes in the frigid water!  We, on the other hand brought the chairs and just sat there recharging our batteries with nice warm sun.  The Northwest coast is a beautiful place to see, but timing is everything!  When the sun is shining there is no other place you want to be, but when the fog and mist roll in its time to head south!

Portland, Oregon and a home coming for Norman!

 

 

 

Leaving Mt Saint Helens we headed for Portland Oregon and back to civilization.  Portland is also a stones throw away from Norman's birthplace.  This gave Karen a chance to meet up with Carol , Normans breeder, and have a little family reunion.  Karen and kaylee got an opportunity to take Norman herding with Carol and her dogs, Tessa and Demi. Bryson and I took advantage of this down time with some "male bonding" time, also know as lounging around the house!When the girls got home it was easy to see they had a great time and Norman was a filthy mess and ready for some much needed rest.  That evening we met Carol for dinner at a local brewery which had outstanding food, especially the dessert!   The next day we met up for a play date with the kids and an old childhood friend of Karen's, named Keri, at a local indoor coffee playhouse.  The kids played for hours and Karen and Kerry reminisced about old times. I on the other hand took advantage of some free WIFI with good signal strength! The following few days were spent in and around the Portland area checking out some of the local seafood restaurants on the coast. We took Norman out to see the sights and as usual he get swarmed with people asking about him.  This time we were prepared with business cards Karen had printed up!  We went through about 30 cards in an hour!  We even ate a place called Slappy's.  This is a do it yourself pancake house where they bring you the batter and the kids can cook their own pancakes on a griddle in the middle of your table.  The kids thought this was the greatest but I on the other hand know how much money is in pancake batter and paying $8.00 for a small ketchup squirter sized bottle was a little much.  Oh well the kids had fun with it!  Besides the high priced pancake batter I also got to encounter some of the free spirited northwestern style, that I call "crunchy".  Our waitress, who was very polite and prompt, obviously felt that arm pit hair and zero deodorant was her way of living free spirited. I on the other hand didn't see it that way.  I felt like "I'm paying $8.00 a bottle for pancake batter and my waitress needs a shave and a bath!  Now I know what my Dad means by "Different strokes for different folks"!  Oh well, south to Florence for our next spot on the beach and another show for Karen and Norman!

Mount Saint Helens



The clouds were moving in on us when we got to the top of the mountain



One of our stops to listen to the "Silence" on a forest service road.





I love the wooden floors in the grocery store!





Take a look at the thousands of trees blown into the lake!





You gotta love the timer function of the camera! Just press the button and run back to the family!



We never made it to this mountain called Mt Adams!

Leaving Seattle, we headed 100 miles south to Mount Saint Helens!  We found a great little park called Harmony Lakeside which was a bargain at $31 a night with full hookups, cable TV and WIFI!  It becomes a real challenge keeping up with this blog because we have 3 other people who need the Internet connections and sometimes the connections are not available until everyone has gone to bed!  Once we setup near Saint Helens we went into town to get some groceries.  This has become one of my favorite things to do because you get to see and speak with all the locals from each town.  I have learned if your polite and ask for good restaurants or places to see the locals will always steer you into the right direction. The grocery store was really neat with old fashioned wood floors and even a basement!  The next morning we woke up and headed to see the mountain.  2-1/2 hours and several stops later we made it to a great over look called Windy Ridge.  This ridge is directly across from Saint Helens and gives you a birds eye view of the Crater once you hike about 400 stairs to the top of an adjacent hill.  From the top of this hill you can see Spirit Lake.  Spirit Lake was directly in from of the landslide/blast zone and we were told the ash and mud slid into this lake raising its level 200 feet and waves in the lake reached 800 feet up the hillside from the force of the blast!  Although the drive was a long one, we had a good time once we reached the national park that Mount Saint Helens is in.  We traveled down a few of the forest service roads and found some amazing trees and and the silence of this place was amazing.  At one point in our journey we stopped the truck and got out and were very quiet and just listened to the silence!  I know it sounds crazy but until you have been far enough off the beaten path to experience it its hard to imagine how quiet it can get.  Unfortunately the roads do not loop around the mountain so we had to back track 2-1/2 hours to get back home.  The next day we went the opposite direction around the mountain and stopped at the visitors center and saw several movies about the mountain and the eruption!  On the way home we asked a local where to get a bite to eat and as usuall they came through with a little place called Patty's Place.  It was someone home converted into a restaurant right on the river.  We had home cooked hamburgers and chicken fingers!  The next day we were burnt out of driving so it was a day of rest and relaxation!  I watched football on T.V. and Karen and the kids played video games and just hang out.  I also took some time to make some pulled pork on my little barbeque grill which I have been craving since we left the south!

  



Millions of trees were snapped off by the eruption and its hard to believe 30 years later its all still very visible!