Catch Ya on the Flip Flop!

Ah, remember the days of CB radios?  Smokies givin' "green stamps", convoys and "What's yer handle?"  Well... we're "catchin' ya on the flip flop" (return trip- back to Texas).

First stop, the Oregon coast.  Although the temperature felt cold to us, low 50s, it was sunny.  I have a fascination with lighthouses and Newport, OR, has the tallest lighthouse in Oregon.  Besides the beautiful beach in the picture, there was a beach made entirely of volcanic rocks that had been smoothed by the ocean....millions of rocks.  Through a scope, we saw birds that come to the rocks off the coast to nest and raise a family.  These birds were incredible....the kind you see in exhibits at the zoo.  Also using the rocks, were several harbor seals taking advantage of a rare sunny day.  Watching them move around was pretty funny.  They are rather large and each move required a cumbersome flop on one side or the other.

Then, back to northern California.







We started seeing the snow-covered peak of 14,000 foot Mt. Shasta when we were still 60 miles away.


















We camped at Lake Siskiyou, which is on the opposite side of I-5 and had a great view of the mountain from the campground.

 






We had a beautiful 73 degree day, (halleluja for warm weather) so we went to a waterfall on the McCloud river.  There are three falls on this stretch of the river and this one had the creative and unique name of Middle Falls.  But the name doesn't do justice to these falls that are 50 feet high and over 100 feet wide.

 




This shot was taken from a few hundred feet above the falls.  We hiked down to the river at the bottom of the falls and did a little impromptu rock climbing...well, maybe rock crawling  would be a better way to say it since we crawled over some pretty huge rocks.  The next picture is after we reached the bottom.

There's a guy standing on a log on the left side of the picture.

 

We left Lake Siskiyou just in time.  It was 48 degrees and we bugged out just as it was starting to rain.

 

We made it to Merced, California for a two-day stop over before we go back to Menifee for 4 days.  There is literally nothing to do in Merced, California, so we will rest for a couple of days from all the seven hour drives we have been doing lately.  OK, Jim drives, and I sit....a lot.   One fun thing I can do in the truck is to look up facts about sights and cities we see on the way.  Did you know that there are only a little over 4 million people in all of Oregon?  And 1.5 million of them are in Portland.  Did you know that when you ask Siri a question and her computer mind misunderstands what you say and she thinks you said something off color, she says "I'll pretend I didn't hear that"?  We laughed pretty hard about that one. 

 

 

Off to more adventures.

 

 

 

 



West Coast Swing Part II

 

Destination: Dodger Stadium, but first some sightseeing.  We left in plenty of time to make one of my favorite drives down the Pacific Coast Highway.  But to get there we went through Malibu Canyon.  When you come out of the canyon and see the Pacific Ocean, it's breathtaking.

Pepperdine University might just have the most stunning view of any college campus.



            

                Pepperdine University       

The Dodger Stadium experience was one of the best since we started our journey.  When you watched a Dodgers game on TV, Vin Scully would talk about Chavez Ravine, so I thought the ballpark was in a valley, but quite the opposite.  The stadium and surrounding parking lots have a 360 degree view of L.A. 










    

The 3rd oldest stadium in baseball behind Fenway and Wrigley.



From our seats, we could see the mountains which was really cool.









It was Jackie Robinson Day.  All the players wore the number 42 and they had tributes throughout the game on the video board.

Since he played for the Dodgers (in Brooklyn) his wife, son and daughter were also there.

Even though it got chilly later on, Jane was prepared.







After we left L.A., we drove to our campground near Hollister, about 100 miles south of San Francisco.

The day after we arrived, we decided to go to Carmel and drive down the famous 17 Mile Drive.


Wow!  Talk about a ritzy neighborhood.  "How ritzy was it?"  I'm glad you asked, it was so ritzy, they charge you $10 just to drive through. 






             That's actually somebody's house.  King Arthur?














Although the conditions were not ideal, we had to take a picture of the most photographed tree in the world, the Lone Cypress.

And then of course
there's Pebble Beach golf course.



Am I drooling?




The next day we went to San Francisco to see my cousin Bob and his wife Maryann.  We hadn't seen them since Chris and Angie were at Golden Gate Seminary, over 9 years ago.  It was great catching up with what our families are doing and Bob shared things about my parents, during their time in South St. Louis, that I didn't know.







Next up, the Rangers at the Oakland A's.  The game was a blowout and not in a good way, but another stadium crossed off my list.

I didn't realize they named the field after Ricky Henderson for being Nolan Ryan's 5,000th strikeout. :)




Our next ballgame was not for two weeks, which gave us some time to be tourists.  First stop, Crater Lake National Park.

Yuba City, CA to Prospect, OR is one of the prettiest drives we've ever made.  We drove through the pine-covered mountains of northern California, past Mt. Shasta and into the Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon.  It was cloudy, foggy and rainy when we arrived at Crater Lake campground.  The next day was the same, except without the rain, so we decided to go to Mill Creek Falls.

To get to the rapids, we had to go through the Avenue of Giant Boulders, very cool.

We guessed that the waterfall across the river was maybe 75-100 ft.






We wanted to go up to Crater Lake, but it was snowing up there, raining where we were and still foggy. 

So we didn't think we'd be able to see anything.

We were supposed to leave the next day, but the truck started having transmission problems and we had to put it in the shop in Medford.  With a rental car and a few more days on our hands, we caught a break in the weather and on Saturday headed for Crater Lake.  It is the deepest lake in the U.S. and is in a crater formed by a collapsed volcano.  It is fed only by rain and melted snow.


                                       


                                                 There was 10-12 feet of snow.










We look like we're freezing, but actually it was 55 degrees and we were quite comfortable.

Maybe the 7,000 ft. elevation had something to do with it.











                                            It turned out to be a beautiful day.






We got the truck back and headed for Portland and a trip to Mt. Hood.

We were only scheduled to be at the campground for one full day and again, the weather smiled on us.




Timberline Lodge, built by the WPA in the 1930s was a work of art.

Snow up to the roof.  The area averages 21 ft of snow each year.

Looking down at the huge stone fireplace.



Everything was built by hand.  All the furniture is made of wood. 

And the mountain was pretty impressive too.  We were at 6,000 ft. and the mountain peaks out at over 11,000 ft.


Again, a very comfortable 55 degrees.

 

Then, it was on to Seattle for a Rangers game with the Mariners.  But no trip to Seattle would be complete without going to the Pike St. market where they sell fish, fudge, flowers and a whole lot more.

 

One thing we learned about being in the Pacific Northwest in May. . .













It's cold here!!! 

I'm in there somewhere.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The temperature said 50, but we had a 20 mph wind blowing right in our faces and it felt like 30.



That completes our baseball stadium tour for this year.  Jane's been to every park except the new one in Atlanta and I still have Fenway and Atlanta left.  That's a trip for another time.

Time to start heading back to warmer regions; after all, we still have friends, kids and grandkids in Texas that we haven't seen for over 4 months, but we have a few more things to do before we get back.