Fifth day on the road and we're still having a great time!  We spent the night in Arcata, which wasn't what I expected it to be.  This morning we explored Eureka.  They seem to have a problem with vagrants; a lot of people hanging around that look like they are pretty down on their luck.  Eureka has a lot of Victorian-style buildings.  Here is a photo of the most famous one in town.

It is kind of amazing how many coastal cities have Victorian-style buildings, similar to our own Astoria.

Eureka served us well.  We purchased gas, washed our car, bought Starbucks, then headed to the Avenue of the Giants - more redwoods.  This is a nice 32-mile drive that pretty much parallels Hwy. 101, but the Avenue of the Giants takes you in and among the redwood trees.  Since we had seen so many trees yesterday, we didn't stop much.

Ate lunch at Garberville; kind of a hippie town just south of the Avenue of the Giants.  About 30 miles south of there we headed west on hwy 1.  Boy is that a curvy road.  It took us well over an hour to drive the 30+ miles to the ocean.  I think Doug really liked the driving, though.

The coast just north of Fort Bragg (which is where we are staying tonight) is really rugged and beautiful.  We had another lovely day of weather.  Right on the ocean it was around 65 degrees and only a breath of a breeze.  We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Here is a view of what the coast looks like:

Once in Fort Bragg we found a room at the Emerald Dolphin Inn.  It is a nice place.  We also got to talk to Kellie on the phone.  What a treat!

Fort Bragg is not a military place.  Apparently, it was named Fort Bragg before the Civil War when a garrison was placed here to manage the Indian Reservation that had been set up in the area.  Now, it is a vacation spot.  We heard there was a beach here where glass has been recycled by the ocean and become "glass beach."  So, we just had to check it out.  I love beach combing, so this was a real treat for me!  I'm bringing home a small sample of glass beach.

Dianna looking for sea glass

We just got back to our room after strolling on the beach and eating fish and chips at a popular local place on the marina. What a wonderful ending to a fantastic day.

Doug and I had another great day today!  We started our day with a walk on the beach at Brookings, which is where we spent last night.  Walking the beach can be so relaxing.  We found lots of different rocks and shells; it was a beachcomber's paradise.  I only picked up one rock - that took lots of restraint.

Here is a photo of the smallest clam shell I've ever seen:

Next we headed into the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park.  We drove our lovely Lady Di car down the Howland Hill Road (see photo below) to the Stout Grove of Redwoods, then on to the Boy Scout Tree Trail.  The road eventually brought us out at Crescent City, CA.  The Boy Scout Tree Trail was a total of 5.6 miles (we figure we can eat dessert tonight).  Saw so many huge redwood trees we couldn't possibly count them all.  We took way too many photos, but couldn't help ourselves.  Below is the tree this trail is named for.

Here's another huge redwood.

Here's the photo of Lady Di on the Howland Hill Rd.  Can you believe we took our new car on this road?  We just couldn't resist.  It was a "not to be missed" drive.

We're both pretty tired tonight.  Got a room with a jetted bath tub, so I think I'm going to spend some time in it.

Today reminded us again that the whole earth is full of the glory of God!

May 18 Life on the water.

Sundays.  We are suppose to go to church on Sunday's aren't we?  True confession time here.  We actually did go church today.  It was called the First Church of the Jet Boats.  And because we enjoyed the worship involved with it we spent about seven hours there!  Yes, we didn't darken the actual doors of a church building but instead spent the day with other like minded people on Jerry's Rogue Jetboats.

We had signed up for a short trip which was suppose to be only 60 miles.  They called last night and said they did not have enough people for that trip, would we mind if they  upgraded us to the longest trip as that would fill that boat for them.  Sure, why not.  As it turns out it made for a much more enjoyable day because on this trip we got to run some rapids and make lots of those crazy stop on a dime and turn a complete 360 degrees.  

Hopefully you will be able to view the video. ( It takes a really long time to download it to the blog) It was very hard to hold the camera still as you can imagine. Our pilot was full of all kinds of spit and vinegar which made the trip just that much more enjoyable. The only drawback was that it did rain quite hard about three times but fortunately for us we were able to sit right in front and thus up next to the windshield. The rows behind us were not so fortunate but the company provided tarps and blankets to help everyone keep as warm as possible.

For any interested in the boats (I was going to ask until he volunteered the information) they are powered by three V8 engines which combined put out over 1000 horse power. He had a lot of fun with all those ponys. One time someone said they saw something and we were in the middle of a set of rapids going downstream. So he just stopped and turned around right there and proceeded to go back upstream. Pretty amazing and a lot of fun.

Just in case you are wondering, this is Doug posting tonight. Thus the huh, huh huh stuff!

We were grateful our pilot was willing to be patient and point out any wild life he saw. We saw Osprey, Eagles, Ducks, Mink, Turkey Buzzards, a mamma deer with twin fawns, (did you know all the chipmunks wait around all summer for the fawns spots to fall off so they can claim them for themselves? That is what our pilot says and I believe everything he told us!!!!) He tried really hard to see some bear but they weren't cooperating today.

Dianna has been talking to you about the earth is full of the glory of the Lord. We certainly saw so much of that today. I was reminded again how rivers are such a good example of the glory of God. When you watch the water going downstream and think about how much of it there really is and how many rivers there are in the world it is so humbling to think of the source of them. Our God who made all of them cares for each one of us more than we can imagine. His mercies are without end just like the water that keeps coming downstream in those rivers. We are spending the night in Brookings Oregon and from our room we can see the Pacific Ocean. How big and mighty it is. Our God..........

Tomorrow our plans are to continue on down the coast into the Redwoods. At this point in our trip we do not have any reservations made for the next several days so we are just letting things develop as we go.

Thank you for following our trip. We hope you are enjoying our posts as much as we are doing them

May 17 - The Whole Earth is Full of his Glory

Doug and I had a wonderfully full day today.  In fact, we are sitting in our hotel room tonight pretty exhausted.  We're exhausted mainly because of the 4 mile walk we did before dinner here in Bandon.  The walk took us south on the beach and then looped back north on streets.  But, that is the end of the day.  Let me start at the beginning.

This morning we got up and took a nice long walk on the beach near Winchester Bay.  The best part of the walk was the gray whales we saw spouting just off shore.  In fact, we saw 2 whales breach the surface. I was so excited that I just happened to look out to the ocean just as the whales were passing by and just as they surfaced.  Otherwise we would have missed them all together.  As I mentioned yesterday, I've been thinking about how God is our Everlasting Father.  When I saw the whales I thought, "isn't that just like a father to show us, his kids, something so wonderful as the whales passing by?"  We were delighted, as kids should be.  I think God was filled with joy that we were delighted in what he had shown us.  What a way to start the day.

We traveled south to Shore Acres State Park, which is outside Coos Bay.  We've been to this state park several times, but its beauty always amazes me.  We hiked a little beside the shoreline and then spent some time walking through the gardens surrounding the original Simpson mansion that used to stand here.

Here are some of the rock formations at Shore Acres State Park:

This is the Japanese garden at Shore Acres:

This is Simpson Beach at Shore Acres State Park.  It is such a peaceful little beach.  Doug and I were tempted to throw aside our other plans for the day and spend time just sitting on this beach.

We stopped briefly to see Bandon Dune Golf Course.  No, we didn't golf.  Then we were on to Bandon.  We had a lovely lunch of clam chowder purchased at the Bandon Farmer's Market.  After a short nap, we took the 4 mile walk I mentioned earlier.  Bandon is a beautiful spot.  So many rock formations.  When you have a chance look up the story of Face Rock.  It's kind of interesting.

This isn't the best picture, but can you see the face of the women coming out of the water and looking toward the north star?

An overlook of Bandon Beach rocks:

Tomorrow is another big day.  We're doing the jet boats at Gold Beach.  They called us today and offered us an upgrade to the 104 mile trip instead of the 60 mile trip we had reserved.  Apparently, only 4 people signed up for the 60 mile trip so they upgraded us to the longer one.  Should be a lot of fun.

May 16, Gorgeous Day on the Oregon Coast

We're on our way!  Left Newberg about 8:30 a.m..  First stop was to visit Doug's cousin, Virginia Adams, in Salem.  It was great to see her and visit a while.  She even treated us to a muffin before we left.

Here is a photo of Doug with Virginia

Took this picture of one of the silly cars people in retirement communities drive

I've been reading in Isaiah 9.  So, today I was thinking about how God is "Everlasting Father."  That means so much to me.  One way he showed me today that he is my Father is how he provided such a beautiful day on the Oregon Coast.  We are so well taken care of.  More than we even know.

We walked on the beach near Agate Beach.  Very little wind, ocean was actually warm (well not freezing), and the sun was out (probably 65 degrees).  Can't ask for a much better day.  This is our first selfy of our trip.  :-)

We thought we would stay in Florence tonight, but stopped at one hotel where the parking lot was full of motorcycles.  I told Doug that was not going to happen for me.  Found out Florence's Rhododendron Festival is this weekend and there was a big ride in.  So, we traveled further south to Reedsport.  Nice quiet little town.  Plan to walk the beach and relax tonight.  

More later.

Why a road trip?

The idea of going on a road trip kind of evolved for Doug and me over this past spring.  I was originally supposed to go to a conference in San Diego.  So, since Doug is retired, we thought it would be fun to drive the coast to the conference.  Of course, since then I've decided to retire, so there is no need for me to go to the conference.

The next step of the evolution took place while waiting in line to ride the Cars racing ride in California Adventure (we were there in February with our Grandsons).  The ambiance of the Cars ride is amazing!  It looks so much like the red rocks around Sedona, AZ.  I commented to Doug that I'd really like to go back to Sedona some time.  So, the road trip took a turn east.  We plan to travel down the southern Oregon and northern California coast, turn east and see Yosemite, head south east to Sedona, then head either further east to New Mexico or head north through Utah and see more national parks.  We'll see family in Idaho and Washington on our way home.

We are not sure how long we'll be gone.  (Now that's a new concept for me.)  Probably 3 - 4 weeks.  We invite you to check in on our blog, see some pictures, and enjoy our trip vicariously.

Dianna

Here's our new car that is going on our road trip with us.