Going home, our last two days...

We left Vickie's on a very hot Tuesday morning, on the next leg of our journey. We traveled down Hwy 5 to Eugene, where we headed to the coast, and what we hoped were cooler temperatures! It was 105 when we turned off! We had a picnic at a roadside rest just north of Eugene, and all I can say is thank heaven's for shade!!

As we neared the coast the temperatures did cool. We stopped for the night in Bandon, right on the ocean. It was a beautiful evening, and we got the last room at the Bandon Inn! The proprietor recommended the Wheelhouse Restaurant for dinner, and made reservations for us. Bandon has a delightful "old town" area, and a great wharf and pier area. We enjoyed being out of the car and strolling around before dinner.

This is the Bandon waterfront.

We recommend the Wheelhouse for dinner the next time you are in Bandon! Lee had salmon, and I had crab Louie. We both passed on dessert, even though they had cheesecake AND peanut butter pie!!

The next morning we visited the Coquille lighthouse, at the mouth of the Coquille river. It's a cute little lighthouse, and although we didn't go up to the light, we learned about the history of the lighthouse.

Coquille lighthouse. You can see that we woke on Wednesday morning to FOG!! It was much cooler, although it did burn off later in the day.

We drove on down the coast, and stopped in Port Orford, where we visted the Hughes House and the Cape Blanco lighthouse

The Hughes house was quite interesting, and all original. It was built by some Irish immigrants, who had originally come to San Francisco during the gold rush. They eventually came to Port Orford, where they started a dairy, and shipped dairy products to San Francisco. We wondered how they got them to SF in those days, without spoiling, but the docent didn't know. Maybe lots of ice? One of the Hughes sons was assistant lighthouse keeper at Cape Blanco.

The lighthouse! This time we toured the lighthouse and went to the top where the lens is located.

Lots of steps up!

The Fresnel lens. Made in France, and shipped to Port Orford in pieces, and reassembled. Sadly, vandals broke into the lighthouse and used a hammer to damage the lens. Very costly repairs have been made, but there is still a lot of chipping on the glass. Apparently the son of the Chief of Police had the key, and he and his buddies decided it would be fun to destroy it. Federal offense, you know!

It's really quite beautiful, and capable of shining a light many miles out to sea. The docent told us that the Coast Guard is getting out of the lighthouse-keeping business, and that lighthouses are being maintained by local organizations. With the advent of GPS, lighthouses will soon be a thing of the past. Sad.

We continued down Hwy 101, destination: Benbow Inn!

When my parents lived in North Bend, we regularly drove up to see them, and I was always intrigued by the Benbow Inn, which sits against the mountains in Garberville, and alongside the Eel River. It's a stately old Inn, and when I mentioned to Mom, 30 years ago, that I would like to stay there, she said that "old people" stay there. Well, now, that's perfect!! We're old!! So we made reservations for Wednesday night.

The Benbow Inn! Just like I remembered it! It was built in 1926, and owned and run by the Benbow family until 1962, when they sold it. There have been 4 owners since, and each of them have added touches and improvements, while preserving as much of the original as possible, including the main building guest room doors, which were hand-painted by Eva Benbow. The Inn is furnished with antique furniture, and guest rooms have complimentary decanters of sherry! How very civilized! The lobby was beautiful, and you could just imagine it in the days of visits from Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Eleanor Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover!

Welcoming pot of geraniums.

Stone bridge over the Eel river. There's an old fashioned swimming hole on the river, and the guests were enjoying it!

The Eel river, with the freeway behind it.

This was the view from our room We dined at the table for two, along the railing, second umbrella from the left. Dinner was fabulous! Lee had risotto and I had salmon. And we were unable to pass up dessert, as they had an amazing cocoanut cheesecake with caramelized pineapple! Yum!! At least we shared it - and left one bite......

Breakfast was in the dining room (we decided that was in deference to any late sleepers), and this view of the terrace was from the balcony of the dining room.

Very inviting!

Here's the lounge - note the bear on the bar stool! :)

The gracious lobby.

The Benbow bears!

The fireplace. I'm quite sure that the Benbow Inn is just spectacular when it's dressed up for the holidays, with a roaring fire! There were lots of little tables, set up with board games and puzzles. You can see the chess board in this picture. Also lots of books and alcoves for reading. Our room had a basket of books as well. If you were in the middle of reading one, you were invited to take it home, and mail it back.

Thursday morning. Good bye, Benbow Inn! We'll be back!!

After leaving Garberville, we again headed to the coast. We traveled down Highway 1, and saw sights along the way.

This is the Masonic building in Mendocino. You can see that the fog is lifting, and there's lots of blue skies.

The Point Arena lighthouse! This is not the original lighthouse. The original was damaged so badly during the 1906 earthquake that it had to be torn down and re-built.

This is the first order Fresnel lens that was housed in the lighthouse until last year, when it was replaced by a puny little halogen lamp. Sad.

The view from the top! We climbed 143 steps to get to the top of the lighthouse, and the views made every step worth it. We were able to go out onto the cat walk at the top, too.

Skeleton of a whale.

Here's the little light, which shines 16 miles out to sea, instead of 22. I learned that each lighthouse beacon has a unique light frequency. This one has a double flash, every 6 seconds. A sea captain would see the double flash, note that it was every 6 seconds, and learn from his log that he was at Point Arena! Amazing! Similarly, fog horns have unique sounds that are also identifiable! So, even in a thick fog, you can know where you are by the sound of the foghorn!

Look where this little light was made! In New Zealand! The small lights, while not nearly as romantic, are much lighter and easier to operate than the old Fresnel lens.

After the lighthouse tour, we continued down Hwy 1 to Jenner, where we headed inland, to catch hwy 101 for the final leg of our journey. We went through Guerneville, Forestville, and other little towns that I hadn't been in for decades! The growth was amazing! We were amazed at how much Sebastopol has grown - they even have gelatto!! Which was very good!

Soon we were crossing the Golden Gate bridge and driving down 19th Avenue. A quick stop at the grocery store in Pacifica, and then we were home!!

It was an amazing trip! Looking back, I can see 4 main themes to the trip: family, old friends, gardens and mountains! We had lots of picnics, saw lots of amazing scenery, and aside from the last few days, didn't spend more than 3 or 4 hours a day in the car.

We're already talking about doing it again next summer. This time we'll travel UP the Oregon coast and stop at all of those gorgeous beaches we saw on the way down! : )

And the total miles of this trip, an amazing 3,240! Wow...

Visiting with the Joyce's

We left Whistler on Monday morning, on our way to Vancouver, Washington, to visit our dear friend, Vickie Joyce and her family.

The last time we saw Tom and Vickie was in 1996 or 97, we couldn't quite remember which year it was. Tom and Lee worked together at AirWest, Republic and then at Northwest. The Joyce's lived in El Granada, and Val and Cathi used to babysit for Kennedy and Erin when they were young, and our families spent a lot of time together.

We had lost touch with the Joyces, but when we decided to make this road trip, I googled them to see if I could locate them, as I knew that in 2002 they were in Vancouver. Well, that google people search is pretty cool! I located them, AND their phone number!

So I called, thinking I was pretty sure that I would recognize Vickie's voice, but the voice on the recorder was a mans voice, and I couldn't be sure it was Tom. So I didn't leave a message. I called again, about a week later, and got the same recorder. This time I did leave a message, telling them that I was looking for Tom and Vickie who used to live in El Granada, and had two children, Ken and Erin, and left my phone number. The next day, Vickie called!! She was shocked to get my phone call, and she had been thinking of looking us up, as well. She had very sad news, though, as Tom had passed away on Christmas day last year. We were both devastated to learn that, and regret that we hadn't tried to reconnect earlier.

We told Vickie that we were coming up her way on a road trip, and she invited us to spend the night. We talked about our kids and grandkids, and got caught up a bit over the phone. We were REALLY looking forward to seeing her, and the kids again. Val and Cathi were excited to hear that we were reconnecting, and Cathi asked me to be sure and find out what Tom's younger brother and sister, Randy and Diane, were up to, as well.

We left Whistler at 9:00 am on Monday morning, for what would be a long day of driving. We encountered road work coming down the mountain, and then heard on the radio that there was a TWO HOUR border crossing wait at both Peace Arch and Huntington! It was marginally better at Aldergrove, so we made the decision to go through Aldergrove, which added time and miles to the trip. But it was a shorter wait, so worth the extra time.

We got to Vickie's about 6:15 in the evening. As we were pulling into the driveway, Vickie came out, and it was just as though we had just seen her last week - I would have recognized her anywhere! Ken was there, Erin, her husband Troy and baby daughter Kaitlin were there, too, and when Randy heard that we were coming, came over as well! So, it was like a reunion!!

We all talked and talked, and everyone wanted to see pictures of Val and Cathi and their families, so we got out Lee's computer and showed lots of family pictures. They all had great memories of the girls. We have decided that we need to have a family reunion, somewhere in WA in the near future!

Ken, Erin and Randy are all fabulous! Randy has a granddaughter! How can it be that all of this has happened, when I really don't feel that much older? Randy and his wife Cindy, are planning a trip to the bay area, and we're hoping that they will stop in and see us. Since Ken, Erin, Troy and Randy are all big red wine afficionados, we'll tempt them to visit with Napa! : ). And we're hoping that Vickie will come for a visit in October.

Now that we've reconnected, we'll be sure to stay in touch!

Following are pictures - regretably, Troy had taken Kaitlin home before I thought to get out the camera! : (

Old friends! Emphasis on FRIENDS, not OLD!

Kennedy! All grown up, and looking quite handsome!

Randy! Dang - he looks so much like Tom!!

Erin, also all grown up and looking beautiful!

Vickie and Erin

Seeing Vickie again was a real highlight of this trip! I'm so thankful that we've reconnected!!

Whistler, Canada - Home of the 2010 Winter Olympics

Christmas in July!!

Last Christmas Don & Cathi traded a huge Christmas tree for a condo weekend in Whistler, and gave it to us for Christmas! How lucky are we? We were able to arrange our weekend in Whistler at the end of our visit with the Murphys, so we left Aldergrove on Saturday, July 25th, and drove up.

We had been in Whistler once before - 19 years ago when Cathi and Don got married! We had made the trip with Donna and George, and had a wonderful time, although we were only there for one night. So, we were really looking forward to visiting the area again.

It was a beautiful, warm sunny day, perfect for traveling! Don's instructions to getting through Vancouver and up to the mountains were perfect. The traffic was great, and we made a couple of stops along the way, as we usually do.

The first couple of pictures were taken along the way - the first was a spectacular view of the mountains. I discovered on this trip that I LOVE mountains!! They are so beautiful! However, I only love them in the summer - when there is no snow on them. Fortunately, we've spent a lot of time in the mountains during the past 4 weeks.


This is the view from a roadside viewing area along Hwy 99 - beautiful, snow-covered mountains!

See - I like snow - at a great distance! : )

Our next stop was at Brandywine Falls. There was a short hike into the park, and then you got to see this:

This was a different view from other waterfalls we visited - we were looking down on it!

Note the clear blue pool the water was falling into - I'm sure that it was quite cold!

This is a view of Daisy lake. The river from the waterfall flowed into this lake.

Covered bridge leading into the park.

Our condo! The living room in the Condo

Covered balcony - we spent a lot of time out there, we ate dinner on the balcony both nights that we were there.

Kitchen

Master bedroom

After we got the car unloaded and settled in, we headed off to Whistler village. The condo was conveniently located just blocks from the center of the village. Our first stop was the visitor center, where we picked up lots of information on Whistler, and made reservations for the Peak 2 Peak tram trip on Sunday. The Peak 2 Peak is a gondola ride that travels between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, and is the longest unsupported span in the world! Don had told us about it before we left. Thanks, Don!!

We found an Irish pub, had a beer, and went through all of our information, then spent a couple of hours exploring the village. After that, we went back to the condo for dinner. Cathi had sent us off with home made pizza for dinner - yum!

As the afternoon went on, there were gathering clouds. We had a beautiful sunset, then some lightening, thunder and some rain showers. It felt pretty good, as it was about 90 degrees in Whistler on Saturday.

Sunset from the balcony

Whistler is all about the 2010 Olympics! This was taken at the bottom of Whistler Mountain as we were boarding the gondola for the trip up to the Roundhouse lodge.

View from the gondola, heading up the mountain.

This is the view from the Roundhouse Lodge. You can see that we had a spectacular day. The temp in the village was forecast to be in the high 90's on Sunday. We went up the mountain in t-shirts, and were very comfortable.

Look! We found a bear! Speaking of bears, there was lots of information on what to do if you encounter a black bear, which are very prevalent in the mountains. My favorite bit of advice was "Do NOT play dead!"

This beautifully decorated bear was located in the lodge. If you doubble click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see that there is a headline for New Zealand!

We took the open chair lift to the peak of Whistler, which afforded amazing 360 degree panoramic views. You can see where the chair lift leaves down in the bottom right hand corner - a short downhill walk.

Wildflowers!

And away we go! Kinda looks like a moonscape!

There were still glaciers on the mountainsides. You can see the clear blue water under this one.

At the top! You CAN see forever!

Breath-taking views! This is of Whistler Village from the top of Whistler Peak.

Here's the chair lift, coming up to the peak.

This rock formation is one of the symbols of the 2010 Olympics - it's an aboriginal Inukshuk. There were many examples of the Insukshuk around both Whistler and Blackcomb.

Lee and the Inukshuk.

We spotted this spire on the far mountains. We found out it's name, but darned if I can remember it!

Here it is again - gotta love zooming!

Loving being at the top of the mountain!

We traded pictures with a nice couple - they took a picture of us, and we took one of them!

We got a kick out of this - we think that it's used for measuring the depth of the snow, similar to the same structure that we saw at Crater Lake, except they were measuring the depth of the lake. The glaciers were just beautiful, and some of them were quite deep!

On the trail. We took the hike to the Harmony Hut Tea House, about a 30 minute walk from the peak, near Little Whistler.

Along the way, we saw lots of rock sculptures that hikers had created.

A stunning, breath-taking view!

And another one! Between the two of us, we took about a million-billion pictures! Lucky for you, we've only posted a few!

When we reached Harmony Hut, we decided to walk down to the Roundhouse Lodge to take the Peak 2 Peak trip, rather than retrace our steps and take the chair lift down. The trail lead past Little Whistler, and was pretty steep going downhill from time to time. We took it slow and easy, as it was a dirt road, with lots of loose rock - perfect for slip, slide, fall! We followed a group of 5 ladies down the mountain, one of them had white hair, and was my inspiration - I figured that if she could do it, so could I! We met up with them at the end of the trail and chatted a bit. It was 4 daughters with their mother - and she was 87 years old! Good for her!!

The Peak 2 Peak gondola arrives! We waited 15 minutes to take one of the silver gondolas, as they have glass bottoms! We wanted to see the view below us!

And there's the view through the floor!! We looked carefully for bears, but didn't see any. When we reached Blackcomb, we enjoyed a cold beer at the Rondevous Lodge. It was just beautiful looking back at Whistler, and we enjoyed our shady spot, and gazing around us.

When we left Whistler on the gondola, they took our picture! And since I'm a sucker for things like that, we had to go back and get it! Our Peak 2 Peak tickets allowed us to go back and forth as much as we wanted. On our return trip, we did NOT wait for a silver gondola, but got our own little red one!

The view from the gondola. Since we had the car to ourselves, we moved all around and got lots of shots.

Ok, here's what holds this thing up! As it's the longest unsupported span in the world, there's quite a dip in the middle! What an engineering marvel!!

Here comes another gondola. You can see the path below that they cleared to lay the cable.

And another shot

Wave to the people!

Is this gorgeous, or what??!!

Here's information on the construction of the Peak 2 Peak experience. Click on the picture to make it bigger, you should be able to read it.

More information.

On the way down Blackcomb mountain in the open air chairlift. There were closed ones as well, which I supposed would be great in a snow storm, but we liked the open ones. There were two trams down, and we ended up at the base of Blackcomb, which was about a 20 minute walk from Whistler Village. We were on the mountain for about 6 hours! And by the time we came down, it had cooled off a bit in the village.

Being good little tourists, we visted the official Olympics store, and got t-shirts (no, we didn't need them), and stainless steel water bottles for the car, with the Inukshuk symbol on them, and yes, we did need them. : )

We stopped at the grocery store and got some items for dinner to go with the potato salad that we brought from Cathi's, and had dinner on the balcony.

What an amazing two days!! We LOVED Whistler and everything about it. There is SO much to do there - we will definitely go back, and next time we'll do the zip lines!! : )

I highly recommend this trip for everyone - the beauty of the mountains are astounding - there's fishing, bike riding, hiking, swimming, and many other activities, along with fabulous restaurants. You can walk through the village and hear lots of other languages being spoken. We met a lot of Aussies working there. The weather was gorgeous! We hated to leave, but our time was up! Thanks, Cathi and Don! Merry Christmas!