The Oregon Trail

When last we left our intrepid travelers…we were in Tillamook, Oregon. After leaving Tillamook we drove to Reedsport, OR (where we spent a night pondering whether we had ended up in an alternate “Deliverance” universe – Oregon is a VERY interesting place!), stopping to see several lighthouses and ending up in Bandon, OR for the night. Bandon was absolutely charming – the polar opposite of Reedsport. We stayed at the most dog friendly hotel we’ve encountered on the trip -the Bandon Inn – where Maggie got her own goodie bag of treats and the people were really nice and there was a lovely walking path to the historic downtown area.  We also found a fun waterfront place for raw oysters and clam chowder and a great off leash dog park for Maggie where she made two new friends and got to run and play for an hour.

Our quest to “bag” all the Oregon coast lighthouses has been quite a journey. If you look on a crummy brochure map we picked up somewhere on the northern end of the Oregon coast (you know, the one with no legend) it appears fairly straightforward. Generally you make a right off Highway 101 and head to the coast. Easy peasy, right? Yeah, well two hours later we would find ourselves finally reaching the lighthouse, or at least the state park near the lighthouse. So what we thought would be a two hour drive seemed to turn into four hour drives. The lighthouses were very neat, so we never felt gypped – it just took a LOT longer than we expected.

cape blancoAfter visiting the last lighthouse on the list, Cape Blanco, we headed for California, stopping to take pics at some of the most breathtaking views of the coast we’ve seen for the entire trip, then at the OR/CA border (of course), getting grilled by customs (okay as we drove by he said “hey, do you have any fresh fruit?” then waved us on when we shook our heads no)  and wrapping up the day in Crescent City CA. Crescent City is not a place that I think I’d return to. By all appearances it ought to be a neat place – nice harbor, lots of ocean views, a lighthouse. Yet the overall feeling here is one of “time to move on” – it just lacks, well, something.  The restaurants, the hotels, they all leave you with a general sense of “meh.”

Move on we will tomorrow morning as we head into the home stretch of the trip. Tomorrow we are visiting Eureka then on to the Mendocino area then the Healdsburg area, Paso Robles and finally home.

2 Comments

  1. I had to go to Crescent City once to do a workshop, and I agree with you. Eureka is nicer. Are you going by Berkeley to see Carole and Sally?

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