Jewells On Tour: Pacific Northwest Tour: Summer of 2017

We are taking a two month ride to the Pacific Northwest. First stop Salem to see Sister Joanne; after that we headed to the coast and north of Lincoln City. We had not visited the northern Oregon coast before. We settled in Rockaway Beach for a week+. From there we could go south and north to the various little towns along the coast.

Paradise Cove RV Park-Rockaway Beach Oregon

The crabbing regulations are pretty loose up here. Essentially, you can crab from docks, boats, etc almost the entire year.   People were dropping their crab pots right in front of our rig at Rockaway Beach. They were getting them too. Oysters were also plentiful and a lot cheaper than down in California. In our few weeks along the coast of Oregon, we had lots of shellfish.

We had beautiful weather. NO FOG!   Several of the little towns were quite nice. Pacific City was really nice. They launch and dock the fishing boats right from the beach. No dock!   They
are called dorys. We saw the same thing up in Alaska near Homer.    Pacific City also has a large rock on the beach that they call "haystack". It looks like a haystack.   Cannon Beach also has a rock like that.

They were also skiing down tall sand dunes!

A short trip from Rockaway Beach was Tillamook; famous for CHEESE! Had to go check the factory out and try their ice cream. Oregon Marionberry cheesecake. Yummy.

Did you know that there are as many dairy cows as people in Tillamook? 22,000 or so. Did you know that each cow produces approximatedly 100 pounds of poop per day? When you approach the town from the south there is a distinct odor. It is called "dairy air"......poop. That was your science lesson for the year.
Went looking for new RV's. This one was a beauty.

We drove north to Cannon Beach and Seaside. Cannon Beach is a very cute city but Seaside is very touristy. Cannon Beach has lots of beach access and little shops. Seaside is one giant arcade.

We were stopped for pedestrians in a crosswalk in Cannon Beach. We were surprised to see Walt's cousin Barbara crossing the street!!! She is from the Boston area. What are the odds of that happening???

We drove further north to Astoria and across to Washington to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Hard to imagine how they survived the trip across country.

Next stop San Juan Islands. We stayed in Anacortes at the Samish Indian RV Park. Again, weather beautiful. The native people (several nearby tribes) were celebrating an annual canoe journey. Each day they paddle their hand made log canoes to the next Indian village. Each day they move on to another village. They don't compete for first place or anything like that. They say they are celebrating the journey.

San Juan Islands with Mt Baker in the distance.

We took the Washington state ferry to San Juan Island and Friday Harbor.

Washington State Ferry

The local berries were at their peak while in Washington. The usual berries we see but lots of other native berries like huckleberry and chokecherry.

We drove toward Seattle to visit one of the Boeing plants. This plant builds the 777's, 787's and 747's in the largest building in the world! The tour was very good.

Time to meet up with the Freitas's, Cole's and Shannon's in Leavenworth Washington. It is a fun little town out in the middle of Washington. It is designed to look like a town in Bavaria. You would think that you were in Austria.

We stayed here for a week. Oh my, the smoke from the British Columbia fires was awful. You can barely make out our RV's on the hill because of the smoke.

To celebrate Howard's birthday we all went zip lining!!!. No one chickened out......I was close. Afraid of heights!!

We all are headed to Penticton, British Columbia to attend a memorial service for Scotty. Scotty and Barbara had a place in Havasu Resorts with all of us. He died last March and we all decided to drive up for his service. What a celebration it was. On Skaha Lake beach with a bagpiper and band. Randy and Judy supplied Scotty's favorite beverage for all.......SCOTCH!

It was a shame to visit such a beautiful area when the smoke was so thick. At times, we couldn't see the lake nearby. We will have to come back another time. We all took a winery tour (lots and lots of wineries), golfed and floated down the Penticton/Okanagan river channel.

The Gang at Therapy Vineyards, Penticton

Judy bought two BIG DUCKIES and we used one to float the channel. Even had a inflatable beer cooler. How cool is that?

We went our separate ways after the visit to BC. We are going to head down the eastern side of Washingon, Oregon and California.

We plan to see Oregon Trail Museum and Hell's Canyon in Baker City, the Kam Wah Chung and Co Museum in John Day Oregon and Burney Falls/Mt Lassen in California. We did it all. They were all worth visiting.

Oregon Trail Museum, Baker City Oregon

We were traveling in the total eclipse zone just before the eclipse. The towns in the Total Zone were gearing up for the thousands of visitors they were going to get. We got suited up for the big day.

We moved south a little bit. All the campsites in the TOTAL ZONE were reserved. We stayed at Lakeview Oregon for the event. It was in the 94% zone and it was fabulous.