So what did we do when when Asaf, Amy, Rachel and Joseph returned from Italy and wanted their house and kitties back? Why, we moved in with their relatives, of course!
We've known Mati and Tova since the early 1980s, when Tom, Mati and I all played on the same company soccer team. (Oh man, I wish I had a picture of us back in the day.) We've watched their sons, and now their grandkids, grow up over the years. Mati, Tova, and doggie Henry were kind enough to let us crash at their place. In return Tom would manage the repair and repainting of their front trellis. It was a big job, and Tom and Mati did hours of repair, priming and painting.
Shortly after we returned from Mexico Tova mentioned that they were planning to go on a 10-day camping trip into Oregon. By the time we ended up at their house we had somehow managed to include ourselves in the plans. Tova had a basic itinerary and had already made a couple of reservations, but we still spent a couple of afternoons with maps of state parks, working out our itinerary and making reservations for a trip through northern California, up into Oregon, and then back again. It was slightly challenging as many of the prime campgrounds were already full, but with a little bit of searching to find some more out-of-the-way sites, and with a couple of lucky cancellations, we firmed up our plans. Mati and Tova recently adopted Henry, a 7-yr old Havanese mix, so we also had to make sure that our choices were dog-friendly.
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| As soon as Henry realized we were going somewhere he jumped in the car and refused to budge. |
The day finally arrived and we put down our scrapers and paintbrushes, loaded up the cars and started driving north.
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| The Tundra is once again ready to roll. |
3 August - 200 mile day. Lunch in beautiful Healdsburg, CA. Must go back to visit sometime. Arrived Van Damme State Park before sunset. We used to come here years ago for spearfishing meets. The campground and park are just as beautiful as we remember. At the beach there were kayakers, divers, and people fishing. At Van Damme we established what would become our routine: park the cars on level ground (we slept in the cars), walk Henry, set up the camp kitchen, Happy Hour, make campfire and dinner, relax some more, snooze. It appeared that Henry didn't like to leave the car unless he was on his leash. Separation anxiety from his past life? That was OK by us, as he was the perfect little camper, never trying to run away or sniff around other campsites.
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| Sylvia, Tova, Henry and Tom getting comfy amongst the oaks and redwoods. |
4 August - 110 mile day. Packed up, drove north, and visited Point Cabrillo Light Station. As a child I was always fascinated by lighthouses, and thought it would be cool to grow up to be a lighthouse keeper. Point Cabrillo Light Station is still an "active duty station", and houses its original Fresnel (fray-nell) lens. The grounds are large and beautiful, and contain the lighthouse, 3 restored keeper's houses, a restored blacksmith shop, and several other restored buildings that have been converted into rental cabins. Highly recommended!
Continued north to Humboldt Redwoods State Park, home of the giant redwoods, Avenue of the Giants, and the Rockefeller Forest, the world's largest remaining contiguous old-grown coast redwoods forest. This campground was much bigger than Van Damme and, like the previous night, was completely full. Although we don't love crowds, we were glad to see that so many people, including many internationals, were enjoying and learning about this spectacular natural resource. (We just wished that some of them weren't so darn noisy about it.)
5 August - This was one of our 2-night campsites, so we spent the morning learning about the area at the excellent visitor's center, more like a museum really. We also went down to the Eel River to check it out, not much water as you can imagine during our California drought, and went for a hike. We drove along the Avenue of the Giants, and visited the Rockefeller Forest (named for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was active in the Save-the-Redwoods League and donated much of the money that helped purchase this old-growth redwood grove).
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| We are dwarfed by a huge old-growth redwood tree. |
For movie buffs, this area was transformed into the moon of Endor for Return of the Jedi. Remember Luke and Leia chasing stormtroopers and skimming over limbs and downed trees? Yep, this is the place.
6 August - 220 mile day. We drove through Eureka and Arcata, stopped for lunch in Crescent City, then headed inland toward the Oregon Border. We arrived at our next campground, Valley of the Rogue, in the early afternoon. Goodbye to the coastal overcast and hello to the HEAT. This campground is very close to the highway, but it is immaculately clean.
Shortly after we arrived we were somewhat startled to hear a good deal of racket, huffing and puffing, from the tent next to our site. After a few seconds we realized nobody was getting beat up, it was merely our neighbors enjoying a bit of strenuous "afternoon delight". Did I mention that this campground wasn't very private?
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| Henry does his best to ignore the noisy tent behind him. |
Mati and Tom went off on a blackberry picking expedition and returned with a bucket of sweet berries. Yum! And that night we treated ourselves to some sauteed NY strip steaks (Tova ate vegetarian), sauced in a beurre rouge. Hardly roughing it!
7 August - 110 mile day. On to Crater Lake. This was a first for Mati, Tova and me, and we were all impressed by this natural wonder.
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| The blue of the lake was stunning! |
After sightseeing around the lake and a pleasant tail-gate picnic, we continued on to our next campsite, the rustic Thielsen View campground located on Diamond Lake. This was the one site that didn't have showers, but even Tova declared that it was so beautiful and pleasant she would have stayed another night.
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| Fishing on Diamond Lake |
Mati is a keen fisherman, and actually got in a bit of fishing on this beautiful lake. Henry was completely bored by the numerous chipmunks running through the campsite.
8 August - 175 mile day. On our way back to the coast we stopped at the Toketee Falls for a hike and a sightsee.
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| The falls, part of the Umpqua River, are 85 feet high. |
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| We stop farther down the Umpqua so Mati can get in some fishing. |
As we approached the Oregon coastline the temperature dropped from the mid 90s to the low 60s, quite a difference. Also, the clouds and fog closed in on us and the smell of rain was in the air. As we drove through Florence, Oregon, we stopped at the Krab Kettle fish market to check out the fish situation. The clam chowder was advertised as being excellent, so we picked up some containers for dinner, along with some smoked halibut.
Our campground for the next couple of nights would be an RV Park, not our first choice for accommodations, but we were lucky to find a space and it turned out to be rather quaint and more private than most wide-open RV parks. Luckily we had a big tarp in the truck and Tom and Mati managed to cobble together a very serviceable shelter over the outdoor kitchen.
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| Our jury-rigged shelter. |
Somehow we always managed to eat well regardless of the situation.
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| Hot chowder, sourdough bread, smoked halibut, and Mati's home-smoked salmon (he caught it) made for a gourmet meal. |
We drove to the Heceta Head Light Station, which is a beautifully restored lighthouse and grounds.
Tova was delighted with all the flowers that bloomed along the pathway. She has been a student of Ikebana for over 30 years, and holds the highest rank of Shukan. She has been teaching this art for years and really knows her plants. Turns out that many of the flowers and plants she uses come from Oregon, and now she could enjoy them blooming and growing all over the hillsides. It certainly expanded our enjoyment to have her ID-ing the variety of plants around us.
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| The Montbresia were in full bloom. |
After the lighthouse we drove into Florence for the Farmer's Market and to grab some lunch. We bought some delicious-looking fruit and veg for dinner later that night, and then enjoyed a patio lunch. Tova and I indulged in the restaurant's specialty, fruit Margaritas. Yum!!
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| Strawberry |
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| Blackberry |
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| More flowers in front of this stunning art-deco drawbridge over the Siuslaw River. |
10 August - 245 mile day. We drove along the coastline through Coos Bay and into Bandon, OR, which was recommended to us by some friends who, years ago, had sailed into the harbor for repairs. What a great harbor! People were setting crab traps off the docks, and some fishermen had just come in with a load of tuna. There are also numerous statues and educational plaques, and there was even an art contest on display.
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| Mermaids were a contest theme |
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| Beautiful wooden seahorse |
As it approached lunch time, the smells issuing from the various dockside restaurants became irresistible. We settled on Tony's Crab Shack and indulged in some extremely fresh oysters, crab and fish.
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| These beautiful oysters had just arrived from Coos Bay. Delicious! |
Our last stop in Oregon was at Gold Beach, where the river mouth was filled with skiffs fishing for salmon. Mati was beside himself seeing all the fish activity. We stopped at the local fish-cleaning station to admire the day's catch. It was very impressive.
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| A couple of successful locals breaking down their salmon. |
We crossed the border and pulled into Patrick Point State Park. Our campsite felt buried in redwoods and ferns, with the highlight being that it was overrun by banana slugs dining on the foliage. Naturally, being a graduate of UCSC, I was absolutely thrilled to be surrounded by the mascot of my alma mater.
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| Go slugs!! |
Although the campsite was somewhat gloomy in the afternoon, it turned out we had a very clear sky that night, and while the fire crackled we enjoyed watching the stars pop out overhead. It occurred to us that this might be our first clear night.
11 August - 160 mile day. We were originally scheduled to return home today, but the consensus was that we should add one more night of camping if we could find a spot. Damn, Van Damme was full! But just north of Fort Bragg we pulled into McKerricher State Park and, as luck would have it, they had just received a cancellation for their group site. Being a group site it was not very secluded, but we were happy to find a place. Also, we were close to the showers which was always a plus in our book. The park has a nice boardwalk hike and a walk to the beach that was perfect for watching our last vacation sunset.
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| We arrive just in time for the sunset. |
12 August - 225 mile day. Boo hoo, we had to go home. Yes, we really did because Tom and I had plane tickets for Boston leaving the next day! So we loaded up the cars for the last time and enjoyed our final, leisurely day of road trip. We arrived back in the Bay Area much more educated about redwoods, bridges, plants, lighthouses and some wonderful state parks. Henry had a good time but he was very happy to be home. A thorough grooming session would be in his future.
Album: Camping with Mati, Tova and Henry.
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| Our route |
Coming soon: Visit to the east coast and an unscheduled trip to Nova Scotia.
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| Tom eventually finished the work on the front of the house. Looks great Tom! |
