Oregon Coast – Day 1

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise and John Wise in Mojave, California

This is the 2000th post on my blog. I’m guesstimating that during this time, I’ve put down approximately 1,000,000 words here so far, which feels like a lot of words to me, in addition to a lot of blog entries. My plan was to write something witty or try to find something profound to say, but my drafts felt that they were whiny laments, so instead, I present something I believe is more fitting for my blog, and that’s the start of another vacation.

Rainbow in Mojave, California

We left Phoenix, Arizona, late in the day yesterday and made it to Mojave, California, last night before calling it quits. The hope had been we’d make Bakersfield, but those extra 60 miles became insurmountable. We’d not made the best of time on the road as with the Thanksgiving crush of traffic (and sitting down for a great Mexican dinner at Oyster’s Restaurant in Kingman), it took eight hours to reach Mojave instead of what should have taken six.

The rest of this Thanksgiving Day was spent driving north. A stop at a Starbucks was nearly regretted as while the place certainly looked busy, we would have never guessed that it would take over a half hour to get a couple of drinks. After passing San Francisco, we ran into a couple of hours of rain on the narrower Highway 101, where it curves through forests and forces us to slow down. Fog on stretches of the road also made for slower going. By the time we reached Eureka, California, I was nearing exhaustion from the intense concentration, so it was time for a dinner stop. I have to admit that we were surprised by how many restaurants were serving food but even more surprised by how many businesses were open for early Black Friday shopping.

Over the course of the day, Caroline was reading to us from two different books. The first was “Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes” by Daniel Everett, and the second was “Handywoman” by Kate Davies. Between last night and today, we are nearly halfway through both books. Though it wasn’t planned this way, the two books are somewhat similar in that both deal with loss, one of cultural bearings and the other of the use of half the body due to stroke. Both also deal with new perspectives, though we’ll have to finish them to be able to report just what those outcomes are.

Our overnight was 30 miles short of our desired destination in Brookings, Oregon, but after 700 miles of driving, I found myself too loopy to drive safely up the dark, often foggy, and occasionally rainy coastal highway.

Going Places – Europe Day 0

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

John Wise and Caroline Wise

Flying somewhere to do stuff elsewhere. So where is that elsewhere?

Grand Canyon from 30,000 feet

The first clue is that we are passing over the Grand Canyon National Park, and if you look closer, you might notice the Colorado River winding its way through this Big Ditch, not that the Colorado plays a role in this adventure.

Clouds over America

You won’t glean any hints from this amorphous landscape of our direction or location, but it’s beautiful up here.

Clouds over America

Our ever-present travel companions for the past hour or so.

Caroline Wise at Mo's Seafood & Chowder at the Portland Airport, Oregon

With two-and-a-half hours between flights, we certainly had enough time for a cup of slumgullion from Mo’s Seafood & Chowder at the Portland Airport in Oregon. Slumgullion is clam chowder topped with bay shrimp, in case you weren’t already familiar with this coastal Oregon treat.

Mount St. Helens in Washington

This is the peak of Mount St. Helens in Washington, so you can glean that we are still traveling north’ish.

John Wise and Caroline Wise

There’s a serious clue in this photo about our ultimate destination, but spelling it out would spoil the fun.

Sunset over Alberta or Saskatchewan, Canada

As the sun sets, we are somewhere over either Alberta or Saskatchewan, Canada, heading in the general direction of Hudson Bay. After a bite to eat for dinner, we tried to get some fitful sleep for the next five hours; a baby that had other plans worked hard to ensure we got as little rest as possible while it screeched like a wounded hawk/seal demon hybrid.

Oregon 2017 – Day 4

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

John Wise and Caroline Wise at Cannon Beach, Oregon

Let’s just call it a down day on which we sip coffee at the Sleepy Monk, eat, sit by the fireplace in our cabin, and walk along the beach when there are breaks in the rain. Later in the day, we drove down to Manzanita for dinner with Aubrey and Laura at the Blackbird Restaurant. I met Aubrey the year before at the Sleepy Monk, where he introduced himself after seeing my notebook with a ton of synth stickers plastered on it and told me of his recently acquired Black & Gold Shared System from MakeNoise.

Oregon 2017 – Day 3

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon

Down south in California, it is often cliffs, icicle plants, or wide-open beaches that greet you when you approach the ocean. Up north in Washington, it’s cliffs or forest between you and the ocean. Here in Oregon, it’s frequently sand dunes, cliffs, and lush swaying grasses that greet you. Tragically, back on the East Coast, it’s not uncommon for the Atlantic to be blocked with gaudy high rises, condos, and mansions that separate the visitor from gazing out upon the sea. In built-up areas where industry, be it a commercial enterprise, industrial tourism, or cities, has taken center stage next to the ocean, there is something abrasive when we are in its proximity, as when one approaches the ocean from a wild area, the entire sense of place of where we are going and what we are approaching takes a dramatic shift into the untamed and unknown.

Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon

Likewise, when we look inland and fail to see the trapping of civilization, there is a moment where our imagination suggests that the land ahead could go on forever into places that require discovery. Compare this to Daytona Beach, Florida, wherefrom the ocean you look and know an overcrowded ice cream shop with cranky tourists jostling for position in an attempt to justify the vacation through sweet indulgences because being somewhere is never good enough when it drags creatures of habit out of their routines. For those of us who enjoy travel as opposed to tourism, a scene such as this one above leaves nothing to be desired, except maybe more of the same quiet and unobstructed views that draw in our imaginations.

Caroline Wise at Pronto Pup in Rockaway Beach, Oregon

And just then reality crashes into the sublime with your wife going wild riding the wiener on a stick at The Original Pronto Pup in Rockaway Beach.

Ultimate Monster Burger at Newport Cafe in Newport, Oregon

While we could ride the wiener we couldn’t eat the wiener because they weren’t open yet, so we continued up the road because nothing satisfies quite like a FOUR POUND ULTIMATE MONSTER BURGER! I swore in my last blog post about this place that we’d try the 8-pound version next time it’s happening, even if I have to go and eat it all by myself.

Misty coastal Oregon

The Three Capes road through misty coastal forests on our way back up north to Cannon Beach. On sunny days, there are some great views up and down the coast from high above the ocean as you pass through.

Ardbeg Uiegadail Scotch at The Irish Table in Cannon Beach, Oregon

Caroline is about to indulge in a wee dram of Ardbeg Uiegadail Scotch at The Irish Table in Cannon Beach. Our friend, Willie from Scotland, later commented that this was in no way a “wee” dram but a rather large dram. Good food, drink, and scenery are all we need for a perfect getaway.

Oregon 2017 – Day 2

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach, Oregon

With the weather in our favor for this visit to Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach, we were prepared to give this place the time it deserved. We were not in a rush to get anywhere else today, so we just might be here all day.

Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach, Oregon

Making our way deeper into the park.

Caroline Wise at Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach, Oregon

At some point, the trail split, and we headed down to the beach where Caroline found this trophy chunk of Styrofoam that we can now be confident won’t be a whale snack later this year. I don’t believe we have ever left a beach where Caroline doesn’t have a pocket full of trash. Sometimes, I think she’s busy with a myopic view of what’s in front of her feet as she looks for plastic and forgets to see the bigger picture. This probably has something to do with why she likes my photos so much, they allow her to see where she was.

Caroline Wise at Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach, Oregon

We have moved along to the upper trail with a great view of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, though you may not know just how cool it was, seeing how I used my phone to take this photo. Someone sent a drone out there and shot this GREAT video! In the comments on the video is some history of being a lightkeeper on this desolate rock; read it here.

Caroline Wise at Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach, Oregon

The landscape is varied here at Ecola and is well worth the visit if the weather is on your side. On our first visit, the winds were howling, and the rain was shredding sideways.

Caroline Wise at Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach, Oregon

We’ll need to make a third visit here so I can bring a proper camera, do justice to the finer details, and get the shots that might have worked with a better lens. It’s all still pretty beautiful and a great reminder of our time here.

Manhattan State Beach in Rockaway, Oregon

After lunch at a small cafe in Manzanita, we headed over to Manhattan Beach State Park in Rockaway Beach and took a long walk on a wide-open beach where we couldn’t see anyone else for miles.

Manhattan State Beach in Rockaway, Oregon

You walk along and think that you’ve pretty much seen it all, just beach and more beach, and then you run into something strange like these patterns and little sand islets. Just in front of me, you might be able to see that the water is greener; that’s because it is deeper right there, as though a pocket has been carved out of the beach.

Heading north back to Cannon Beach, Oregon

Getting later and hungry, it was time to return north for our reservation at the Wayfarer Restaurant.

A Manhattan at the Wayfarer Restaurant in Cannon Beach, Oregon

Facing the ocean is the Wayfarer Restaurant in Cannon Beach. Being on vacation and seeing they make them, Caroline opted to start with an Old Fashioned.

Cannon Beach, Oregon

After dinner, it was time for more walking; who could blame us when this was the scenery we were walking through?

Cannon Beach, Oregon

With the sunset, the temperature chills quickly, but the light lingers for a good long time. A full day and a perfect return to the Oregon coast for our first April visit.