Road Trip to Sequim, Washington & Dungeness Spit

Dungeness Spit Lighthouse with Mount Baker (Cascades) Backdrop

Hi all, Dianne again.  

We packed up bright and early, picked up Robyn and Amanda from their hotel, and all of us together hit the road in the motor home for the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.  If you have visions of us playing the license plate game, auto bingo or singing our way up I-5 through the state of Washington, here is the reality of the trip:

 Amanda and Kaia slept in our bed, and Robyn and Bandido flaked out on the couch.  It was a very quiet ride!   

The most exciting thing were the ubiquitous logging trucks that passed us by.  For a time a semi full of fresh mulch was right in front of us and we enjoyed that fragrance as we drove for a bit.

We set up camp at Rainbow's End RV Park in Sequim, Washington.  First order of business was to have Kaia help us put our Washington state sticker onto our U.S. map.

Back in the early days, when our motor home was new and we had not yet begun fulltiming, Kaia helped us put on the Florida sticker when we took her for a road trip with us.  Looks like we've added quite a few states since then!

Our daughter Robyn is a busy gal, and this was our last day together before she needed to catch a plane back to L.A.  

Scallops

For our last meal together we chose an early dinner at the Sequim Seafood Restaurant, which I would highly recommend if you find yourself in this area.  
Robyn chose scallops and I had crab cakes.  

They were delicious!






Outside the restaurant, Kaia posed with her mom for my camera.

After dinner we decided to take a short hike out to the nearby Dungeness Spit.  

It was sunny and warm when we left Sequim, but several of us were totally under-dressed (no sweatshirts, sandals instead of hiking shoes); definitely the wrong attire for the cold, windy hike down the sandy spit.  

The wind was blowing so hard that we felt we were being sandblasted as we started the walk down the shore.  I immediately put my camera away and used my iPhone for the rest of the time while we were there, not wanting a repeat of our camera failures from the Oregon coast.

There was an interesting display of artifacts washed ashore from the 2011 Japanese Earthquake and resulting Tsunami.  

 It's hard to imagine how these items floated all the way across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.  We didn't see any debris during our walks, but there are Tsunami debris posters all up and down the coasts of Oregon and Washington with instructions on what to do if you find Tsunami debris.

We went back to the motor home and enjoyed watching the classic Lucy & Desi "The Long, Long Trailer" DVD, complete with homemade popcorn and lots of laughs.   

Alarms were set early for the next morning, for we had to make the 2 1/2-hour drive to the Seattle Airport in time for Robyn to catch her flight home to Los Angeles.  Our time with her was way too short!  

The pet photo of the day shows Bandido in his favorite spot, snuggling with Kaia as she slept.

Portland, Oregon Family Time!

Hi all, Dianne here.  We had a busy time with family last week, so our blogs are a bit behind.  We’ll try to remedy that now; Roger and I are both plugging away on blogs so that we can get caught up. This first blog entry is mine, so here goes….

A week ago Sunday we left Fort Stevens State Park and made a mad dash to Columbia River RV Park in Portland, which is very near the Portland International Airport.  As we drove the RV toward Portland, two airplanes were also making their way there, one from Florida and the other from Los Angeles.  We all arrived within an hour of each other!  The girls met up and checked in to a hotel near the airport (we always get Robyn a hotel room because she’s allergic to dogs and cats). Amanda, our other daughter, stayed with her sister in the hotel and our granddaughter, Kaia, stayed with “Meemaw & PopPop” in the motor home.

Bandido and Tequila were very happy to get reacquainted with Kaia!

We were all hungry, so first thing was a meal at The Deck restaurant on a floating dock in a marina on the Columbia River. 

Sisters!

Amanda met up with a friend from college and got a taste of some Portland night life, while the rest of us called it an early night.  We had a long list of things we wanted to see and do the next day, our only full day in Portland.

First on the list was to eat breakfast at Pine State Biscuits, a “must do” recommended by Robyn’s boyfriend Atul.  I promise not to show photos of every meal we ate together, but wow, get a load of breakfast:

Fried chicken, gravy, bacon, and egg on a biscuit (Kaia’s breakfast choice) and check out my biscuits and gravy with egg-over-easy on top:

Definitely an experience not to be missed!!  Thank you, Atul!

Mount Hood was out!

After breakfast we made our way downtown and signed up for a walking tour of Portland.  

While we waited for our 2:00 tour time, we made a stop in the famous Powell Book Store to browse around. 

The bookstore is so large, encompassing an entire city block with multiple floors, that large signs direct you to color-coded rooms of books in different categories.   Powell's shelves used and new books together, so that you can easily find a book, then choose which you'd rather buy, new or used.  I ended up with a stack of paperbacks (used, of course). 

At 2:00 we met up with our tour group outside the Hilton Hotel.  Our tour guide, Dianne, was excellent and gave us a good flavor of the city.  There are bicycle lanes everywhere,

car chargers, even solar-powered waste bins along the street that automatically compact the trash.  Rush hour began while we were just ending the tour, and the streets filled with bicycles and folks obviously on their way home from work, work clothes in backpacks and exercise clothes donned for the ride home.

This building shows trompe-l’oeil art.  It is actually a flat building except for the recessed area in the center.

In one of the downtown parks we found the largest grove of Dutch Elm trees in the United States.  Our guide explained that the Dutch Elm disease that obliterated the elm trees in the eastern half of the country didn’t make it all the way to Oregon. 

This building was designed by Michael Graves, who also designed kitchen wares for Target.  


 In front of the building is the second-largest hammered copper statue in the U.S. (largest is the Statue of Liberty).  Here is Portlandia, kneeling down to welcome visitors to the city:

    
Both of our daughters were intrigued by this large artwork that invited you to “have a seat”.  They of course proceeded to ham it up with the statue.

In this photo, our guide, Dianne, was explaining how this statue from the 1980s is a good way to tell a tourist: 

First of all, no one in Portland uses an umbrella, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in a three-piece suit.  If the statue were wearing a hoodie and jeans, he’d look more like the locals.

These iconic Benson Bubblers were installed around the city in 1912 by a tee-totaling lumber baron, and are still in use today.







After the tour ended, we stopped at a Thai restaurant for an early supper, then...

We had one last very important stop to make before we left downtown Portland – a trip to the famous Voodoo Donuts!

Now, this is my kind of place! 

Kaia liked it, too. 
 It certainly had a quirky kind of ambiance!

We left with donuts for dessert, plus a box of donuts to enjoy while driving to Washington the next morning.  Check back soon for that blog entry.

The pet picture of the day shows Bandido and Kaia enjoying a game of tug. 

Palm Springs, California - Land of Gourmet Breakfasts & Fancy Cars!

Hi all, Dianne here.  The two attractive young people peeking from under Marilyn Monroe's skirt are our daughter Robyn and her boyfriend, Atul.  They drove over from Los Angeles to meet us for the weekend in Palm Springs.  What a great time we had!

We started out with our first of many gourmet breakfasts at "Farm," a small restaurant Robyn found using Yelp, tucked away in a secret garden.  
No photos of this food, for we had just met Atul and I didn't want him to discover our weirdness just yet....

It was forecast to reach 104 that first day, so we decided a tram ride up Mt. San Jacinto would be just the ticket.  Good choice!   It was 40 degrees cooler at Mt. San Jacinto State Park at the top of the mountain.  

There were impressive views at the top...

   Here's a zoomed-in shot showing Palm Springs at the foot of the mountain.  More shots...

A Windswept Tree...

The "mom" in me kept creeping out, so I took a few shots on the sly of my baby girl and her guy...

And some not on the sly... (no apologies here, 'cause this blog is used as our virtual scrapbook).

We all got to meet Smoky the Bear...

And a smaller critter, too...

We stopped for a drink and a little shopping in the state park gift store before our return trip down the mountain.

Originally we thought we'd have a happy hour at our camp site, but even though Roger made provisions for the hot sun...

...we were in very cramped quarters at the Happy Traveler RV Park and it was just too darned hot!  No problem, though; we loaded up and took happy hour to Robyn and Atul's hotel, the Riviera Palm Springs Resort and Spa.  We sat on the patio by the pool and had snacks, wine and beer before dinner.   Lots of laughter; we really got to know Atul better.  What an intelligent, funny, awesome, thoughtful young man.  To say we were impressed with him would be an understatement.

To give you an idea of what the hotel is like, get a load of the pool table...

A little bling, anyone?

I've never seen a bed on a pool deck before...  

Here's a shot of the pool...

...and some humorous signs we spotted as we took a walking tour of the grounds:

Perhaps related to the above sign, someone had surreptitiously removed a certain letter from all of the directional signs in the vicinity...

Anyway, after a couple of drinks it gave us a chuckle.

On Sunday morning we met for Sunday brunch at another trendy, gourmet restaurant, "Jake's."  Wow, what great food!  I had crab cakes benedict (the crab cakes are underneath the perfectly-cooked sunny-side-up eggs)...

Do you think I liked it??

And Roger had chilaquiles, a delicious Mexican choice...

They tasted even better than they looked!   We walked around Palm Springs after brunch, and thankfully the city has installed misters up and down the streets to help keep shoppers cool in the searing hot sun.  It was 104 degrees while we shopped on Sunday!  Here's a photo of Robyn walking in front of me toward some cooling mist...

And some random people, giving a better shot of the misters.  I've never seen these before on a city street, but if ever they were needed, it is in Palm Springs.

All too soon it was time for Robyn and Atul to head back to LA for rehearsals.  It was wonderful getting to meet Atul and seeing our city girl!

Monday morning Roger and I stopped at yet another spot for yet another gourmet breakfast, Cheeky's.  We actually had tried the prior two days in a row to eat there, but the crowds waiting outside were just too long both days.  On Monday morning the crowds were gone.  We still had to wait outside for a while, but not long.  Here's Roger's choice, eggs benedict...

And mine, scrambled eggs with organic goat cheese, mushrooms, and thyme, with homemade jam on the toast...

The bacon (extra) was $1 per slice, but there were four varieties to choose from.  In my opinion, the bacon was worth twice the cost!   

No more food photos, I promise, for a while.  These were so exceptional that we just wanted to remember them.  

After breakfast we drove to Palm Desert to visit the desert living museum, which Roger will blog about next time.  On the way, after passing the vintage auto dealership in Palm Springs that had bright, shiny vintage autos of every description, closer to Palm Desert we passed, one next to another, the following dealerships:  Porche, Land Rover, Bentley, Maserati, and one designated for nothing but electric cars.  There were plenty of them driving around the swanky boulevards, too.  

I'm not sure why, if you could afford to live anywhere, you'd pick this area of California.  The weather was in the mid-100s the entire time we were there, and it's only April.  I think the only comfortable time of year would have to be January-March.  A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!

The pet picture of the day was taken just a moment too late.  Bandido and Tequila are sleepyheads in the mornings.  This morning, Tequila was still in bed and Bandido was in the living room, but had fallen asleep with his head resting in his toy box.  I couldn't get to the camera fast enough to keep him from waking up, but it's a cute photo of him anyway!

Sleepy Head with His Toys