Our Big Trip Week 2- June 22 to June 28

Day 8- Sunday, June 22:

After missing the continental breakfast at the Best Western in Eugene, OR because it ended at 9:30 and no one told us this until 9:45 when we attempted to partake, we went to mass at St. Mary’s. It was a good service, and it was a nice meditative hour. We then headed out route 126 (I’ll try to give more exact directions for those of you who are curious) west. Oregon is populated along route 5, but there is still 60 miles or so between 5 and the coast with not a lot in it. The road got more rural until we were in the middle of the thickest forest we have ever seen. It’s amazing, the density of the trees here. Beth remarked that when living in a city like we have, it’s almost a shock to find out there are that many trees in the world, let alone one forest. It really is easy to imagine Bigfoot stomping around up here and nobody seeing him. The forests are so thick and they just go on forever, anything could be in there. I looked for Bigfoot for like 10 whole minutes and couldn’t find him. Bummer. At the coast, we hit Florence, took a right and headed north. The people in Florence have developed a unique way of dealing with beach erosion. Apparently, this involves leaving at least three non-operative cars in the yard, because that’s what the primary scenery in Florence on route 101 was. Plato took advantage of Florence for her own beach work . About 10 miles north of Florence we stopped at Sea Lion Cave. This is the biggest natural sea cave in the world. Thousands of sea lions congregate here to breed and raise their young. We went down to the cave, and it was neat, but having lived in San Francisco for six years, we have seen many sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf with our family and friends. So the sea lions themselves took a back seat to the scenery. The view out from the cave was pretty incredible. We then headed north to Yachats and set up camp at Cape Perpetua. This place is beautiful. There were other people in the park, but the forest just muffles all the sound, so it’s easy to imagine you’re all alone. It would have been good if we were all alone, because I went for a bike ride, got sweaty and needed a shower. So Beth stood on a picnic table and poured really really cold water on my head as I stood naked in the middle of our camp and scrubbed off with biodegradable soap. Goodness knows what my hypothermatic cries sounded like to anyone within earshot. Then I tried to make a fire Thank heavens I have a warm sleeping bag.

No bigfoot all evening.

Day 9- Monday, June 23:

I’ve read that there are places in Colorado where you jump from hot springs to cold pools in rapid succession and reach some sort of higher consciousness. Well, the shower at the campground we stayed at very nearly approximated that experience. The two shower settings I will refer to as “The deepest reaches of the universe” and “Eternal damnation.” But that’s not really what I want to talk about. Today was a tough day. We went up to the top of the cliff on which our campground sat, Cape Perpetua, and went out to the edge to look out over the ocean. This picture gives a good idea of what the Oregon coast looks like . The hike was beautiful and enjoyable for the trip out, but on the way back, Plato collapsed and couldn’t get back up. She has hip dysplasia, and takes medicine for it, but we have never seen her not be able to stand before. It looked as if she had had a stroke. She was just all wobbly in her back end. So, after a few minutes of her trying to get up with no luck, I carried her back to the van. We gave her some water and I cried a little bit. I got Plato in 1991 when she was 6 weeks old, so she and Beth and I have been a team for a long timel. We then camped about 10 miles outside of Tillamook, where they make the cheese. Tillamook was a strange town. It was a small town, but it didn't seem like the typical small town, with Mom and Pop type stores. It appeared as though the entire town was employed at the cheese factory, and there were about ten blocks' worth of houses and things that people would need to sustain themselves- pharmacies, super markets, etc., and nothing else. It almost seemed like a big camp for people in the dairy business. There were some fantastic mountain bike trails along the forest by the beach, and we had a great time riding on these. The scenery was beautiful and the weather inviting. The mood of our party, however, was a little heavy due to Plato’s condition.

Day 10- Tuesday, June 24:

The first thing that we did when we woke up was check on Plato. If she were really incapacitated that may change a lot about our trip. She seemed stiff, but mobile. As the day progressed, she loosened up, and seemed relatively okay by the end. We drove to Portland on Rte 6 from Tillamook to the house of Beth’s friend Oksana Myers. We will be staying for a few days with Oksana, her husband Tim, their girls Polina, 3, and Daniela, 17 mos., and Oksana’s father, Vladimir Zanin (Oksana’s mother, Galina, is currently back at home in the Ukraine). They officially live in Tigard, which is a suburb 10 miles southwest of Portland proper. At about 4pm, I drove up to the city to meet Sam Brake, with whom I attended high school. We hadn’t spoken for at least 10 years, when I ran into him in San Francisco just a couple of months ago. He said he lived in Portland, and I said we’d be up there soon. He was always an avid soccer player, and he belongs to an indoor league. So I went and watched his game (his team lost, 3-2, but they didn’t have their normal goalkeeper, and the other team got a couple of cheap goals) and then we had a burger. It was great catching up with him. Beth and Oksana spent the evening together watching Anastasia and playing with the girls. Then they went grocery shopping at 10:30pm.

Day 11- Wednesday, June 25:

We spent most of the day playing with Polina and Daniela. In the morning we went to see Finding Nemo, which was a lot of fun (the character Dori played by Ellen Degeneris was my favorite, especially when she was trying to speak Whale), and in the afternoon we played in the sandbox and we all needed baths afterwards. Oksana then took Beth and I to a burger place called Red Robin. As a connoisseur of that finest of foods, the burger, I feel qualified to say that the Peppercorn Burger was a dang fine burger indeed. The three of us then shared a chocolate/vanilla/peanut butter cake/sundae thing that was truly delicious. It was about 2 feet tall. As a connoisseur of all things dessert, Beth pronounced it truly delicious. I’m gonna need to put some miles in on my bicycle after that meal.

Day 12- Thursday, June 26:

We woke up and spent some more quality time with the girls. At around 1 we left to go meet Sam and his girlfriend Nicole Zimmerman and her sisters Angie and Jill. They were at the Japanese Garden in Portland. From the top of the garden you can see Mt. Hood looking like it’s hovering over the city . We then went to The Portland Grill, which is a very classy restaurant 30 floors up in a building which is located at 200 Pine street in downtown Portland, the name of which escapes me . We got there and ate off the happy hour menu, which consists, I believe, of all of the items off of the regular menu served in slightly smaller portions, for like three bucks each. So we got to sample at least half the menu for probably a fifth of the price. It was awesome. I’m gonna try to do that more often. It was a great idea. We then drove East on Rte 84 up past Sam and Nicole’s place in Gresham to a waterfall called Multnomah Falls. Plato had another episode and couldn’t walk again. Sam was kind enough to stay with her on the trail since he had seen the falls before. While we were up on the trail, we spotted him carrying her out . Sam and I switched off for a time, but he carried her most of the way. Sam is a strong guy, and I was very grateful to have him with us. We then went back west, but we took The Historic Highway, which runs more or less parallel to 84 but is much more scenic. We followed this to Crowne Point, which overlooks the Columbia River, with Portland to the Leftish. The sunset from there was spectacular - I love how we’re silhouetted in this picture. Lastly, we went back to Sam and Nicole’s neighborhood and ate ice cream at a place called The Cold Stone Creamery. It’s the kind of thing where you pick your flavor and add in whatever type of cookies, candy, whatever you like, and it was dang good. Beth had a flavor called “cake batter” that she said was possibly the most delicious ice cream she had ever tasted. The gang then headed back to Sam and Nicole’s and Beth and I headed back to Oksana’s at 11pm.

Day 13- Friday, June 27:

Beth got up early and went to gymnastics with Oksana and the girls and I stayed at home with the canine patient. I called The Tigard Animal Hospital and brought her in, as she was still pretty wobbly. Dr. Ken Genova thought that she was undergoing a reaction to a drug she was on called Etogesic and it had nothing to do with her dysplasia. Ironically, he said he would never have known this except for the fact that he had read an article a couple of days before about a rare drug reaction to this medication found in roughly 1 out of every billion dogs. He ordered some tests and called the drugmaker. They said they would pay for the tests and we should stop giving her the drug. We felt a lot better after that and returned to the Meyers home in time to spend the evening with the whole gang and Tim’s brother Ken. We had a great time BBQ-ing and rapping into the wee hours. We finished up with the movie “Stigmata,” which led us into a lively discussion of the politics of religion which began at 1am.

Day 14- Saturday, June 28:

We woke up and sadly bid a fond farewell to our hosts - this is so funny because Daniela was so much fun and so happy the whole time we were there, but as soon as I whipped out the camera, there came the tears. I kept meaning to take a group shot of everybody, but Tim works a lot and the girls are so energetic and Oksana is so busy that it just never happened. We got on Route 5 and headed north. We arrived in Seattle at around 2pm and headed straight for The Pike Place Market, which is a collection of craft stores and food grown and/or made by local farmers and producers. We met up again with Sam, Nicole, Jill and Angie, who were up from Portland for the day. We spent a few hours wandering around the market and tasting the free samples that were offered at every other booth. Since we are living in a van, we did very well by buying the small amount that we did, but if we were still living at home, it would have been a different story. There were all sorts of jams, jellies, honeys, nuts, baked goods, vinegars, oils, cheeses and everything else under the sun being sold there. After scarfing down authentic Russian piroshkies (on Oksana’s recommendation,) Beth tried to get a lemonade. While she was patiently waiting in line an older gentleman came along and got in front of her, which made her simply flabbergasted . I highly recommend hitting the market if you’re in the Seattle area. After that, we went down to the boardwalk and wound up by eating dinner at Ivar’s, a famous Seattle seafood place. I thought the food was good, but I made the mistake of ordering fish and chips and no fish and chips can compare with the fish and chips served by McDonagh’s in Galway City, Ireland. I realize I’m being a bit of a snob here, but that’s the truth. The fish there just melts in your mouth and the breading around the fish is this spectacular texture not to be found anywhere else in the world. I also enjoyed the atmosphere at McDonagh's, which consisted of a lady from New York asking me questions about what it was like living in Ireland (with my black stocking cap and a beard (which comes in as reddish-blonde) I could pass for Irish) and me telling her in my best Irish accent that Irish living is hard but the beer and women make up for it. After dinner, we sadly bid farewell to the crew (Jill and Angie were flying home the following day and Sam and Nicole aren’t planning to follow us any farther north) and settled in for the evening hotel style.

I would at this time like to extend super special props to Mary Hannawacker, who tirelessly cleaned for like 6 hours with us on the day that we took off. She really saved our butts with all her hard work, and may have saved our marriage by giving Beth and I another person to focus our agression on. Unfortunately, when I wrote the first update I was so frazzled at the beginning of the week that I neglected her terribly. My bad.

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Portland, OR’s nickname is The City of _______.

NEXT WEEK: More Seattle, Vancouver, maybe Victoria or the San Juan Islands and possibly northern Montana.