Can you believe this is the only picture we took of the four of us together?
Sjeez!

Well, already the last week of my sisters visit has come and gone and by the time I write this they've already left! Boo-hooo-o-o-o 😭
We had such a great time together, there truly wasn't a bad word between us all the time they were here, and fortunately we have about 200 pictures between the two of us to remember it all!
This last week was especially remarkable since we set out for a 5 day trip, following the Oregon coast to the south and into California to see the famous Redwoods!

After packing up the car we set out for the coast early Sunday morning for our first place to visit, the Newport Aquarium.
We drove through Lincoln city, which can be very busy, but traffic turned out to be blessedly quiet on this early Sunday morning, and made a short stop for a picture at the Lone Tree in Siletz Bay:

                                                           

As well as at the lookout at Cape Foulwater:

It's a popular whale-watching spot, at 500' above the ocean, to see grey whales migrating south in the fall and north in the Spring.



Although we enjoyed the stunning view of the ocean below there unfortunately wasn't a whale in sight.
Soon after we arrived at the aquarium:

Unfortunately parts of the aquarium turned out to be closed off due to renovations and we were a little surprised to find that a great part of this 'aquarium-experience' finds place in large enclosures and pools/tanks outside.
We watched the seals being fed and perform some tricks, a form of entertainment I'm not really a fan of and eventually proceeded inside where several exhibits include glass tunnels with different sea life and fish.

                                                                             

Besides two jelly fish tanks, there were many others with sharks and all kinds of large and smaller fish as well as petting tanks with starfish and urchins.

Like I said, we'd expected a little more, but we enjoyed it nevertheless and they had good coffee!

Back on the road we stopped at the Seal Rock State Park recreation site:

            Yup! A seal Rock indeed!

                                

   

Around lunchtime we arrived in the small town of Yachats, situated at the mouth of the Yachats river:

Where we had a nice lunch at the funky Luna Fish restaurant:

                                             

We walked to the river to stretch our legs for a bit and continued our drive south.
The Oregon coast is so incredible scenic, it's hard not to stop at every viewing point and soon we stopped again for a look at the picturesque Heceta Lighthouse:

Been there, done that!

On the rocks down below we spotted some Sea Lions!

   

  
Even some babies!

It was around 3.30 pm that we drove through Reedsport and the small harbor town of  Winchester Bay, where we'd booked rooms at the Winchester Bay Inn:

  

After settling in we drove to the Umpqua River Lighthouse, or more important, it had a cafe/giftshop, where we were told we could get coffee!

                                                                 

Lo-and-behold they did, and they had amazing pastries as well!
We found a bench at the edge of the sand-dunes of which this area is known for and which we'd hoped to be able to see from there:

Later that evening we'd dinner at the harbor, at Crabby's Bar & Grill:

Phew! That was only the first day so far, and what a day it was! Gorgeous views, interesting places, good food and even better company!

                                                          

                                                Our first day

                               
Needless to say we all slept like a log that night ...

The next morning, after enjoying our complementary breakfast (with lousy coffee) we continued our way south.

At Coos Bay we scaled the McCullough Memorial Bridge, spanning Coos Bay, a beloved landmark and the perfect symbol for 'the gateway to Oregon's South Coast'.

Around coffee-time we found ourselves at the Bandon Coffee Cafe in Bandon's 'Old Town', a cute, eclectic shopping area near the harbor:



                                                                  
After coffee we checked out some of the stores, bought some souvenirs and went on our way again.
Port Orford has this stunning viewing point at Battle Rock Wayside Park, a place you just have to stop and check out .. which we did:

Battle Rock

On our way to Gold Beach, we passed Nesika Beach:

We lunched at Hunter Creek Bar & Grill, a cafe just behind Turtle Rock RV Park, where we spent the summer of 2003 'workamping' for the resort.

From here the coast gets almost even more specular, with high coves, Sitka spruce rainforest capes, arch rock formations and dramatic overlooks along one of the most rugged and beautiful stretches of the Oregon Coast.

We stopped at several viewing points:

Eventually we reached the Oregon-California border, crossed without problems (despite that watermelon and some grapes in the trunk!), and arrived at our next hotel, a super 8, in Crescent City around 4 pm.

                              

The rooms seemed to be very recently updated and quite tastefully. My sister's still had plastic around the lamp shades!
We weren't very hungry, and after a short rest we set out to grab some quick sandwiches at the local Health-food store and drove to the park at the harbor, where we parked at the water's edge to eat them.
Another busy day, with lots of impressions of the beautiful coast made for another fairly good night of sleep (except for an annoying buzz, coming somewhere from the harbor)!

        

Day two

Our third day started just as nice as the previous ones, so far we'd had beautiful weather. Sunny with blue skies and a very comfortable 72-74F. Just perfect!
We had a nice (complementary) breakfast where we all tried the waffles :

     

This whole day was reserved for our visit to the redwoods, something Johan especially had on his bucket list, but we were all looking forward too.

We first went south to Klamath Glen, about half an hour away, to (literary) drive through the 'Drive-thru Tree':


      

Yes, this turned out be a little bit of a tourist trap (which we paid $5 for!) but hey, you only drive through a tree once, I guess ..
(By the way the tree wasn't harmed by cutting out that hole, they basically removed already old and decayed wood from the center to safe it from dying)
Johan wanted at least to be able to say that he stood inside a redwood, so there you have it:

At least coming and going we had our first encounter with the famous Redwood trees by driving through the outskirts of the Redwood National Park:

                                      

In search of a decent cup coffee we ended up at a McDonalds this time.
It's proven to be surprisingly hard to find a good cup of Joe during our travels so far. 
Especially since Monique and Johan prefer cappuccino, which is near impossible to get ..

Fortunately there's McDonalds to the rescue .. nice cappuccino and really good apple pie!
James and I never go there and were impressed by their, new to us, touch-screen digital ordering kiosks and table service ... how futuristic!

                                                       

                                                                                                           

OK, moving on, we bought some sandwiches to go and drove to the visitor center/entrance of the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, located about 9 miles east of Crescent City, where we collected a map and information about the best trails to hit in the park.

A dirt road brings you to the start of various trails of which we'd picked the Stoute Grove as our first.
An easy 0.6 mile in-an-out hike lead us through a genuinely magnificent grove, described as the world’s most scenic stand of redwoods.
It’s not all that large, and it doesn’t have the biggest trees, but for sheer photogenic beauty nothing beats this extraordinary grove on a sunny morning.

                         

The thick, spongy layer of redwood needles on the ground damps out sounds, so when it’s not busy, the grove has a remarkably hushed and serene environment.

The views inside the forest are so other worldly ... almost like walking through a Lord of the Rings set.
Guess what: this is actually the grove where the Ewok-Forest scenes from "Return of the Jedi" were filmed!
          


Of course we had to do the obligatory 'tourist thing':

         

                         


                                               

A storm in 2020 knocked down several large ones but there are enough left over to admire and if anything it gives you an idea of how old the tree was by showing it's rings and just how inmens their root system is:
                                                                                                                                                                        
                       


Next up was the Grove of Titans, one of the most popular trails in the park which can be very crowded but we were their early enough on a Tuesday morning that there were relatively few people around.
      

This trail involves a little bit more of a hike (2.6 miles in-and-out) but the humongous trees at the end makes it all worthwhile.

Here's a few facts:  Coast redwood trees are the tallest trees on the planet. They can grow to 300 feet high or more and many of these trees are thousands (!) of years old.
(Officially, the oldest living coast redwood has been alive for at least 2,200 years, but foresters believe some coast redwoods may be much older).
Redwoods have been around for about 240 million years, the earliest redwoods showed up on Earth shortly after the dinosaurs – before flowers, birds, spiders… and, of course, humans. 

     

We took one more short hike at the Nickerson Ranch trail, which oddly enough was completely deserted of people, but was equally beautiful and, because of the total quiet, even more mystical and serene.
Needless to say it was an awe inspiring day full of almost overwhelming beauty! I'm so glad we got to see them!

                                                    

                                                                Day 3

                                               

The next day we made a start to return back home by leaving the coast and driving inland into the forests of Northern California and crossing the border into Oregon to reach the small town of  Cave Junction just around coffee time.

Fortunately there was a cute, funky coffee house, Trillium Bakery, where we found good coffee and even nicer pastries!

                                              

                                                      

We picked up Subway sandwiches in Rogue River and waved at our hotel when we passed Shady Cove on our way to Crater Lake National Park , which was our sightseeing destination for that day.

To get to the lake is a little bit of a drive. We reached the lodge in the park around 3pm and found that entrance was free that day because of it being 'Juneteenth National Independence Day', which saved us $30. Score!
We couldn't have chosen a better day to go and see this gorgeous lake, it was crystal clear and sunny:

That's wizard Island there in the middle

Formed 7,700 years ago when a volcanic peak collapsed after a major eruption, this lake in the Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon at a 6,178′ elevation is the deepest lake in the United States (1,943 feet deep).

                               

The lake is just stunning, so many different shades of the most intense blue ..

There is a rim-drive all around the lake but due to the late snowfall well into the spring this year, the roads were still closed so we could only take a short walk along the shore to a few different viewing points.
However, since we were there fairly late in the day it was perfectly fine for us.

After making the drive back to Shady Cove and checking in at the hotel we reconvened for happy hour at the hotel's terrace, which overhang the Rogue river at the back of the property:

Followed by dinner at the only restaurant that was open that evening (it's a very small town) 'Miguel's Mexican Cuisine', where we had a table that overlooked the same river:

                                    

                                               The food was fast and very good!

We all slept very well that night in our very cute rooms of the Riverfront Lodging hotel.

Day 4

This hotel didn't include breakfast but there was an old fashioned diner right next door.
Co-accidentally Monique had expressed a wish to eat at such a diner a couple of days before so the following morning we walked over to Mac's Diner!

            

Complete with Elvis!

This was a 50's themed diner and soda shop with a separate full bar, and guess what, we sat next to that river again!

The food was good, old-fashioned diner style fare, lots of french toast, eggs and even biscuits and gravy.
It was a great start of what was to be the last day of our trip already!
  
After a last hour on the very windy Hwy 227 through the forests and farmlands of southern Oregon we connected with the I-5 freeway just south of Roseburg and stopped for coffee at Cottage Grove.
Unfortunately the coffee-shop I had googled turned out to be just a drive-through so once again we ended up at ... you guessed it .. McDonalds!                                    

From there we made our way to Eugene, where we visited a Camping World to show Monique and Johan some of the different versions of RVs we have here in the states.

  

This beautiful (used) Keystone Alpine with a front living room was our clear favorite, and 'only' $101,999! If only ..

We had coffee in Corvallis and did some grocery shopping at Walmart, before driving the last hour home. Just in time for a well deserved happy hour!

Not that evening, but it expressed the mood perfectly!

Wow, what a trip tit had been! With the ocean, the redwoods, the lake and lots more forest and farmland, I think they got a real good impression of Oregon.
The weather had been perfect, sunny but not too warm, the hotels were fine (thanks mom!), the car gave us no troubles and everything went just like we'd planned.
What else could you wish for .. besides better coffee 😁

Day 5

The following 3 days  we stayed close to home and just enjoyed the nice weather, some nice meals and coffees and our last days together.

                           

My sister cut about a foot off my hair!

        

                                            

Sooooo much better! I love it!

 

We visited the local Mason-Rivera Sculpture Garden & Art Gallery which is home to the artworks of Cristi Mason-Rivera and Joe Rivera.
We drive by this place every time we leave Sheridan but had never gone in for a visit before.

A work of art in itself, the 2-acre beautifully landscaped botanical garden serves as the backdrop for the various Metal, Stone and Concrete Sculptures.

                                                                 

There's an indoor Gallery as well which features the works of other talented local artists, including photography, paintings, ceramics, wood-works and jewelry.

We also did some cider testing at our local cider brewery, the Art +Science-Cider + wine Company, a place we hadn't been to yet ourselves as well:

The venue is rustic and funky but fun and the outside seating areas give you a great view of the surrounding farmland, Willamette Valley's rolling hills and the coastal Cascade Range in the distance.

The cider ... brrrrrr ... sour!!

                         

Fortunately they had wine and beer as well, which were better, but only marginally ..
Oh well, it was alcohol!

Soon, way to soon, our last evening arrived and we had a good-bye dinner at the local 'ma-and-pa' diner in Willamina, Coyote Joe's:

The food is simple but usually good and the portions are generous.
                                 I guess Johan enjoyed his 'Dogs Breath' hamburger with Chili ..

                             

And that was all folks! Like I said at the start of this post, they've already left and we still miss having them around. We had such a good time!
Hopefully they'll be back some time, but they've requested we move to another state before that so they can see new places!

Well .. who knows, you never know with us.
Every know and than my gypsy blood is calling ....
 

                                      On the road again
                                      Goin' places that I've never been
                                      Seein' things that I may never see again
                                      And I can't wait to get on the road again ..