We woke up around 7:30, fairly rested, and headed out for our day of beach and rock sightseeing. As usual, we stopped at the first coffee place we found, Cafe Rock, a drive-thru espresso shack. I ordered a cappuccino and Manoli a coffee, and unfortunately I forgot that cappuccinos made by hand aren't sweet. I sipped my super strong cappuccino for a while until we found a gas station. Just outside Port Orford we pulled over for some photos, then continued on to Meyers beach. It looked really cool, but was pretty foggy like yesterday, so we continued on, planning on returning later, hopefully when the fog lifted. Our next stop, Arch Rock, was even worse, so we continued stopping at other viewpoints, then turned back to have lunch at Gold Beach. On our way back, ... read more

We woke up this morning and took our time getting going, since we had reservations for the Columbia Gorge stern-wheeler cruise, from Portland Spirit in Cascade Locks, at 11am, boarding at 10:45am. We had booked the cruise last night on the Portland Spirit website. The cost per person was $38, and the website said the trip went one way down the Columbia River, then the next trip would go the other way up the river, but we could stay onboard for both trips at no extra charge. Since we had some time to kill, we decided to travel west from the KOA to see what kind of view we could get of Mount Hood, one of the tallest mountains around. When we got off the interstate and headed down highway 35 South. We frequently spotted Mount ... read more

Thanks to the awesome little heater we had in the cabin, we both slept long and well last night, even though the temperature got pretty low. We left the KOA this morning on our way to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic Park. Manoli had decided that the trip to Hoh Rain Forest was just too long, at 2 1/2 hours one way, leaving little time later for anything else. We arrived at the Olympic Park Ranger station a little after 8am. After getting our bearings, we started the looong drive up to the Hurricane Ridge station, only 17 miles, but winding and slow. It was only about 9am when we got there and the store and snack bar didn't open until 10am .On the plus side, there was plenty of parking. We took a few photos from ... read more

Sorry for the delay in posting, but the KOA's WiFi was absolutely terrible. We left the KOA a bit later again, since we had less than 3 hours of driving. We got off the interstate at Petty Creek Road, yes, you heard me right, Petty, like my last name. Last night I'd discovered that there was a Petty Mountain, and Petty Creek Road, on our way to Spokane. We drove several miles down the road, hoping to see some sign telling us which mountain was Petty Mountain, but no such luck. We even went a few miles further, stopping to ask a couple of farmers about it. They weren't sure either, so we gave up, deciding we'd surely seen the mountain along the way. We got back on the interstate heading towards Lake Coeur d'Alene. We ... read more

Day 6: This morning we were in no rush to leave because Manoli had to call Glacier National Park at 8am to see if we could get entry passes through the "lottery", first-come first-serve. Unfortunately, even though she was signed in by 8am, we didn't get them. Glacier National Park is part of the reason we planned on stopping at Missoula, to either spend a day at the park, or go there on our way to Spokane. We left the KOA and awesome Yellowstone behind and hit the road on our way to Missoula, about a 4-hour drive, with no special places to stop along the way. Since we already knew there was a WalMart near our destination, we didn't both stopping in Livingston or Bozeman. We did stop for gas and a coffee after we ... read more