Blogs from Oregon, United States, North America - page 29

Off to the beach today. First stop Astoria, on the mouth of the Columbia river. It's one of those small American towns stuck in a time warp - ca 1950s. Lots of films were shot here - Kindergarten Cop and Free Willy were the ones we remember. There is a long waterfront, with jetties sticking out into the sea, canneries and maritime suppliers smelling of salt water and fish and small streets with old fashioned shops stuck in a bygone era, including the worlds's smallest JC Penney. We wander around and agree on an early clam chowder lunch, which is made freshly for us and takes us back to long forgotten family holidays in Massachusetts. We sit over lunch and look around for the guy on the witness protection program, as this must be the sort ... read more

By the time we reach Portland we are tired and stressed from our battle to get the damaged tire repaired. The satnav is a saving grace to get us safely to our next airbnb house, which is a turn of the century wooden house in a street full of similarly bohemian homes. Every garden (and every stretch of what would be grass verge in a UK road) is full of mixed flowers and vegetables, and maybe the odd pot plant thrown in for good measure. Portland feels a bit like San Francisco in the 60s, mixed with 2014 eco-consciousness. Sandals, bikes, recycling, organic food, an outdoor lifestyle and a lot of weird people. Our home for the next 5 nights is quirky but homely - bare wooden floors, sash windows that mostly don't open and lots ... read more

Was a good thing we left early - it's starting to be a real hot and smoky ride. Literally - smoke everywhere from all the fires. Finally in Yreka after 4 hours on I5. Time to find a bar and have a drink, the Log Cabin on Main Street is open for business. There was 3 people sitting at the bar when we walked in, no one was talking. to liven up the conversation I was trying to throw out different topics but no takers. then Alan brought up someone hitting a bridge and all the sudden they livened up, they all remembered that incident. one even got up and looked in the phone book, yes phone book not cell phone book, too find the trucking company that caused the problem. The Bloody Mary's where great, ... read more

Geo: 44.0499, -123.089This morning we took our time over breakfast as the wineries do not open until 11am. We set out to discover what the Dundee Hills area has to offer. This is a red soil area, not like the Terra Rossa of Coonawarra but still having its own richness. Our first stop was at The Four Graces. This had a white timber house as its tasting room and we were greeted by a very charming host who was originally from Wales. We discovered that all wineries here charge at least $10 for a flight and sometimes $20. Also they have a charming custom of letting their guests sit outside and they bring the wine to them. This was the case here. We went out into a pretty garden area and sat in the shade on ... read more

Geo: 45.8891, -123.963Wednesday morning was spent enjoying some quiet time. Peter had some work to catch up on and Fletcher and I chilled out. Peter, though, had discovered that his tickets for Rod Stewart and Santana were for Thursday, not tonight and we had planned all our expeditions around this. He was, fortunately, able to sell the tickets to a friend so no Santana for me!For lunch we drove to an Urban winery where we had lunch from a van serving great Vietnamese food outside. This was a great combination. Peter knew the winemaker who was an Aussie from Sydney who came out and chatted with us. Lovely baguettes, great wine and warm sunshine. What else could we want. From there we went to the Hult Centre for the Performing Arts. This was built in the ... read more