We're Back

March 6,2010 Road trip USA The nice thing about this recession is that hotels are letting rooms go for a song.  We found a nice room right on the beach in Long Beach, Washington.  Our patio over looks golden grass veiled sand dunes. Waves tumble onto the shore. The Sun is chasing the shadows into hiding.  It’s a good life-spent writing while enjoying coffee with the ocean as the backdrop even if we’re just pretending for a while, bitter sweet, bitter sweet. The closer we get to home the more reality slips into view.  Before we left we went for a walk on, what they claim is the “worlds longest beach”.  It could be true, beach stretched to both the north and south horizons.  The trip up the Oregon coast was scenic but rushed. We made only a couple of stops.  Devil’s Churn was a lava field jetting into the ocean.  Volcanic rocks, deep creased with lines the look of some ancient face.  A channel ran through the center of the rock field, the ocean pushing in, pounding the walls.  Spray exploded as the churning waters path is interrupted.  Green anemone decorates the tidal pools on the cliffs.   We traveled north up the coastal hwy as it worked in land through farmland, before returning to the cottage communities along the sea. We had a fantastic dinner in Astoria.  The town rises steeply from the ocean. Victorian houses, shops and an old harbor revitalized. We followed the west arm of the hwy 101 to the Port Townsend ferry.  The hwy abandoned the coast quickly, leading us through forested area not unlike coastal B.C., including pockets of apocalyptic clear-cut slashes, reminiscent of World War 1 battlefields.   Happily we avoided the Seattle corridor at rush hour.  Port Townsend is another cute Victorian town. Good restaurants, antique and art galleries shop galore.  The antiques are more curios and the art is more folk craft.  There are however notable exceptions.  It is a very enjoyable town, overall.   The Olympic Peninsula, (I hope IOC doesn’t sue me), that we’ve seen is not as awe inspiring as other landscapes we visited however we only saw a glimpse of it.  I would like to return as I suspect it has many secrets to reveal.  We are about to load onto the Keystone ferry to what I believe is Whidbey Island.  Hwy 20 continues from there to I5 and then, well, we’ll be home.   House repair, work, bills to pay, can’t wait really.  Three more hours of ash fault; see ya soon.  Thank you for following along with our travels.   A good trip, a nice escape, too much money and definitely too many fossil fuels spent. We did enjoy ourselves.