Oregon Trip/ Day 1

Here we are at the Oregon boarder- Ontario visitors center.
They were very helpful and had lots of free brochures to help
us with our travels. They told us not to miss the gorge or the
senic drive - especially Vista House and Crown Point. Thanks
ladies for making our trip so memoribal!!

This was were we stopped the first night-Pendleton Oregon

This was some scenery between Ontario and Pendleton.

Lots of mountain pass along the Lewis & Clark Trail.

One of the historic markers said it took them 5 days

just to climb out that one valley. I wouldn't have made

a very good pioneer!

Columbia River Gorge

This was such a beautiful drive with so much to see.
When we started off this morning we ran into rain, but
by the time we got to the gorge it had stopped. Everything
was so green and smelled terrific! Taking this side trip
probably added several hours to our trip but we weren't
pressured by time and I totoally loved it!

Inside the building, we found these muscians. I talked to

the lady on the right. She said the instruments originated

back east in the Appalachian Mountains. They sound a lot like a

steel guitar. I loved their old tunes like "Red River Valley".

Looking east and west down the Colombia Gorge from

Crown Point.

Fort Clatsop/Lewis & Clark

This was an interesting and fun stop. It was a beautiful area and unexpected
stop. They had a really nice Vistitor's Center with educational videos
exhibits and gift shop. Outside you walked down well cared for pathways
to explore everything. We walked down to the waters edge at the
Columbia River. The fort got its name from the area Clatsop Indians.
They had a terrific statue of Lewis and Clark inside the visitors center
with Sacagawea, her baby, and Black, the lab. Great history!

Astoria, OR

These are the few pictures we took at Astoria, Oregon. It is a quaint
little town with wooden clap board houses located on a hill. We stopped
acouple of times just to watch the ships and local boats. The pilot boat
came out to the ship below to help him get to the dock. They threw a
rope ladder down for him to climb up. If you can see, he is about half
way up the rope ladder at this point. The large bridge you can see in the
background on these pictures goes overt he Columbia River Gorge into
Washington State. Brad was glad we were not taking him over this bridge.
Uncle Gail had worked in Astoria many years ago on a project and told us to
make sure we went to "The Ship Inn". It was a small resturant right at the
water's edge. It had a small dinning room with full length windows so you
could watch the boats and ships. We were also entertained by the seagulls.
Oh yeah, and the fish dinner was GREAT! We almost walked out after
looking at the menu - we didn't think there was anything Brad would eat.
As we turned to walk out, an older couple was coming in. She looked at us
and said, "your not leaving without eating are you"? They told us not to
leave because their food was the best! Brad decided on a sandwich and dad
and I got fish dinners. Today was Father's Day and we had a great day!

Seaside/ muscle car show

These are only a few of the pictures Brad took of the car show.
As we checked into the condo, they asked if we were there for
the "big car show"? As luck would have it, this weekend was
Seaside's BIG MUSCLE CAR SHOW. How LUCKY for Brad!
He was one happy dude! :) I posted these pictures so you could
see a little of Broadway and the shopping available. Brad found
the Nascar store and went wild! He came away with a Seaside
hoodie, 2 Dale Ernhart t-shirts and a Ernhard hat.

Seaside, OR condo

As we took our trip from Idaho through Oregon we followed the
infamous Lewis and Clark Trail. Below is their statue showing the
end of their journey at the Pacific Ocean in Seaside, OR. at the end
of Broadway. (just outside our condo) Our balcony looked out on
Broadway and the Shilo Inn across the street.

This our condo in the background (right) and Shilo Inn on the left.
You can barely see the lifeguard stand and two emergency vehicles.
They had beach volleyball available and a swing set for the children.
They even had showers for people to wash the sand off as they exited
the beach.

I made dad turn around for a picture - he was searching

after every wave went back out for shells. Both hands are

full of his "treasures". Brad was smart enough to take his

shoes off - dad and I ended up with wet, sand filled shoes.

It was a beautiful evening out there!

We went out to the ocean late the evening we got there and took

these pictures. We have our coats on because we were cold!!

It is usually windy at the beach and with the sun not shining it was

cold. Believe it or not there were people out there in swimsuits!

This is "Haystack Rock" at Cannon Beach - the most photograped

spot on the Oregon coast. It is beautiful and unusual. I'm sure my

snapshot is NOT the best location for the shot. But alteast I got

the shot!

Gleneden, OR Condo

Watch out, here's Grandma on the surfboard!! I had to do
it because Brad wouldn't! It was a little to embarrassing for him.

This was a cute pull out driving out of Linclon City. I saw these

rocks and one has a tree growing out of it. Between the first

two rocks on the right is Mo's Restaurant! Great place to eat and

it seems to be always busy. They are a fish and chowder place.

There are several located up and down the Oregon coast.

One day dad wasn't feeling like going out so I dragged Brad

out with me. We went to the oldest glass blowing business

in Lincoln City, called the Alder House. It ended up being

very close to our condo, on a country road hidden by dense

foliage. I again didn't take my camera in :( sorry. It was

fasinating to watch him blow glass. We were there for around

30 minutes with just two other couples watching his demonstration.

He had a number of items in his shop people could buy. I just bought

a small egg shaped paper weight, most of his art was out of my price

range. We also drove a ways and found this covered bridge (above)

Oregon is well known for its many wooden covered bridges.

We took this picture of Brad from our balcony. I like this picture

with the waves and birds in the background. As you can see we

were close to the beach.

This is the back side of the condo, of course. If you look closely you

can see me and dad on the balcony! We had a front building view of

the ocean. :) Brad an Dad enjoyed going out in the water looking for

"dead things". Dad did bring home a few sand dollar pieces and other

precious things but we had to buy a star fish and another whole shell

just for the memory. :)

Oregon Coast Aquarium/Newport

I forgot to take my camera in so these are a few of Brad's pictures.
We were fortunate to be there for the feeding of the Sea Lions and
another time to see the otter's being feed. The workers feed the animals
3 times a day and while feeding the otters they told us they eat so many
times their weight- (which I forgot :( What I do remember is they said
it would be like us eating 100 quarter pounders or big mac's a day.
A you can imagine Brad really enjoyed this visit. They had a couple of
glass tunnel walk ways with benches you could sit and watch the fish swim
around you. One of the tunnels was all sharks - a little scary! There are so
many pictures of the under side of fish here, sorry. But maybe you get the
idea. I never saw a live halibut before - they are much bigger than I imagined.