Friday, September 26 through Saturday, October 1, 2011: Crater Lake and the Oregon Coast:
The trip to Diamond Lake (technically located in Chamuth, Oregon) was only 78 miles. Easy. We stayed briefly at the Diamond Lake RV Resort, a nice, older place with accommodating people. Naturally, our first priority was finding a site with southern-sky access for our rooftop satellite dish. (Have I mentioned that Oregon has a lot of trees?)


At the third site we tried, we decided to give up and use the portable dish we have. We haven’t used it in more than a year and never with the new DirecTV equipment we got in March. After struggling mightily to make it work, I called DirecTV for help. A frustrating half-hour later, a supervisor advised me our new equipment was so complicated that using a portable dish instead of the built-in one would not be a good idea because of the number of adjustments that would be necessary to reactivate our main dish two days later when we got to a park without a tree problem. So we gave up and faced two days without live TV. I wasn’t sure we would survive that, but it turned out that we could.

The reason for staying where we did was to get easy access to Crater Lake, which was only a few miles away.


I don‘t know what I expected, but the lake and its surroundings were a big surprise. The lake is a beautiful blue color, thanks to the refractive effect of clear water that is 1,900 feet deep. It is a perfect circle, six miles in diameter, lying in a collapsed volcano cone. What remains of the cone is spectacular, rugged rock.




We proceeded to the lodge, which is run by Xanterra. One of the first employees we saw was Courtney Dixon, who worked with us at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. He was the kitchen inventory manager there; he is the Retail Director at the Crater Lake Lodge. It was good to see him again.

The lodge was built in 1915, and apparently in a shoddy manner---such that it was virtually falling apart by the late ‘80s. In a massive reconstruction effort, it was rebuilt to look exactly like the original. The interior is magnificent, with beautiful, polished wood, but the exterior is not so hot, architecturally. Still, it’s well worth seeing.


Our next stop was Florence, Oregon, a 178-mile trip that took a long time due to road work and curvy roads. We spent at least a half hour staring at flaggers (that’s what they call them in Oregon, a very PC state) holding their Stop/Slow signs. The curvy roads went through some beautiful scenery in the Umpqua National Forest and along the Umpqua and Rogue Rivers.


Florence is on the coast, where we stayed at the South Jetty Thousand Trails Preserve. Nice place. Again, our priority was satellite access, and we were sent to a site which, we were assured, had rooftop-dish satellite access. (Again, Oregon has a lot of very tall trees.) After valiant tries at backing into the space (finally being helped by Rocky, our neighbor who was a long-haul truck driver in his former life), we determined that our dish wouldn’t work there. We gritted our teeth and settled in for another non-TV night. The next morning, while walking the dogs, Becky found an empty site that looked perfect. We moved there and, Voila!!!!, we had TV. Hurray!

That night we went to Rocky's (and his wife, Maggie's) site for tacos. Their friend Fred was there, as well. He and Maggie teach at the same school in Tacoma, Washington, and Fred travels with them in his own trailer. We had a very good time with the three of them.


They left for home Friday morning.

On Friday we visited Florence, which is where the Siuslaw (pronounced see-ooh-slaw, with the accent on the ooh) River empties into the ocean. It's a cute old port town, and we enjoyed walking through the historic part of town.


In the afternoon, we visited the nearby (about 1/2 mile away) Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. There are miles of huge sand dunes in this area. They are quite impressive. According to the posted information, the dunes were formed by decomposing mountains along the river, and the river carried the sand downstrean to the coast, where wind then piled it up.


On the way home from the dunes, we stopped at the RV store next door and bought two new directors' chairs for our patio setup. Our present pair, which we bought at Lake Gaston, are getting a little seedy.

It started drizzling Friday night and did not let up all day Saturday. Saturday night we rented a Red Box movie called Something Borrowed, because we thought the rain would continue to block our satellite reception. We were right. It was an OK romantic comedy as those go, these days. Ginnifer Goodwin was adorable, and Kate Hudson was a believable snot.

Friday, September 16, through Sunday, September 25, 2011: In Bend/Sunriver:
The 178-mile drive to the Bend/Sunriver area in Oregon was easy, and, having anticipated delays that didn't materialize, we got an early start and reached the Thousand Trails Preserve in Sunriver just before noon. It's a lovely park and we lucked into a terrific site.


Friday night we met Carol and Terry Thomas at their home in Sunriver. The Thomases are long-time friends of ours, dating back to my college days at UCLA. They are even fond of reminding me that I was an usher in their wedding 50 years ago. They retired from a long career in Hong Kong a few years ago, and their beautiful home is filled with Chinese artifacts.


We then went to a nice dinner with them at the South Bend Bistro in Sunriver. It's a popular place with the locals, and the Thomases knew most of the diners.

Saturday night we went with the Thomases to an Oktoberfest party at a local park in Sunriver. Great beer and brats, and a number of fattening desserts.


We rejoined the Thomases for lunch Sunday at Café Sintra in Sunriver.

Monday started with a haircut, followed by a trip to Wal-Mart. Monday night was the season opener for Two And A Half Men, introducing the new character to take the place of Charlie Sheen. I’ve never liked Ashton Kutcher, but must admit that the show worked.

Tuesday we hit the Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway, heading for Mt. Bachelor and a number of lakes. We had lunch at the lodge at the surprising Elk Lake. Just beautiful, with a number of sailboats at the marina.


Wednesday was a day of relaxation for me, while Becky’s big event was getting her hair done, followed by a stop at Costco.

Thursday, we had lunch at McMenamins Old St. Francis School Pub and Brewery in Bend with Craig Apregan, an old friend from Becky’s days with the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce. Craig retired to Sisters, near Bend, five years ago.


The restaurant is part of an interesting complex using the buildings that comprised a Catholic school that moved to a new location in 2000. After lunch we toured Bend, a formerly small town along the Deschutes River with a number of nicely maintained/restored historic areas.


Thursday night we had a delicious dinner with the Thomases at Ariana, a very nice Italian restaurant in Bend that had been recommended by Sandy Mico. (She is now two for two in restaurant recommendations.)

Friday night we again joined the Thomases for dinner, this time at Marcello‘s in Sunriver (next door to the Café Sintra). I had Linguini alla Putanesca with a small side dish of Penne Arrabiatta, a favorite of mine.


Saturday, morning, I actually washed our truck for the first time in years. It had gathered quite a bit of grime, and we are nowhere near a carwash, so I volunteered to get wet.

Later, we headed to Sisters to visit Craig Apregan and meet his wife, Pattie, and children, Cameron and Casey, for the first time. (The kids are teenagers, so it’s obvious that we haven’t seen a lot of Craig lately---until Thursday, of course). The Apregans have a 161-acre ranch (called the Black Diamond Ranch) in Sisters, on which the crown jewel is their beautiful 9,000 square-foot home, built to look like a mountain lodge. We had dinner with them at the house.


We deliberately went to Sisters early to see a bit of the city before going to the Apregans‘ home. We last visited Sisters 13 years ago. Like Bend, it has grown exponentially in those 13 years. The highlight was stumbling into the annual Fresh Hops Festival, where we sampled beer from six local breweries, and listened to live music. It was quite fun.


Early Sunday, we visited the High Desert Museum between Sunriver and Bend. Wow! What a fabulous museum.

Sunday night, we again had dinner with the Thomases, this time at their home, with two of their neighbors (Mo and Sidney). It was a lot of fun. Carol made a Mexican casserole that was delicious, followed by apple pie---probably my favorite dessert. That ended our frolicking in the Bend/Sunriver area, since we are scheduled to leave for the Crater Lake area on Monday.

Monday, September 12, through Thursday, September 15, 2011: In Portland:
It was only 110 miles to the Columbia River RV Park in Portland. It's an in-town park (near the airport) so the sites are not large or secluded, but nice. The owners are a bit rigid---not honoring the advertised Good Sam Club discounts and requiring that dogs not relieve themselves inside the park. Good luck with that last one. Travel days are somehow hard, even when short, so we took it easy Monday night.


On Tuesday, we ventured into the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Just lovely. We started at the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center in Stevenson, Washington. It's a fine museum, chronicling the area's physical and human history. I'm normally not a museum person, but this one was very interesting.


We followed with a wonderful lunch (I had pork tenderloin) at the Skamania Lodge, across the street from the museum---with a view of the river. It's a magnificent lodge (with 245 rooms) and conference center, with an adjacent golf course. It was very busy.

On the way back we took the scenic drive along the river, stopping at the stunning Horsetail Falls and the Multnomah Falls, two of the many waterfalls in the area. (The gorge has the largest collection of waterfalls in the country.)


And on Larch Mountain we stopped at Vista House, a beautiful rest stop built in 1916, with a 30-mile view of the gorge.


Wednesday was Becky's day to have lunch with Sandy Mico, a fellow banker she used to work with, who now is the president of West Coast Trust in Portland. Sandy gave her some tips on what to see and where to eat in town, which we followed on Thursday.


After touring (including crossing a few of the 9 bridges in Portland that span the Willamette River), we had lunch at Nostrana, a beautiful Italian restaurant with a unique menu and wonderful food. That ended our Portland adventure.

Wednesday, September 7, through Sunday, September 11, 2011: More Washington:
Our last two stops in Washington are Randle and Seaview. The 176-mile trip to Randle was eventful only in that Daisy threw up in the truck. It slowed us down a bit, so we didn't get to the Maple Grove RV Resort until 2:00 PM. It is a strange, but OK, place with a golf course (with very brown fairways) attached. Our site is fine. And it's wonderful to have cell phone and internet access, again.


Wednesday night was set aside to watch the Republican debate. We knew it was run by NBC, but couldn't find it. Too late, we realized that it was shown only on MSNBC, one of NBC's little-watched cable channels. Oh, well, I think staged political debates are boring, anyway.

Our stop in Randle is solely to give us access to Mt. Rainier National Park, which we visited on Thursday.




We had delicious cobb salads at the National Park Lodge near the park entrance. We initially intended to make that our only stop in the park, but were talked into driving up the hill for another half hour to see the “Paradise” area. The Paradise Inn is 40% up the mountain, was built in 1917, is beautiful and well-maintained, and surrounded by spectacular scenery---the immense volcanic mountain itself, dotted with glaciers and covered (in its lower portion) with trees and wildflowers. I’m very glad we went.


Friday was a travel day. We went 173 easy miles to Seaview, located in the southwest corner of Washington. Our GPS took us into Oregon, through pretty and historic Astoria (named for John Jacob Astor, who briefly had part of his fur trading operation there), and over the spectacular 4 1/2 mile-long Astoria-Megler bridge back into Washington.


We are staying at the Long Beach Thousand Trails Preserve in Seaview. It’s an old but nice park, with small spaces and odd utility setups. We have a fine, very convenient site, though.


We went to nearby Long Beach to do some shopping late Friday afternoon. There is a huge annual old car show this weekend and there are a zillion of them all over town---and even some of them in our park. It’s fun to see them.


On Saturday, we crossed into Oregon again, to visit Cannon Beach. Becky’s dad’s family used to go there for vacations. He said his most significant memory of the place was the huge rocks. In fact, it is the home of Haystack Rock, a striking formation just offshore. It had an interesting fog bank around it today. There are more big rocks in the area, but Haystack is the most famous, and most prominent. We had a nice soup and salad lunch at the Wayfarer Restaurant, right on the beach.


On the way back, we stopped at the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park. Rather, we stopped at the Fort Clatsop portion of the park, just outside of Astoria, Oregon. It’s very confusing---there are several parts to "the park,” some in Washington and some in Oregon, some actually in state-owned areas.


Fort Clatsop was built by Lewis and Clark at the end of their expedition, to house their operation while they prepared to return to St. Louis. It burned down several years ago, and was recently rebuilt as an exhibit. It’s very small, especially when you realize there were more than 30 people living there. Primitive, but interesting.

Sunday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11, of course, and, like everyone else, we relived the horror through the wall-to-wall TV coverage.

Wednesday, August 17, through Tuesday, September 6, 2011: Based at La Conner:
On Wednesday, we drove our vehicles the 73 miles, and rode a ferry (30 minutes) the rest of the way, from Poulsbo to La Conner, Washington. This was the first time we’d taken our trailer on a ferry.


It was exciting. The ferry left from Port Townsend and landed on Whidbey Island, crossing the Strait of Juan De Fuca---named for a sailor who ostensibly came here while he was under contract with Spain to look for the Northwest Passage through the North American continent. He didn’t find it, of course. (There’s some dispute over whether he even was here, since his logs include some significant inaccuracies in describing the area.) The strait connects the Pacific Ocean to Puget sound. (Incidentally, the Navy base on Whidbey Island is where “An Officer And A Gentleman” was filmed.)


Juan De Fuca was actually a third-generation Greek sailor whose name is not even close to Juan De Fuca. Because of his work for Spain, though, he was assigned the new name by the Spanish government.

We are staying at the La Conner Thousand Trails preserve.


It’s a typical TT preserve, though located on leased Indian land, with secluded sites (we found one of the few with a satellite “window” through the trees), but without sewers at the sites. That will be a problem for us because we use (and discharge) a lot of water. We’ll have to be careful, and watch the monitor panel closely.

One of the things we intend to do while here is to have the electrical system (and a few minor things) on our trailer fixed. We have had to use our battery charger consistently for the past few weeks. We have a reservation to drop off the trailer at a local RV repair place next Tuesday. We will leave it there until we return from our southern California trip on Sunday, the 28th of August.

They have three pickleball courts here, and we played a few games on Thursday morning.


I was a bit rusty, not having played in five months; Becky was terrific. Becky played some more on Friday; I was too sore to even walk to the courts.

Otherwise, we spent the first few days shopping and relaxing. And I scoped out the RV repair place on Friday and bought some needed parts to upgrade the sewer drain system.

On Saturday afternoon, Carl and Salli Middleton (old friends of Becky’s, going back to college days) came from their home on Bainbridge Island by way of their 24-foot motorboat to meet us at the La Conner Marina.


Terrific people. We had a very nice dinner at the Nell Thorn restaurant in La Conner, after having cocktails and snacks at our RV.


They spent the night on their boat, and we met them again on Sunday morning, this time for breakfast, at Calico Cupboard, again in La Conner. I ordered their French toast (made with a cinnamon roll instead of bread). Disgustingly good!

On Monday, we made the trek to North Cascades National Park, a park we had never heard of until we saw it on a map.


It's a very interesting place, filled with trees and 340 glaciers, the most in the states. A very worthwhile stop.


On Tuesday, we dropped off the dogs at the nearby Sunnyhill Kennels, dropped off the trailer at Valley RV in Mount Vernon, and drove to Seatac, spending the night at the airport Ramada Inn so we could easily make our 11:05 AM flight to San Diego on Wednesday morning. We ordered takeout (Mongolian Beef and Chicken Curry) from the Asian restaurant in the lobby, It was surprisingly good.


The Southwest Airlines flight to San Diego (stopping first in Oakland) was uneventful, though long, and we spent Wednesday night at the Ramada Inn in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. Interesting area. The hotel was recently purchased by Ramada. It used to be called the St. James Hotel, and was built in 1912. It was the first high-rise hotel in Southern California---at 10 stories.

Its elevators were hailed as the fastest in the world. They still run at the same speed, which is snail-slow by today’s standards. The area has a zillion intriguing bars and restaurants, but we ended up having a delicious chicken Quesadilla for dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, which used to house a saloon run by Wyatt Earp.

Thursday was the day to start the festivities at the rented “party central” house in Temecula. Due to the limited number of bedrooms, some of the family had to stay in nearby hotels. We checked into the La Quinta Inn, and immediately headed to the house to meet with the manager, John Herrera. (He was the owner of the Temecula house we rented last November. We originally booked that house for this event, but had to change to this house due to neighbor complaints about gatherings of large groups at this place.)


Though smaller, it turned out that this house was better for our group due to the layout, location (right in the middle of Temecula), and facilities.

Starting at about 3:00 PM, people started arriving. Ultimately, there were 29 people participating. The gathering was a reunion of (primarily) the offspring of the three Smith sisters---Becky’s mom, Nancy Shelton, Steve and Bill Boggs’s mom, Barbara Boggs, and Donna Haste’s mom, Jean Steenstrup---all of whom have now passed away. We last gathered this group about 15 years ago when the three sisters were still alive.


Along with Becky and moi, participating this time were: Becky’s father, Bill; her brother Peter and his wife, Terry, and children, Michael, Molly, and Jack; her sister Wendy Kuwata and her husband, Kai, and one daughter Kerry (their other daughter was unavailable due to work commitments); her sister Carrie Carroll and her husband, Brent, and their children, Blake, Lauren, and Devon; her brother John and her sister Kimberly; Bill Boggs; Steve Boggs and his wife, Kathy, and their son, Jason, and Jason’s friend, Caroline; Donna (Steenstrup) Haste, and her husband, Rick, and their daughters, Lindsay and Allison, and Allison’s friend, Charlie. There was also a surprise guest, Will Naylor, the son of New Zealand friends of the Shelton clan, Colleen and Brett Naylor. Will stopped in Southern California on his way back to school at Dartmouth.


We ordered takeout Mexican food for Thursday night. Friday, there was a golf tournament arranged for the diehard golfers (won, incidentally, by the team of Brent and Blake Carroll), while the rest of us started hitting the local Temecula wineries. Our one and only stop on Friday was at the Leonesse Cellars, where we had arranged for a private tour, along with a tasting, and lunch. Grace, our tour and tasting guide, was terrific.


The food at lunch was very good, but it took almost an hour to be served. We later found out that the restaurant had just reopened and they were suffering some “new operation” blues.

I happened to notice that in some of the literature the name of the winery did not contain an “e” at the end. I asked the general manager about it and he explained that they were in the process of changing the name to drop the “e” due to a complaint from the Leonetti Winery (in the state of Washington) about possible confusion in pronunciation. While talking to him, I mentioned that I had also noticed a few typographical errors on the menu. He asked me if I would take a minute and point them out, which I did. He gave me a $20.00 bottle of wine for my trouble. It was well worth my time.

Friday night, Carrie made three kinds of lasagna for all of us---regular, vegetarian, and vegan. Delicious. We partied until midnight.


Saturday, we all (except the minors) headed for three wineries. We chose to start at Callaway, to show everyone its beautiful tasting room with the drop dead view of the Temecula Valley.


It turned out that they are remodeling the tasting room and shunted us to a warehouse that was mobbed with people and definitely had no view. We suffered there for about an hour, then headed for Gershon Bachus, a winery we discovered last year that is small, out-of-the-way, has beautiful views, and friendly owners. Becky had arranged for us to have a private tasting, hosted by Christina and Kenny, the owners. We had a wonderful time.


From there, at Christina’s suggestion, we went to Masia de Yabar, a winery specializing in Spanish and Argentinean wines. They had a beautiful facility with live Latin music. It was fun. We then stopped at Maurice Carrie, a winery, but only to pick up three loaves of their French bread with a wheel of brie baked inside. We devoured them in about 15 minutes after we returned to the house.

Dinner Saturday night was barbecued chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Kai was in charge of cooking, and did a terrific job. After dinner there were board games and “Catch Phrase” for entertainment. Everyone partied until late, again.


Sunday was getaway day, and we all said goodbye to a wonderful reunion---with plans started for the next one.


Our Southwest Airlines flight back to Washington Sunday afternoon was the reverse of the one to San Diego---again stopping in Oakland---and was just as uneventful. We again stayed at the Ramada Inn in Seatac, and again had takeout (I had Shrimp Scampi and Becky had Edamame and Barbecued Asparagus) from the lobby restaurant. Yum.

Before we headed back to La Conner on Monday, we went to the Pike Street Market area of Seattle,


had a lovely breakfast at Café Champagne (Of course, I had French Toast, again, since the restaurant was French), wandered through the market, and in the afternoon we drove to Mount Vernon, picked up our trailer which had been totally fixed, took it back to the TT preserve in La Conner, put it back in the same site, picked up Daisy and Ramsey, had a nice sushi dinner at the Tokyo Japanese Restaurant in Anacortes,


and settled in for the night. We were all glad to be home again, and all four of us were exhausted from our respective vacations.

We had decided to go to nearby Deception Pass State Park on Tuesday. It is on Whidbey Island and is the most visited state park in Washington. There are two pretty spectacular bridges (built in the mid ‘30s) connecting Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island, where La Conner is located. (There is a tiny third island, Pass Island, sandwiched between Whidbey and Fidalgo; thus the need for two bridges.)


The park was beautiful, but otherwise a bit of a disappointment since it is primarily a forest and caters mostly to hikers and campers. We stayed only about an hour. Otherwise, Tuesday was largely a rest day, except for a trip to Anacortes to pick up Becky’s ring that had needed repair, do some laundry, do some food shopping, and a bit of dog walking.

On Thursday, the four of us (we took Daisy and Ramsey) visited Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, located on Vancouver Island. The trip involved arriving at the ferry terminal in Anacortes at 7:30 AM, for a 8:30 AM departure, a 2 ½ hour ride through the San Juan Islands (with a stop at Friday Harbor), landing at Sidney, B.C.,

and a 15-mile drive from Sidney to Victoria. Becky has been telling me forever how beautiful this place is. She is right. The old part of town is spectacular, with flowers and gardens everywhere. We had fish and chips (and Chardonnay) for lunch on the Veranda at the Empress Hotel, an old, famous, and magnificent hotel on the waterfront. The tab for lunch exceeded that at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, so the Empress now holds the record for the most expensive lunch we have ever had. But it was worth it.


After lunch, we toured the Parliament Building across the street from the Empress. It is an exquisite, very British, legislative headquarters (although we were told, jokingly, by some locals that the legislature seldom really meets).

We then took a 10-mile drive out to the famous Butchard Gardens, a local landmark. Since we had only a half-hour to spare, we decided to skip the full tour since the entry fee was a ridiculous Canadian $29.00 (more in U.S. dollars) per person. We settled for gazing at the periphery, which was spectacular enough. We then hit the waterfront in Sidney, and had a drink at the Beacon Landing Pub before going back to the ferry dock at 4:30 for a 6:00 departure to return to Anacortes.


We landed at 8:30, and crashed for the night. All four of us were tired.

Earlier in the week, the front legs on our trailer had collapsed. It was quite a shock, and I wasn’t sure what happened or why. I had decided to try to figure it out when I had some time and some available brain cells. On Friday, I realized Labor Day weekend was upon us and outside help would not be available for several days if I didn’t act very soon. I finally attacked the problem, determining that both pins that set the height of the legs had broken simultaneously, causing the inner legs to retract entirely into the outer legs---and jam---so the inner legs could no longer be extended.


It was a condition that was definitely beyond my ability to fix. I called the RV place that had done the work on the electrical system, and begged for help. They were able to squeeze me in that afternoon. I buttoned up the rig and headed for Mount Vernon. The folks at Valley RV (actually, James, who had done all the earlier work) quickly determined that there was permanent damage to the legs, but that he could make them workable enough, pending their early replacement. Jamie, the service manager, thought the work should be under warranty and said she would pursue that course when the manufacturer (located in Indiana) was open again on Tuesday. We are leaving the area on Wednesday, so Valley RV would not be able to get the approval, secure the parts, and make the repair before we left. But, Jamie said the approval would be transferable by us to any approved RV dealer, so there was no reason for her to not go ahead. What a gal.



On Saturday, our niece came over from her home in Seattle and met us for lunch at the Calico Cupboard in La Conner. She had a friend named Casey Cummings, whom she met playing kickball, with her. He seemed like a decent chap. We had a nice lunch (Becky and I both had a shrimp cobb salad), then came back to our trailer and spent the afternoon together. That was the first time our oldest niece had seen our traveling home, either the old one or the new one, and expressed surprise at how big and luxurious it was.


Sunday and Monday (Labor Day) were relaxing days for us. Becky and I played one game of Rummikub, which I won. Amazing.

On Tuesday, we went back into Anacortes, had Daisy visit the vet to see if her arthritis and kidney problems had changed, visited the Cap Sante Viewpoint---which has fabulous views of the Anacortes harbor and Mount Baker (the second highest mountain in Washington), and had a wonderful lunch of mussels at Anthony's Restaurant, one of the 22 they have in the Oregon/Washington area.


Our three-week stay in the La Conner area was over.