Raincharm’s Weblog

Today was a travel day. Not too long in the end. Five plus hours from Crescent City to Mendocino. Primarily along Highway 101, and Highway 1.

Spectacular views. Rugged coastline, beaches, even a few dunes. And redwoods! Again. Including the Big Tree.

Highway 1 is the slightly shorter route to get to Mendocino. It is also some of the most intense driving I have done on a sunny, dry day. Through the redwoods up and down and incredibly windy. Curves labeled for 15 and 20 mph, even one at 10 mph. And cars/trucks going in the opposite direction would appear at the last moment. And no shoulder to speak of. Luckily, there were few cars going our direction, so I didn’t feel any pressure to push my comfort zone. And this went on for miles. Roughly 22 miles by my map reckoning. It was lovely and terrifying at the same time.

I kept thinking that we needed to travel back along this route on Sunday, near the beginning of a 14-hour trip, possibly in the dark or rainy conditions. We have since consulted a map and found a slightly less imposing road that is estimated to add only 16 minutes to our trip home. I’ll take it just to save the mental exhaustion.

We are staying in the Trillium Inn and Restaurant in Mendocino. It is a converted house. There are just 2 rooms on the second floor of the inn, and the restaurant is a small upscale place. We chose not to eat there because today is the 1st game of the World Series, and no TVs.

A local bookseller suggested the Pattersons Pub would be a good place to eat and watch the game. We headed over about game time, finding a table in their outdoor patio. We have come to this area to support our good friend at a memorial for his brother and his wife/significant other. Both having passed. Mendocino is about 30 minutes north of Elk, where they lived. Our friends are staying in Elk proper, but asked, via text, where we were. We told them the pub, and they surprisingly said they were on their way. And further to say hello to his brother.  ….. We looked around and spotted a likely suspect at an adjacent table. So we asked their name,  and sure enough. We ended up in the middle of dinner with members of the family from all sides of the gathering.

It was amazing, unplanned (by us), and really good to meet them today in a less emotionally charged setting than the remembrance gathering is likely to be.

And the Dodgers pulled out the win over the Yankees in the 10th. With a grand slam. We had returned to our room before the game ended, following along on our phones. We’re not really rooting for either team. Maybe I’ll go for the home team for each game, so the fans will be happy.

Mid vacation, and we’re in the same place for a few days. Walking around, doing jigsaw puzzles with missing pieces, and laying low a bit.

Carl has been fighting a cold/sinus infection(?) since we left. So after our morning excursions yesterday, we hung out in the AirBnb. Reading, a bit of cooking so we could eat in for a change, and working over the puzzles available in our place.

The puzzles were … interesting to work on. The first professed to have 300 pieces, although it was more like 90. No edges at all, and most of the brightly colored pieces were absent.

The next, 750 piece puzzle had about 740 available

We did get out this morning and walked along the roads near the shore. We went down to sea level and looked at rocks and some tide pools. They were not as colorfully inhabited as those at Cannon Beach.

Add 1 more bird to our list, an osprey. Again, no pictures.

After seeing sights along the shore, we hoofed it to a diner type restaurant for lunch. I was really in need of sustenance when we arrived, and I am now happy to be just hanging about again. Almost at 11,000 steps for the day. Who knew I wasn’t in shape for a vacation.

Baseball has been largely absent since we left Dunsmuir. A restaurant worker did bring up the juxtaposition of my Mariners jacket and Carl’s Yankees shirt. This was the day we arrived from Dunsmuir. And this worker is pulling for the Dodgers, we are in California after all. The World Series doesn’t start until tomorrow, but we came across several Steve Garvey election signs on our walk.

Tomorrow morning, we will pull up stakes and hit the road again. South once more.

The shoulder season. School is in session and it’s not winter yet. This is our first trip in several years that did not include at least a day with family. Although we will be meeting up with some of our baseball family on Saturday.

We are just over halfway through this vacation, although I am not sure we should count the last day as vacation. Our trip is taking us south for 7 days, and then back in 1.

So far: Cannon Beach, Oregon for 2 nights; Dunsmuir, California for 1 night; and now Crescent City, California for 3 nights. It’s easier to count nights spent in a location than days – which can include hours of driving between stops. Other than driving to a grocery store this morning, once we have reached a location, we park the car and walk.

The first day was about 4-5 hours driving. It rained most of the time. From really hard to barely needing the wipers. We headed south on I-5, then turned right towards the coast at Olympia.

Our 2nd wildlife spotting. Elk north of Cannon Beach. The next morning, they were walking down the main drag in the town. We did not see them, but did encounter their scat. The first wildlife we encountered was a deer in a small town City Park where we stopped to find a restroom. No pictures.

In all of our travels along the coast, there are tsunami warning signs with arrows pointing towards the hills. In Cannon Beach on the main road paralleling the shore, there was a blue line painted across the road to indicate you were now high enough to be safe.

The big attraction in Cannon Beach is Haystack Rock. At low tide, it can be reached without getting your feet wet. That is, if you are paying attention to wave action.

We walked out to the shore on our arrival. It was misting/raining, but not badly. We found a small bar called the Screw and Brew for dinner. It is named for the hardware store that it was, and still is, along with the brewery and scattered tables among the items for sale.

Haystack Rock also provides habitat for puffins, and their likeness is everywhere in town. However, they only stay for the breeding season, which is in the summer. So we had to content ourselves with statues and other art. We did see 2 bald eagles on top of Haystack Rock. The naturalist told us they are a big problem for the pufflings, as the parents fly away if an eagle is about, leaving the pufflings exposed.

After 2 nights in Cannon Beach, we left in the relatively early morning, in the rain, heading to Dunsmuir. Rather than take the quickest route (back to I-5 at Portland), we hugged the coastline until we reached Reedsport, OR.

Following highway 101, there was some traffic, but nothing too bothersome. We ended up following a loaded logging truck for a while. It was moving, so not even annoying. And then our direction giver told us to turn off 101 onto 53 and then the Miami-Foley road. This was confusing, but apparently a shortcut. The M-F road was not even big enough to have a number. This route was pretty devoid of other traffic but very windy roads through picturesque farmland and woods.

When we eventually met back up with 101, we pulled in behind the logging truck. … This 14-mile diversion (instead of 15 miles on 101) theoretically saved us 2 minutes. It was pretty, and we were the only vehicle. It feels like we would have blindly followed directions, leading us to goodness knows where. While my phone was giving us directions, Carl was trying to use his phone to see where we were being led.

While still along the coast, we stopped at Devil’s Churn and Thor’s Well. They are both locations with inlets where the waves put on a show. At Devil’s Churn, there were spouts and just powerful water. At Thor’s Well, the waves made a booming sound, like Thor’s hammer.

Once at Reedsport, we turned east, following the Umpqua River. We hit I-5 at Sutherlin and headed south. Aside from a much too complicated stop for gas in Medford, OR, the drive was uneventful. Do not get off at exit 30 and expect to find an obvious, close gas station.

Dunsmuir. A short, but important visit to commemorate both Babe Ruth and Carl’s friends, who introduced him to the field on prior trips south for Mariner games in Oakland. RIP Babe, Dan, and Dennis. Not really sure this should be termed “short” as it took more than 8 hours driving to get there.

The field is part of the Dunsmuir Botanical Gardens, right off of I-5. We found the Cave Springs Resort for lodging. They offered motel rooms, rustic cabins, and Airstreams. The options are all clustered together, also right off of I-5, and directly adjacent to the Dunsmuir Botanical Gardens. Fate. I think the real draw is proximity to a river for fishing and trails for hiking.

We chose an airstream because it had heat, which the cabins did not. I didn’t trust that mid-October would be warm enough to not have some sort of heat source. It was snug but manageable.

While at the field, a mother and her grown son stopped by, jumping off of the freeway on their way to LA. She was reminding her son of prior trips when they had stopped here because he was all about baseball as a young boy. They didn’t realize it was the 100th anniversary until they were there. As we were getting back on the road, there was another person on the field, with their camera set on a tripod. The townfolk all know the Babe Ruth story but had commemorated the anniversary during the summer.

Back on the road, retracing some miles along I-5, back to Grant’s Pass, Oregon. Then west again to the coast and Crescent City.

This was a long and winding road. But pretty. Sometimes harrowing.

Just before reaching Crescent City, we went through the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. We did stop for a short hike so I could say, “Wow!,” over and over and over again.

Finally, into Crescent City

We walked around a bit after arrival.  Down to the shore, and along the shore to the southeast by my reckoning. Not too much activity, which was fine for us. 

SeaQuake Brewing for dinner. A popular place. We shared some fish tacos and fish and chips. And walked back towards our AirBnb. About a block from “home” we stopped to watch the sun set.

Wednesday morning. Foggy with occasional drops.

Low tide allowed us to visit the Lighthouse. It wasn’t open, so we contented ourselves with walking around the edge, looking at the view and scouting for birds.

I’m pretty sure we passed the lighthouse keepers taking advantage of low tide to get into town to run errands.

We have managed to identify some of the birds here.

Also on our list are raven, brewers blackbird, several small songbirds, pelican, either a common murre or common loon, and black oystercatchers. And a black cat. And starlings.

A quiet afternoon. Carl is fighting a cold and laying low.