Betsy and Rick's visit
Trip Start
Nov 19, 2007
1
69
166
Trip End
Ongoing
Nehalem,
Oregon,
United States
Monday, June 23, 2008
Betsy, Andy's sister and her husband Rick arrived in Portland, Oregon a couple of days ago to explore on their own while THE RALLY was in full swing. They had amusing and unusual tales to tell of Portland, including an encounter with a woman wearing a prom dress and another wearing a crown who they met on the street. Today they arrived here at Nehalem State Park to visit with us for a few days. We are thrilled they chose to vacation by catching up with us on our journey. It is a treat to share our "RV life" in a more 'hands on' way than the blog with two of our most loyal viewers.
After we all got together at the RV and finished hugging each other and getting reaquainted, we took off for the ocean side town of Rockaway Beach down the coast. We walked on the beach, soaked in the sun and stopped by a terrific hole-in-the-wall seafood place that didn't have a name on the building. Great seafood and conversations were shared by all. This was by far, the most beautiful day we have had while on the coast of Oregon.
Tuesday, June 24th
Betsy and Rick picked us up at the RV and we went down to check out an RV park that's for sale on Nehalem Bay. The place has 25 full hookup RV sites and an extensive dock system with outboard motorboats for rent, crab traps for sale and rent, a grocery store and on and on. The place was right on the water and had some pretty cool features, but the season is only about 3-5 months a year (if the weather is good) and the gas/diesel meltdown is seriously hurting the RV industry.
Rick, Betsy and Andy
Besides the short season and the fuel crisis, the amount of work that the couple who own this place put into running it is waaaaaaaaaaaay more than either of us want to sign up for.After looking around for another place to have lunch, we all agreed to go back to yesterday's spot and once again.....we all had fresh seafood before heading south to Tillamook to tour their cheese making factory. This place uses over 1,000,000 gallons of milk a day and although they don't let you watch them making the cheese, they do have a self guided (behind glass walls) tour of the "packaging line". We watched the men and women who perform the same tasks all day long, day after day, week after week......and we all agreed that we would go postal if we were in their places. I sure hope they can day dream that they are somewhere else, doing something that makes them happy.
We got back to the park and went for a long windy walk on the beach. As we walked against the wind, we all picked up ocean tumbled black stones for Betsy to choose from. Among other talents, Betsy has become an artisan that makes beautify jewelery. When we got back to our site we laid out the stones and she picked out the best ones to bring back to NY. We can't wait to see what she makes out of them.
Wednesday, June 25th.
Jodie and I moved up the coast to Fort Stevens State Park and Betsy and Rick moved up to a B&B in Astoria, Oregon. On the way, we met at Mo's restaurant near "Haystack" rock in the ocean town of Cannon Beach.
our favorite seafood cafe in Rockaway
Besides being a professional musician, Rick is a professional photographer who already knew about Haystack and by the time we met up with them (we drive in sloooo..moe), he had already finished taking his shots. We parted company so that they wouldn't go mad with the slow pace and we agreed to meet later.They came by to pick us up after we got settled in and we drove over to Astoria to check out the town. We walked around and took a tour on the restored trolly that runs along the Columbia River. The tour was excellent and the tour guide going one way on the ride became the motorman going the other way and visa versa. We all enjoyed lots of history, interesting architecture, cool murals, legends and corney humor.
When we got back to the park, we went down to the beach to check out the remains of the ship wreck that resides there. After a very short walk we all discovered that our imaginations were far cooler than the actual remains. My guess is that it was something awe inspiring many, many years ago, but in June of 2008, it was hard to tell that it was ever a ship. I'm not sure, but I don't think Rick even took a picture of it...and he takes pictures of everything.
We drove down the coast to go for a forest walk out to the ocean at Oswald West State Park. The walk included old growth trees, lush growth and a stream that leads to a sheltered ocean cove. The three of us sat watching surfers and the ocean, while Rick went down the coastline to take some pics. It was a beautiful spot suggested by our Rally friend Sandy.
Thursday, June 26th.
Betsy and Rick came by and graciously picked us up for another run into Astoria.
Rockaway cafe
This time we went to the Columbia River Maritime Museum and checked out the history of the Columbia River, the fishermen, canning plants, coast guard and tales of the "graveyard of the Pacific" that has claimed over 700 lives because of its shifting sandbars and treacherous waters. The museum was facinating and the movie that starts the experience and the exhibits along the way kept us all interested for hours.We moved on for lunch and then a tour of the local winery that we heard about on the trolly tour. The whole show at the Shallon Winery, is run by Paul van der Veldt, a man that we guessed is in his late seventies to early eighties. What a character! He makes no wine out of grapes and insists on giving an entire tour of the winery, including a tasting of his 5 wines, from dry to sweet. His current wines are made from blackberry, peach, cranberry, apple spice and chocolate orange. The cranberry wine is made from whey....that's right, dairy. It's the only wine he knows of that is made from dairy. The wines were all unique and we bought a bottle of the cranberry to take along with us.
Betsy and Rick had to head back to Portland to spend the night and leave in the morning, so we said our tearful goodbyes and talked about getting together sometime this winter. It was sad to see them go.
Friday June 27.
We biked over to the Fort Steven's museum and took the tour of the fort and the underground complex. The complex was made from poured concrete and went on and on from room to room. At one point, the tour guide turned the lights off so we could see (or not) how dark it was down there. Man, what completely deep blackness. He told of a man on a tour that kept wandering off on his own who ultimately was left down there for a couple of hours. What a sensation that must have been?
This has been an exciting week for us with lots of new friends and close family. Tomorrow we head up to Washington and check out some of the lakes that we have been researching from the road. We are looking forward to seeing all the places we've been reading about.
Comments
I loved Oregon
It was great to see your pictures of the Oregon coast. It brought back memories of a trip I took. I loved walking to Hay Stack Mountain and catching small critters in the tidal pools. Are you going up the Columbia? It's worth the trip.
Paula
Cheese Factory Blues
Wonderful stuff. I can only aspire to be described as a 'life-like dummy'. I was wondering-at the cheese factory, who cuts the cheese? P.S., I was the one in the prom dress.