Oregon Archives - Next Stop Always

That One Time When We Drove into the Ocean

Heading up towards Washington we felt that we would be terrible road trippers if we left Oregon without a stop on its spectacular coast. Our last opportunity before crossing the border was the port town of Astoria. We found the perfect State Park (Oregon has quite a few great State Parks with RV hookups), Fort Stevens, just across the bridge from Astoria. What made it great you ask? Two things. The first was the feeling of being swaddled in trees in our own little nook in the forest and the second was that we were within throwing distance of the Pacific Ocean.

We soon found out we were a little quick to be giddy about our perfect spot. What we neglected to consider was one simple equation:

(Trees x 10) + humidity = billions of bugs and blood sucking mosquitos

Once we settled in, we realized we couldn’t even sit outside in our chairs without being eaten alive! So, to avoid the turf war with the bug overlords, we spent most of our time exploring Astoria. We found there were plenty of things to do that didn’t require a shower of bug spray or the burning of citronella candles. Like…

Lunch with a view.

Or channeling our inner children and launching balsam wood airplanes off of the tippy top of the Astoria column.

Do keep in mind that if you are not an actual child, you absolutely will need to give yourself 15 minutes or so to recover from dragging your burning legs and scream lungs up the dizzying circular 164 step staircase.

It is quite high and you will likely feel the urge, like Gary did, to grasp the railing while throwing your glider off the edge.

This view of not only Astoria, but also the state of Washington across the longest continuous truss bridge North America, is worth the climb.

We also spent time at the beach. Were we found hundred year old shipwrecks.

And perfect sand dollars.

Wait, you aren’t here for all of that nonsense. No, you are here for the story about the drive into the Pacific Ocean. Okay, you have been patient enough. Read on friends…

Best thing we did?

One of the cool things you can do in Fort Stevens State Park is drive on the beach. I knew the moment we decided to do this I was going to love and hate it, especially with Gary driving.

As we slowly pulled onto the beach and Gary drove down the sand beside the waves it was all very relaxing…the calm before the storm.

The minute we saw a couple of other cars doing donuts on the beach, I knew the storm was brewing and I’d better hold on with everything I had. A few dozen donuts later, Gary thought it would be fun to drive IN the water, albeit the very shallow water. You know, the tiny waves you stick your toes into as it gently rolls towards you.

As we were riding along I was hanging on and praying under my breath, but Gary was driving with a huge smile on his face. I do realize that some of you (mom) are reading this thinking that you would be doing the same praying if I was driving down a regular street with you in the car, but seriously, this was the OCEAN.

There could be a problem when your weather app says you are in the Pacific Ocean and you are in a truck instead of a boat.

You know how when you are walking in the shallow waves and all of the sudden that one wave sneaks up on you? You run backwards with a yelp so the water doesn’t splash up above your ankles. That is exactly what happened, but in our case it was splashing up the tires and onto the doors. I freaked out and yelled at Gary to get out of the water, so he starts to turn out. That’s when–KABLAM!–we hit a giant dip that was hidden under the water and went flying General Lee style. Luckily we were able to get out onto the packed sand quickly and stop to assess things. We were a bit shaken up, but the truck was fine. However, we noticed we only had three bike tires. We realized one flew out of the bed of the truck and into the ocean. Gary quickly ran to grab it and barely got there before it was lost at sea.

This was by far the scariest thing that we have done during this entire trip. Gary probably would have preferred to hike Angel’s Landing with me instead of this. Thank goodness the flying bike tire was worst that happened!

Best thing we ate?

When we arrived in Astoria the first thing we wanted to do was go out for great seafood. When we were Yelping to find something, Bowpicker came up with a million positive reviews, but it just was a fish and chips “boat” stand. We were thinking oysters or mussels not fish and chips. So, we ended up at a nice-ish place on the water that shall remain nameless, but it was just okay. Which left us annoyed that we spent money on it at all. Out of disappointment, we gave up on seafood at this stop.

The next day as we explored the town we saw a massive line formed at Bowpicker. Well, anywhere you go that has a line out the door is a place that should definitely be on the radar. We realized our mistake right away and hopped in that line.

We waited in fear as we read the scare tactic sign posted that claimed they were only open until they sold out. Luckily we made the cut and it is likely the anticipation of waiting in line that made our basket of meaty, battered and fried albacore tuna even tastier. They say they do one thing and do it well and they aren’t lying. So for $11 bucks we shared the best meal we had in Astoria.

What we learned?

There is a certain amount of calculated risk that creates a fun, exciting experience. The key word in that sentence is calculated. When you are using your only vehicle that also tows your house, risk = crazy. So, moving forward we will save risky moves for fun hikes like Angel’s Landing or for lottery tickets.

Next Stop: The Emerald City

Does Size Matter?

One of the interesting things about Oregon is that it has a lot of charming, small-ish towns. Having been jam-packed in SoCal like cattle for so long we were itching to check out towns where there was space to spread out, but also where people were comfortable enough to speak to each other and get to know each other instead of hurrying to get inside their front door for fear of having to say hello. Somewhere we could engage in the community and feel like a part of something…make it a forever home.

We picked out two of these Oregon towns, McMinnville and Silverton, to stop in on our way towards Seattle. McMinnville is home to about 30,000 people, so it isn’t a super small town, but we chose it because it is considered a foodie town and #TeamTary can get on board with that! It is indeed a quaint town with some top notch restaurants, several unique wine AVAs in the region, and the requisite downtown shops. However, it is just big enough and kitschy enough to attract a lot of tourists. Great to visit, but not the place we envision for where we want to grow roots.

Silverton is much smaller, around 9,400 people, but had a slightly dorky charm and the hometown kind of feel that was missing in McMinnville. Silverton is a “little engine that could” kind of town. By looking down the main street you would think it was just like any other small town, but once you dig in, it tugs and tugs at you (I think I can, I think I can) until you believe it is much more than it looks on the surface.

The main thoroughfare downtown, Water Street, runs parallel to a creek (obviously), so there are several restaurants where you can eat on the patio and enjoy the soothing sounds of flowing water while sipping a flight of wine (or two) from Willamette Valley.

As we strolled through downtown, we were surprised we didn’t see a ton of tourists. What we did see were kids and parents lined up 20 deep at the local café for the $1.00 ice cream cone special after school. We watched in shock as they took them to the park next door to enjoy them and actually talk and play with each other.

It isn’t just the downtown that is better than average. Silverton also offers unique things to do instead of the typical touristy activities. One of the things we did was tour the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Oregon, The Gordon House. This house wasn’t even built here, it was taken apart piece by piece and was moved here…uh engine that could! The docent’s fascination with the house came through and made us love the tour. The entire house has a theme based upon the 15 degree tilt of the seat in Mr. Gordon’s truck where he was most comfortable. From couch to countertops, everything aligned with this credo. Even the tourist attractions are overachievers in this town.

Plus, Silverton is just down the road from the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. There the mischievous, ambitious tulips even strive to make this field more than just your typical soldier rows full of flowers.

Best thing we did?

The Trail of Ten Falls at Silver Falls State Park.

Yes, more waterfall hiking. It is definitely time we called the Guinness World Record people to find out what we need to do to get in there. You are surely wondering why a basic waterfall hike is making our best thing list in a town where we also went to a tulip festival and one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses. Well, hold on, let me explain.

Normally a waterfall hike consists of one, maybe two if you’re lucky, waterfalls. But Silverton, Oregon, the little town that could, had a trail with ten, yes 1-0, waterfalls.

We were still all about the waterfall selfies on this hike, but given there was a waterfall about once every quarter mile the progression of our pictures got selfie silly towards the end.

Apparently I need to teach Gary the difference between a rabbit ears and a peace sign! Oh, and you are welcome for not putting all ten pictures in this post.

Best thing we ate?

While we may not want to move to McMinnville, we do not deny it is home to some great restaurants. Our dinner at Thistle was amazing. It is a small place with locally sourced ingredients (of course, so on trend). Depending on your memory skills it could be a bit of a challenge to order since they don’t have menus, just a chalkboard with their daily offerings. Luckily it is a short list and you can’t go wrong.

The best thing we ate were the Oysters from Netarts Bay, Oregon. One of the things that we really wanted to do was to get out to the coast from this area and harvest oysters, dig clams or rent a boat and go crabbing, but we just couldn’t make it happen. At least we got to have the oysters almost right out of the sea and we can book the trip for finding our own next time.

What we learned?

During this journey we are realizing that what we thought we would want and need was a city in the 50,000 – 80,000 population size. We thought we needed somewhere this big so there would be things happening downtown and enough for us to do to keep us busy. However, we are finding out that we need to go even smaller to get the community feel we want and have a bit of character. It doesn’t need to have a million things to do, but needs to have the things we want to do. Figuring out what those things are is the tricky part, but luckily we still have more journey to keep figuring that out.

Next Stop: Astoria…last call before Washington

Crater Danger!

We were rejuvenated crossing the border from California into Oregon (if you didn’t read about our drama surrounding the rain in northern California you can catch up here). The view of the Smith River on the drive in made us remember exactly why we heart Oregon (Bend, Oregon is our first true possible forever home site).

When you full time RV, you have to get a feel for how much distance you and your road posse can handle without going nuts. Some people are destination driven and don’t mind full eight to ten hour days of driving to get to the places on their bucket list. Not us–if we go past the 6 hour mark we are likely to go into full meltdown mode at any time. So, we make it a point to plan stops with this drive time in mind to keep our crankiness at a minimum and our marriage (mostly) unscathed.

Following this logic, we had a plan in place for our arrival into Oregon. We were going to overnight at Cave Junction, investigate Oregon Caves National Monument the next morning and then head on up to Crater Lake National Park. However, driving into the sunshine and being mesmerized by the river made us rethink our plans. Our insides were screaming at us to keep driving past the caves (the town was barely a one horse, plus how could it be better than our first cave tour of this journey?), so we listened. We decided to drive a little over an hour more to hang out in Ashland, Oregon for a week and visit Crater Lake from there. We needed civilization for a bit…good weather, good food, and good wifi.

Once we decided to pass the caves (and made it out of the boonies into cell phone signal territory…constant struggle!), we whipped out good ole Google Maps. We proceeded to call every RV Park in the vicinity of Ashland and (yikes!) couldn’t find anything that had availability. We were starting to think our guts were wrong. We were losing hope thinking we were going to end up in a Wal-Mart parking lot for the night (which is fine when you need it, but not when you were looking forward to spending a week in a town). Fear not, Gary’s eagle eyes happened to see a brand spanking new RV Park as we were driving in to town. It just opened and was all green and pretty. You could practically see the skid marks where we pulled off the exit!

It was comforting to settle down and enjoy the week in Ashland doing some of our favorite things…

Being foodies

A mashup of the best of Rogue Creamery and Lillie Belle Farms Chocolates

Hiking on new trails

Braving the ominous looking clouds on Upper Table Rock Trail

Biking

It was exactly what we needed…our gut was on track after all.

Best thing we did?

Snowshoeing around Crater Lake. Okay, not the WHOLE lake. It is 33 miles around and I am pretty sure it would take days. That is if we didn’t fall down and freeze to death in either a tree well or a snow cornice as the rangers warned about with their scare tactics for tourists.

As we drove into the park we were expecting snow, but weren’t prepared for the sheer volume of snow! The average snowfall per year at Crater Lake is 500 inches. 500 inches! No wonder this is the deepest lake in the US.

We expected this to be a get out and see the beauty and get right back in kinda stop. However during the drive in, we tuned in to 1610 AM to listen to that obnoxiously scratchy announcement every park has and found out we could rent snowshoes to hike around the lake for only $16. Totally us! Thankfully, being former southern California peeps that are still afraid of a slight chill, we over-prepared with lots of layers of clothing.

As we rented our snowshoes and routed our course, we became intent on getting around to a couple of lookout points. It was about two miles to the second one, Wizard Island overlook. So, four miles total. No problem, we hike this distance all the time. However, as we climbed up the snow covered hill and viewed the vastness of Crater Lake we started to wonder if we should have packed a lunch and some survival supplies. About a mile in we realized that trudging in snowshoes and a bunch of warm ass clothes while huffing and puffing at altitude is not the same as hiking. It was brutal! We did make it (barely) to the first overlook, Discovery Point, but not without taking a hit. Gary broke a pole and gave up altogether on the snowshoes.

Even though it was tough, the beauty of Crater Lake surrounded by snow made it worth the arduous trek.

That is Wizard Island in the background by the way. Not sure that we missed anything at all by not making it all the way anyway!

Best thing we ate?

One of the cool things about traveling to different areas is checking out local farmer’s markets and discovering what is grown in different regions. At the Rogue Valley Growers Market we hit the jackpot with fresh morel mushrooms! Gary used to forage for these as a kid, so it was a treat to find them in a farmers market in Oregon. We snatched up a bag before they were all gone and fried them up that night in the Airstream.

What we learned?

Go with your gut. When we both felt that our stop wasn’t quite right, we discussed and made the decision to move on quickly. We followed our instincts and had a relaxing and enjoyable week in a fun town and still got to see our main attraction, Crater Lake, without having to stay overnight in an RV Park in the freezing cold.

Next Stop: Oregon Small and Smaller Towns