USA Blog Part 4 – End of Oregon & Washington

After our gastronomic morning we drove inland to Portland.  We had hoped to couchsurf again but the person we’d messaged hadn’t bothered to respond, so we ended up in a hostel instead, which luckily had 1 room left.  It wasn’t a great hostel though: the receptionist decided to spend 10 minutes on the phone in the middle of check-in explaining to someone other places they could stay as the hostel was full on the requested dates – so rude!; parking was near on impossible and we ended up 3 blocks away having driven round for 30 minutes trying to find somewhere; the bathroom situation wasn’t good as the only 2 toilets in our building were in with the showers so every time you needed to go you could guarantee someone was having a long shower - Le Roux even had to get dressed and trek outside to the other building in the morning!; and they rented out the kitchen and dining area in our building for meetings so we couldn’t get in there to cook.  I would not recommend the HI Portland Hostel at all!

As Portland is known for its microbreweries, Le Roux was pretty keen to try some local beers so we checked out a local bar and after our parking nightmare, we justified a few drinks!  Later we headed back to the hostel to eat our way through a few of the treats we’d bought in Tillamook – the blue cheese dressing was so good we managed to get through half of it in one sitting!  The pate we’d bought in the supermarket was really delicious too and made a nice change as we’d not had any since we’d been away - surprisingly it isn’t available in most shops in the US, let alone in South and Central America!  In fact a few weeks later in Washington a shop assistant we asked didn’t even know what pate was!?!

We didn’t stay long in Portland as we’re not really city fans, but we did stop in at Voodoo Donuts, a Portland institution, on the way to the Columbia River Gorge.  We’d been recommended this place by a couple of people and given my love of all things sweet and cakey, it was a must.  The queue was out the door that Sunday morning and so we knew we were in for a treat.  The shop is filled with spooky voodoo related accessories and the names of the donuts fit in with this theme and so you can’t work out what flavour they might be.  We’d decided to get just 6 rather than a box of 13 (how restrained were we?!) and with the help of the server we picked out the Bacon Maple Bar, a Voodoo Doll, a Portland Cream, a Diablos Rex, a Grape Ape and one more I can’t remember the name of.  Needless to say they were all delicious and over the next day and a half we scoffed them all!

The weather was not going our way and as we headed out of Portland the clouds came in and the rain began.  This meant that when we reached Columbia River Gorge we could barely make out the scenery from the various viewpoints.  We used the bad weather as an excuse at one place to grab a coffee and tuck into a couple of our donuts while we waited for the clouds to clear a little.

Luckily over the course of the day the weather improved and we walked up to see the Multnomah Falls, which were nice, but not Iguazu!  We ended the day at a town called The Dalles further along the gorge where we found our cheapest motel yet – a steal at just $50 including tax!  It was actually a lot warmer and sunnier here as we’d travelled across the Cascade mountains and were now in a semi-arid area.  After being cooped up in the car we decided to go for a walk to find some wine, beer or cider tasting.  It turned out the wine place in town had closed down due to divorce so we ended up in a friendly local bar which let us taste a few of their wines and beers for free – very generous!  We then followed this up with some cider tasting at another place they recommended – not a bad afternoon’s work!

The next day we drove further down the gorge before crossing over to the Washington side, our 6^th American state so far.  As the weather had remained good we got some lovely views across the river as we headed back along the north side to Vancouver, Washington to visit one of Le Roux’s internet friends, Tammy.  She was a little surprised to see us, but we had a nice chat and got some photography tips (she’s a professional photographer) before continuing our journey to a campsite near Mount St Helens.

Having studied the volcano in geography at school I was really interested to see it and refresh my memory of exactly what happened.  The visitor centre was excellent with a film as well as a very informative exhibition, so we spent quite a while there understanding how the whole eruption played out.  Unfortunately for us we were there too early in the season to be able to drive all the way up to the last look out point as the road was still covered in snow, but we drove up as far as we could and got some great views across the valley to the volcano.

Even 30 years on you can still see the path of the mud and ash flow down the valley, which is quite eerie.  We saw a herd of elk grazing in the valley as well as nearly running one over on the road as it saw us coming and then decided to cross!  We decided to stop for lunch at one of the view points and we cooked up beans on toast while looking out across the valley to the volcano.  I have to say that despite Heinz being an American company, you cannot actually buy proper baked beans here – everything available in the US has brown sugar or molasses in it which makes the sauce way too sweet – I can’t wait to have proper English baked beans when I get home!

Having soaked up all the volcano information and scenery we could, we drove across to the Olympic Peninsula.  There appeared to be plenty of state campgrounds marked on the map so we headed towards Lake Quinault where there were a few to choose from.  However, yet again we were thwarted by the seasonal opening schedule as none of the campgrounds were open yet despite it being mid May!  We managed to find a private RV park and the lady kindly allowed us to camp there for half price.  It was a beautiful spot by the lake and we were the only people there, nobody else being crazy enough to camp yet!  There was a nice bar restaurant place on the site so we headed over for a drink to warm up after a delicious dinner outside of salmon, hollandaise, mash and broccoli.  Overnight it started to rain so our tent was nice and soggy for packing up the next morning, but luckily there was a shelter under which we could make breakfast so we at least stayed dry.

The road loops around the peninsula so we headed westwards to the Hoi Rainforest, one of the few temperate rainforests in the world.  Funnily enough it was raining even more up there!  The drive through the forest was lovely with the trees covered in moss and lichen giving them a spooky look, and we saw some black tailed deer up at the visitor centre.

Given the weather we weren’t feeling inclined to do a long walk so we hopped back in the car and headed off to the hostel recommended by the book – it was definitely not camping weather!  The hostel was not open until later that day, so we stopped in at a café down the road for a coffee and got chatting with the lady there.  We mentioned that we were going to stay at the hostel and she said that others who had stayed there had come in to buy cleaning supplies before they would dare to sleep there!  Apparently the guy was now managing the place on his own and standards had slipped somewhat.  That was enough to convince us to drive to Forks further down the road instead where there were a few clean motel options instead!

Neither Le Roux nor I have been gripped by the Twilight phenomenon so we were totally unaware that this was the town where all the books had been set.  Every place in town had signs and memorabilia around indicating its link with the books.  When we checked into our chosen cheap motel, the old lady recognized my English accent and started asking me about the Royal Wedding.  I had to stop myself chuckling when she asked if I saw them often!

Our next stop on the loop around the Olympic peninsula was Port Angeles, the largest town in the area.  On the way there we’d stopped at yet another big tree, this time a giant cedar, and we did a walk to a waterfall in order to stretch our legs.  Having got some photography tips from Tammy we decided to try out the smoky water technique by slowing the shutter speed.  We ended up with a reasonable picture for our first effort, although a tripod would have improve the result as the camera needs to be dead still.  We had lunch in the picnic area nearby but the grey jays were a little too friendly as they were eyeing up my French bread, so it was not a relaxing meal.

Again, on arriving at the hostel mentioned in the book, we discovered it was closed until later in the day.  We were going to wait, but as the coffee shop nearby was closed too we gave up with that plan and found ourselves another cheap motel.  We were keen to have some more Dungeness crab and as we were near the spit of the same name, we thought we should be able to find it at a reasonable price in town somewhere.  However, our bad luck continued as it wasn’t crab season, so no crab for us!  We instead headed to the Bushwacker restaurant for some steak.  We both had the prime rib which was nice, but the highlight was dessert.  The peanut butter cheesecake has won awards and with good reason – it was so light and tasty and I am desperate to find the recipe!

Our final stop in Olympic National Park was Hurricane Ridge.  It was still many feet deep in snow at the top and pretty cold, but it was actually quite a clear day so we got some nice views across the Olympic mountains.  On our way back down we stopped to cook up some brunch at a warmer viewpoint looking across the Juan de Fuca Strait to Vancouver Island.

As we were cooking our full English breakfast on our camping stoves, the grey jays started collecting in the tree next to us.  Uh oh.  This did not bode well after our experiences at lunch the previous day.  The birds were fearless and even when we stamped our feet and waved our arms around they weren’t phased.  The worst point came when I was eating my breakfast and was being dive bombed by one particular bird who was very interested in my piece of toast!  We ate quickly and headed on to Port Townsend.

Port Townsend is a lovely Victorian town with a nice atmosphere and interesting buildings.  As the sun had finally decided to come out, we wandered around the town stopping in at various shops.  We walked by the marina and came across a couple of happy fishermen who’d just returned from their trip with a large halibut – Le Roux was rather jealous!  Having worked up a thirst Le Roux decided it was time to try another local beer at the pub, so we sat overlooking the water while supping our drinks.

We cooked dinner that night just behind our motel right on the water and Le Roux go talking to this homeless guy who had stopped there.  He was a really nice guy, down on his luck and we ended up inviting him to join us for a dinner of chili and rice

It was now time to head on to Seattle and instead of driving all the way down and back up again, we decided to get the ferry across to the city from Bainbridge Island on the east coast of the Olympic peninsula.  Bainbridge is a nice town and we wandered around the farmer’s market before stopping in for a spot of wine tasting at a place on the main street.  The wine was a little disappointing, but it was a pleasant way to while away the time before our ferry left.  We also found a nice spot on the beach to eat the rest of the chili before getting in line for the ferry.

The journey across went smoothly, although it was pretty cold out on deck so we took it in turns to bear the bracing winds for photos!  Our first views of Seattle from the water were lovely as you get to see the Space Needle and the high rise buildings of downtown.

We’d decided to try couchsurfing again in Seattle and I have to say it was a fantastic experience.  Chris was an amazing host and we had the best time with him during our stay in Seattle.  (We messed up directions to his place though as I can’t get my head around the fact that there are so many roads with the same name with a little N, S, W or E at the end which means they are in completely different parts of town.)  He made us feel very welcome in his lovely home and went out his way to help us with the hire car drop off and a tour around the city. 

Now, you all know how important food is to me and how much I love cooking and eating good food.  Well, in Chris we met someone who is even more passionate about it than me!! To say that we ate well while staying with Chris is an understatement.  He is really into molecular gastronomy (scientific cooking like Heston Blumenthal) so we were treated to various gastronomic delights including: fresh spotted prawns and Dungeness crab with braised cos lettuce and blue cheese; feta with herby fava bean puree on crostini; sous vide veal cheeks with potato puree and chard; and pork belly with goose fat roasted potatoes & miso broccoli – all delicious and washed down with some lovely red wine.  Chris also introduced us to the delights of raw hairy Hungarian pig fat which has been marinated in herbs.  I know it sounds really odd and horrible, but wow, it is soooo tasty.  A little sliver either on its own or on a crostini as an appetizer is seriously good!

On our city tour we stopped in at an independent coffee shop to sample the drink that Seattle is now famous for – it was much tastier than Starbucks!  Although visibility wasn’t great we decided to go up the Space Needle anyway – the view was nice, but definitely not worth the $20 each it cost!  Next we stopped off in the Fremont district for a sushi lunch and a wander around, before stopping at “the Troll” under the highway for a photo.  We also took in Gas Works Park which had a nice view across the water to downtown and we wandered through the house boats which were featured in the film Sleepless in Seattle.

As the famous fish market – Pike Place – is very busy on the weekends we saved that for the next day and we enjoyed wandering around sampling various things such as hot smoked salmon, chili jellies, droewors (actually surprisingly good given it’s a South African thing), jams, honey, chocolate cherries and many more yummy things.  It was all pretty expensive though so the only thing we bought was some of the salmon and a couple of droewors to keep Le Roux happy.

Right by the market is my Mum’s favourite kitchen shop ever, Sur Le Table, so we had to stop in there and see what all the fuss was about.  It was a great shop, but given my luggage issues I had to walk out empty handed even though I was tempted by many gadgets and gismos!  Le Roux however, found is new favourite thing in there – his travel cafetiere/mug combo which he can’t go anywhere without now!  I have to admit I was tempted by one, but I’m not quite as much of a coffee fiend as he is, so I’ve been sharing his instead.

Our time in Seattle had come to an end and we were moving onto Vancouver, Canada.  It was sad saying goodbye to Chris having had such a great time with him, but hopefully we’ll manage to meet up with him again somewhere around the world.

USA Blog Part 3 – week 5 and a bit more

We said goodbye to Simon, Colette and little Josh and headed north from San Francisco to Point Reyes, a headland with a gorgeous rocky coastline.  At first we weren’t that impressed but when we headed out on foot we discovered some beautiful coves and beaches littered with sea lions.  We did this one particular walk expecting to see a rock off the coast that looked just like a chimney, but when we got there we could not work out which rock it was supposed to be!  However, it was a lovely walk all the same.  We somehow got lost trying to leave the headland and kept taking wrong turns as the map was very confusing and there weren’t any signs.  Eventually we made it out of the maze and were on our way one of the wine valleys in Northern California.

Napa Valley has a reputation for being a bit snooty and very expensive so we were keen to check out Sonoma instead as it was reputed to have some pretty good wines, but far less attitude.  Although Sonoma is cheaper than its more famous sister Napa, it is still a pretty pricey town and our travelling budget wasn’t going to stretch to even a motel.  The campsite was a long way north of town so we decided to test out couchsurfing, something that had been recommended to us by a few people along the way.  For those that have not heard of it, it is a website where people can advertise their couch/spare room as available for people to stay.  The thinking is that at different points in your life you will be in need of a bed or able to offer one.  You get references from the people you meet and from friends who are also on the site so people can read others’ opinions of you before deciding to meet you.  We stayed with a slightly eccentric family in Sonoma who were also couchsurfing virgins.  Linda, her son Dominic, Corgi (a family friend) and their menagerie of pets made us feel very welcome in their home for the 2 nights we spent with them and it was nice to be staying in a home rather than a clinical motel room.  The two pitbulls, Monkey and Le Stat were so funny as they were huge young dogs who thought they were cats - they’d come and sit on you or the back of the sofa which they are far too big and heavy to do!

Our mission while in Sonoma was to yet again hire some bikes and wobble our way round a few vineyards sampling the local wines.  The weather was lovely and we had a great day pedaling around, even though Le Roux’s map reading was a little lacking and we got lost en route to the first winery!   We managed to squeeze in five vineyards and a picnic before heading back into town.  Our favourite two wines of the day were a Gewürztraminer from Gundlach Bundschu and a slightly sparkling muscat from Ravenswood and we splashed out on a bottle of each.  Sonoma also has quite a few artisan food shops so having dropped back our bikes we wandered around town sampling cheeses, fudge and chocolates – a great way to end a lovely indulgent day.

The next morning I was up in time to watch the Royal Wedding replay on BBC America – I couldn’t drag myself out of bed at 3am to watch it live, nor could I face watching it on an American channel with the totally OTT presenters!  After I’d watched the whole 4 hours (Le Roux busied himself with his blog as he had no interest in it!), we said our goodbyes and headed north on Highway 101 to Ukiah to meet up with a friend of Le Roux’s who he had met on a plane in Alaska, rather randomly!

It had been a few years since Le Roux had seen Matt, but he and his wife Laura very kindly invited us to stay for a few days.  They were so welcoming and friendly that we felt like old friends in no time.  On our first night we joined Matt’s Dad’s 80^th birthday dinner with a few people at the fabulous seafood buffet at the Indian Casino Restaurant. We were amazed that for $16 we could eat as much Dungeness Crab and other delicious seafood dishes as we wanted.  There was even a dessert buffet which included chocolate covered strawberries and a sugarless cheesecake which was to die for.  We all rolled out of the restaurant after eating way too much.  What made the night even better was that they the casino gave us $10 of free credit for gambling which we lost on the slot machines all too quickly.  Laura had a good night though as she managed to win $200 playing blackjack, so a fun night was had by all.

The next day was Matt’s Dad’s 80^th birthday party with all his friends and family – a massive affair with well over 100 people.  Matt had organized to have a wild boar roasted Fijian style which is done by wrapping the boar, placing it in the ground on hot rocks, covering it over with banana leaves, hessian sacks and earth, and then leaving it for a few hours.  After only 2.5 hours they dug up the boar which surprised us, as we’d expected it to need much longer.  It turned out we were right and it needed to be cooked for a few more hours, so they had to finish it on the BBQ instead.  It was nice, but not quite as good as everyone had hoped.  The party went very well though as there was plenty of food, including a really good chocolate cake made by Matt’s Aunt, and the live music created a good atmosphere – one guy even played the didgeridoo! 

As the party was in the afternoon, Matt and Laura took us to see the Ukiah Speedway in the evening to watch the various classes of cars race around the ¼ mile banked track.  We were amazed to hear that some of the kids racing were as young as 8 and aptly called “The Mighty Midgets”. The big boys also raced that night and drove souped up V8s – their roars almost as load as the crowd! We even saw a few spectacular crashes with bodywork flying all over the place – luckily nobody was hurt and it was all very entertaining.

Sunday began with a delicious brunch at their favourite haunt, Bluebirds where I had the most enormous serving of french toast made from apple and cinnamon bread and served with blueberry compote – seriously yummy!  We then stopped at the Anderson Valley Brewing Company for a spot of beer tasting and although I am not a beer fan, I actually found one I liked called Summer Solstice.  

Our next activity was shooting on the ranch that Matt’s Dad looks after about 40km north of Ukiah, with a view to bagging ourselves a wild turkey. After exploring for a while and not spotting one (despite Le Roux using the very irritating turkey caller!), we instead picked a good spot and set up a shooting range.  I shot a revolver and a pump action shotgun at our tin can targets – I was rubbish with the hand gun, but got 3 out of 3 shots with the shotgun!  A little scary to be firing proper guns loaded with live ammunition - it certainly got the adrenaline pumping but it was great fun and not something you’d normally get the opportunity to do.  Matt and Le Roux even tried shooting two revolvers at the same time, and pretended they were commandos by shooting the pump action shotgun from their hips – crazy boys! On our way back down the mountain, a few mountain quails made the mistake of running out in front of us and Le Roux promptly dispatched them, hitting 3 in one shot!

After our explosive visit to the ranch it was time for a more placid drive along the coast. We drove through the picturesque town of Mendocino where we took a few pictures before stopping in Port Orford harbor for a seafood dinner.  Our time with Matt and Laura had come to an end far too quickly and it was sad saying good bye after a fun action packed weekend. We were sent on our way with a goody bag of fruit, chocolate easter eggs, the mountain quail and some abalone that Matt had very kindly sourced for us.

From Ukiah we headed north to the land of the Redwoods, where we drove along the Avenue of the Giants, so called as it passes through old growth forest, which means that it has never been logged and the trees are typically over 400 years old.  The drive was really scenic and the size of the trees blew us away – they are truly giants!  We hadn’t planned to visit Confusion Hill, which is a funny little tourist attraction but we got confused as to where we were so we stopped to ask for directions!  It has various curiosities and exhibits including a wonky cabin with various illusions such as water that appeared to flow up hill.  

We eventually found Cathedral Tree, which is a drive-thru tree and I somehow managed to get our enormous Jeep Grand Cherokee through it without scraping the paintwork!  The tree was incredibly big and still thriving despite the large tunnel cut through the bottom.  This was just one of many crazy tree things we saw along the way, with others including a “one log house”, a petrol station housed in a hollowed out Redwood, an enormous Paul Bunyon and his Ox sculpture and heaps of different size wood carvings of bears and other animals.  

Our last tree related stop of the day was at the Rockefeller Forest, home to Founders’ Grove in which there were many massive and interesting Redwood trees.  We wandered around taking funny pictures of us inside, under, on top of and hugging the trees!  Up close you really appreciate how big they are.  

Having worked up an appetite we stopped at the Samoa Cookhouse for a traditional home-cooked logger’s dinner of soup and salad, followed by chicken, ham, potatoes and veg, and then chocolate cake for dessert, all washed down with a cup of tea.  You could have seconds of everything, but we rolled out of there on just one serving of each course!  That night we camped at a lovely spot right by Clam Beach.  You have to self register at most campgrounds and we keep not having the right change to put in the envelope which is frustrating.  Having asked everyone there for change with no luck, we headed up the road to the shop.  Luckily for us it turned out to be a shop/pub combo so we had a couple of drinks to get some change!  It was rather a random little place and we ended up talking to some odd but friendly locals.

The next day, our last in California, we started by visiting the picturesque little village of Trinidad which has a photogenic lighthouse and some lovely beaches and coves.   As we continued the drive north we came upon a meadow of grazing elk – our first sighting them.  We obviously had to stop for a few photos, after which we drove on to visit a couple of “special” trees – “the Big Tree” and “the Corkcrew Tree”.  By this point, I think we were a little tree-ed out! 

So we drove out of Redwood country and California, and headed into Oregon to see the much lauded coastline.  Even though it was pretty cold and windy, I kept having to leap out of the car to take photos as the scenery was so lovely – gorgeous long sandy stretches of beach scattered with enormous boulders and white flecked sea.

At our woody campsite in Gold Beach that evening we prepared the mountain quail and abalone that we’d brought from Matt & Laura’s.  It was quite bizarre to be preparing such exotic fare at a picnic table with our limited kitchen equipment!  However, Le Roux did an amazing job on the abalone, which was incredible – so soft I could cut it with my plastic spoon!  I’d love to have it again, but unfortunately it is hard to come by due to overfishing and poaching.  The barbequed mountain quail tasted pretty good too.  I was in charge of the accompaniments and things didn’t go as well as our frying pan is pretty large and our gas burners quite small and the damn pan fell off and spilt a load of oil all over everything!  Luckily we had some more oil, but the gas canister was running out so the oil wasn’t hot enough and the sauté potatoes took forever to cook and ended up really greasy.  I then managed to tip over the pan again – so annoying!! The garlic courgettes tasted good but had to be eaten as an appetizer as we don’t have enough pans and stoves to finish everything at the same time.

Matt & Laura had recommended a Jet Boat Ride up the Rogue River, so we’d booked ourselves onto the 104 mile round trip which included some patches of rapids.  It was an early start and the day did not begin well when we each had to endure a cold shower - we thought we’d seen the back of them when we left Central America!  However, luckily the weather had cleared up for us and we had a great day for the boat ride – sunshine and blue skies.  

We saw all sorts of wildlife including ospreys, bald headed eagles, a river otter, a doe and her two fawns, and my favourite of the day, a mummy bear and her two cubs.  They were grazing on the river bank having recently come out of hibernation.  We also saw another lone bear on the opposite bank.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and great fun as he kept us entertained with 360 degree turns and a thrilling ride through the rapids.  We stopped for lunch about 30 miles in land and it was amazing how much warmer it was there than on the coast, so we sat outside to eat our buffet food.  

On the way up the river we’d passed lots of fishermen who were sitting in their boats waiting for the salmon to bite on their way upstream.  Even if they did happen to hook one, the chances were they’d have to put it back as they are only allowed to keep the hatchery born ones which are missing a small back fin.  We came across only one or two lucky fishermen who had caught a keeper that day.  I reckon they are just using the fishing as an excuse to get out the water with their mates and drink beers! 

After our day on the river we drove further north to Charleston, near Coos Bay, where we stayed at another campsite next to the beach.  Having quizzed the guy in the tackle shop in Gold Beach we were going to try our luck at clamming and crabbing the next day.  We rented a clam shovel, bought a bucket and squelched our way out onto the mud flats at low tide.  Le Roux first had to carefully dig a small hole with the shovel, making sure not to clip the clam and damage it, before getting down on his hands and knees and scooping out more mud by hand - a messy job!  After a slow start with a cracked one, he soon got the knack and we quickly had our limit of 12 in the bucket.  The empire or horse neck clams are really funny looking things with really long brown wrinkly necks sticking out of the end of a long oval shell.  We washed the clams and refilled the bucket with clean sea water so that they would purge any remaining sand over the next 24 hours.  

Over at the marina we tried to catch some Dungeness crabs but we weren’t having much luck with our little bait box with loops on the outside, so a friendly couple lent us their big crab net and soon we were catching quite a few each time we pulled the net up.  However, you are only allowed to keep males over a certain size and we struggled to get any that met those requirements.  We had fun trying though.  While waiting to pull up the crab net, we kept looking at our clams as they moved their weird necks and shuffled around in the bucket – such funny things. 

We called it a day on the crabbing after a couple of hours and continued our journey north, up the Oregon coast.  We set up camp in a lovely patch of woodland near the sand dunes that are a major feature of that part of the coastline, before heading into Florence for some clam chowder at the renowned Mo’s – another Laura recommendation!  It lived up to expectations and we rolled out of the restaurant stuffed having eaten too much delicious homemade bread alongside the soup!  


That night Le Roux left our bucket of clams on the picnic table so they’d have plenty of air.  However, after we’d settled in for the night we heard the lid fall off, so Le Roux had to get up to investigate.  Some creature, probably a raccoon, had been interested in our clams for dinner!  Next morning we discover that it had actually grabbed one of the poor clams but had dropped it again.  Amazingly this clam was still alive so we reunited it with the others and hoped that it would recover from its ordeal.  By this point, we’d actually become a little attached to these ugly clams and were a little reluctant to cook them up for dinner, especially as it would be a lot of work to prepare them and we definitely had way more then we could eat.  So we made the decision to put them back.  We found a suitable spot and Le Roux had to dig them all back into the mud – hopefully they’ve all survived!

Next stop up the coast was Garibaldi where we gave up the idea of camping as the rain didn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.  On the way we stopped at the most photographed lighthouse in the US at Heceta Head.  It was nice, but I struggled to get a good picture of it due to a combination of bad weather and tree branches sticking out in the wrong places.  Despite the weather we headed up to the Cape Perpetua viewpoint which provided us with lovely views up and down the rocky coastline.  


After we’d checked into our motel, Le Roux was desperate to have another go at crabbing, even though it was pouring with rain, so we donned all our waterproof clothing and stood on the pier hoping for some large male crabs!  Unfortunately, even though he persevered long after I’d retired to our dry, warm room, the tides were against him and there was too much freshwater in the bay from all the snowmelt and rain, so he came back empty handed.  Given that the Dungeness crabs cost $20 each to buy, we’d just have to remember how good they had tasted when we had them in Ukiah!  It was off to the pub for dinner instead, where we had a free cup of clam chowder, followed by a pulled pork sandwich and some BBQ ribs – very nice, but again we rolled home as the portions are so big in the US.  After dinner and a couple of drinks we made our escape as it was karaoke night!

As we drove up the coast we came across a wood carving place that sold some really cute bears so I caved and bought one for my shelf back home!

Our last stop on the Oregon coast was at Tillamook, home to a cheddar cheese factory and a fantastic cheese orientated deli shop.  At the Tillamook Creamery we learnt about the history of the business and saw how they made cheese.  We sampled the various cheeses and the sharp cheddar was surprisingly good, given I’ve tried the real thing in Cheddar Gorge in England!  They also make fabulous icecream which is so creamy and smooth – it’s extra naughty as the fat content is higher than your average icecream.  I persuaded the server to let us try each of the 38 flavours so we could decide which to buy!  They had the most amazing array of flavours from bubblegum to grandma’s cake batter, udderly peanutbutterly to coffee almond fudge.  I was in heaven!  In the end I plumped for sticky bun – a vanilla icecream with cinnamon swirls and little bun pieces and Le Roux went for the classic mint choc chip.  We had eyes bigger than our bellies though as the single scoops were enormous and after all the samples, we just couldn’t finish the servings of our favourites.  


We left there fatter and drove to the Blue Heron deli for yet more tasting.  We chomped our way through several bries - our favourite being the smoked one, slurped our way through some local wines – very average, nibbled lots of pretzels coated in various dips, chutneys, jams and sauces, but our favourite thing of the day was the incredible blue cheese dressing which was made using a zingy Italian vinaigrette with cider vinegar as a base with little chunks of a lovely blue cheese – you could eat it as a dip as it tasted so good!  Oregon was proving to be a bit of a food highlight in our trip!

TO BE CONTINUED…

USA Blog Part 2 – Weeks 3 & 4

After yet another scenic drive we stopped off at Kolob Canyon on the north side of Zion National Park for a quick hike up to the viewpoint.  After enjoying the lovely views of the Canyon we hopped back in the car and drove around to the main entrance on the south side of the park.  As it is at a much lower elevation the weather was significantly warmer than Bryce or Grand Canyon National Parks and we were able to camp as planned.  However, as it was the last week of Utah’s school holidays and a free entrance week for National Parks, it was pretty busy.

We just managed to secure a camping spot on a shared site for the 1^st night, but we had to get up early for the bun fight to get a site at the other long stay campground for the next 2 nights.  Luckily for us we met Bruce who was moving sites and he let us have his one.  We then took pity on a young couple who arrived after us and couldn’t find a site so we agreed to share with them.  It was plenty big enough and it meant we split the cost – never a bad thing when you’re on a budget!

On the first night we shared the group site with an American family of 5, a French couple and their baby, 5 Koreans, and an American couple – quite a mix!  The 5 year old American boy very kindly made Le Roux and I a “smores” each – for those that don’t know, these are an American campfire classic of campfire roasted marshmallows squashed onto a gram cracker (thin biscuit), sprinkled with chocolate and topped with another cracker – delicious!  We chatted with the American couple who were drinking red wine and thoroughly enjoying the antics of the Koreans putting up their tents and the young kids running around causing trouble – it was a bit like a comedy show!  One of the Korean guys kindly gave Le Roux and I a taster of his favourite liquor aka “fire water” as it definitely warmed the belly!  It was pretty cold that night even despite the daytime was warm and sunny and although we were fine in our 4 season down sleeping bags, the American family must have got too cold as they’d upped and gone by the time we got up at 6am!

Having secured our new campsite we packed our picnic for the iconic Angel’s Landing hike which we’d decided to do.  The NP walking guide warns of it being strenuous and unsuitable for children and those afraid of heights.  We like a challenge so off we set.  The first part was easy and we powered up the switchbacks passing many puffing people, making it to the first plateau with no issues.  This was known as the chicken out point as when people see what comes next, many don’t attempt it!  

It was ½ a mile of high, narrow ridge which involved lots of boulder hopping and clambering.  I have to say that I tried to stay as far away from the edge as possible and not look down, whereas Le Roux was bounding around with no cares in the world!  I’ve nick named him Speedy the Mountain Goat as he zips up any terrain with remarkable ease and speed!  

The view from the top was well worth the climb and we sat and ate our sandwiches looking out at the scenery.  I actually found the way down harder than coming up as you couldn’t avoid looking down! I was glad when I’d made it back to the chicken out point.  Having completed this hike in around 3 hours, we decided to pack in another short one to the Emerald Pools.  Big mistake.  It was heaving with lots and lots of families with little kids and we were permanently trying to squeeze past so that we could walk at a reasonable speed.  Also, the so called Emerald Pools were more brown and muddy than vibrant green.  A disappointing hike, but at least we’d burnt off a few calories and earned ourselves a couple of drinks.  On arriving at the only bar like place in the nearby small town, we discovered that it is illegal to serve alcohol without food in Utah, so we had to have a plate of sweet potato fries to go with our drinks – naughty but nice!

On day 2 we hiked up to Observation Point on the recommendation of one of the rangers and after climbing for nearly 2 hours we were rewarded with a fabulous view of the river gorge and we were able to look down on Angel’s Landing.  Well worth the effort.  The way down was quicker although pretty tough on the knees and I wasn’t up for a 2^nd hike this time! 

Our 2^nd camping spot was also pretty social as we spent quite a bit of time chatting with the young couple sharing with us, with Bruce and his wife Vivian who’d moved just across from us, with the red wine couple who’d also moved over to the long stay campsite and we also met Aerwyn & Jared and their 6 lovely kids who very kindly lent us foil to make baked chocolate bananas in our campfire.  It was much friendlier than being in a motel!

Next on the itinerary was Las Vegas.  We had an intro to Vegas on the way as we passed through the town of Virgin and stopped in at the Ragged Ass Saloon which had a mini wild west village out front, including a mini jail – cheesy but fun.  We left Utah behind and headed into Nevada, the Silver State.

Where do I start?  Las Vegas was all I expected and more – it was fabulous!  It is so over the top that it is cool, with everything so well done that it is not in fact tacky.  We spent 2 days and 2 nights here and we loved every minute but it was exhausting – there’s lots going on 24 hours a day – the city truly never sleeps!  

We spent a lot of our time wandering around soaking up the atmosphere and taking heaps of photos.  We toured around the many themed hotels taking in the incredible detail – the New York New York had an entire NYC street scene inside, the Paris had a replica Eiffel tower you could actually go up, while the Venetian had gondolas and replicas of the Rialto Bridge and the Campanile Tower, but my favourite was Caesars with the Forum Shops, a Roman street scene complete with fountains, statues and a fake sky – amazing!  I also loved the stylish Bellagio which had an indoor garden made from beautiful real flowers as well as a multi storey chocolate fountain! As we explored we passed quite a few homeless people and some were pretty entertaining as they had signs saying things like “why lie, I need a whore!” and “too dumb to work and too ugly to prostitute”, which we couldn’t help but chuckle at.

We stayed in the Flamingo having got a cheap deal and it was brilliantly located in the middle of the “strip”, aka Las Vegas Boulevard.  It even had real flamingos in the garden!

There are slot machines literally everywhere and with people on them 24 7 – when we got up for breakfast in the morning there were plenty of people already losing their hard earned cash!  We had to have a go so we put a few dollars into the 1 cent machines, but as we didn’t really know what we were doing we soon lost it.  Having decided that we’d better find out what “lines” meant before gambling any more of our $100 budgets, we got chatting with this woman who kindly explained what it was all about. We certainly made our money last longer, but still managed to lose it all in the end!  

As well as the slot machines we played  roulette and black jack.  Unfortunately for our low budget, the minimum $10 bet meant we got through our remaining cash pretty quick but I did at least win a couple of times on each before losing it all.  At least we were entertained for the evening!

Las Vegas is also known for its shows, so we decided to go to X-Burlesque at our hotel, a sexy dance show which was good.  I am in awe of the girls who can hold their whole body weight upside down or sideways on a pole!  Le Roux was pretty tired and despite the semi-naked, attractive girls dancing in front of him, he kept yawning and struggled to stay awake – I have to question his red blooded male status!

I wanted to take a photo of the “Welcome to the Fabulous Las Vegas” sign all lit up at night so we drove all the way down the strip with me snapping photos like a paparazzi, of all the neon signs – LV is definitely not a green city and I hate to think what its electricity bill is!  Next on my sightseeing list was the neon cowboy on Freemont St in the old town.  On the way we passed quite a few cheesy wedding chapels as well as the Stratosphere – the huge tower.

Another must see when in Vegas is the Bellagio fountains.  We eventually managed to time it right to catch the show and we were not disappointed – the water shoots up incredibly high and it is really pretty to watch.  We were also lucky enough to see it from above when we went up the Eiffel Tower, which also provided us with great views up and down the strip.  Somehow, despite my research and planning we managed to miss the Mirage volcano show and the Treasure Island sirens show – next time...

After 2 crazy days in Vegas we headed back into California to Death Valley National Park, which was pretty warm even this early in the year - very welcome after all the snow and cold of the Grand Canyon and Bryce!  I hadn’t originally planned to come here, but having heard good things we squeezed it in and I’m glad we did.  Despite its name there is quite a bit of flora in the valley and we were lucky enough to catch the end of the pretty spring flowers.  

It is the largest national park in the US so we had quite a bit of driving to do to cover the key sights, but the scenery throughout the park was really interesting.  There were so many different rock formations and colours, with our favourite being the Artist’s Palette, which was an area containing rocks of many colours.  Badwater Basin, a large salt plain, is nearly 300ft below sea level, the lowest point in the US, and as the valley is so hot and dry the basin does not fill with water, which would normally be the case at this low altitude.  

There was a great view from Dante’s Point across the salt plain and Mosaic Canyon was interesting as it was very narrow in places with lots of different patterns in the rock, some of which was marble. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the “Racetrack” as you need a high clearance 4 wheel drive and you have to be prepared to put up with 3 hours of bumping along to get there – we decided that we’d better not risk a large bill for damaging our hire car!  We camped both nights in the valley but although it was warm, it was very windy and with no trees to provide protection against the howling gales we didn’t get a lot of sleep with the tent flapping madly around us!  I also had a red wine incident as my proper wine glass full of red wine blew over and tipped the contents all over me, just as I sat down to eat dinner!  With no showers and not many clean clothes I was somewhat pissed off, although luckily the wine glass didn't break!

The journey from Death Valley to Yosemite was somewhat longer than we’d expected due to winter extending into spring and probably into summer this year!  The mountain pass we needed to take across the Sierra Nevada mountains was deep in snow and therefore closed which unfortunately meant we had to take a 200 mile detour around the top of the mountain range and back down the other side to enter Yosemite NP – very frustrating!  We went from dry barren desert to pretty snowy mountains to rolling green hills all in one day.  It was odd going from flip flops and shorts at breakfast to thermals and fleeces by lunchtime as we stopped off at Mammoth ski resort!  You can in fact ski here till the beginning of July.

The drive was pretty long so we stayed in the old gold mining town of Sonora for a night.  As we’d expected to be camping we’d bought dinner provisions so while Le Roux did our laundry, I cooked up dinner on our little gas stoves on the floor of our motel room – it must have looked very odd!

Unfortunately the weather in Yosemite was pretty wet, which was disappointing after nearly 3 weeks without any rain – I guess we were overdue some.  We lucked out and managed to get a tent spot in Camp 4 as a couple were leaving early having put up with rain all week and they’d finally had enough.  When we checked in the ranger warned us about the bears and explained that we had to put all our food and toiletries in the bear locker and leave nothing in the tent or car.  You’d have thought things would be safe in the car, but the photos on the side of the rangers hut showed me how wrong I was – there was this great picture of a huge bear sitting in the driver seat of a pick up having broken the window and bent the door open – incredible!  There had been sightings of bears in the park as they were just coming out of hibernation and were hungry.  I kind of hoped that we’d see one, although not up too close, but it wasn’t to be.  We did, however, see plenty of squirrels who were definitely not going hungry – they were the biggest, fattest squirrels I’ve ever seen - they needed a trip to fat camp!

We managed to get the tent up before the rain started coming down harder and having donned all of our warm and waterproof clothing, we headed out on the Yosemite Falls hike.  Even though the weather was rubbish we were visiting the park at the perfect time to see the waterfalls in full flood – nice but they weren’t Iguazu!  We’ve been forever spoilt now that we’ve seen that magnificent set of falls.  

We had hoped to walk up Half Dome, but again we were there too early in the season and the walking route wasn’t yet open.  Most of the time we were in the park we couldn’t even see Half Dome so the view from the top wouldn’t have been good anyway.  After our wet and windy walk we made ourselves a hot chocolate with marshmallows to warm up – yummy!  We shared our marshmallows with the family on our campsite as the kids were keen to toast them over our campfire.  They had great fun burning them to a crisp!  We continued to brave the cold and rain to cook dinner but afterwards we headed for the nice cosy lodge for a drink and to play some cards. I had hot cider with spiced rum and ginger syrup – delicious!

We spent our 2^nd day doing the Vernal and Nevada Falls hike which was nice, although there were some tricky bits as avalanches had covered the paths and we had to clamber around them.  Le Roux or should I say “Speedy the Mountain Goat” had no trouble and was whizzing on ahead while I wobbled and scrambled up the uneven path!

The park was very busy as it was the end of the school Easter holidays and that combined with the cold wet weather meant we didn’t see the Yosemite at its best.  It is a beautiful place though with towering granite peaks, lots of lovely waterfalls, and plenty of trees and wildlife – reminiscent of Torres del Paine NP in Chile, in some ways.  What I hadn’t realised until I read the Yosemite article in the May edition of National Geographic is that Yosemite is a rock climber’s mecca and some of the crazy things people do seriously scare me – free climbing up El Capitan, which is 910m high and includes a major overhang?!?!  It is actually surprising that only 83 people have died while climbing in the park if this is what they get up to.

Yosemite was our last stop before returning to San Francisco.  We had to switch hire cars which was a bit of a pain, but we managed to organise our luggage and make the switch without too much hassle. For this visit to the city, we were very kindly put up by my work friend Simon, his wife Collette and their little boy Josh, in La Fayette which is a district of San Fran over the Bay Bridge.  

As we’d not managed to do all the sights last time, we had to pack in cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge, visiting Alcatraz, wandering around Fisherman’s Wharf, climbing up the steep zig-zag stretch of Lombard St and riding on the other cable car.  We had a beautiful sunny day for the cycling and the bridge looked great as we appreciated views of it from various spots along the route.  

The weather stayed nice for the boat ride to Alcatraz and we enjoyed learning about the jail and its history, particularly the escape attempts, as the audio tour was excellent.

We’d now completed the first part of our US road trip, the San Francisco loop taking in four states (California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada) and we’d thoroughly enjoyed it.  The US is definitely exceeding my expectations, with great cities, beautiful National Parks and very friendly and helpful people.

Part three to follow...