Our grand trip to Fresno! Part 1

On March 30, 2015 By stefrobrtsIn travel1 Comment

A few months ago we decided to take along weekend in March. My work requires us to use up our vacation time from the previous year by the end of March, and I get a Birthday day-off in March as well, so I put those together and made a 4 day weekend on my birthday. The only thing we had to figure out was where to go. We had done a really fun trip several years ago to San Francisco, and drove down to Hearst Castle, so we were thinking maybe after all our trailer travels, it was time for another Fly n’ Drive adventure. Dave set it all up – a spectacular weekend in Fresno, California!

Although I enjoyed watching everyone’s reactions went I told them we were taking a vacation in Fresno, where it sounds like most people would only stay at by force, we had a good reason: It was a short plane flight away, surrounded by interesting possible destinations, and in the center of Fresno is a little attraction Dave has had on his to-do list since he saw it on one of those Extreme Home shows many years ago – an underground home that’s open for tours! I’ll admit I was a little more excited about it’s proximity to Yosemite.

So we headed to PDX at o’dark thirty in the morning, and caught a plane to San Jose. And for the first time ever, I got to walk out on the tarmac to board!

As an airplane geek, that was actually really cool!

Well, it’s dark, and quiet, nothing but the drone of the engines, might as well catch some sleep.

Somewhere over southern Oregon…

It looks like the clouds are on fire.

Then I look out the window and what do I see way off in the distance? No way…

Well, Golden Gate, we’ll be seeing you again later…

First stop: Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Aquarium was awesome, but expensive. And pretty crowded for a weekday. It had a lot of really great exhibits though.

I could watch the jellies all day.

On to the BIG tank.

There was a big round tank with a school of these little guys, Sardines maybe? Just going around and around.

These penguins were hanging out in the viewing area, which I thought would make a nice picture…

Until they started ‘getting it on’!

Aww, they look happy.

Cuttlefish!

The hidden Octopus.

Well, that was fun, but it was time to move on, so we headed towards the valley of Central California, where we saw lots and lots of this:

While studying a map over breakfast I had seen Pinnacles National Park. That sounded promising, so we headed for that as our next destination. The landscape sure didn’t look like someplace where you would find anything called Pinnacles though. We were in for a treat.

Beach Weekend

On March 21, 2015 By stefrobrtsIn dave, travelLeave a comment

A couple weeks ago Dave and I dropped the pups off at Scott & Sherry’s and headed for the beach. I was too lazy to de-winterize the Airstream, so we just headed over that way, and figured we’d find a place to crash for the night once we got there. By the time we got in it was about 10pm, and a nasty rainstorm was hitting the beach pretty hard. We ended up at the Surftides in Lincoln City. Conveniently close to a Casino Dave wanted to hit!

The next morning we still weren’t rich, and the weather looked like this!

Yuck! Well, it didn’t stop us from exploring. We headed down the beach towards Newport, stopping to take pictures along the way. Dave protected me and the camera with the big umbrella while I got the shots. This is one of my favorites!

I jokingly told a coworker that there is a sign 500 ft from this rock stating that all tourists are required by law to take a picture of it, or face a fine. Maybe it just seems like that. It did come out pretty nice though!

Once we got to Newport, we headed down to the waterfront. We had one destination in mind, and we could hear them barking as soon as we stepped out of the car:

They built a nice system of floats for the Sea Lions to hang out on. It seems like every Sea Lion in town had heard about it, because they were barking and fussing at each other, with everyone trying to squeeze onto the floats, knocking others off!

They are just so endearing when they are laying in giant sleepy piles all cozy with their eyes closed…

This guy in particular looked like nothing in the world could phase him.

What could be better than an afternoon nap in the sun with your buddies?

We then headed out for a walk in between downpours to get some shots of the bridge

I liked this stormy view of flags on the beach overlooking the Marina.

The Flex was our choice for this trip.

After we had enough of hiking around the bridge, it was off to The Chowder Bowl, our favorite place on the beach. We like to park at the parking lot at the bottom of the hill overlooking the beach, get our food to go and go back to the car and stuff ourselves silly while watching the beach activities, the waves, and the seagulls. Since we’re safe in our car they never even know we are there.

Oh Hi, Do you have some food in there?

Mine?

Good thing we were protected by a windshield!

I was very happy with this shot of the gulls all hanging out on the pylons.

And of course there’s always someone who comes along and starts throwing food to them, and it turns into a free-for-all.

(I particularly like the guy on the roof. Mine?)

Off to Yaquina Head Lighthouse. I just wanted to take some pictures of the lighthouse, but we got there just in time for the last tour of the day, so why not? It was SUPER WINDY out by the lighthouse. He’s not even making that up!

I didn’t get any great pictures inside the lighthouse. How about a grainy view up the iron steps

And a peek out the window in the tower on the way up. Note: That’s not converted to black and white, it was just a really grey day!

Back outside I got a classic lighthouse shot,

Followed by my favorite shot of the day, a lone tree out in a field of grass, with dark storm clouds. I love it!

On the way back to Lincoln City we swung by Fogarty Creek (I think) and actually got a little sand in our shoes.

Then we had dinner at the Surftides restaurant, which was very good, but they had a guy in the lounge playing 80s covers. He was good, but it was just too loud for the small space. Luckily they were able to move us to the farthest back corner so we could finish dinner without suffering significant hearing damage.

The next morning we had to get moving. I looked out our window at the beach and saw all these seagulls grounded. They were probably tired of fighting the storm. I thought it was funny they were all pointed in the same direction.

I walked outside to get a picture of the cool mid-century pool house at the hotel. I figured I’d walk out to the road and get a pic of the sign in front of it…

But by the time I crossed the road the most sudden drenching downpour I have ever experienced struck. It was literally like being in a shower! This shot was the best I could do with the camera mostly under my coat and getting soaked!

That was pretty much the story the rest of the way home. It was like the second coming of Noah. It was like the clouds were dumping all their rain for the whole winter at once. Maybe they were, because since then we’ve actually had super nice weather. I guess it’s nice to get it all over with!

Dave and I had a fabulous time as always. He enjoyed some Casinos, I got some pictures, we both enjoyed some good clam chowder. I good time was had by all. We enjoyed our little spontaneous beach vacation!

A visit to Seattle Pt 4 – Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

On September 28, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, travel1 Comment

Sunday morning we only had a little energy left, and decided to spend it on a short hike at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, which was really close to where we had camped in Lacey, WA.

It was very pretty, but there weren’t a lot of birds to be seen, at least not in the parts we were at. We only walked in about half a mile, to the twin barns, since we had forgotten sunscreen. The part we walked was mostly on the shady boardwalk.

We saw cool trees,

Ducks,

And frogs.

Finally we got to the barns, which were pretty cool – for old barns.

For a second I thought I hadn’t gotten pictures of both of them, but they are different, just very much alike!

Once we realized the rest of the walk would be out in the open sun, we headed back via the shady walkway again. Visiting a refuge is a much more contemplative visit than running around at air museums or photographing downtown.

This was a nice way to end our vacation!

A visit to Seattle Pt 3 – We finally arrive in Seattle

On September 28, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, dave, travel1 Comment

We rolled out of the Air Museum headed for Tacoma, but before we could even get on the freeway we had to turn around and go back, when we drove by what appeared to be a giant hat and boots.

Hmmm. Yup, gonna have to confirm that one. It’s the Hat ‘n’ Boots in Oxbow Park.

Damn big boots!

Well, that was unexpected and fun – on to Seattle proper!

You can’t go to Seattle without taking lots of pictures of the Space Needle. I think there’s a law…

And of course every angle is more interesting with this monstrosity, er, I mean, creative-looking building next to it.

I does make for interesting pictures!

MONORAIL! MONORAIL!

Neat reflections!

Chihuly glass sculptures

After wandering around the Space Needle for a bit we decided to head up to Kerry Park, because I heard it was THE place to get a great shot of Seattle. We knew it would be really crowded, as it’s a tiny park, and you have to park blocks away and walk to it.

There were tons of people there already, taking pictures. We even saw foreigners taking selfies with their cameras held out on long sticks to get a better view of themselves! I guess they didn’t want to hand their phone to strangers to snap a pic for them? Anyway, we worked our way around and found a spot with a view to snap a few pics at.

Totally worth it. Seattle with Mt Rainier in the background, and sailboats and ferries on Elliot Bay.

Closer view of Seattle (with a little tweaking to make it pop!)

I wanted some sunset/night shots, so we decided to go to dinner to kill some time. Our favorite restaurant, The Keg, was not very far away, so we headed there, going over the floating bridge…which was open for boat traffic!

Well, that was fun. Don’t get to stop on a bridge, get out and walk around everyday!

Back to Seattle after dinner

Still lots of people at Kerry Park, possibly MORE than during the daytime. Or it just felt like it because now they all had tripods for night shots. I brought my tripod too, just for this! So I had to just be patient and wait for a spot to open up. I aimed for this grassy area below the main viewing rail and waited to squeeze in there.

Again..Totally worth it!

I’m really impressed with the quality I’m getting from my Nikon 5100 and kit lens. For a cheap little DSLR, I think it does pretty well. Check out the close up!

That was enough fun for one day. We had to pack it in, since when you take a weekend trip, you really only have Saturday to play. Well, Saturday, and maybe a tiny bit of Sunday. Coming up next – Sunday!

A visit to Seattle Pt 2 – The Museum of Flight

On September 27, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn dave, travel1 Comment

After finishing with the zoo we headed for our next stop. Well, first we took a meandering trip through Tacoma, admiring all the vintage houses overlooking the amazingly blue water of Commencement Bay – seriously, the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen! Did I get a picture? Well of course not! I kept thinking we were going to stop somewhere but got caught up in traffic and swept off course onto a freeway before we had a chance. Maybe next time!

We continued north to the Museum of Flight. Knowing the museum would take most of the rest of the day, and not wanting to have to eat a museum-dog for lunch, we stopped at an amazing little thai restaurant in Sounthcenter, Bai Tong, which was fabulous! We split a Pad Thai and a Crispy Garlic Chicken and it was all amazing! This is our first major trip with a smartphone, and we never would have stumbled into this restaurant tucked away in a strip mall without it’s help!

Full and happy we continued to the museum. Now I love animals and nature, but I also love engineering and machines, and particularly airplanes! I grew up near Portland International, and it was a regular no-money-fun outing to go hang out at the fenceline and watch the planes come and go.

First thing you see as you approach from the parking lot:

Ah, who doesn’t love a B-17?

Followed by something a little more Cold War…

The engines seemed so small for what they had to do.

There was also a restored B-29 Superfortress which would have been a lot more impressive if it hadn’t been shrink-wrapped for protection from the elements.

According to the signs, this plane spent time being used as an artillery target before it was rescued and restored! I would love to see more pictures of it before the restoration started – I can’t imagine something used for target practice would even be a candidate for restoration!

We walked around the front of the building and spotted this Intruder, same type of plane one of our college professors had worked on back in the day.

A Harrier…

And looking into the gaping maw of a MiG

It was getting hot, time to head inside…

Oh…WOW…

Wow…

This may actually BE the definition of OVERLOAD!

So many planes!

And pieces of planes!

Some of our favorites:

The Blackbird

The Electra (same kind of plane as Amelia Earhart disappeared in)

Polished like a mirror!

Once we’d had our fill of eyeballing on the planes in the main display area it was time to head over the skybridge

What’s on the other side?

How about a Concorde?

They have a nice Space museum section, including the Space Shuttle Training mockup from NASA, with a very nice display showing it in use in it’s glory days. Next best thing to an actual space shuttle. Definitely gives you a feel for how big the shuttle really is.

But the good stuff is parked out on the tarmac…

Like Air Force One

Since we love Mid-century design, there was lots to love in this Airstream-like interior of wood paneling and aluminum trim.

Bunks (not for the Prez, he had his own space)

Crowded little conference room.

And the President’s office even had a little doggie door!

Back out in the hot hot sun we got to see the first 737

The Concorde

And my favorite – the first 747! I have a soft spot for 747s for some reason. I think I had a book about it’s design when I was a kid – after all, it was new then. And then it was featured in the Airport movies, and it’s so distinctive when you see one. Anyway, we couldn’t go on that one, had to admire it from the ground.

So we were hot and tired and ready for a break. Time to head to Seattle…

A visit to Seattle Pt 1–Point Defiance Zoo

On September 25, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, dave, outdoors, travel1 Comment

Last weekend we took the Airstream out. Now that the kids are back in school and summer is over, it’s the time for us cranky no-kid types to go traveling! We setup basecamp at Land Yacht Harbor in Lacey WA, a perfect place to leave our trailer behind while we ventured into the urban jungle of Seattle!

First stop: Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It’s not Seattle, but it’s close enough for us. Everything north of Olympia and south of Vancouver BC is ‘Seattle’ as far as I’m concerned.

Point Defiance is big on the Aquarium part of their name. Starting with a beautiful stingray exhibit where you can pet the stingrays and sharks.

This one kept coming up to the edge and sticking his face out of the water. The blue dots on him were incredible!

Dave found a HUGE fish!

In the shark tank this guy kept cruising by, he was probably a couple feet long.

Then there were the sharks

After the sharks, they had a lovely display of smaller aquariums. I LOVE fish, so I was fascinated by all these displays.

Seahorses, so lovely!

This little guy came out and posed for me!

This little guy lives in a hole! Which is pretty amazing for a FISH!

Beautiful!

So beautiful!

I love this stuff! I’ve never had the guts to have a saltwater aquarium. Better to enjoy it when someone else does the maintenance.

How many eels are in there?!

This guy put on a heck of a show, crawling all over the front glass, and finally hanging out and changing color from pink to brown! Amazing!

We headed out to the Zoo portion of the show.

This big cat had no intention of coming out in the cold morning air.

Lovely.

This flower looked like a flock of flamingos!

This flower I just thought was pretty.

On to the seal/sea lion exhibit:

Dave watching seal acrobatics

zooooom! They sure look like they’re having fun!

The sea lions were enormous. I wanted to get a shot of one with people in front of the window to show how big they are. When I got home and looked at the pictures, every one had people snapping pictures with their phones.

When we went to Disneyland and we were discussing what urban photography could show that would show what it’s really like in the twenty-teens, we decided it would show this. Everybody looking at their phones all the time. So there you go.

Next stop – the Museum of Flight…

Trout Lake, 2014

On July 2, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, dave, Me, navi, travel1 Comment

This is a late post because I have fallen horribly behind on my blogging.

As usual, we spent Memorial Weekend in Trout Lake. Actually, I guess it wasn’t usual, because the last couple years our attendance has been spotty, but this time we were there for the whole weekend, and it was great, as always.

This was our first trip with the new rig – our ’09 Ford Flex was finally all prepped, the new hitch was installed and setup, and it was all ready to pull our wee little trailer.

Pulled like a champ!

The dogs had to put up with the new travel rules in the Flex, namely that they have to be buckled in (since they are surrounded by airbags, and if there was an accident I want them to be safe). They both have new Sleepypod Click-It harnesses that fasten into the safety anchors in the back seat and keep them securely in place.

They did great, with only minor tantrums from Barclay. Navi handled it fine, considering she doesn’t care for car rides at all!

Before we knew it we were among our people again 🙂 Surrounded by Airstreams!

And there is NOTHING like the jaw-dropping view of the mountain. We come back year after year, and every year I want to just sit and soak it up, it’s so beautiful!

The dogs, and Dave, found the trailer the perfect place to unwind.That’s exactly where Dave spent most of the weekend!

Our old camera phone pictures came out looking pretty surreal.

We got to spend lots of time hanging out with friends, like Gary & Janet, and Jim & Cheryl with Ziggy the insane Boston

Ranger Jon and Stephanie and the kids, Loren and Carolyn and Cosmo the shepherd, and Theresa and Glenn and a small pack of yorkies and her sister Leah who we welcomed even though she drove a Mini-Winnie (it was actually really cool inside), Pat and Janice and their sweet yellow lab, and plenty more folks than that. It was a nice sized group this year!

My crazy dogs. Barclay was totally mellow, but Navi just wanted me to get her out of there!

Don & Claudia from Yreka, who we haven’t had a chance to visit with for way too long!

Beautiful scenery, as always

Fun times in our cozy little trailer.

This was the dogs’ favorite place to watch the activities from (when they weren’t in the dog-yard)! They didn’t want to miss anyone coming or going!

And after three days of potlucks and singing and talking around the campfire it was all over and we had to pack up and head back home and to our daily grind. Whenever we do this it reminds me why we have the Airstream, and we wonder why we don’t do it more often. Maybe this year we will!

A day at the Ren Faire

On September 23, 2013 By stefrobrtsIn travelLeave a comment

Went with some friends to the Renaissance Faire in HIllsboro, OR. It was an unfortunate choice of days, because we had a big storm blowing through, with rain coming down hard and the wind whipping the tents around. The birds of prey show got cancelled, but they did a little fly around and then stood around to talk to the small crowd braving the weather. These are the folks from Sky Kings Falconry.

After that came jousting, but again, the weather turned ugly and they finished the show up early, and I don’t think they were going to get to do any more demonstrations during the day. The weather was just insane. Glad we got a bit of clearance to see this much.

They made several passes, but the rain started up again, and the guy on the white horse took a dive and they quickly cleared the arena.

The rest of the time we wandered around and saw some magic, some comedy, and a very funny sword swallower named Tom Silectomy who had to cut out the fire portions of his show because of the intense wind. We also had a variety of treats on a stick (apparently everything is better on a stick), and were harangued by people in costume at every turn. So good food, good friends, and good entertainment, making up for the ridiculously blustery weather. Oh well, the grey skies and wind-nipped extremities made it feel just like jolly old England!

The Kalakala

On July 22, 2013 By stefrobrtsIn scenic, travel3 Comments

Today we drove up to Tacoma, WA to pick up some car parts for the Miata, and decided to spend a little time adventuring around the Hylebos Waterway looking for the Kalakala. I have been fascinated by it since I first heard about it – after all, I love old things, especially stylistically cool old things, and this is a pretty cool looking ferry. I had hoped the efforts to restore it would work out, but they seemed to be cursed by bad luck from the beginning, and now the talk is that it will be hauled away and scrapped soon. So sad! Luckily it is visible in Google maps, and they are recent enough pictures that it is still in the same location (I wasn’t sure because I had seen some recent articles about it being moved).

But through the wonder of modern smartphone GPS navigation, we managed to wander our way right to it. Unfortunately the view was blocked as it was behind locked gates. It was still a thrill when we found our first peek at it.

It is in rough shape, to put it mildly.

Looking the other direction on the waterway, beautiful Mt Rainier was rising up out of the haze.

It was fun cruising around looking for it. Me driving while Dave navigated. The Stealth is such a nice driving car, I don’t give it nearly enough love. Looks damn good too.

At the west end of the waterway is the Hylebos Bridge, and as we drove over it we realized it actually had a great view. So we parked and walked up the bridge to take some pictures with Mt Rainier in the background.

So sad for it to have been rescued from Alaska and brought home to Seattle, only to get scrapped after all Sad smile

I’m glad we got a chance to see it before it was gone.

I ran away this weekend!

On July 19, 2010May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, travel4 Comments

I am a hyper-responsible person. I am responsible for all sorts of things – my dogs, my chickens, my property, my garden, feeding my husband, running the store. Dave says I’m a control freak, but I just like to make sure I don’t drop the ball. I try hard to get everything right! It can be stressful sometimes. This weekend my wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL husband let me run away from home, leaving all my responsibilities in his hands 🙂 I grabbed my big, black van, threw my camping gear in the back, and headed East.

I stopped at Bonneville Dam. I have been reading a wonderful book called Voyage of a Summer Sun about a man’s adventure canoeing the Columbia River from it’s source in Canada to the Pacific, and there is much said about the history of the dams and the indian’s relationship with the river and how the dams changed it. Makes you think about those dams differently, though I still appreciate all the cheap electric power.

BIG electric transmission towers. I hopped back on the highway and continued down to White Salmon, and hung a left, heading for…

Trout Lake, my favorite place in the world 🙂

And what did I find at Trout Lake?

Yeah! Airstreams!

My Airstreaming friends! They were in town for the Trout Lake Arts festival, and Humphrey, Hartman, and Cameron were performing folk music there. That’s all you need to say to have your friends come join you, dragging trailers, pitching tents, or even sleeping in the back of a van.

Saturday morning, with the light just right, we could clearly see the route up the mountain. When people climb Mt Adams they hike up, and slide back down, and the long line in the snow is the glissade path.

The path goes over the top of that ridge, down the other side, and up the next ridge to the summit. Through the binocs I could see tiny little specks of climbers moving along the path. It looked like there were a LOT of them! You can see them in the picture if you know where to look.

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast around the campfire. Then we all went to the Arts Festival to watch Jant, Michelle, and Mary play.

And they were fantastic as always! You can buy their CDs online – totally worth it!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the fire, playing a little music, eating a great pork chop dinner (I made gravy), and then BSing around the campfire. Quite a bit of discussion concerned the porta-pottys which the tenters were having to use (lacking an Airstream with lovely bathroom facilities). Because of another large group nearby also using the pottys, things were starting to pile up, so Gary saved the day by taking a big stik and ‘stirring the pot’. Nasty, but it helped a lot, and the pottys managed to last out the weekend.

The next morning we watched buzzards soaring overhead. Not related to the pottys.

After breakfast I sat around with Jim and Michelle and we played some music. I’ve been playing guitar many years, but have never played with other people, so they helped me along. It was great fun!

After breakfast and music it was time to pull up stakes and head back to the real world. I had hardly thought about my responsibilities all weekend, but they were starting to creep back up on me. Time to head home.

I stopped on the way out of town for this lovely shot of Mt Hood. The drive home was very windy through the gorge, and I stopped in Skamania to take pictures of the windsurfers and parasailers playing on the river.