I had time to get up the pics but not a lot of time to write up a log of our activities. That will come later. For now, just view our fun.

Posted by Bugimus @ 10:48 AM PST [Link it]

There is a bit of repeat in the beginning of this but I wanted to get it all up and I don't have as much time to edit all of this. Take it "as is".

GENERAL THOUGHTS

One thing I realized is that on this trip I will NOT be hearing “Daddy are we there yet?” all the way. What I will hear a lot is, “Daddy, me go there? Me go there?” LOL Whenever Kianna sees something interesting the mantra begins. It’s pretty funny.

8/8/04 – 8/9/04

We stopped at Salem because of the enchanted forest for Kianna but the real reason was that Buggy had to have his free hi speed internet access at the hotel there. At least that’s Wella’s version of events.

We left Salem and didn’t use the free Denny’s breakfast coupons but ate at McDonald’s instead to save time. I ordered my usual McVeggie burger and then we stopped in the parking lot to eat. It’s a good thing we did because they had given me a grilled chicken instead. I can’t believe how nice people are here in Oregon. As soon as I walked in with sandwich in hand, the guy at the counter said, “Uh oh what did we do wrong?” I said, “This isn’t exactly a veggie burger.” They sent it to the back for a replacement and then he and another guy said that the chicken was a better deal anyway and I told them I didn’t eat meat. “You don’t eat meat?” they replied unbelievingly. I explained I was a vegetarian and they started asking my why I don’t starve and how great meat is and I could barely keep a straight face. Anyways, the manager offered a free coupon for next visit and I told her we were from out of town and so she gave me two free apple pies for my trouble. They were all such nice an pleasant people that I felt I was in another world. Where I come from, people just don’t act that way, and if they do it’s assumed something is weird about them.

One thing about Oregon that is interesting too is that you cannot pump your own gas. It’s against the law. Apparently, they have a law there to provide more jobs for young people and they figured that forcing gas stations to hire service attendants was the way to do it. Weird place, Oregon =D

It was about 130 miles from Salem to Olympia. We had two choices for camping in the National Park one is Staircase and the other was at Brinnon. Wella chose Brinnon and the view along the channel was really pretty. There were lots of oyster and seafood stores along the way, real small ones so they’re probably good quality. Then we got to Brinnon and found out the road to the camp site was washed out so we decided to go back about 20 miles back to Hoodsport which takes us up to the Staircase campground inside the National Park.

We finally reached Staircase at 6:30 PM but we were really glad we went all the way instead of finding a campground lower. It is beautiful here. The trees are so tall and the air is filled with the scent of pine and campfires. There is a river just a few campsites from where we are right now and you can hear it rolling along all day and night. It is the kind of soothing white noise that just sings to your soul.

We got here a bit late so we needed to get to work on our 3 bedroom, yes three, tent. I broke out the box and the instructions. Kianna was absolutely beside herself with excitement about putting up the tent. She wanted to help us with every step. All I can hear in my mind is “Mommy help you?” “Daddy help you?” It was really very sweet and the kind of memory that will make my cry when I’m old but when you’re actually trying to get the tent up before nightfall it can be a bit annoying.

Once the tent was up we needed to get our air mattress all pumped up and ready. We had purchased this really nifty electric pump at REI and we had an AC adapter that plugged into the car’s outlet. I even remembered to bring a long extension cord to reach the tent from the car. So I hooked it all up and turned it on and blah. Oops! The AC is designed for charging the battery only and not for running the thing! I should have charged it up the night before in the hotel. But you can run the pump directly from the car outlet, 12V DC. But I didn’t have a cord that was that long so we brought the mattress over to the car. Man this pump works fast! The mattress was fully inflated in just a couple of minutes. So then the only thing remaining was to see if a fully inflated bed would fit through our tent door. It was actually a snap, it fit right in and we were set for our sleeping situation so it was time to turn to food.

But we succeeded and then we got the stoves out to cook up a warm meal.

Wella went to the bathroom after dinner and took forever to get back. I was getting quite concerned and it turns out she got lost and was wandering the campground looking for us. That would have been a strange thing to tell people about how I lost my wife in a campground and never found her again. Since I’m a bit fatalistic, I was already getting visions of kidnapping and horrible things. She finally showed up a little scared but we were all relieved.

I had neglected to purchase any firewood on the way up but wouldn’t you just know that a guy drove up selling plenty for a few bucks? That was real nice. The campfire was great and we test our new camping chairs. They are a big success. They recline at just the right angle that I prefer and are very comfortable.

In fact, I am writing this in our tent sitting on one of our chairs right now with my laptop. I’ve never been this comfortable while camping in my life. Wella and Kianna are snoozing in the bed all snuggled up and I’ve got my feet on the bed and am kicking back computing in the great outdoors. This tent is just the right size for us.

The next morning (8/9) we had hotcakes and hot chocolate instead of coffee. They were both excellent.

Wella and Kianna played hide and seek today. It was such a pleasure to watch those two play. Kianna is such a happy little kid.

We heard today that there was a bear sited in the campground last night. One thing that is posted all over the place is to not leave any garbage or food out so as to not tempt the bears. Well, I heard the ranger speaking to the people next to us and the bear was sited by them and just two campsites over from us! Apparently the jokers in that site didn’t put their food away. They had a dog and it spooked the bear away but that is just un called for. The ranger says they will most likely have to put the bear down because people just won’t keep their sites clean. It’s a crying shame that has to be done because people are so irresponsible.

Camping things that didn’t work out:

1. Bed air mattress is actually cold at night. That was a surprise we expected it to be all toasty. So we needed to put a blanket between us and it. RESOLUTION: This worked perfectly! One blanket between us and the mat keeps us as toasty as we originally planned.
2. Coffee maker that I use in the hotels and at home draws way too much juice from the car adapter and won’t work. I need a better way to get good coffee while camping! THIS IS CRITICAL. I ended up with a caffeine headache because I didn’t get my morning coffee. RESOLUTION: I got a bunch of starbucks double shots and plan to heat them up in the morning to get my caffeine fix.
3. Portable cooler for the car is really not very useful. It takes a long time for it to cool and when it does, it isn’t very cool at all. RESOLUTION: threw it in the back out of the way.

8/10

Yesterday we got up fairly early and organized all our camping gear and broke down the camp and got it all in the car. We have a lot more room now that we’ve compacted everything. We left the camp around 11AM and then at the bottom of the mountain we got some breakfast/lunch. We then decided to drive back the way we came to cut over to see Bremerton. When we got there, it looked like just a nice town with a Navy base. In the harbor there were several large navy ships and I guess the town is known a bit as a navy town. It was a quaint place in what we saw and then we even noticed a lot of the same store chains like Albertons and Rite Aid. It looked very nice. But I really don’t like cities very much so I wasn’t very excited or anything. Once we got out of town and started driving through the forested areas once again I liked it much better.

We made our way up to Port Angeles and got a hotel in downtown overlooking the port where the ferry docks. In fact, our hotel room has a beautiful view of the port and the downtown area. We left a little late, around 6PM, to see if we could drive up to Hurricane Ridge which is just above Port Angeles but realized the visitor center was closed already and it would be a 45 minute drive to the top. We figured it would be nicer to come back and rest and get a nice dinner and start fresh in the morning. So when we got back we found this excellent Italian restaurant called Bella Vino. The food was amazingly delicious and Wella had a nice glass of wine and I had two bottles of that Alaskan Amber ale. Yummy! Kianna really behaved herself this time and was enjoying herself quite a bit.

This hotel, Quality Inn at Port Angeles, has a deluxe continental breakfast. That means that in addition to pastries and juice, they offer hard boiled eggs, waffles, hot and cold cereal, toast, and English muffins. The waffles were fantastic and there is free wireless internet access in the breakfast room.

While we were getting ready to get breakfast, a fellow traveler asked me if he could use my laptop to transfer his photographs from his camera to his keychain storage device. I was happy to oblige and I got to chat with him and his wife a bit. They were visiting here from France. They had flown into Vancouver and had about a month to drive down to San Francisco to fly out from there. They were a very nice couple and I thought it was very cool that our electronic devices had come such a way as to work seamlessly as they did. He just connected his camera and storage device to the USB ports and everything else was a snap. A few years ago this would have been an all day task to get all the drivers set up and all. Windows XP really is a nice OS considering.

Ok, we’re staying one more night in this really cool room. One of the reasons we wanted to take off a month was so that we could do exactly this sort of thing. We don’t feel like getting to the next destination and so we’re staying put and relaxing. Just take a look at this view! (see picture section below)

8/11

Today we got up and had a nice breakfast at the hotel. Then we headed up to Hurricane Ridge. There were really pretty mountain wildflowers growing along the road side on the way up. The view was amazing. One of the things I noticed about the mountain range was that all the peaks were about the same elevation, it was like a very long wall. There are remnants of a glacier on this range.

We picnicked up at the visitor center and then had some ice cream. We also found a good looking set of 4 coasters for our office at home. They are made of very absorbent sandstone and should match our desk perfectly.

When we got back to the hotel, we noticed that there was a farmer’s market just below in downtown. We figured a stroll through the city was in order. They were playing some good ole country music at the market and had some really nice honey and berry products.

We took a turn toward to harbor next and although it was quite windy, the temperature was really perfect. You didn’t really feel too hot or too cold. It was extremely pleasant the whole day.

Luckily for Kianna, there was a marine discovery center in the marina and she got to play in a little sand play box as well as check out a couple of octopuses they had just brought in. She then got to play on a little beach outside the center for a while and make some sand castles with us.

We were pretty hungry after all of that so we decided to try out the town’s Mexican restaurant. Hacienda del Mar was its name and all I can say is that it is a strange world when you have to drive all the way to Washington state to enjoy some of the best Mexican food there is. I knew we were in good shape as soon as I tasted the chips and salsa they brought out. They even had a vegetarian selection featuring spinach tamales with tomatillo and cream sauce. It was excellent! Wella had camarones ala Diablo (devil shrimp) which were shrimps smothered in a red chile sauce with rice and beans. She remarked that most Mexican places we’re used to just have spicy hot sauce but this one was spicy and extremely tasty on top of that. Anyway, I told the owner how good it was and how we came from California and loved Mexican food and it turns out he was from the San Fernando Valley himself. That’s just a couple hours north of where we live.

I’ve noticed that I’ve developed a pattern for the trip so far. I wake up at 2AM most mornings and then again at 4AM. Well, this morning I took advantage of it and got all these pictures uploaded and got this text in somewhat readable shape. We’ll see if it continues.

Posted by Bugimus @ 09:27 AM PST [Link it]

We had a really yummy breakfast in Medford before we took off. Wella and Kianna shared a traditional American breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, browns, and toast. I did just fine, being the vegetarian, with my cheesy hash browns and oatmeal.

We had planned to make our way up to Olympia National Park but instead we decided to stop in Salem, Oregon. There is a really cool little amusement park geared for young kids just out of town called The Enchanted Forest. They have all sorts of story book characters and fun little mazes and such. Kianna had an absolutely wonderful time there and Wella and I were enjoying every minute as well.

After exploring the Enchanted Forest we found a Thai restaurant down the street. It was called Thai Beer. They had beer, but food too =). We ordered some really spicy tom yum soup and when it came it wasn't spicy at all so I thought they had seriously toned down the food for Oregonians. But then when the fried fish came it was super spicy and then I realized it was just a mix up in the order. That was actually a good thing because Kianna wanted the soup because it reminded her of sinigang which she loves at home.

So today the plan is to definitely get to Olympia National Park and get a camp site. We need a few extra hours of day light because we have never used the new tent we bought and have a few other new things we need to work out before we get our camping routine down to a science. It should be beautiful! Time to sign off now and we may not get to a connection for a couple of days while we're camping.

Posted by Bugimus @ 09:23 AM PST [Link it]

We took off from the homestead about 2:08 in the afternoon, Thursday. We took I-5 straight up to Suisus City to visit Wella's brother. We encountered road contruction twice which added an extra 2 hours to our trip and so we got to the house late. But we had a good visit all the same.

Wella's sister-in-law runs a day care in her home and Kianna was in heaven playing with all the toys that evening and then with the kids that were there the next morning.

We then left around 11AM and shot up to Medford, Oregon. What a beautiful drive that was. As soon as we got to the more forested areas it was just gorgeous. We booked a night at the Rogue Regency Inn here in Medford. I wanted to stop a little early so we could have some pool time with Kianna. She absolutely loved it and we all had a great time in the water and jacuzzi. This hotel is really nice because they offer all sorts of great services. They even gave us coupons for two complimentary drinks for dinner. I had a pint of Alaskan Amber (nice!) and Wella had a soothing glass of White Zinfandel (chick drink).

I just checked the internet for when the Kite Festival will begin and it is August 16-22 in Long Beach, Washington. Check out the specs here: http://www.kitefestival.com/

Posted by Bugimus @ 09:44 AM PST [Link it]