Portland

 

These guys right here. They're the reason we came to Portland. There are a lot of cool things to see and do, but the best thing to do is see these guys--Evan, Tyler, and Rowan--our nephews and great nephew. If their schedule had not allowed us to see them, we would have turned for home after the Avenue of the Giants. Instead, we made our way up to Portland. It wasn't as much time as we would have liked, but it was sweet. Tomorrow we head for home with a stop in the Tetons.

Crater Lake

No words (other than these I've just written).

Trees

Today, we drove and walked among the coastal Redwoods--Sequoia sempervirens. That could (and maybe should) be my entire post. I took 125 photos. I'm going to narrow it down to ten. Tim took at least that many. I made him narrow it down to ten as well...actually it ended up being twelve for me and eight for Tim...I'm the blog writer and editor. :)

But first...coffee...second best coffee of the trip--Black Oak Coffee Roasters in Ukiah, CA. I had my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. Like the coffee from 11th Hour, this cup was perfectly balanced--not too heavy on any one spice, even a hint of pumpkin, and coffee forward. Tim had an iced horchata latte and agreed it was the second best of the trip. (We're still dreaming of 11th Hour coffee in Santa Cruz.)

And now the stars of the show:

There is something special about roaming around these ancient, gentle giants...although they are not so gentle when they fall. The calm. The steadiness. The steadfastness. It's comforting and awe-inspiring all at the same time. It's a reminder to me that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Bookending our day with food. I just might say my fish and chips were best I've ever had. Tim really enjoyed his oyster po' boy.

The waitress was great. When she sat Tim's plate of food on the table, she looked at his sweet potato tots and said, "Oh, those aren't right. Try one and tell me if they're bad." I think Tim's face said it all. She brought him a second basket of perfectly cooked sweet potato tots. :)

I think I may have underestimated the time we would spend driving and walking through the Redwood forests. The Avenue of the Giants is scenic byway 254 that runs alongside highway 101. We also skirted along the coast of northern California but really didn't stop for photos. I snapped a couple as we drove. The fog was rolling in and gave a nice hazy look to them.

Coming back inland, we were back in the Redwoods in the Jedidiah Smith Grove. We pulled into Grants Pass around 8:30 p.m.

Tomorrow, Crater Lake!

Napa Valley

While we're not big wine drinkers, Napa Valley is a cool place to hang out with some great small towns giving small town vibes. We stayed Windsor, just south of Santa Rosa last night so we slept in a bit then drove across to start Napa Valley from the north end. Callistoga was our first stop to get coffee at Callistoga Roastery and a chocolate croissant at Sarmentine Bakery. We strolled the Lincoln Avenue, peeked our heads into a couple stores, then got back in the car and headed down St. Helena Hwy. There was a cool little section of train cars that were set up as tasting rooms.

Tim also saw a chair made of wine barrel staves. I think it would look pretty cool on our porch, so I'm putting it on Tim's to-do list to make one. :)

From there we headed into St. Helena. Tim remembered, from 2007, that we purchased some really nice olive oils from St. Helena Olive Oil Co. We couldn't seem to find a retail outlet and wondered if they had gone out of business. We found, instead, Napa Valley Olive Oil Mfg. We popped in there to purchase olive oil. Tim did a little research only to find that Napa Valley Olive Oil Mfg. is commonly known as St. Helena Olive Oil Co. Maybe we found it after all.

While in St. Helena, we walked the main street and actually went into a few stores. I think we may have actually been profiled in an Ace Hardware Store that carried some cute little home decor and kitchen supplies. A little Hispanic woman followed us around the store, dusting things that didn't need to be dusted. :)

Our next stop was a quick one at Oakville Grocery to pick up a couple gifts for folks at home.

From there, we stopped in at Bouchon Bakery in Yountville for a killer Jambon-Beurre, a TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo) and a Better Nutter (his version of a Nutter Butter). All three were delicious. I keep forgetting to take photos of the food before we eat!

We made an early day of it, driving back up Sonoma Valley to Hwy 101 where we drove a bit farther to Ukiah, CA. We did some laundry and relaxed a bit.