The Great Mikegration

Cover Photo: Banana Slug on the Hall of Mosses Trail taken from the HOH Rain Forest Visitor Center in Olympic National Park;

Adventure Map Days 9-12;

Day 9: 07/13/22

• Woke up beachside at the Pacific Reef Hotel right besides Gold Beach. Basically ate a ehhhh breakfast and then walked out the hotel a few steps to the beach. Always a good way to start the day! Needless to say we went for a walk on the beach that morning.
• Checked out by 8am and drove down the road to the Mary D. Hume ship located at the Port of Gold Beach. Mary is an ex tugboat that was retired in 1978 and left in the water at the Port. She briefly served as a Halibut ship also. Beautiful place!!! Annoying tourists wouldn’t move out of the way so I could take a photo so my photo has her in it…. Like for 15 minutes… Ughhh.

• Drove to some windy ass road and went up but got stuck behind a construction vehicle that was headed up to the trailhead to do maintenance so turned around and headed on to our next stop after 30 minutes of 10 mph. Before you ask just no. No place to pass/turn around as it was a one lane road with a semi pulling a bulldozer in front of us.
• Next stop is the Myrtle Tree Trail at the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Home of Oregon’s largest known Myrtle Tree. 88 feet tall, 42 feet in circumference and a canopy of nearly 70 feet wide! What a magnificent tree! Just a short hike up a steep hill and the beauty is yours to behold. Well…what they didn’t put into the brochure or the hiking trailhead sign is this is Oregon’s (former) largest crepe myrtle tree. It blew over in a storm and is no more except for what you see laying on the ground. Very sad; bet it was beautiful in its day.
• Drove wayyyyy back into Agness with a convenience store open three days a week and a post office and that’s all folks!!! Some camping cabins along the way and it’s way back in the middle of nowhere as you have to drive besides a river to finally get to a bridge then circle back all the way about 40 miles or so. Took us a good hour or hour and a half to drive it. Was worth every mile!!!! Love their town sign!!!!

• Learned what a fribble was
• Windy salmon road and hiked Otter Point with some beautiful views.
• Continued on Highway 101 to Sisters Rock in Port Orford, OR and hiked to the cool sea cave. Very windy but well worth it!
• Continued up Highway 101 to the Prehistoric Gardens – learned something new. If you have kids this is a must do!! Lots of dinosaur models in a rainforest setting with lots of fun facts too! We loved it!

• Next stop of the day is the Port Orford Lifeboat Station Museum with the old dude like me. He has my highest respect! This was one of those stops where you didn’t think would be much however it was much!!!! Well done!!!
• Next stop on Highway 1 was Something Awesome and it was!! Lot’s of handmade life size carvings out of driftwood of dragons, ET’s, well really about anything you can think of! The amount of time it must take him to do this is mind boggling. If we lived closer I’d have been sorely tempted.

• Driving on we passed and u-turned for Misty Meadows jams. They make local jams and such. We bought a few for the road that we had never tried before. All were good. They do ship and the webpage is http://www.gotjam.com so I know where to order when I run out. lol
• Next stop was Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint. Home of Face Rock, Cat and Kittens Rocks, Elephant Rock, Cathedral Rock, and Table Rock. Face Rock was named from a story by the Coquille Tribe whose moral of the story is to follow the advice of their Elders and respect the power of Nature. Always good advice!!! – Speaking of good advice please always follow the rules and have respect for nature. While we were at the park someone had jumped off a rock they shouldn’t have been on and shouldn’t have jumped off of. We saw the helicopter screaming in and med units hit the beach at a run. Don’t know what ended up happening to the individual but hope they were ok. Great job on the response of the authorities/medical personnel. They helivaced him off the shore quicker than I ever thought would have been possible.
• Back to Highway One and more adventure! Stopped and took a picture at the Hobbit Trailhead but was starting to get late so we didn’t have time to hike it. Sigh…..next time…..

• On to the highly anticipated Thor’s well. Boo. Disappointing at low tide. Supposed to spectacular if you catch it at the right time though. We did not…..
• Headed to resort town of Newport, OR to stay at the Inn at Nye Beach. Very nice hotel. They seemed a little “something ” when we checked in but it all worked out ok. Check in seemed to take longer and not be very smooth as I ended up even having to go back to the front desk later to take care of an issue. They did have a new person working front desk so I’ll cut them some slack as I’ve been in those type situations before and patience it just part of the process. They did give us (and everyone else) complimentary freshly French Press ground coffee which was very good.
• Having said the above the room was very clean with a great view of the beach. Bonus brownie points to them as there was a working fireplace in the room and lighthouse in the distance that your could see from the room. Would stay again.
• Both of us were hungry so we ordered some seafood. Yeah, would do Dominos next time. Overall the town closes early but is is very very walkable and enjoyable.

Day 10: 07/14/22

• Great night’s sleep at the Inn at Nye Beach in Newport, OR. The view really is nice in the morning as we got up and we enjoyed our press coffee while discussing life on the porch overlooking the ocean. Just can’t beat those type of moments or put a price tag on them. They are truly special.
• Needing some breakfast to go with our coffee after our deep discussing we went to Camp One Coffee & Donuts. One more cup of coffee with the new funky of the day – cupcake with chocolate and caramel (Yum), two burritos that were very large and tasty, and donuts dipped to order. Pretty cool on the donuts. You get to pick the toppings you want on them and then they put them on real time while you wait. Did take them a little long to do but was worth it. Those burritos and donuts were tasty!!!
• Being inspired from our burrito’s, funky, and donuts we had to stop at another bakery to taste test. On to Depoe Baykery in Gleneden Beach, OR. Have to say in the areas we visited (not Portland) they were the best donuts in Oregon but not so much in hand washing. They had some funky flavors ( we got marionberry bear claw, strawberry cream cheese turn over, jalapeno strawberry fritter super good, turtle donut), as well as all the old regulars of glazed and apple fritters, etc and they were all very, very good. Just need to train the staff better on hand washing protocol… Moving on!
• Well sugared up from our donut stops we drove to Drift Creek Falls Trail 1378 (TrailHead) to hike a little and play on the suspension bridge. After yet another windy road we arrived and thoroughly enjoyed the trail and our hike. Lots of the hikers had dogs who were all well trained and just a joy to be around. It did take us a little while to get back to the Suspension Bridge but was well worth it. We did notice on our way out that it was getting substantially busier and crowded so good timing for us that we got out right before crowds.

• Next stop was a little out of the way for how we were headed but since we love our sweets we wanted to make the trip. On to The Brigittine Monastery – Priory of Our Lady of Consolation. The drive to the monastery drive was pretty with farmland. The chocolates and truffles were good but otherwise disappointing as they didn’t seem super welcoming and I’m not sure what the right word is, sterile maybe?? Believe was just an off day, but was kind of a strange experience and not at what I expected; maybe that’s what made it seem so strange to us.
• Drove on to the Pelican bay brewery but it was wayyy too busy so skipped on down the road to our next stop.
• Jacobsen Salt Company; don’t blink or you’ll miss the entrance! What a fun place! It was also busy but fun. Parking was a little tricky but it worked out. While we were waiting for our turn to go into the salt shop we heard a bald eagle which always makes for a cool day!
• Next stop was the Tillamook cheese factory in Tillamook. Cool cheese factory that has tours, fun, and lots of people. Took the self guided tour, ate a couple of samples, and bought some cheese in the souvenir shop. Olivia ordered some to be shipped to us back home however it didn’t arrive in edible condition. Not sure if it was because of the packing or the delivery company. Very disappointing that she had told them and they didn’t do anything to help us.

• Stopped in at de Garde brewing to quench our thirst. The service was great as was the atmosphere. We didn’t like it at all as everything we tried was very sour. I do realize that some people love this taste however we are NOT those people.
• Back on Highway 101 again we stopped at Proto Pup -Home of the Original Corndog located in Rockaway Beach, OR. Yes, it’s where corndogs were invented. Back in the late 1930’s George and Versa Boyington ran a small hot dog stand on the beach; when the rain came and ruined the buns George Boyington came up with the idea of cooking a “bun” as needed. He created a pancake batter-based mix and the duo came up with the formula still used today. The Pronto Pup made its big commercial debut from a fountain shop window owned by them in Portland, OR. This spot is also the home to the World’s Largest Corndog, and the World’s First Riding Mechanical Corndog!
• Needing some desert after our action filled stop at Pronto Pups we drove onward to Bruce’s Candy Kitchen which has been open since 1963 with homemade taffy. After refilling our coffers with yummy, multiple flavors of taffy we are back on the road to check in at our hotel for the night located at the edge of Oregon and Washington state; the awesome Astoria Riverwalk Inn located in Astoria, OR.
• Got ourselves checked in and a recommendation for some great Thai food at the Curry & CoCo Thai Eatery downtown. It’s a small place downtown and we didn’t get there until about 7:45pm at night. Service was a little slow but it sure was good. Everything was homemade and well worth the wait. Highly suggest eating there if ever in Astoria.
• Back to the Astoria Riverwalk Inn for a great nights sleep. From our room you can see the Astoria-Meglar Bridge, and the majestic Columbia River. Very peaceful night.

Day 11: 07/15/22

• We woke up refreshed at the Astoria Riverwalk Inn in Astoria.
• Saw a racoon with her two babies and some baby geese with their mom from the window as we were eating our breakfast in the hotel lobby.
• Wanted to explore around Astoria some as it’s a beautiful town. First stop was the Hanthorn Cannery Museum. Basically a museum that talks about the history of canning in the area and more. Pretty informative and interesting if you take the time to go through it and watch some of the old videos and read the material. Cool old fishing ships, canning machinery also. Did meet the caretaker also. Was an older fellow that sounded like he had an Australian accent. Little funny but he’d been doing it his whole life…..
• Next stop was the Columbia River Maritime Museum which was surprisingly good. You really wouldn’t think it at all, but was just really impressed. It’s a must see stop and plan on spending a few hours there. Well worth the time. Lots of great stories and history in there. Makes you really appreciate the Coast Guard also!!

• Flavek Museum house –  looked cool but just like an old rich person’s house. Victorian house with Queen Anne elements. Very nicely done and tragic family story. I especially liked the sign in the picture about how they were the typical Victorian upper-middle class family. Worth a visit.
• Onto Lewis and Clark National Historic Park Fort Clatsop – not as good as Dakota to me but still good and educational. Worth the stop to look around and appreciate what all this group did.

• Having gotten a little history at the museum we went on to The Astoria Column so we could get up high and see some of the beautiful views. The Astoria Column was completed in 1926 by the Great Northern Railroad and Vincent Astor. Vincent was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, who founded Astoria. This monument depicts the discover and settlement of the Columbia River until the arrival of the railway. Once you climb to the top we could see Mt St .Helens and Mt Rainier amongst other awesome scenery. Lot of people came here to just picnic and spend some time looking at the views. Be aware that you have to pay for parking! Stuck around here until about 2:15pm and then back on our way to cross the giant bridge and into Washington state
• Drove over the Columbia River via the Astoria-Meglar Bridgbridge – anticlimactic for Evan but scary for dad. In all fairness, it’s a very high bridge and I wasn’t the only one going slow!
• Made a left once we got across the bridge and within a mile we saw our first roadside coffee shop; the Chinook Coffee Company Espresso! An appropriate stop for our foray on this trip into Washington. Great Espresso and we got yummy banana nut bread for a snack. Love Washington!

• Next up was Long Beach, WA and the World Kite Museum. – was incredibly engrossing and we are now both interested in kites and flights 

• The Cranberry Museum & Gift Shop in Long Beach was next – interesting and very informative. Dry and wet harvesting etc., and yummy homemade cranberry ice cream. Definitely take a few minutes out and go visit if you’ve never been to a cranberry farm before.

• Back on the road and driving to Olympia, WA.
• Changed from yellow car to slugbugs game as to many yellow cars!
• Checked into our hotel early for the night, the TownePlace Suites Olympia in Olympia, WA. Well, early for us anyway…… Did laundry and ordered pizza so quite the exciting finish to the day.

Day 12: 07/16/22

• Woke up. Always a good start to the day….
• Stopped at two donut shops, both forgettable; so forgettable I don’t even have their name. Coffee was good – white chocolate, pistachio, huckleberry. My favorite so far of the trip.
• Had to get a picture with Sharky the giant shark in Ocean Shores.
• Drove by the coolest Surfing Bigfoot in all of the USA located at the North Beach Motel so made a U-turn to grab a pic so I could be cool with him!
• Tried to find Lady Washington in Aberdeen, WA but was unable to so had to move on to the next stop. On our exploration we did see a huge tent camp set up underneath the bridge in Aberdeen. Very humbling and made us feel appreciative for all we have.
• Drove a lot to get to the World’s Largest Sitka Spruce in Quinault, WA. Worth the journey. 191 ft tall, 58 ft 11″ circumference and abut 1000 years old.

• Driving on from the Sitka Spruce to see the Tree of Life historical landmark on the beach in Olympic National Park. off of highway 101. Kinda cool. You park and then short hike down to the beach and then to the Tree; only takes 20-30 minutes. Pretty neat how it is situated with the roots/suspended. Glad we went.
• Continuing with our tree theme we drove to Duncan Memorial Cedar Tree in Forks, WA. It’s the world’s largest Western Red Cedar in the world; 178 ft high and 19.4 ft in diameter. It’s quite a drive to get back to it but worth the time. Looks like it had a close call sometime in the past as I could see where someone had touched a chainsaw to it. Fortunately it was just a touch and no damage appeared to have been done. Interesting story as we were driving back to the tree we watched some dude driving an RV get stuck in a ditch. Looked like he was trying to do a three point turn in the road and went back to far and hit high center. He wasn’t going anywhere. Coming back about an hour or so later we had to stop and wait for the tow truck to pull him out of the ditch. Looked pretty easy as they chained him to a tree on the opposite side of the road and winched him out. Had to be hard on his vehicle as it was dragging bottom when they pulled him out. Hope he had insurance!
• Oh no!!!! Once he got pulled out by the tow truck we followed him down the road and onto highway 101. Highway 101 is kinda narrow in a few places and when he drove over a bridge there was an oncoming vehicle. You guessed it; he moved over to far on the bridge and he scratched the side of the RV on a bridge. Saw him pull over right after that… Oh man; I don’t know this guy but no one deserves that. Hope his day got better.

• Drove to Ruby beach but it was closed so we moved on down the road.
• Next up was the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center and we were pumped!!! So, we hauled butt to the entryway and promptly turned into a traffic jam. Lots of road construction going on by the lake where they were protecting the road from the water/erosion. Bottom line is we were waiting in line to get in for about an hour or so before we got to the entryway of the park. Not all was bad news though. Due to just sitting there bored out of our mind we got out of the vehicle along with many others and met some cool people. Best one had to be Victoria. She was driving a converted UPS to camper vehicle and was loving life. Loved this girl! She was so positive all the time and seemed to have the blessings of the Lord on her. She didn’t even reserve a camping spot and they were full yet they have her a spot for 2 nights camping for super cheap. Blessings to YOU, Victoria wherever your travels have taken you now!
• Finally made it to the visitor center, got our facts straight for the hike and set foot on the Hall of Mosses trail to find the elusive Banana Slug. Fun facts about Banana Slugs; they live up to 7 years old, grow up to 9 inches, eat poop, and have 27,000 teeth!
• The hike is short but one of the best. Ran into a ranger on the trail and shot the breeze for a little bit. Ended up there was also Roosevelt Elk in the area and more importantly they had seen some black bear recently including a young one that was climbing a tree. Because of the bear spotting’s the rangers were walking the trail continuously to make sure the bears and people were safe. My hats off to all the rangers we saw and talked to on our trip. They are all fantastic individuals whose love of the outdoors and wildlife is spectacular. I want them to know how much my daughter and I appreciated them and all they do! On the hike we not only saw spectacular scenery but also four banana slugs with the last one being huge (about 6 inches in length) and counting for two so really we saw 5 or 6! Overall we spent about an hour and half on our hike. The hike is easy by the way; you just won’t want to go fast on it as it’s so nice.

• Finished up at the park about 4:30pm and began our trek back out of the park and on to Forks; home of Bella from Twilight. I didn’t know anything about Twilight or Bella but fortunately my daughter was well versed and educated me. lol
• Arriving in Forks an holding my daughters stop hostage we went to the Legend of Bigfoot shop in Forks – the awesomest store on the planet! It’s the hugest Biggest Bigfoot store in the world and I want to squatch there! Dreams really do come true in Forks… Cool merchandise and all things Bigfoot related. This is a true Bigfoot store and yes I bought there!
• Finally allowing my daughter to drag me out of the Bigfoot store we walked down the street a couple blocks to the Forever Twilight store where she got her friend Nadine a shirt. Ok, I’m not a Twilight guy but if you are into it this store is for you!
• Leaving the Twilight store we did a drive by the Swan House to take a photo of Bella’s house which you can stay at if you want to pays your money. Shockingly enough it’s booked up months and months ahead of time! Big fail here as I thought I had photos of the house and shop but I did not. Sorry everyone!
• Drove onward to Sequim via Port Angeles and was rewarded with a rock to the windshield for our diligence. Fortunately it didn’t do more than put a good chip in the windshield and we drove on to our hotel for the night in Sequim, WA. Checked in to the Sundowner Motel and got situated. Decided we were hungry after our day and needed some real food for dinner.

• Followed the recommendation from the Motel and went to Shadowline Burgers & Brews for our dinner. This is a great burger place. They have some really cool custom burgers that they do, service is good, beer is good, atmosphere is good and the food is GREAT!!! In fact we were so hungry and the food was so good I forgot to take pictures of the place and the burgers. Arghhhhh. Again, the burgers were great!!!
• Two burgers and beers later and back to the Sundowner Motel in Sequim, WA for a well deserved nights rest.