Monday, March 19, 2012

Our Adventures in the Mountains

We left Eureka, California on Saturday morning.  Still not 100% sure of our destination.  We knew that we were going to head north towards Oregon though.  A lot depended on the weather.


We drove on highway 101 along the coast for most of the morning.  The coastline here was much different than that of the coast in central California.  It was rugged, but very beautiful!






We found an amazing little fishing village, Port Orford, in which to have lunch.  It was a little shack called Griffs, right on the coast with such fresh seafood.  Casey had a crab sandwich and I had cioppinno.  They were both fantastic.  And the view was just as good!




We then crossed over to I5 and headed north on a major highway.  The roads here were pretty boring.  We stayed in Eugene, Oregon for the night.  What a cute town.  It is home to the University of Oregon.  The downtown area was full of little shops/restaurants.  We ended up going to another local brew pub for dinner called Steelhead Brewery.   Two nights in a row at a brew pub!  It was great!



Sunday morning we looked at the weather.  Casey decided that the snow storm was moving ahead of us so we wouldn't have to deal with bad weather crossing the mountains coming east.  Good decision!  So, we headed towards Spokane, Washington.  The scenery was once again amazing and very different from one region to another.  Driving from Eugene to start, we drove along the Columbia River.  The views were amazing!







Oh yeah.  There was an accident on the highway so we were bumper to bumper for a while (with Casey driving) and we got rear ended!!!!!  Nothing major though. 

And then we found a winery!  So, we had to stop.  We have now visited wineries in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Washington!  I missed the ones in Oregon because it was too early in the day!



When we left the winery and continued north, we ended up driving through a desert again.  Who knew that Washington State had a desert?????

Finally arrived in Spokane for the night.  We decided to grab some food and hang out in our room to relax instead of going out for dinner again.  Besides, we had a bottle of wine we got at the winery that we wanted to have.

Today we got up and headed east:(  That means we are really on our way home and our trip will be ending soon.  But, still lots to do and see!  We decided to drive to Livingston, Montana today.  What a trip!  Leaving Spokane, we drove through mountains for hours!!!!  Such beauty!  Even though it was snowy!







Somewhere in here, we entered Montana.


As we headed down the mountain (we peaked at about 6500 feet today), the snow on the ground went away, but it stayed on the mountain sides.










We made it to Livingston, Montana at about 4:30pm  (we lost an hour today because of a change in timezone).  Went to the visitors centre to find out about Yellowstone Park.  Good thing we did.  Apparently, only 55 miles of the park is open and the only way in and out is from the entrance about an hour south of us.  So, tomorrow we head to Yellowstone!  Unfortunately, Old Faithful won't be seen because it is in part of the park that is closed:(.  We will stay here again tomorrow and then continue our journey east on Wednesday.  A stop in Rapid City will allow us to visit Mount Rushmore and the Badlands National Park.

We hope everyone at home is enjoying the fabulous weather you are getting!  Your weather has been a lot better than ours the past few days.  But looking ahead, we are hopeful to get back into the sunshine and warmth soon!!!!!

Enjoy!

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