Oregon Trip - August 11th

We continue our trip along the coast. However, we were battling fog. There was still plenty of photo opportunities though!  We saw a few of these arch bridges.

The first lighthouse we were able to get up close to was the on in Cape Foulweather. Cape Foulweather was discovered by Captain James Cook.

(Doug standing in front of the lighthouse.)

While we were at the gift shop, someone spotted a whale in the distance. I tried to get a good shot but didn't have my large lens with me and by the time I went to get it, the fog had rolled in and blanketed the area where the whale was spotted.

It was low tide so we were able to go down and look through the pools! It's amazing the colors you find!

Doug standing beside one of the tidepools. (Nevermind the people in the background, they wouldn't get out of my shot! ;) )

There were seagulls just about everywhere we stopped, but I loved this one!

It's almost as if he is reading the sign!

I guess it was too foggy to fly!

There were also a lot of seal shots but I love this one with her pup.

A couple of pictures of the fog we were dealing with:

Oregon Trip - August 10th

We arrive in Astoria, Oregon and stop for lunch. I had to have crab, of course! Doug decided on something else.

This bridge spans the widest part of the Columbia river. We didn't get a chance to go over this bridge as we were headed south and not north.

 Before we got into Astoria, there was a little town we stopped in.  I spotted this old bridge and asked Doug to turn around so we could go back.

 There are tons of beaches we were first turn down the 101 Highway. Each one different. Definitely a photographers dream!

The coastline was beautiful!

The first lighthouse we spotted was called Terrible Tillie. Terrible Tillie has some very interesting history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillamook_Rock_Light

We had a very beautiful first sunset on the Oregon Coast!

Oregon Trip - August 9th

Not a lot happening today. We are getting closer though, going along the Columbia river. But before we reached this point, we did come across a couple of interesting things while geocaching. I am not sure what this structure was, but I thought it was interesting.

In another cemetery was this Abbey. The doors were locked so we couldn't go inside to look around.

We also went across the Upper Perry Arch Bridge. This bridge was constructed in the 1960's.

The Highway runs along the river for a very long time! All kinds of water sports, fishing etc could be seen going on. And work too! These barges were up and down the river.

Oregon Trip - August 8

The first thing I do is look to see what are the local attractions in Twin Falls.  I found out the Shoshone Falls was not far from our hotel!
As we drive into the park, there are small waterfalls along the road.

Shoshone Falls was beautiful but I guess the best time to see the full effect is during the spring.

The best part? Was finding out that we weren't far from the spot where Evel Knievel had attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon. I remember watching this on television as a little girl!!

For those that don't know who Evel Kneivel was, check out this website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

I realized that Doug and I hadn't taken one selfie yet on our trip! So, here it is, with Shoshone Falls in the background:

After we left Twin Falls to head out to our next destination, we found a back road with tons of geocaches (called a power trail)!

Even though we were stopping every tenth of a mile, there was still interesting things to see.

Like this burrow owl. I don't think he was happy we were driving by.

When we geocache, we are always looking for critters. In my case, I have a snake phobia! So, when I see a tail hanging down in a tree? Luckily, it was just this little lizard hanging out.

We were going along a road that took us very close to these fans. The made a very loud "whooshing" noise. And that small rectangle at the bottom? It's a door!

Our Oregon Vacation - August 7

So my original intent was to write a blog each day of our trip.... Obviously, that didn't work out! By the time we arrived at our destination at the end of the day, we were almost too tired to eat!
We are in Ely, Arizona. We got up the next morning, which happened to be my birthday! Doug asked me what I would like to do and I said I would like to go to the Hotel Nevada. I had read that it was founded during the prohibition period. You can read more on the hotel at: https://www.hotelnevada.com/
Not only did it have an interesting history, it had a very good breakfast! We gambled for a little while before we hit the road again and I won a little! Happy Birthday to me!

After we left the hotel, we found that there was a geocache in the nearby cemetery. I may have mentioned that geocachers seem to enjoy cemeteries.

I love the different things we get to see when we are on the road. The history, the mystery and the beauty is always there!

One of the rest stops was just outside of Schellbourne, which was a stop for the Pony Express.

This metal cutout is at this rest stop.

These old buildings surely have some very rich history. Now all that's left is the shells.

The beauty can be big or small. All you have to do is look around you.

We found a few caches along the way to our next destination. We arrived in Twin Falls, ID. We found a place to eat where Doug mentioned that it was my birthday, so....

Happy Birthday to me! Yum!

Our Oregon Coast Trip - August 6

Doug and I decided, for our vacation this year, to go to the Oregon coast. I have been wanting to do this for years so it's one of my bucket list items! We decided we were going to geocache our way there and tent it! We figured we could save money this way....

We started off after Doug got off work Friday afternoon. We knew we would be late getting into anywhere so we went ahead and booked a room just outside of Las Vegas.

We booked a room at the Railroad Pass Hotel and Casino. It is celebrating it's 85th year this month (August). We probably wouldn't stay here again but we both did come out with a little more than we went in with, money-wise.

We were off to a lazy start this morning. Tried having breakfast at the hotel, again, probably not the best choice. We waited until we were out of Vegas before we started hunting geocaches.

Some of the geocaches we come across have a history or interesting information.

The Old Spanish Trail passed through this area where we stopped for a cache.

This was very interesting, at least to me, was that Nevada's borders were moved!

Another thing that caught my interest was this fence that ran along the highway we were on. By reading one of the descriptions in one of the caches, I learned that this fence was put up to keep the desert tortoises from crossing the highway and getting run over!

And that explains this street name.

We also came across this cemetery. Cemeteries seem to be very popular with cachers. We didn't have time to explore it though.

I think I have mentioned before about things we see when we geocache. This is something I wouldn't think we would have seen:

I think they were used for target practice!

We passed this sign but turned around to get a picture. The sign was very cool and the town itself was very quaint.

And then there are things that just make you smile!