Diana's and Robin's Travelogue

It's Wednesday morning, and we have had two magical days on the west coast. On Monday morning, we decided to rent a car when we arrived in Portland, and drive out to the ocean. We wouldn't be able to get into the hotel room anyway, and I had never seen the Pacific Northwest. So we picked up Karen at the airport, and the three of us piled ourselves and our luggage into a minivan (they had no cars left in spite of Brad's excellent speedy reservation work while we were en route!) so they upgraded us very cheaply due to Diana's smooth pleading!

The drive was magnificent! Here's a picture of what the scenery looked like - not great, it was from my cell phone as we were driving down the Cascade Mountains toward the beach. Most of these pictures will be cell phone pix, I left my fully charged camera sitting on my desk at home.

When we arrived at the beach, we were amazed! It's stunning. We meandered up the coast, starting at a tiny sweet beach town. We pulled over any time we found an overlook point, or a sign for a beach, or even a road name that sounded intriguing (like Falcon Beach Road). But the best stop of all we named "Full Bladder Cove", because we finally all had to pee quite badly, and made Di pull over at the first available spot. Not sure we would have tried that turn off, because it didn't indicate a beach view, but we suspected there might be a toilet there. We did indeed find an outhouse.

But the best beach spot of all was Full Bladder Cove! It was stunning. Lots of rocks on the beach, and a small cave! Diana and I climbed down to the beach and walked into the cave. Di snapped this picture there. This is the view from inside the cave. At the very back (only about 15 yards in, I would estimate) was a small shelf that made a slightly lumpy chair - I called it the Epiphany Chair. It was truly a magical place, and we might not have found had it not been to pressing full bladders!

We continued up the coast, and eventually found ourselves at the mouth of the Columbia River. We found a good restaurant, where I treated myself to Dungeness Crab and Provolone cheese cakes with fruited rice, and Di and Karen had something boring that didn't include seafood, since neither of them like seafood. They both claim their meals were good - I am doubtful, since in my opinion nothing beats a seafood dish right straight out of the ocean!!!

We finally made it to our hotel at about 10 pm (now up for 21 hours straight) and talked for about an hour before passing out.

On Tuesday, Diana and I continued to explore while Karen attended her UU University sessions. We first went up to the Japanese Gardens, where we ran into a DRE friend of mine named Melanie. The gardens were so peaceful and soothing, and amazingly beautiful. Here's a picture of us in front of one of the waterfalls and a Koi pond. Throughout the gardens, there was a constant sound of trickling water, through streams, waterfalls, fountains, and other delightful surprises tucked under trees and shrubs, or hiding in a tiny nook. We were told the one thing to not miss while in Portland was the Japanese Gardens, and we both were so glad we chose that to start our morning.

I do not understand how anyone can live without one small place of enchantment to turn to.
~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

More later ...