FLASHBACK: The Great Northwest Road Trip 2016: Part 1

I am preparing a blog post on an unusual donut shop on the other side of town. It reminded me of another place in Portland we visited a few years back. I thought I'd enclose a link to that encounter should anyone be curious. So, I flipped through the pages of my blog and...where was it? It wasn't in my blog anywhere. It must have been a pre-blog email thing I'd sent to friends directly. I scoured my email and found this very first section. My mother was able to find more of them---but I am still shy a few parts. I'll try my best to get the completed saga up. But here is the first chapter:

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Hi there. I am up in the Bay Area for a quick trip to celebrate Erich's birthday. I need to work on my lesson plans for the class on dysreflexia I have to teach. I was hoping to have it done BEFORE I came up...but I barely got the grant done (for breast pumps and mini-refrigerators) in time. My deadline for the lesson plan is Friday...I'll have to email them in...but I have to actually DO it first. UGH.

However, at the moment, we are waiting for a visit from Erich's friend Hilda. So, while I'm waiting, I thought I'd send PART 1 of the Road Trip. For me, the trip started on the 26th of June, when I left Fresno in the rental car we'd have for the trip. I got to the Bay Area that evening...and the next day, Erich, Ashley, Ricki, Ted and I set out. That day's goal was to get to Dunsmuir, California...just a little south of Shasta. We would be staying at the Railroad Park  Resort, a place where all of the hotel rooms are  converted cabooses. Very cool.





The inside was bigger than it looked. Erich volunteered to take the little bed and I got the big bed.



Ricki and Ted's had an extra upper seating area.




After getting settled in, we went in to Dunsmuir. Our first stop was at this funky but friendly bar called Spirits.





 From there we went to dinner at a place called Yaks on the 5. There were signs saying it was voted one of the top restaurants in the country (on YELP apparently). We didn't believe that as we approached the place, but it turned out to be mighty tasty. We all liked it. ​But we were being loud and maybe a bit obnoxious and, as you can see, we scared the other diners away. Ha!




After breakfast in Shasta the next morning, we drove and drove (and drove and drove) and finally reached Florence, Oregon and the home of Ricki's brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Beth.



Of course, even though Beth and Steve (and their son Louis, who was home from college) are great, the real stars there are the dogs, Scout, Bubbles and Peach.






The day after arriving, Ashley wanted to check out the Sea Lion Caves. We had all been before. Nobody wanted to go, but I went with her (I totally dig tacky tourist traps). It was cool.








It was the wrong time of year for sea lions. Apparently the cave is FILLED in the winter, but we did see a few.




All too soon, our time in Florence was at an end. We bade goodbye to Steve, Beth, and Louis (and the dogs). We also left Ricki and Ted as well, They were going to take the train home a few days later.



Off we went , headed for our next stop--PORTLAND! Stay tuned for that and MORE in the next email.

CHEERS!

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