Stage 9 - Northern CA Coast / Oregon

Leaving SF – we headed into wine and redwood country.   Karen must have still been a bit sleepy as we did not have to stop at one winery for a 'free sample'.  We got out and explored at some of the Redwood groves in Humboldt State Park.   Allowing the kids to run around the redwoods was a great break from the drive.

Given one of the tenants of Olen roadtrips is "tho shall not eat at national chain restaurants" - we get to choose from some interesting options.  One of our favorites was this gem in Willits CA.  They had lumberjack competitions playing on all the TVs. 

Our original destination was Eureka CA.    Eureka had many different options for hotels but most are pretty standard hotels right off the main drag through the city.  So I decided to go with an independent suites hotel in the town of Ferndale - a "Victorian Village" voted the "North Coast 's Best Attraction for Visitors".   It did not take long after pulling into town that it was likely the mayor of Ferndale who cast the only vote in that contest.  The architecture of the town was interesting but half the storefronts were vacant and the other half closed up shop at 3pm.  Walking through town I thought I had walked into a Steven King movie - I was just waiting for the mist to roll in.  The actual accommodations were pretty good but the town just had a weird vibe. 

We got out of town early and headed North stopping in Arcada California for breakfast.  Arcada is the home of Humboldt State University.  If you regret your son/daughter not being able to go to college in teh 1960's.. you need to add this to your list of school visits.  Yikes !

The ride up the Northern California coast had some very nice spots to dip your toes into the chilly Pacific.  Brett was always very enthusiastic about getting out of the car to spend some time on the beach.

We arrived in Eugene Oregon - home of the University Oregon.  We had a large suite in a hotel and had a nice pizza dinner at a college hangout.  The next morning I got up early to try and get the exhaust noise issue fixed on the van.  The exhaust noise has been progressively getting worse and the trip went on and this seemed like a good time to get the issue diagnosed.  The nearest national muffler chain was 5 miles away - so I took a chance and went to Goofy's Muffler Shop (no joke) right down the street from the hotel.  They quickly found the problem and fixed it and I was out of there in 45 minutes - with the van running much quieter.  Jake and I then headed into Eugene for a tour of the Univeristy of Oregon.  They have a very nice campus with many of the new buildings being funded by Phil Knight (founder of Nike).  After lunch we headed up to Lake Oswego (just South of Portland).

My cousin Mark and his family were nice enough to volunteer to host us as we passed through town.  Mark was home with his son Mike - while his wife Beth was travelling with their other son Tom to get him settled at Ohio State.  We had a nice dinner with them and it was nice to be able to catch up with them before we headed up to Seattle.

We stopped in Portland on the way out of Oregon.  Jake wanted to visit the NikeTown store and I wanted to show Karen the famous Portland rose gardens.  She was able to enjoy the scents of dozens of different varieties of roses.  I don't think the rose garden stop will make any of the kids Top 10 lists.

Next (and final) stop... Seattle....