August 7-10, 2014: Camp Watson

We got to go to sleepover camp again this summer up at Hood Canal, Washington. We hadn't been up there for a year or two. Our friends and neighbors, the Watsons, have a place up there and we were invited, along with the Lees, for the long weekend. I had my eye set for some merit badges: primarily cooking, photography and alcohol consumption.

We were responsible for Friday breakfast; I had a Cooks Country recipe for maple-sausage featherbed eggs. The ingredients sound positively delicious: broken up corn bread, sausage links, cheese, and a custard of eggs and whole milk. Unfortunately it wasn't all that. We didn't want to be prepping too much the night before or the morning of so we made the cornbread Wednesday night and prepped most of the other ingredients at home before leaving Thursday morning. We got up to the canal just as the sun was over the yard-arm. We assembled the egg dish, stashed in the refrigerator and headed out to the deck to enjoy the evening.

View of Camp Watson from the dock

View of the Olympic Mountains beyond Hood Canal from Camp Watson

 The Watson's sail boat, The Equanimity, ties up at the dock. When the tide goes out it is left high and dry. The wind sock on the left side of the picture shows the location of a long spit that reaches out into the canal. About halfway between the the dock and the spit are some oyster mounds that are well out of the water at low tide. Before we arrived, some campers gathered oysters appetizers.

The Equanimity at the Camp Watson dock

We had a "super moon" while we were there which means we had very high and very low tides. I learned that "sea level" is measured as the mean, lower low tide. There are two low and two high tides each day; on the west coast there is a relatively large difference between the two low tides. An average is taken of the lower low tides; this average is sea level. They use the low tide  as the base in order to assist navigation: ships need to know when they can navigate to port.  A neighbor's boat, The Barnacle has to anchor in deeper water because ti can't sit on the mud during low tide, like the smaller sailboats can.

A neighbors boat, The Barnacle at anchor in Hood Canal

Jay, our camp counselor, AKA Ace grilled some oysters for us. We had them with a dollop of cocktail sauce, horseradish, and a splash of fresh lemon.

Our camp counselor serves up Oysters on the half shell for appetizers

Elaine, Karen, Jay, Carla and Mary Ann enjoying dinner at Camp Watson

Even though I had a beer and a vodka tonic, it was time to work on my photography merit badge. I set up my tripod and took a series of pictures as the sun went down.

Looking north on Hood Canal

Looking southwest on Hood Canal as the sun sets behind the Olympic Mountains

Night time on Hood Canal.

I discovered that it is best to work on photography and alcohol consumption on different evenings. Actually, I'm a light weight; one beer and one mixed drink left me feeling not so great the next day. I went tea-totaller style on Friday.

Nevertheless, I woke up early Friday to get some pictures in the morning light. We popped the egg dish in the oven drank coffee and I took some early morning pictures.You can see the tide is ebbing.

Morning light on Hood Canal

Living on Hood Canal means water sports. Every house has a ramp and dock. The boat with the orange life jackets in the middle of this picture is the "oyster barge".  A local company made a deal with the home owners to harvest some of the oysters for local restaurants. They bag them up at low tide then go back at high tide to pick up the bags according to restaurant orders.

Dock ramps on Hood Canal, Washington

As the tide goes out, the oyster beds are exposed; here a great blue heron hunts through the beds for various aquatic animals living on the beds. A sailboat is lowering down to the ground as the tide goes out.

A Great Blue Heron is hunting for breakfast on the oyster mounds.

It took a while for our breakfast to cook; it should have been done in 50 minutes but took about 1:20. The top got a little crusty before the custard in the middle reached temp. It was okay; not great. I was a little disappointed after sitting on this recipe for a few years waiting for an occasion like this. Oh well.

Maple-sausage featherbed eggs.

Camp Watson is located on an estuary where the Union River meets the ocean bay. Eighty years ago,  a large dike was built to keep the ocean out. At first the farmers tried to raise cows in the reclaimed land; later they raised wheat. A few years ago the Hood Canal Salmon Restoration Group worked with the Johnson family (which owns the farm) and the US  and Washington state Fish and Wildlife Services to reclaim the area. Last year two large holes were punched in the dike and ocean water made its way north.

New walkway across the breached dike in the estuary.

Another of the holes in the dike

I'm looking forward to going back in the next few years to see the flora change.

Along the dike there is a nice wooded area.

Berries in the wetlands.

Girls and boys took separate cars for the hike; on the way back the guys decided to head over to Allyn for burgers at Big Bubba's, a popular walk up burger joint on the Case Inlet just east of Hood Canal.

Big Bubba's in Allyn, Washington

A cute kid checks me out while his dad orders lunch at Big Bubba's in Allyn, Washington.

Our order taker at Big Bubba's in Allyn, Washington

Bacon cheeseburger! My standard burger order. From Big Bubba's in Allyn, Washington

A drive of a couple of miles by car would take a full day or more by boat. You'd travel north up Hood Canal up to Puget Sound north of Seattle, then south past Seattle and Bremerton to Gig Harbor and Tacoma. You can see the difference between overland and by water routes in the map below.

On Saturday morning we went on an outing to Port Orchard and Bremerton. We first headed to the farmers' market in Port Orchard. A nice '55 (I think) Chevy wagon pulled up. Nice car; but if I were doing it, I'd leave the bumpers chrome and wouldn't put those flames on it  - more stock in other words.

'55 Chevy wagon in Port Orchard, Washington

John picked up some bees' wax to add to his tool box when he's driving screws and what-not. 

Then we took the foot ferry from the dock near the market over to Bremerton. We walked about at Bremerton a little but there wasn't much to do other than grab an iced coffee or some ice cream. There is a park near the waterfront but it was reserved for an event. You can see the location on the map above.

Boat slips in Bremerton, Washington

We grabbed some pictures of  our fellow campers on the ferry back to Port Orchard

Elaine and Karen on the ferry ride from Bremerton to Port Orchard, Washington

Howard aboard the Admiral Pete ferry between Bremerton and Port Orchard, Washington

Camp counselors Mary Ann and Jay Watson aboard the foot ferry from Bremerton to Port Orchard, Washington

Elaine and Carla enjoying the ride from Bremerton to Port Orchard, Washington

Cormorants on the pilings alongside a large ferry at Bremerton, Washington

When we got back the tide was up and the water warm so we went swimming. The water here is perfect for swimming; salty so you can easily float, no waves, and very warm. The Lees were responsible for dinner on Saturday night; we had some nice grilled steaks and perfectly grilled small potatoes.

Sunday morning we had some blueberry pancakes and sausage thanks to John and Karen; then we packed up. The tide was out and Carla grabbed a picture to compare with the high tide pictures above. Notice The Barnacle in the upper right is still in deep water while the smaller sailboats are grounded. You can also see some oyster beds in the center left of the pictures

The tide is out at Hood Canal, Washington exposing oyster mounds and grounding sailboats.

We had a great time, as usual, at Camp Watson but we had to go back home.

Road Trip 2014 - Showing Jeanette Northwest Oregon

July 7-9, 2014

We returned home from our epic road trip on Sunday July 6. But the fun and travel was far from over. We only had her in town a short time before she was headed back to Chicago to see the kids and Jurgen.  I was back at work but that didn't stop Carla and her sisters, Linda and Starr. They 

showed her Portland one day; then Carla took her out to the Columbia Gorge another day and the Oregon coast another. In the midst of all that we had a little gathering at home to introduce her to our friends. 

 No tour of Portland is complete without a visit to Pioneer Square, Portland's Living Room. Jeanette posed with the "Allow Me" statue.

Jeanette with "Allow Me" the iconic man with an umbrella statue in Pioneer Square Portland, Oregon. 

The sisters and Jeanette then headed up to the West Hills to see the Rose Garden and the  Japanese Garden The garden is up in the West Hills 

West Portland and suburbs showing the Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden takes up about 5 acres and has a few distinct types of gardens you'll find in Japan. Portland has an annual Rose Festival in June with a queen, princesses, at least 3 parades, a fun center and musical events. The rose test garden up in the West Hills has row after row of beautiful roses. By July they are a little past their prime; but still a must-see place for the out of town visitor.

Starr, Linda, Jeanette, and Carla at the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon

On our road trip we debated different routes from the Grand Canyon to home. A very beautiful route is up through Utah and Idaho and down the Columbia Gorge in Oregon. Because we spent the night after the Grand Canyon in Williams, Arizona it made more sense to drive up through California. But it goes without saying Jeanette had to see the gorge. The gorge has been evolving over the past 17 million years but its big transformation came thanks to the Missoula Floods at the end of the last ice age. Enormous ice dams were created up in the Rocky Mountains in the area that is now Montana. 

Map view of the Columbia Gorge

The dam gave way periodically over a few thousand years and the resulting floods carved the gorge. We have the floods to thank for our beautiful soil in the Williamette Valley which give us superb, world-class wines. The Palouse in Washington was also formed by the Missoula Floods. There is great land for wheat and the high flat area is littered with enormous boulders. You've noticed I've used the word "big, huge, enormous" here. It's hard to get an idea of the grandeur and size of this area from words alone. 

Looking east up the Columbia Gorge

We were up in the Columbia Gorge in March; you can read the account and see some more pictures here.

On Jeanette's final day Carla took her 60 miles west of Portland to the Pacific Ocean.

Carla and Jeanette visited Canon Beach; just south of Seaside on the map.

You can see the Williamette Valley in the map above, carved out between the Cascade Mountains on the west and the Coast Range on the east. 

Jeanette, north of Canon Beach looking toward Haystack Rock

Jeanette in front of Haystack Rock in Canon Beach, Oregon.

You can see our weather in Portland is very different from the areas we passed through on our trip. So much of the American west is arid. The area from Eugene, Oregon (100 miles south of Portland) up through Tacoma, Seattle Washington and into Vancouver British Columbia is an idyllic green and fertile oasis. We do get our hot days here (it's 90˚ F as I write this today) but the heat waves don't last long. Winters are cool with maybe one snow storm a year. We can get out and walk virtually every day of the year. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

 

Road Trip 2014: Travel Statistics

From our driveway to Chicago and back again we drove 5,758.5 miles. We averaged just under 8 hour days in the car and covered about 442 miles for an overall average speed of 58 mph. Of course you know what they say about averages: put your head on a block of ice and your feet in a fire and you are pretty comfortable, on average. Our longest day was the drive from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Grand Island, Nebraska. We covered 629 miles that day in 10:32. Our fastest day was Joplin, Missouri to Tucumcari, New Mexico; we were determined to get through Oklahoma and Texas. We succeeded by averaging over 66 mph. Carla and I will spend more time in that area when we do our full on Route 66 trip.

The biggest surprise to me was that we averaged less than 60 miles per hour. Stopping for gas and lunch is a big leveler from driving 70-80 MPH.

My biggest complaint with my blogging service (Google's Blogspot) is the inability to easily manage tables. The data below came from a Google Docs spreadsheet but it was nigh on impossible to convert it for use on the blog. So, I had to take a picture of the screen. If anyone has tips on managing tables in Blogspot, I'd love for you to drop me a note in the comments section.

Here are the statistics for our three sections:

We are home and are itching to get out on the road again. Looking back, our Route 66 trip from Los Angeles to Gallup, New Mexico was seven years ago! We need to get out and do the whole drive.

Road Trip 2014 - Williams, Arizona to Home

July 4 - 6, 2014

We'd travelled a long way and had another stretch of over 1,300 miles before we got home. We looked at various routes and eventually decided on the most direct taking I40 and SR58 over to Bakersfield, California then up I5 home. Now Carla and I and the kids drove down big stretches of I5 taking the kids to visit the grandparents in the San Francisco Bay area and the Mojave Desert in Southern California where I grew up. It's a dead boring drive but it is fast and direct and by this time we were like the milk horse who could smell the barn. We decided on overnight stops in Kettleman City, California, at the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley and Medford, Oregon. We pushed the first day so we'd have some time to stop off in Ashland, a little town in southern Oregon that we love.

1,321 route home after visiting the Grand Canyon

So we headed west across the desert along I40 paralleling Route 66. Once we reached Barstow, California I felt like I was in my home country; we sprinted across State Route 58 toward Boron, Mojave, Tehachapi and Bakersfield. Here's a picture of Jeanette riding along. She'd take pictures and samples of stones and vegetation along the way.

Jeanette taking notes along the trip

There was a rest stop in the small town of Boron so we stopped for a bathroom break. Now this was the weather I remembered growing up; we were about 50 miles north of my home town, Palmdale, California. When we stepped out of the car we were greeted by 105˚ F and winds of at least 20 MPH. Palmdale got its name from German immigrants who named it after what they thought were the abundant palm trees throughout this part of the Mojave Desert. But they weren't palm trees; they were Joshuas.

A pretty old Joshua tree in Boron, California

When I was 3 we lived in Madison, New Jersey and my dad worked in Bell Labs in Baltimore, Maryland. In the days before central air conditioning, the hot humid summers were just too hideous (sorry east coasters). With the aero-space era starting to boom in the 50s he took a job at Lockheed, in Palmdale, as an instrumentation and test engineer. He supported the F104 Starfighter. Here is a video that gives a good idea of what is sounded and looked like when I was a kid as these jets flew over in pairs everyday, often breaking the sound barrier.

After his stint at Lockheed my dad went to work at Jet Propulsion Labs near Edwards Air Force Base where he worked on rocket engines. Now Edwards was about 40 miles north of Palmdale, but on nights they would test fire the rocket motors my dad would take us up on the roof of our house with a pair of binoculars where we could see the flames. He then took a job in the town of Boron (where we hit the rest stop) where he worked for Garrett AirResearch testing the liquid gas containers for the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. His job was to blow them up to make sure they were strong enough to stand the requirements of outer space. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of my dad. Finally in the 70s and 80s after the space program slowed down he worked as an engineer at the borax mine in Boron. If you are old enough you may remember "40 mule team Borax". Enormous mule trains would haul the borax ore from the desert to where ever. Former president Ronald Regan was a spokesman for the company when he was an actor. All of that is to set some context for the picture below. Our rest stop was just the other side of a fence from the borax mine.

Borax mine in Boron, California

The tumbleweeds give you a good idea of what it was like playing out behind our house when I was young. Our backdoor opened on hundreds of miles of desert like this. A few laters two more streets were put in behind us. I hardly recognize Palmdale now; it an enormous bedroom community for Los Angeles. The desert has largely disappeared.

We passed through Tehachapi; another town from that Little Feat song "Willin'" (Tehachapi to Tonopah). We saw a UP train stopped; it looks like it was having problems overheating. I of course couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. I still had on my polarizing filter from the Grand Canyon for the first shot.

Stopped northbound UP in Tehachapi, California

Stopped northbound UP in Tehachapi, California

We took a quick detour to see the famous Tehachapi Loop where trains circle over or below themselves winding through the steep grades of the Tehachapi Mountains at the base of the Sierra-Nevada mountain range. There wasn't any train action so we piled back into the car. We pulled into Kettleman City, California around 6:00. It's not much of a town; a few gas stations, fast food joints, and a motel or two. But they DO have In-n-Out! We told Jeanette, a vegan, we were throwing her under the bus and going for burgers. We dropped her off at a nearby Subway restaurant where she could get a salad.

In-n-Out in Kettleman City

In-n-Out burgers and fries!

We wanted to stretch our legs, but it was 109˚ F with a strong wind, so we retired to our rooms to bed.

The San Joaquin Valley is a monument to irrigation. This arid area has a series of aqueducts and canals that makes it possible to grow fruits and vegetables for most of the country, There must be some sort of water war going on out there for there were lush fruit trees, tomato plants, and more side-by-side with burnt out trees and big signs in the brown fields about the state of California water policy.

In mid afternoon on July 5 we saw Mt Shasta in Northern California and knew we were getting closer to our home. Volcanos are scattered from California through Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, then follow there way across the rest of the Ring of Fire into Japan (Mt. Fuji).

Mt. Shasta California

We used to be able to see two volcanos from our home: Mt Hood and Mt St Helens. But in 1980 the top of St Helens blew off so it now hides behind a smaller mountain range north of us. But we still get gorgeous views of Mt Hood which is about 50 miles east of our house. With a little climb up a hill we can see five to seven of the volcanoes in western Oregon and Washington.

Finally we reached the 14th and final state of our journey!

Welcome home!

We stopped in Ashland, Or; not far from the California border for a walk and dinner. Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival which has grown to be a big draw for this relatively sparsely populated part of the state. In fact Carla and her sisters Linda and Starr headed back down to Ashland a week or so later to see some plays and enjoy the lovely city.

We spent the night in Medford, Oregon just a few miles north of Ashland. We would have liked to stay in Ashland but the festival is so popular we couldn't find a room. We woke up and took the "short" four hour drive to get home.

Now why didn't I get a picture of home?

My final post of the Road Trip will cover Jeanette's visit with our family and friends and some statistics of the trip.

Road Trip 2014: Wupatki and Grand Canyon

July 3, 2014

[HINT: Click on the images in this post to get bigger versions]

Arizona has more national parks and monuments than any other state in the union. We were heading out to see a couple more of them on July 3. We had originally scheduled only a few hours at the Grand Canyon; Carla and I have been there a couple of times before. But my buddy Herb urged us to stay until sunset to get some great pictures. So we changed or plans and decided to spend the whole day in the area, spend the night in Williams, Arizona before heading on the last leg home.

July 3 travel: Flagstaff, Wupatki National Monument, the Grand Canyon

As you can see from the map above, the direct route to the Grand Canyon is directly north of Flagstaff on highway 180. One of my favorite drives in the entire country is Highway 89 north of Flagstaff, Arizona up to southern Utah. After passing the San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff, you have a gentle decline with beautiful northern Arizona before you. Years ago when the kids were young we drove through here on our way home from visiting my folks in Prescott, Arizona where they lived after retirement. The area is on the edge of the painted desert and a big thunderstorm came up; the rain flowing in the ditches on the sides of the road looked like someone dumped thousands of gallons of paint. 

One of Carla's favorite places on earth (no hyperbole) is Wupatki National Monument. Here you'll find the remains of the ancient pueblo people such as the Sinagua who lived here around 500 A.D. Now that we had a full day, it was a no brainer we'd go north then head over to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon.

It was another stormy day as we approached the ancient site. There are no trees up here and as we walked up a hill to one of the ruins thunderclaps were closing in on us. I figured we'd be the highest thing for miles around so we grabbed a few quick pictures and skedaddled. When walking through the monument I didn't get a sense of how orderly the site is.

Birds' eye view of Wupatki pueblos.

Walking up to one of the sites we saw a couple of very colorful lizards scurrying down the path ahead of us.

Colorful lizard at Wupatki National Monument.

He sure didn't blend into the scenery here; maybe he is hideously poisonous and we lucked out. Or maybe he really does blend into the painted desert.

We stayed up on the accessible pueblos long enough to grab a couple of photos.

Walking up to an abandoned pueblo at the Wupatki National Monument

Jeanette making herself home in a pueblo at the Wupatki National Monument.

Jeanette and Carla at Wupatki National Monument

Jeanette and Carla  with a squall coming at Wupatki National Monument

We hopped back in the car promising ourselves we'd be back for a longer visit someday soon. We were on the edge of the storm and it promised to be an "interesting" day up on the Grand Canyon Rim.

After driving a little farther north on US 89 we headed west to get to the Grand Canyon. In the map below you can see the two of the rivers, the Colorado and the Little Colorado, that flow through and formed the canyon. We rougly paralleled the Little Colorado.

Rivers forming the Grand Canyon

On the way in we stopped by a Navajo view point that also had a small trading post. The storm we had been running from caught us. The winds were so strong we were afraid to get too close to the railing over the canyon; yes the wind was that strong. Carla and Jeanette went to the trading area - an open wooden structure with canvas top - when rain and hail hit. I jumped in the car and drove over near the entrance to the trading area; Carla and Jeanette hunkered down until it tapered a bit. Carla got a picture from inside the trading area after it cleared up a bit.

View of the Little Colorado canyon from the Navajo viewpoint.

When we first got there, Jeanette asked if this was the Grand Canyon. She is the most positive person I know and she marveled at it. I told her no, this is just a taste of what is coming. I've never been to the east end of the Grand Canyon so wasn't sure what to expect. Mary Colter, the architect behind La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona designed the Indian Watchtower here. Too bad I didn't get a picture; you'll have to go yourselves I suppose. I did get a picture of me though ;)

Howard at the Indian Watchtower on the east end of the Grand Canyon

It was early afternoon and we were hungry so we had a bite to eat before heading west to the main entrance.  I was surprised (shouldn't I have looked at a map?) that we were still 25 miles from the main entrance to the Canyon. But it was a beautiful drive where we saw a herd of elk and caught glimpses of the Canyon. We parked and made our way to the Canyon rim. Our jaws dropped. It was beautiful.

South Rim of the Grand Canyon

South Rim of the Grand Canyon

 This picture is from an iPhone; maybe I ought to throw away my fancy Sony SLT A65

South Rim of the Grand Canyon

It was getting to be late afternoon/early evening when the storm caught up to us. Carla and I took matching pictures of the sun bouncing off a promontory. I had a polarized lens on which wouldn't pick up the rainbow.

South Rim of the Grand Canyon

Rainbos over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

There is a great bus system here; four bus lines serving various parts of the canyon. We knew for sunset we wanted to go as far west as we could; somewhere close to Mohave Point. We stopped for a quick bite then scouted for a bus to get us to a sunset viewing site. It turns out that there is a special point picked for sunset watching; extra busses wait to pick people up.  We climbed on and went up to Mohave Point. As we got off, a squall of wind and rain hit. We aren't made of sugar so we knew we wouldn't melt; we hunkered behind a small tree. Other people were not so intrepid; dozens of site seers jumped on the bus. After about 10 minutes the rain stopped and we saw that there were very few people who stayed to see the sunset. Our good luck! I imagine this was one of the least crowded sunset views in peak season.

Sunset at Mohave Point, Grand Canyon

Sunset at Mohave Point, Grand Canyon

Sunset at Mohave Point, Grand Canyon

 After the sun went down it got dark in a hurry! And I don't mean a little bit dark. After getting back to the visitor center we had a hard time finding the parking lot we pulled into. Thank goodness for remote entry; I pushed the "unlock" button until I saw the lights blink. We piled in and headed south down highway 180 into Williams, Arizona. It was pitch black on either side of us; I used the high beams most of the way down; something that doesn't happen in the populated area we live in.

Arizona is one of our top spots for vacations; is there any wonder why? After a nice night's sleep we were headed out on the last leg of our trip home.