FI and Crunchy In Nor-Cal and Oregon

San Francisco was simply our port of entry. A good place to fly to in order to start our journey up the northern California and Oregon coastline. The redwood forests of No Cal and the rugged Oregon beaches were the real target destinations of our journey. 

My preferred travel philosophy is to be on the move. Trying to see as much as we can. Yes, we do a week or so every year at a beach where we sit on our asses and watch the day go by. And I can’t stand it. This Pacific Northwest trip was our adventure vacation for the year (similar to our travels up the Maine coast last summer). This was the first family trip to a destination that none of us had ever seen before (excluding San Francisco). So we were experiencing these places for the first time together, which was fun. And because today I have no clients or bosses to answer to, we were able to spread this trip out over roughly two weeks, taking our time traveling on the ground up the coastline.

Sidebar: Our Philosophy Regarding Cruise Vacations. Another part of our travel philosophy is that we don’t do cruises. Even though you’re on the move, it seems to be the laziest of all options. But the real reason is that too much crazy-ass sh*t happens on (and to) cruise ships. Documenting that crazy-ass sh*t may be a post for another day.

Moving North

On our way out of San Francisco we stopped at Muir Woods, a national park about 45 minutes north of the big city. If you’re a Star Wars fan, this also happens to be the forest area where the ewok scenes were filmed. This was our first glimpse of the massive redwood trees of northern California. 

 On the way into the forest area at Muir we first saw this:

Any millennial readers out there? Ever seen one of these before? Yep, it’s an old-school payphone. When you’re in an area with absolutely zero mobile phone service, you realize (or remember) how useful these things can be. As I was explaining to my kids the purpose and function of this foreign contraption I was entertained by the ad hoc “Pay Phone Instructions” that had been placed prominently on top of the phone box. So just in case you don’t know, the first step to using a land-line phone is to “lift the receiver and wait for a dial tone.” (Hmmm. But what if you don’t know what a “receiver” is?).

This served as a reminder that it never hurts to remind/advise people of very basic principles that you presume they likely already know—things like if you want to have money, you need to save money. It sounds stupid to even utter these words—much like “lift the receiver and wait for a dial tone”—but once you digest the reality that people that make tons of money often don’t actually have any money, you realize that the advice still needs to be given. Undoubtedly the display of these phone “instructions” was the result of people asking questions of park staff like “how the hell do I use this thing?”

After the entertainment of the anachronistic communications device we moved on to the main attraction of the forest. We spent roughly two hours here and could have stayed longer. 

At Muir we noticed a phenomenon that we would encounter again and again as we explored the redwood areas: large clusters of huge redwood trees growing close together—like a family. Here’s an explanation of this occurrence from the placard in the park:

A lesson: if you maintain resources or assets that have the capacity to regenerate—say a developed root system on redwood trees or maybe dollars invested in income-producing assets—and you take steps to protect those regenerative-capacity resources, it is likely that you will never run out. 

Santa Rosa and Russian River

We had to leave Muir Woods to travel north about an hour to Santa Rosa to meet a friend for lunch. It just so happens that a world-class brewery is located in Santa Rosa and, fortuitously, it serves food. So we stopped off at Russian River Brewing Co. for a two-beer lunch. Of course I left with multiple bottles of their famous Pliny the Elder double IPA that would accompany me the rest of the trip (my inventory shrank as we traveled; but I still had plenty to beer-mule home). 

A Night in Sonoma

I wanted to break up the roughly 7-hour drive from San Fran to the redwood forests with a night’s stay somewhere in between, and Sonoma wine-country was an intriguing option. None of the JF Clan carries oenophile status, so we weren’t there as wine experts. We stayed a night at an AirBNB that also serves as a small hand-crafted winery. This was the view from my bathroom. 

Not too shabby. There are a lot of process similarities between making wine and beer, so I was able to talk a little bit of shop with the proprietor. I decided that this was a lifestyle I could get used to.

On to the Redwoods

The next day brought our longest road-trip segment: just over three and a half hours north to Trinidad, California, which would seve as our home base for exploring the redwood parks. 

The “redwood forest” comprises multiple federal and state parks spread over a wide area, so you need to pick a strategic home-base location in light of where you want to go. Crescent City, Eureka, and Arcata, California are popular options, but I decided on Trinidad, a small beach village that was farther north (and closer to the parks) than any of those locations. That was a great decision. (Note here: as you look at the map, the town of Orick also appears to be an attractive option because of its proximity to the parks. Don’t. There’s nothing there.)

There’s a lot to see in the redwood parks—presuming that you dig nature (as we do). We allocated three full days staying in Trinidad to explore the parks, and in hindsight we could have used more. Because Trinidad turned out to be such a beautiful coastline area, we ended up spending a day and a a half exploring the beaches. Here’s a look at Patrick’s Point State Park, just north of Trinidad:

The drive north to the southernmost part of the redwood forests was roughly 15 minutes, and was georgeous. Once in the thick of the forest, the magnitude of these trees was staggering. Here’s a pic with our 7-year old in the view to provide some perspective:

As I look at the map while writing this post, it occurs to me that we saw a vanishingly small slice of this beautiful area. It’s huge. I’ve placed on our list of future adventures a trip dedicated to these parks, and maybe one where we can camp and never have to leave the forest. 

As we drove north toward the Oregon border, we continued to see incredibly beautiful No Cal scenery, and of course the obligatory tourist traps.

Sidebar: Lessons That Aren’t So Obvious

It was in Trinidad that we were first introduced to the concept of “sneaker waves.” Apparently this is a very common Pacific Northwest coastline occurrance: people turn their backs on the ocean and a rogue wave eats them alive, pulling them back into the water and toward a certain grisly death. I somehow managed to lose the leaflet that first educated us about sneaker waves in an incredibly blunt and graphic manner, but the description said something like this (and to the best of my recollection, there is no paraphrasing here):

“Do not turn your back on the ocean. A sneaker wave can overcome you, knock you to the ground and drag you out to sea. You will then die.”

 

Now that’s clear and direct talk. Damn. But you can’t argue that it isn’t terribly useful information. I mean, I really need to know that if I’m not careful

my day at the beach could lead to a quick and painful death. That’s information that I want to receive—with no sugar-coating. Kind of like: “Hey, if you spend more than you earn and don’t put away a few dollar bills so they can regenerate for you, you’ll be someone else’s slave for the rest of your life.” Who wouldn’t want that information delivered as clearly and directly as possible?

The Oregon Trail

So it wasn’t the actual Oregon Trail, but it was the JF Clan’s Oregon trail up the coast and headed toward Portland. Before this trip I knew very little (or nothing) about the Oregon coast, other than it had long been an area that I wanted to visit because of the beautiful images that I had seen. So I did a little bit of research about the hospitality of various coastal villages, and then just picked a few locations that were generally in the area where I thought we’d want to stop driving for the day (we generally traveled every third day, and I targeted keeping the drive time at less than 3 hours). 

Our first stop was Gold Beach, Oregon. This was a small village in an otherwise very rural area. I think it has seen better days. But we had a comfortable AirBNB condo on the beach and enjoyed the views like these:

On to Yachats. Even as I write this I want to say “Ya-cats,” but that would be too pedestrian. It’s actually “Yah-hots.” This is an area that gets a fair amount of beach-vacationer traffic (I’m guessing in-state and/or local). This was another small and sleepy beach town in the middle of an otherwise very rural area. Here are some pics:

After leaving Yachats and on our way north to Cannon Beach and Gearhart we stopped at Yaquina Head to see the lighthouse. The views here were spectacular, and we got our first live look at some of the marine life we had been desperately searching for. 

Sidebar: Tsunami Warnings

Another prevalent concern here in the Pacific Northwest is the threat of tsunamis. So in addition to the frequent “sneaker waves” that we discussed earlier and that have the potential to quickly and quietly consume you and bury you at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, you have to have a plan to deal with potential massive waves caused by an offshore earthquake hitting large sections of the coastline at one time. You need a plan they say, one that involves seeking out higher ground. I liked the more detailed plan in the picture to the left better.

Final Stop on the Coast: Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock

Our final coastal destination was Cannon Beach, Oregon. My research indicated that it was a proper beach-vacation-type town, and I knew that we wanted to see the somewhat-famous “Haystock Rock” that protrudes from the coastline on the beach. Ultimately I couldn’t find lodgings that suited our group of five (at the right value point), so I took a chance booking a condo just north in Gearhart. This was another win. 

Cannon Beach is indeed a very quaint and active beach town, and we thoroughly enjoyed the half-day that we spent wandering through its shop-lined streets and strolling the beach. Here’s our look at Haystack Rock:

But it was fairly crowded. At 10 am or so I encountered a line of people about 20 deep waiting to get coffee at a local purveyor. That had better be some damn good coffee. 

Gearhart turned out to be much more our speed; a quiet beach hamlet with not much more than a general store, a pub, a couple of antique shops and restaurants (and a golf course). We also used our time here to explore the nearby town of Seaside, but after every venture out we were very content to return to the quiet confines of Gearhart. Here’s our view from the balcony at dusk.

One of the day trips that was a must-see was Ecola State Park, just north of Cannon Beach. We spent a half day exploring this beach and surrounding trails:

Back to Civilization: Portland

I only allocated one day in Portland before boarding a plane to head home. We spent most of the day visiting with friends in the area, and so just like that, our two-week tour had come to an end. That’s cool. It sure makes it easier to head home when you’re not staring down the barrel of an entrapment chamber with your name on it and that you are obligated to populate the following Monday (and every day thereafter). It also helps to consider that if you were so inclined, you could get in a car or on a plane and travel anywhere you wanted the day after you got home. Yes, that helps too. 

But for now I’m content to sit here at my desk in my living room. On a Friday at 2 pm. Looking out at the green grass, as usual. (Okay fine; it’s starting to brown a little.)