Poulsbo/Seattle WA 06/26-06/28 2019

Eagle Tree RV Park in Poulsbo is located on the Kitsap Peninsula and is only a short drive from the Bainbridge Island Ferry to Seattle.  This is why we chose to stay here - easy access to Seattle without having to stay in town.  As it turns out, we only stayed one night as we wanted to spend a day with family in Tacoma and moved over to Gig Harbor a day early.  The RV Park was OK, but pretty much just a parking spot with no room for any outside activity.  No satellite but good Cell signal.  

Very narrow site at Eagle Tree RV Park

We had a fun day taking the ferry to Seattle and visiting the Space Needle.  Here are some pics of that excursion:

Looking at the Space Needle out the front of the Monorail

Katie lying on the revolving glass floor

Having a snack on the ferry boat ride back home

It was fun showing the girls Seattle and the Space Needle.  Kind of nostalgic too.  I remember going there as a kid.  My grandma took me when I was about Katie's age I think and we had lunch in the revolving restaurant.  The restaurant is totally gone now but I remember the layout and it is pretty much the same.  Fond memories....

Cannon Beach OR 06/24-06/26 2019

We drove north along the coast and made our final stop in Oregon at Cannon Beach.  We stayed at Cannon Beach RV Resort and got a really nice site with lots of grass and trees - AND the satellite still worked!  I was finally able to set up the Cornhole game and we all had fun learning to play.  Biggest surprise was how good Katie was!  Of course we had the game set up closer than usual so she could reach, but she did really well!

Sydney raking some of the never-ending hair out of Pablo

Nice site with trees AND Satellite!  

Sydney and Mimi playing some Cornhole.

We drove around town and looked at the shops.  Syd and I got some iced coffee and Mimi and Katie got ice cream at 9:00 in the morning!  The beach was great and we planned to go back with the doggies and fly our kites, but we got lazy and just stayed at camp and played cornhole.  Here are some pics from the beach.  The big rock is called Haystack Rock.

Pablo cannot figure out why Katie is already asleep!

Newport OR 06/22-06/24 2019

The girls and we agree that Newport is our favorite place so far on our journey.  Linda and I fell in love with this place the first time we visited several years ago.  We knew Sydney and Katie would like it too.  We stayed at Pacific Shores Motorcoach Resort.  We stayed here the first time we visited Newport almost 10 years ago and we considered buying a lot back then.  They have made some improvements since then, especially the beach access so we are actually thinking about buying a lot here again.  We will see...

Our site at Pacific Shores

Our site at Pacific Shores

The view from our site

The deck at our site (ignore the finger on the lens!)

We only had two days here and we crammed a lot into that time.  We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and Depoe Bay.  I will try to add some pics of that later since they have not downloaded from iCloud yet.  Here are some pics of us all enjoying the beach at Pacific Shores.

Grants Pass OR 06/20-06/22 2019

We wanted to stay somewhere close to town in Grants Pass since we planned to ride the Jet Boats and that is located in the middle of downtown.  But we couldn't find any place that would handle our rig and also wasn't a postage stamp on the asphalt.  So we tried a place on the advice of a friend who lives in the area.  Indian Marys is a county park located on the Rogue River about 25 minutes from the town of Grants Pass.  It is a wonderful park and we had full hook-ups with 50 amp power.  The only problem was that we once again wound up with no cell service!  That is why this post is a day late.

Shady and cool site at Indian Mary County Park

We spent a wonderful evening with our dear friend, Sharon Weston.  She invited us to her beautiful home on the Rogue River and barbequed some delicious burgers for us.  We always have enjoy spending time with Sharon, and this evening was no exception.  It was delightful and too short.  Of course the girls thought the best part was seeing her Best-in-Show winning Alaskan Malamute, EZ.  Sydney has always loved him and Katie discovered that he loves to smooch and play.  

Katie smooching EZ

The next day we got to ride the Jet Boats!  Hellgate Jet Boats is one of the best run companies of this kind that I have ever encountered.  I was so impressed with every facet of this operation.  The facility, the boats, the lodge, and of course, the people.  We had so much fun.  It was exciting and beautiful!  I don't know if all of the pilots are as funny and entertaining as our was, but he was excellent.  I will let the pictures tell the story...

Ready to start the adventure!

Ready to start the adventure!

Speeding through HellGate Canyon

The lodge where we were served a delicious BBQ chicken meal

Medford/Central Point OR 06/19/2019

After making our quick escape from the blood-sucking swarms at Crater Lake, we came down the hill to one of our favorite RV Parks - Southern Oregon RV Park in Central Point, just at the north end of Medford.  Since we had no cell service at Crater Lake, it seemed like real luxury to get on-line again and catch up on our email and stuff.  I was also able to catch up on work of course!

We got lunch at Sonic!  One of my guilty pleasures.  I love the tater tots!  After that we went to PetSmart for doggie food and then Fred Meyer for some groceries.

This evening I did a marinated flank steak on the BBQ and the girls seemed to like it.  Hard to live up to their Dad's BBQ skills!  Tomorrow we may check out the Family Fun Center next door where they have bumper boats, go-karts, and mini-golf.  Then we will be making the short trip to Grants Pass.

Crater Lake 06/18/2019

We traveled from Redding to Crater Lake on Tuesday.  We heard there was construction going over the bridge at Shasta Lake so we got up and left early.  Also, there are no reservations at Crater Lake in June so we wanted to make sure we got there in time to secure a campsite.  We made good time and there really was no delay at all with the construction.

When we arrived at Mazama Village, the line for campsites was out the door of the store and it was not moving!  We let the doggies play in some of the many snow patches that were still left while Mimi waited in line.  When we finally got to the front they told us that they did not have a spot for two nights but we were able to get one for just one night.  I have to say that the check-in process was one of the worst I have ever experienced.  But, as it turned out we were glad we only got one day as that was enough for us.  We were ready to leave the next day.  We had already seen the lake and everything else, including the boat rides were still closed.  And the biggest reason we wanted to leave was the massive hordes of mosquitos!  OMG!  They were big, hungry and everywhere!  ACK!  And, of course, Sydney and I were the main targets!  Apparently with the extra snow this year there are mosquitos hatching everywhere in enormous numbers.  It were actually clouds of skeeters to deal with and it was not fun....

We did enjoy our time here, but we did spend most of our time at the camp inside. The lake is just indescribably beautiful.  The pictures really don't give you any idea how impressive it truly is.  We are so glad that we were able to share this experience with Sydney and Katie.   

View of Crater Lake from Rim Village at the south side of the lake looking northwest

View from Rim Village looking northeast

Our campsite at Mazama Village Campground.

The doggies loved the snow that was left in big piles everywhere.  

Yippeee!  Let's play!  It's Snow!

Of course, there wass lots of wallowing!

The Princesses of Snow Mountain!

Home for the night - Redding CA

Home for the night.  Just a quick stopover on our way to Crater Lake.  We got some shade but no satellite!  Oh well, it was 107 degrees so I guess the shade is OK.

On the Road I-5 to Redding.

Ready to hit the road.  Left Cal Expo RV Park this morning.  

Traveling along I-5 on our way to Redding for our first night.  Everyone seems to have settled in!

On the Road Again!

We are about to resume our Walkabout!  Our two granddaughters, Sydney and Katie are joining us for the first two weeks.  We will go north all the way to Seattle where the girls will get on a plane to go back home to Sacramento.  Linda and I will head east from there and will be walkabout until December.  I will try to post something at each of our stops along the way.  You can see a rough picture of our route for the first two weeks with the girls above.