Day 24: Oregon Dunes

Today is a day we've been looking forward to........riding four-wheelers in the middle of sand dunes than can be 500 ft tall.  Some of the tallest in America.  So, we woke up bright and early to grab coffee at Stumptown (a coffee mecca for Brett) and some Voodoo donuts for the road. They make one mean donut with maple glaze and slices of bacon on top.   Yuuuum, had to get two.

We hit the road and got to Steve's ATV Rental at 3PM ready to rock and roll.  After some paperwork and a driving test, which Brett failed by letting his manual ATV die trying to shift into 2nd multiple times, they set us off on the dunes.  

This was not like riding in the woods at all and it took a while for us to get the hang of it, but once we did....ohh man we had a blast.  Unfortunately for Brett, getting the hang of it included flying off his ATV because he failed to slow down enough while coming across a blind dune crest.  FORTUNATELY he did not break anything and ruin the trip because flying up the side of those dunes with the throttle floored in 4th gear is a whooooollle lot of fun.

After around a 3 hour ride we left the dunes for Jessie Honeyman campground, but not before grabbing a bite to eat a nice little seafood restaurant right on the bay.  Apparently we should have been turned down because the restaurant is super popular and we didn't have reservations, but fortune smiled upon us because, after a 5 minute wait, we were seated at the best table in the restaurant.

After dinner we went and made camp in the dark and went to bed, winding down to some of Pink Floyd's best chill out tunes. 

Day 22-23: Portland

Day 22
We took our time getting up and breaking camp this morning before the trip to Portland.   At this point we were going on 4 days with no shower(ewwwwww) and we were ready for some much needed soap, electricity, heat, running water.....you know, things of the civilized world.  We arrived at The Society hotel around 3PM and were very pleasantly surprised by how great it was.  Its in Portlands Oldtown, which is kind of sketchy and party-central so it was fairly priced and SO nice.  Our favorite hotel of the trip.

When we got to the room we immediately took baths and started looking for a place to get a good beer and some good food.  We found the good beer at Bailey's Taproom which prides itself on keeping the best west coast/pacific northwest beers on tap.....and let me tell you, the beer out here is world class.(Deschutes Brewery we freaking LOVE you).  The food we took care of at a Mexican restaurant called Santeria which shares a bathroom with one of Portlands first strip clubs called "Mary's Club".  Portland kind of prides itself on being a little dirty and a lot weird and at one point claimed to have the most strip clubs per capita in the US.   The food at Santeria was on point and a trip to the bathroom included nekkid womenz.......niiiiice.

After dinner we decided to head up to Powell's Books, a Portland institution and also the largest independent bookstore in the USA.  The thing was enormous and almost overwhelming.  If we lived here we'd spend a lot of time just getting lost in here.

After book-time it was cocktail time.  Time for the Teardrop Lounge.  We're huge fans of craft cocktails and this place was at the forefront of the whole cocktail revolution.  It did not disappoint at all.  Watching the bartender, Lonnie, do her thing was super cool and the cocktails were perfection.  The bar ran like a well oiled machine with a team of 5 knocking out drink after drink but taking care to make sure each one is consistent, with multiple people checking each drink with a small taste via straw.  While we were there we saw people drinking interesting looking Pina Colada's and decided we'd have to come back another night to see what those were all about.

After cocktails Steph was ready to party but the previous days events caught up to me with avengeance and by 10PM I was a zombie.  It was soooo time to go to bed but not before going to a Portland staple, Voodoo Donuts.  After eating a couple delicious bites of fried batter we crashed hard.

Day 23

Woke up with absolutely nooooooooooo alarm which has been a bit of a rarity on the trip so far with so much to see.  We got coffee in the hotel lobby and just laid around a little bit to work on the blog.  We've been without service for days on end so having wi-fi is both necessary and a luxury.  

After being lazy we decided it was time to go shopping so we asked the super helpful staff at The Society for recommendations and they knocked it out of the park.  We went to Upper Playground, a west coast graphic design clothing store where I picked up this sweet tshirt because, lets face it, this pirate is absolutely crushing it

Then we walked down to Portlands Saturday Market on the riverside.  Man I wish Nashville had something like this.  Its filled with fresh food and drinks along with arts and crafts done by local vendors.  The level of creativity on display here was simply awesome.  Shirts, instruments, photography, graphic art and paintings, household items made completely from silverware.  It was really charming and very Portland.

After the market we headed back to the hotel to start getting our drink on and get ready for a night on the town.  We had one of the best IPA's of the trip in the hotel lobby.  Breakside Feelgood Flagship IPA.  IPA perfection.  After getting gussied up we headed out to a Peruvian Tapas restaurant heralded as one of the best in Portland.  We had made reservations months in advance.  We had fresh fish ceviche, diver scallops, crab stuffed avocado, beef empanadas, and grilled octopus with chimichurri and capers.  Everything was delicious but, in our opinion, Andina was second to Mango in St Louis, which still retains the Peruvian crown.

After dinner we made good on our promise to return to Teardrop and try one of those Pina Coladas.  It was as good as it looked so we decided to have a couple more drinks while we were there.  

I asked Lonnie to make me a boozie whiskey drink but with a twist of some sort.  She said she was in love with an old New Orleans classic called a Vieux Carre and whipped one up.  Definitely going to have to try and reproduce this one at the house.

After leaving Teardrop feelin' good we stumbled back toward the hotel to end the night at an arcade called Ground Kontrol which is full of classic arcade games and tons of pinball machines.  We had a great time, but since we hit Portland during a 100 degree heat wave and they had no AC, we couldn't stay for very long.   After some Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, and a few dollars worth of pinball games it was time to head back home.    

This was one great day in Portland which really showed us why everyone seems to love this city.  We will absolutely be back for another visit.

Day 21: Shi Shi - Hoh - Kalaloch

Woke up to a completely different Shi Shi.  The mist had mostly cleared leaving a setting moon over the Point of the Arches.  It was otherworldly

Since it was a one-eighty weather-wise we decided to have coffee and walk back down to the Arches since we had another well-timed low tide.  

We can honestly say that both the misty and sunny Shi Shi's had their own charms and they couldn't be more different.

After Point of the Arches we slowly wandered back down the beach and back to the trailhead, taking our time to soak it all in.  Shi Shi is a very special place and definitely one of the highlights of this trip

Trails made by little sea snail type things.  There is actually one in the pic in the top right. 

We made it out to the trail head around 11 AM and it was time to head on the Hoh Rain Forest.  There are not many actual rain forests in the US and this is one of the largest.  The Hall of Mosses trail was as advertised.  Very neat place.

Since it was getting late in the day and we had campsite reservations at Kalaloch Beach Campground we decided to take off after the Hall of Mosses in hopes of a nice afternoon on the beach and thats exactly what we got.  We made a smart play earlier in the day when we decided to pick up a fancy-shmancy, no-cook dinner of Brie, fresh nectarine, and cured meats.  We also had a bottle of really good Rose that we snagged at Pike Place Market in Seattle for a special occasion.  This all added up to a REALLY good afternoon at the beach.

Followed by a sunset that may have just beaten out the one we had just seen at Deer Park.  The beach at Kalaloch is unlike anything we've seen in the Gulf or Atlantic.  The grade of the beach slope is so unbelievably mild that a wave will send inches of water 50 yards up the beach, trickling towards your feet at a snails pace and then back again into the ocean.  The result of this is an enormous plate of black glass that reflects the glow of the sunset back up at you, filling your entire field of vision with those firey oranges and pinks. As you walk across it, its as if you're walking into the sky.  As beautiful as these pics are I hope the image in my head stays there forever.  Surprisingly, there was not another soul down on the beach to witness it.
 

Day 20: Shi Shi Beach

Up and at 'em early to head out to Shi Shi Beach for a night of camping right on the sand on some of the most rugged and pristine coastline in the entire northwest.  This one you have to work for.  You need a permit from the National Park but you ALSO have to travel to the tippy top most point of the US to Neah Bay onto an Indian reservation to obtain a recreation pass because Shi Shi Trail passes through their land.   So, we headed down the long windy gravel road on the way out, locking the Silver Steed into first gear to keep from burning our brakes out.  Steph was much more at ease being on the inside and away from the ledge so the trip out was fun.

The road to Neah Bay was long and windy and Steph got a little bit of car sickness but we eventually made it in and got our permits.  The bay and roads on the way in were covered in a thick blanket of fog that would not lift all day.  We had some fish and chips and strawberry shortcake from a food truck owned by an elderly couple.  Fresh caught local Halibut cooked to order.   The strawberry shortcake was ALMOST just like my mom does it.....in other words, the best strawberry shortcake known to man.  Almost.  

We made it out to Shi Shi after about a 3 mile hike down some muddy trails and a short set of switchbacks down to the shoreline.

We hiked down the shoreline to Petroleum Creek, which was our water source for the night, and found an awesome place to camp.  We were tentative about pitching the tent directly on the sand because it uses only two treking poles and everything else is guylines, but too our pleasant surprise it pitched very nicely using large rocks on top of the stakes.

We then went down to explore the star of the show, Point of the Arches, which is a 300 yard set of rocks that jut sharply up out of the surf.  At low tide around the rocks the beach is filled with shallow tidal pools full of Sea Anenomes, Starfish, coral and all sorts of other little critters.  These pictures often look like black and whites, but they are actually color photos.  This is how thick the fog off the ocean was.  I thought we would be disappointed with these weather conditions, but the area was still beautiful in this light.

Those are all color pictures by the way....to give you some idea of the fogginess.

After exploring the Arches we made our way back to camp to get water, get situated and get dinner.  Some time during dinner we noticed the weather clearing and we started to get a better picture of just how magnificent the area was.  As the sun set completely, we could see that the nearest camp from us was a few hundred yards down the beach in both directions.  Basically we had a beach all to our own and we were camped right on the sand.  So close, in fact, that we had to look very closely at the previous days high tide marks on the beach to make sure we wouldn't wake up to a very nasty surprise of the ocean sweeping away our tent.  We were actually camped in the middle of tree-sized driftwood pushed onto the beach during storm surges, but with no storms in the forecast we were safe....although we never could quite push the thought out of our heads.  The ocean has always been a humbling force to stand in front of but, in that rugged, cold coast with no artificial light for miles it was truly awe inspiring. That same force carved those towering, jagged rocks out of stone cliffs.  The enormity of it made it like sleeping at the mouth of the abyss.   Being huge fans of white noise while sleeping, we drifted off to the absolutely glorious sound of an entire ocean in our bedroom. 

From camp in the middle of the night.

Day 19: Deer Park

Time to say goodbye to Seattle.  We enjoyed the unexpected extra day there but its time to go.  We got up early headed for Deer Park which included an optional and quicker trip on a ferry.  This was a first for us but it was easy and fun.  It was also interesting to see regular Seattlites on their morning ferry commute.

After disembarking we drove down the road and grabbed some coffee drinks at another one of those little stands you see everywhere in the Pacific Northwest.  This one was called "Espresso Gone Wild" and was staffed by a lovely young woman in a bikini. (no comment).  After getting caffeined up we headed to Port Angeles to obtain our permits for the following days campsite at Shi Shi beach as well as information about Deer Park.  Deer park is a 17 mile drive which includes 7 miles of narrow gravel road with no guard rails and..........you guessed it.......steep cliffs on one side.  Steph, being in the passenger seat and on the cliff side was not really having any of it.  I remember once hearing "can we not just do something EASY for once???"  No......no we cannot lol. 

Would the trip to the top be worth it?  Would there be any campsites left?  Yes and yes.  We found an absolutely beautiful campsite with a 180* view of the snowy olympic peaks.  We spoke with a disappointed local who showed up later and said that we had the best site in the whole place.  Lucky us.  

With nothing really to do for a few hours we took the opportunity to lay around and be lazy.  It was glorious.  That evening we decided to go do the Rainshadow Loop which is a short 1/2 mile around the peak of Blue Mountain.  Wow.  You can see Vancouver Island, Victoria, Seattle, Vancouver and a number of mountain peaks from up there.  

It was so cool that we decided to return for sunset where we were treated to what was EASILY one of the best sunsets of our lives.  No words for this one.

We sat around the fire and watched the full moon come up before turning in for the night.  

Sometime in the middle of the night I heard a rustling outside the tent.  I peaked out the window and saw two doe munching on grass about 10 ft away.  I woke Steph and told her to look outside her window.  Tentatively she peeked out and saw a large buck right beside the tent.  He was eating charcoal out of our fire pit.  Each bite sounded like some cartoonishly crunchy apple he bit into.  Yum-O.  We conked right back out as soon as our heads hit the pillow.