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Welcome to Our Photo Gallery & Travelblog
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31 August 2005: Jantzen Beach RV Park is perhaps the noisiest campground we have ever visited. I woke-up in a war zone. We are near Portland Airport, an air force base, major highways, and a train track. Planes, trains, and automobiles! Fighter jets drown out the commercial airline flights in the early morning, and this morning, trash trucks slammed dumpsters, a lawnmower cut grass, and a jackhammer pummeled concrete. On Friday, we will move to a quieter campground on the Columbia River near Woodland, WA, Columbia Riverfront RV Park. 29 August 2005: We're just hanging out in Portland resting from our recent travels up the West Coast. It's time to be lazy, sleep late, update websites, take naps, and read that new Harry Potter book! Tom is reading a paperback book a day. It's also time to catch-up on doing the laundry and cleaning chores that have been ignored for too long. We welcome the showers today. We haven't had a rainy day for months. Good reading weather... 25 August 2005: We arrived safely in sunny, warm Portland. Yesterday, we took a short trip to view Multnomah Falls. Today, we took Henning to the airport for his flight back home to Ilbenstadt, Germany, near Frankfurt. He ate a filet mignon and took four sandwiches and candies for his flight food because the airline food is, "Terrible. I can't eat this food." We enjoyed his visit with us and we look forward to visiting the Schulze Family in Germany during the winter holidays. Click here to see our photo gallery of our travels with Henning. 21 August 2005: Still foggy in Brookings! We drove out of the fog for a sun-break today. Henning listed his favorite American foods for us: 1. Steaks 2. Salmon fish & chips 3. Mexican food, especially nachos 4. Seafood in general 5. Hamburgers. We head north along the Oregon coast tomorrow to Florence where we will spend the night before turning inland toward Portland. We bought our flight tickets to Germany online today. We'll visit some Christmas markets and our German friends from 15 December - 04 January. Perhaps we will take Henning's suggestion and travel to Berlin. 20 August 2005: We've had a few busy days here in damp, foggy Brookings. On Thursday, we made a car tour of Crescent City, CA. We walked in a redwood grove, went to see the film Four Brothers, and ate dinner at Bistro Gardens. Henning and Tom enjoyed their blue cheese filet mignon. On Friday, we took a mailboat ride up the Rogue River. We got out of the fog and into the sun! View some photos of our trip. Today, we'll walk to the Art Festival in the Harbor, Oregon, and eat at the Great American Smokehouse. Tomorrow, we prepare to travel up the Oregon Coast further toward Portland. 17 August 2005: Back "home" in Brookings, OR! Weather is misty, cool, and cloudy. Tom loves it. Henning says this weather is like in Germany. Our photo gallery is growing so I have divided it into smaller galleries. While we're here, we'll rest for a few days, do chores, and visit a few friends. We'll also take a 104-mile ride on a mailboat up the Rogue River. I hope to take some photos on McVay Beach during low tide. 14 August 2005: Bad day in "Frisco." Weather was cool, misty, and foggy. We are all very tired so we got off to a very late start in the afternoon. We drove to Larkspur and caught the ferry. We took the street car to Pier 39 in Fisherman's Wharf. We had a good meal at Neptune's then headed to the dock to catch a ferry around the bay. The audio presentation on the boat was repeat information for us. As Henning said, "We know this already." As we waited for transportation back to catch the ferry at Pier 1, all of the street cars were packed and the clock was ticking. In line, we did speak to a young German couple from Heidelberg and Trier. We finally took a cab only to sit in traffic at traffic lights, and we missed the last ferry out of the city! We had to take a cab, an expensive ride, back to Larkspur arriving at the same time as the ferry. What a day! 13 August 2005: Time flies when you're having fun! We've spent two full days in San Francisco: one on a bus tour of this foggy city and one on a tour of Alcatraz and Angel Island. The fog has lingered over the Golden Gate Bridge, but the weather beyond has been sunny and warm. This afternoon, we'll take the ferry to San Francisco, tour an old submarine, and take a boat ride around the bay. This RV Park smells like a barn because it has a big petting zoo and is in a rural, farm area. I said that it smells like Ilbenstadt, Henning's village in Germany. We have lots of photos to process, when we have time. We'll soon be spending a leisurely week in Brookings so I hope to get them done then. We are hoping that the Blossom wildfire doesn't spread so that we can take a river boat ride up the Rogue. We'll spend some time on McVay Beach taking photos of sea creatures in the tide pools and sunsets, drive to see the sea lions, and hike on the Oregon trail. And, we need to get some rest! Sightseeing is very hard work. 09 August 2005: Henning said that the Silver Bullet rollercoaster in Knott's Berry Farm was, "AMAZING." Tom agrees. We're traveling north on CA Highway 101 between LA and San Francisco. The summer crops are being harvested. The grapevines are heavy with various kinds of grapes ready to be made into CA wines. Farmhands are picking and packing strawberries, cabbage, lettuces, and onions. Farming is the main industry of central CA providing food and jobs for many. Castroville CA is the "artichoke capital of the world." One hundred percent of all artichokes grown commercially in the United States are grown in California. I did not recognize this plant that looks like thistle. El Camino Real, a handful of outposts established by Spaniards and Mexicans up the California coast during revolutionary times, is marked by lampposts and signs along the way. Many of the roads are lined with iceplants and the pink naked ladies are blooming. The official name of this unusual flower is Belladonna Lily or Amaryllis belladonna. I have only seen them in CA. They look like a brown stick, no leaves, then beautiful pink lily flowers burst from the top. I found this very good description online: Don't tell Candid Camera or Funniest Home Videos, but there are naked ladies popping up all over the place! Along highways, in weed-infested vacant lots and, yes, even in manicured gardens. Tall, curvaceous and rosy pink, they stand out like Twiggy at a Weight Watchers' convention. But before you call the police about indecent exposure, let me hasten to say that these naked ladies are fit for the eyes of the most innocent child. Technically called Amaryllis belladonna and sometimes known as belladonna lilies, they still are most often simply referred to as good ol' naked ladies. The reason for their rather racy common name is obvious once you've set eyes on them. You see, this time of year, naked ladies are popping up all over, with their pink, fragrant flowers blooming atop 2-foot-high stalks that just happen to be totally leafless -- "naked," if you will. The trumpet-like flowers put on a show, having six to 12 flowers to a cluster. Flowers are large, about 3 inches in diameter. While light pink is the most common color, they're also available in red, mauve and white, usually with contrasting yellow throats. View some photos of naked ladies! Tonight, Henning sleeps in a simple American cabin for our overnight stop in Santa Cruz. Tomorrow, we will drive through the traffic of San Francisco to our next hitching post where we will stay for four nights for some sight-seeing. I think that Henning is interested in visiting Alcatraz, where the film The Rock was made. He has also done some research and found another Hard Rock Cafe where he can buy another T-shirt to add to his collection. We will also look for an Army Surplus store to buy some clothes for his Airsoft games. We paid $3.16 per gallon for diesel today! Tom is loving the ocean mist and cool temperatures. He is breathing easier and his sinuses are clearing up. I'm wearing three layers of clothes again! 06 August 2005: Ventured over to Downtown Disney yesterday evening for dinner at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, a fancy, expensive restaurant with great desserts but not very good food. Then, we watched the Electric Parade in California Adventure Park, which was rather disappointing. Tom and Henning have gone shopping and will go to Knott's Berry Farm early tomorrow for more rides on roller coasters. Eating out too much has taken its toll on me and I'm housebound for a day or two. 04 August 2005: We've been busy! Refrigerator was repaired, thankfully, except it still needs a new hose of some kind which we'll order at our next hitching post where we stay put for more than a few days. We all went to Disneyland in the evening on Monday. We ate at the House of Blues. Henning and I had filet mignon, excellent! Tom had very spicey jambalaya. The park was so crowded with thousands of people. We stayed for the fireworks which accentuate a narrative about Disney's history celebrating its 50th anniversary. Good job! On Tuesday, Tom drove us into LA to visit Peterson's Auto Museum and we made a stop at an Airsoft Shop for Henning. This is a "war game" played with gas propelled soft BB's, similar to Paintball or something like that. Near Peterson's Auto Museum, we also saw one of the La Brea tar pits with life-size mammoths stuck in the goo. Tons of fossils have been located in these tar pits and many are housed in the museum here in LA. On Wednesday, Henning and took a bus trip to Universal Studios. It has changed since I visited it 29 years ago! The highlights were the Jurassic Park River Ride (wet), Terminator 3-D, Blues Brothers Show, Water World Show, and the tram ride into the backlot where we saw a set from Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. We also saw Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives, the sound stage for CSI, mechanical JAWS, a flash flood, Psycho house, and more ... It was a very tiring, but interesting day. Early this morning, Tom and Henning took the shuttle bus to California Adventure Park to ride the roller coasters. Because of my neck problems, I don't do those kinds of rides, and I just don't like them. I'm recuperating today and catching up on chores. We'll leave the LA area on Monday heading for San Francisco. (Tom and Henning came back mid-afternoon exhausted from their rollercoaster rides. They both said that they had lots of fun! Henning commented that his feet "hurt." I think his "dogs" are just tired.) 01 August 2005: Photo gallery of our travels with Henning has been uploaded and will continue to grow as we explore LA, San Francisco, and the West Coast. Henning enjoys using the computer. We had an older laptop computer that Tom has set-up for him to use. He can IM his friends which should keep him from getting very homesick. Temperatures are staying near 90 during the day and cooling off to the mid-60's at night. We're enjoying our day trips, playing UNO, and watching the nightly fireworks. Last night, Sadie ventured outside without our knowledge just before the fireworks went off. She disappeared for awhile. How does one find a black cat in the night? Harry and I just waited and she returned from her hiding place about an hour later. Refrigerator coils will be replaced on Wednesday which should fix our frig, hopefully! Today, we'll explore part of Disneyland in the evening; tomorrow, we'll visit a car museum; on Wednesday, Henning and I will go to Universal Studios. So much to do, so little time ... |
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