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| Multnomah Falls on the drive between Walla Walla, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. |
For 2022, on the heels of a trip east that included Maine, New York, Maryland's Eastern Shore and Milwaukee, we planned a relatively modest West Coast trip: flying to Seattle, picking up a rental car, and heading home with stops in Walla Walla, Washington (wine country); Portland, Oregon, where friends planned to take us on a wine tasting tour, then Ashland, Oregon; Redding, California; Then finally over to the coast itself at Jenner and Marshall, both north of Point Reyes National Seashore, back to Big Sur for Labor Day weekend, then one night in Ventura (north of Los Angeles) before the final leg took us back to San Diego.
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Big Sur (a 2021 post)
Seattle worked out great. We arrived mid-day Thursday, explored a bit and then spent Friday with our friend Ray, who also features in my post about Ljubjlana, Slovenia, and is now mostly based in Shelton at the southern end of Puget Sound. Ray came into Seattle and walked us around downtown and hipster Capital Hill. We even rode a trolley. After our time with Ray, we got ourselves onto the once-famous monorail, which shuttles between a downtown shopping center and the still-famous Space Needle.
Saturday and Sunday we spent with friends Tom and Nancy, whose medical careers have taken them from Baltimore to Pittsburgh to Seattle. They took us to the Chihuly Garden and
Glass at the base of the Space Needle, and then up to the top. On Sunday, after a brunch in the Pike Public Market neighborhood, we took a tour boat from the waterfront on Puget Sound into Lake Union, passing through a lock that keeps Lake Union's water level stable.
That Monday we picked up a car and drove to Walla Walla, where we spent three nights and visited several tasting rooms. Thursday we drove to Portland along the Columbia River Gorge, surely one of the most beautiful drives in the U.S. Friday I realized I was sick. We had brought several covid rapid test kits with us, and, sure enough, I tested positive. Jane tested negative. We canceled the next day's wine explorations with friends Niels and Judi. I did a telemed call with a local urgent care center and was prescibed Paxlovid. We read the Paxlovid packaging and looked it up online, It turns out that it should not be taken with almost every prescription that I regularly take, so I didn't take it. Nevertheless, by Saturday I was feeling much better and Jane and I drove to see Niels and Judi, where we visited masked and socially distanced on their porch. We also canceled our planned Sunday overnight in Ashland, giving me more quality time inside our Portland hotel room. I had been looking forward to exploring the city's craft beer scene but we had no chance to experience Portland at all.
By Monday I felt up to driving to Redding, Calif., but we realized that we didn't have the energy needed to visit Lassen Vocanic National Park (the reason for going to Redding in the first place). Unfortunately, though I was feeling better, Jane fell ill Tuesday to the extent that we went to an emergency room. Turned out, of course, that she had covid and was given monoclonal antibodies. Since I still tested positive, had some symptoms and a load of underlying health problems, I was given the antibodies, too. The next day we were back on the road, isolated most of the time in our car, headed for a contactless checkin at a waterfront cabin in Jenner, California, Two nights in Jenner, then two more nights down the road at Marshall, where I was testing negative and Jane had only the faintest positive line. We continued wearing masks and avoiding contact with people as much as possible.
Next stop was Big Sur, though the drive was interupted by a stop at Avis at the San Francisco airport to exchange our Honda Civic, which was showing low tire-pressure alerts and low-battery key remote alerts. This time we were given a Honda HRV, which also started showing low tire-pressure alerts. Again, I added air to the tires without having a tire gauge and hoped for the best. The alert stayed on but we had no problems with the tires. We arrived at Big Sur the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and stayed three nights in a small cabin under the redwoods at Glen Oaks, where we had stayed in a motel room last year.
Our next stop was one night in coastal Ventura, just north of Oxnard, before making the final drive to San Diego and home. This was not the West Coast trip of anyone's dreams. Besides the days we lost to covid, we skipped the coasts of Washington and Oregon. Doing this again, I'd go to the Olympic Penninsula from Seattle and down to the Oregon Coast, which our friends in Portland assured us is spectacular. But at least we got to drive along the Columbia River Gorge and some of the best parts of the Califonia Coast.
Here are thoughts on the hotels where we stayed:
Seattle: The Andra. This is a well thought-out hotel with lots of touches that make things more pleasant for guests. It also has a great location for tourists, within pretty easy walks of the waterfront, the Pike Place Public Market and the Space Needle.
Walla Walla: The Finch. This is a charmingly revamped motel with large rooms. It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit when we were there; too bad the old motel's pool was no longer there. Only real gripe, though, is that that like at many motels, there's a walkway in front of the rooms, so for privacy guests have to keep their curtains drawn. Location was fine -- easy walk to downtown tasting rooms.
Portland: Hotel Zags. The hotel's large ground-floor open-air terrace gave us a place to eat other than in our room while we were ill, and we could walk to several take-out food places. We were fortunate in somehow never having to share an elevator with anyone once I tested positive. Happy to have a comfortable bed and cable TV for our four nights here.
Redding: Sheraton Sundial. Despite the heat, it was possible to eat outdoors, and a first-floor room meant we didn't have to risk sharing an elevator with anyone. Nice location beside a large park and the Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River. The drive toward Jenner started on Interstate 5, but much of it was through Sonoma County along the Russian River.
Jenner: River's End. Contactless check in was just what we needed, along with a terrace overlooking the Pacific and the mouth of the Russian River. The restaurant was closed both nights we were there, and there was no TV, no wifi and no cell service. We drove back east along the Russian River to Duncans Mills to get takeout food and wifi service. And south on Highway 1 to Bodega Bay for more food choices.
Marshall: Nick's Cove. Another room with a water view, albeit across the street. Large and comfortable room with a huge bathroom. Power went out our first night there (out in the entire community), but the restaurant had a generator. Unfortunately, it was awfuly close to our bedroom window.
Big Sur: Glen Oaks. Our second time here was even better than the first in 2021 because we promoted ourselves from a motel room on a parking lot to a tiny cabin in a redwood grove with the Big Sur River just steps away.
Ventura: Waypoint Ventura. Accomodations are old restored travel trailers (and spots for RVers to park) within an easy walk of the Ventura Pier. Our trailer, called Root Beer Float, had a tiny compartment for the toilet but a large and private outdoor shower on a deck. Two TVs, wifi and there was morning coffee in the office.
Here are some photos from the trip:
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| The Seattle Monorail connects a shopping center downtown with the Space Needle. |
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| The Space Needle. |
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| The Finch in Walla Walla. |
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| Truth Teller was the first tasting room we visited in Walla Walla. We met another couple there and based the rest of our tasting room visits on their recommendations. We came home with two bottles fromTruth Teller, a syrah and a cabernet sauvignon. |
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| This stern-wheeler is on the Columbia River in Oregon not far from the Washington-Oregon state line. It had to go through a few locks to get this far upstream. |
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| This swimmer is in the pool below Horsetail Falls in Oregon. |
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| Mount Shasta looms over Interstate 5 in northern California. |
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| Mostly you see other cars and a lot of heavy trucks on Interstate 5, so this cyclist caught my eye. |
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| The Sundial Bridge spans the Sacramento River in Redding, California. |
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| View from our room at River's End in Jenner, California. That's the Russian River in the foreground in its last few feet before meeting the Pacific. |
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| Our room at River's End. |
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| Another view from our room at River's End. Russian River in foreground, the Pacific Ocean and Goat Rock are in the distance. |
The restaurant at Nick's Cove. It and several cabins extend over the water. Ours didn't.
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| Our accommodations at Nick's Cove included a wood-burning stove, which we didn't need to use. |
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| A coastal walk north of Big Sur. |
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| Nine days after testing positive for covid, I was ready for a drink. Glen Oaks gave us a bottle of sparkling wine for my 71st birthday. This is outside our cabin there. |
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| A father watches as his young son surfs at Andrew Molera State Park at Big Sur. |
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| The pier at Ventura. Our travel trailer hotel was a short walk away. |
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| That's our trailer, Root Beer Float. |
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| Root Beer Float was cozy but big enough for two adults. The stove is there for esthetics only, but the vintage refrigerator works. |
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