OP
OP
NW-Bound
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2008
- Messages
- 35,712
We then bypassed Seattle, which we were quite familiar with, to go to the Olympic Peninsula. Not wanting to go through downtown to get to the ferry, we dipped south of the Puget Sound, which gave us a chance to do a bit of sightseeing in Tacoma.
We then parked the RV at a state campground in Bainbridge to allow us to spend time exploring this island and its downtown. We next moved to Fort Flagler, from there we visited Port Townsend. These campgrounds were about 1/5 occupied, and we saw that most of the RVs had Washington plates. I talked to a fellow RV'er who lived in Bellingham, and another in Bellevue. I guessed they waited until the out-of-state visitors were all gone before they came out here to enjoy the seascape.
The next few days were spent in Olympic NP, which I always wanted to visit, but never had the time. We saw some deer on the Hurricane Ridge.
We stayed at two campgrounds, Sol Duc and Kalaloch. It started drizzling ever since we left Fort Flagler campground, and here was a view from inside our motor home.
I had thought of also going to Hoh Rain Forest Campground, but had plenty of rain right at Sol Duc, so changed my mind. Again, this late in the season, campgrounds were nearly deserted, but I am sure that in the peak summer months it would be tough to get a spot. Kalaloch had more people still, however. This is the most popular campground in the NP, and in the peak months, one needs advanced reservation to get in.
Our time started to run out, so we did not get a chance to spend much time on the Oregon coast. We need to come back to do it justice. For example, we barely stopped in Cannon Beach to snap this photo.
From then on, we ran out of time to pretend to be travelers, and got back into tourist mode. Things happened more quickly: 1 night in Tillamook, then 1 night in Coos Bay.
On the way down to spend 1 night in Redding, we passed by Mt. Shasta and Shasta Lake.
Napa was a planned stop, for convenience as well as a place I wanted to revisit.
This was the 4th time we visited Napa, with the first time being our honeymoon, and the last time being more than 10 years ago. My, have things changed! Freeway 80 is now 5-lane wide in each direction, and brings visitors from San Francisco to but 20 miles south of all the vineyards. And as we got to Napa in the late afternoon, there were traffic jams due to worker's commute. Boy, will I live to see Route 29 becoming a divided highway?
We then skipped San Francisco as we had been there quite a few times, and headed south to San Simeon. Hearst Castle was something we had wanted to visit for 30 years, but whenever we came to CA the timing never worked out right. This time we wanted no excuses. We stayed in a state campground a few miles away, another one that we knew would be difficult to get into during the summer months.
Our last stop before home was to visit my aunt in La Habra, a place about 10 miles north of Anaheim. To get there from Solvang, I had to drive through LA downtown, and I knew traffic was going to be brutal. So, we hung out at a state beach in Capinteria to kill a few hours, so that we would drive through LA in the evening hours (8-9PM). Oh my! I later learned that to get light traffic, we should have delayed until the early morning hours, like 2-3AM.
There were simply too many people. At Capinteria State Beach, we walked the campground, which was full by the way, and snapped this photo.
It cost $60 for a beach front lot, and $50 for the back rows. Dry camping slot or a tent spot was $35. In fact, people who arrived there without reservations and had no place to go would have to settle for an "En route camping" slot, which was simply a parking spot in the day-use lot. They were not allowed to really "camp", meaning to put out their BBQ grill or lawn chaises, and would have to leave by 9AM the next morning. The cost for that? $35 and the ranger told me there were only a few slots left. My, my, my!!!
We then parked the RV at a state campground in Bainbridge to allow us to spend time exploring this island and its downtown. We next moved to Fort Flagler, from there we visited Port Townsend. These campgrounds were about 1/5 occupied, and we saw that most of the RVs had Washington plates. I talked to a fellow RV'er who lived in Bellingham, and another in Bellevue. I guessed they waited until the out-of-state visitors were all gone before they came out here to enjoy the seascape.
The next few days were spent in Olympic NP, which I always wanted to visit, but never had the time. We saw some deer on the Hurricane Ridge.
We stayed at two campgrounds, Sol Duc and Kalaloch. It started drizzling ever since we left Fort Flagler campground, and here was a view from inside our motor home.
I had thought of also going to Hoh Rain Forest Campground, but had plenty of rain right at Sol Duc, so changed my mind. Again, this late in the season, campgrounds were nearly deserted, but I am sure that in the peak summer months it would be tough to get a spot. Kalaloch had more people still, however. This is the most popular campground in the NP, and in the peak months, one needs advanced reservation to get in.
Our time started to run out, so we did not get a chance to spend much time on the Oregon coast. We need to come back to do it justice. For example, we barely stopped in Cannon Beach to snap this photo.
From then on, we ran out of time to pretend to be travelers, and got back into tourist mode. Things happened more quickly: 1 night in Tillamook, then 1 night in Coos Bay.
On the way down to spend 1 night in Redding, we passed by Mt. Shasta and Shasta Lake.
Napa was a planned stop, for convenience as well as a place I wanted to revisit.
This was the 4th time we visited Napa, with the first time being our honeymoon, and the last time being more than 10 years ago. My, have things changed! Freeway 80 is now 5-lane wide in each direction, and brings visitors from San Francisco to but 20 miles south of all the vineyards. And as we got to Napa in the late afternoon, there were traffic jams due to worker's commute. Boy, will I live to see Route 29 becoming a divided highway?
We then skipped San Francisco as we had been there quite a few times, and headed south to San Simeon. Hearst Castle was something we had wanted to visit for 30 years, but whenever we came to CA the timing never worked out right. This time we wanted no excuses. We stayed in a state campground a few miles away, another one that we knew would be difficult to get into during the summer months.
Our last stop before home was to visit my aunt in La Habra, a place about 10 miles north of Anaheim. To get there from Solvang, I had to drive through LA downtown, and I knew traffic was going to be brutal. So, we hung out at a state beach in Capinteria to kill a few hours, so that we would drive through LA in the evening hours (8-9PM). Oh my! I later learned that to get light traffic, we should have delayed until the early morning hours, like 2-3AM.
There were simply too many people. At Capinteria State Beach, we walked the campground, which was full by the way, and snapped this photo.
It cost $60 for a beach front lot, and $50 for the back rows. Dry camping slot or a tent spot was $35. In fact, people who arrived there without reservations and had no place to go would have to settle for an "En route camping" slot, which was simply a parking spot in the day-use lot. They were not allowed to really "camp", meaning to put out their BBQ grill or lawn chaises, and would have to leave by 9AM the next morning. The cost for that? $35 and the ranger told me there were only a few slots left. My, my, my!!!
