Benjamin and Sherry's West Coast Odyssey Diary: Part 6

Last Part! Finally!

Day 9- Wednesday, June 21st (Oregon Coast)

Upon waking in Grants Pass, OR, Ben and I took a lengthy drive (about 2 1/2 hours) through the mountains to get to the coast. I'm talking about roads that were about 12 feet wide at the most, no lines, no signs indicating how fast to go around the corners, and no guardrails. But, we encountered two black bears (one went running, more like lumbering, down the street after spotting us) and a whole bunch of deer acting like mountain goats.

Ben and I saw many brochures for the West Coast Game Park- America's Largest Wild Animal Petting Park, so we decided to check it out. How can you go wrong? Ben and I were able to hold a baby African Lion...

pet a lynx...
and hang around with a whole bunch of animals roaming free like these llamas...

While Ben and I were waiting in line to pet and hold the baby African Lion, the chimpanzees that were right next to us started wildly hitting their basketball against a wooden cage wall. The lady that was monitoring the baby-African-Lion-holding warned everyone to stay back. These chimps were so bored that they save up their poo, and when everyone comes crowding around their cage in curiosity to see what all of the noise is about, the chimps maliciously throw their fecal matter into the unsuspecting crowd. Guess what? Despite the zookeeper warnings, it works everytime. Hee hee hee...

After the zoo fun, we stopped to look at Face Rock. Can you see the face?

Halfway up coastal Oregon, Ben and I stopped at the Sea Lion Caves- the largest sea cave in the world is located here and filled with sea lions.

Sea lions can also be seen lounging near the caves.

Racing against time, Ben and I sped our way up to Cannon Beach for a spectacular sunset. All our worrying, nail biting, and constant watch-checking paid off because we made it just in time to see the sun set behind Haystack Rock.

We stopped at Ecola State Park, where part of the Goonies was filmed.

Day 10- Finish Coastal Oregon and return to Washington State.

Speaking of Goonies, we stopped in Astoria, OR to do some more hunting for Goonies' set locations. Here is the museum where the main character's dad worked...

The county jail from which the criminals escaped...

and the main character's house with Ben doing the "Truffle Shuffle".

Next stop: Aberdeen, WA, where Kurt Cobain grew up. We bought a map and did a little investigating to find the bridge over the Wishkah River, under which Kurt Cobain would sleep after running away from home. As you can tell, a few other fans had visited.

Ben had to leave his mark too. We weren't vandalizing public property... nope...

To finish off the day, we made a few stops in the Olympic National Park. Here are a few pictures from the rainforest. Yes, I did say rainforest. Yes, an actual rainforest. In Washington.

We said our goodbyes to the ocean (I'm tearing up just thinking about it) and went up to get a great view of the Olympic Mountains.

Day 11- Mount St. Helens (again) and cruising time...

Ben and I woke up in Sequim, WA and headed for Seattle. The plan was to catch up on all the things that we didn't get to do in Seattle yet. The day was BEAUTIFUL- not one cloud in the sky. It's Seattle for goodness sake! Mount Rainier towered over us in the sky as we approached Seattle. The wheels were turning in both of our heads and finally I said, "Should we try to see Mount St. Helens today instead?" Since the idea was on both of our minds, he agreed. We raced to Mount St. Helens, and the view was 1,000,000% better than when we were there just over a week before.

We raced back up to Seattle and stopped at the Science Fiction Museum. The first time I saw this building was from the airplane coming into Seattle- that's how colorful it was. The first time I saw this building from down the street I thought it had collapsed- that's how odd it looked. Oh yeah, when we were dropping off our car for valet parking in order to walk around the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is also located), Ben forgot to take his camera out of the car. Yep, when we went to the top of the Space Needle, we didn't get any pictures. But, it actually wasn't that impressive of a view, and I'm not even being sarcastic. The Space Needle is only 550 feet in the air, and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada (which I've been up in twice) is about 2,000 feet in the air. Which one would you be more impressed with?

To round off the day and our wonderful trip, Ben and I went on a dinner cruise. We waited to board the ship with 100 elegantly-dressed Japanese business types and felt really out of place before we spotted some other people dressed in business casual- as we were. The dinner cruise came complete with live entertainment. Ben and I were serenaded with such tunes as "Sittin' at the Top of the Bay" and others of this type. You know, the songs where the middle-aged couples get up to show their stuff on the dance floor. Nonetheless, the food was delicious,...

and we got some terrific views of Mount Rainier...

the sunset behind the Olympic Mountains...

and an awesome view of Seattle's night skyline from the water.

A side note: the flight home was a lot worse than the flight to Seattle. When taking off and working our way up to 30,000 feet in the sky, there was a huge bump of turbulent air. About two minutes after Ben and I thought we were going to crash to the ground, the captain announced that the bump that we felt was just from an airplane in front of us. Gee... thanks for letting us know a million years after the fact. Also, the landing was a bit too bumpy for my taste and again I thought we were all going to die.

Benjamin and Sherry's West Coast Odyssey Diary: Part 5

So sorry for dragging this on for so long... but I must continue on...

Day 7- (Monday, June 19th) Winery time in Napa Valley!
So we didn't make it through Napa Valley fast enough to go through Sonoma Valley too, but had a great time in Napa Valley.

Ben and I arrived at our first winery of the day- the Robert Mondavi Winery.

We had heard that this was the best tour that one can take in Napa Valley, so we decided to go on the famous tour. Feeling like a fish out of water (we were surrounded by a people with a lot more money than we will ever have), we followed our tour guide through the vineyards and the winery. It was indeed the best winery tour I've ever been on (I've been on two others).

At the end of the tour was the wine tasting. Ben and I sat down at a table with our fellow tourists and tasted three different varietals- cabernet, chardonnay, and sauvingnon blanc. After tasting these very tasty wines, we stumbled into the gift shop, bought a few bottles of wine, and waddled back to the rental car. "Ben, I can't drive." "Sherry! Neither can I!" We chuckled and ate some peanut butter sandwiches to try and sober up. It worked, and we went on to the next winery.

The V. Sattui Winery was far more touristy than the Robert Mondavi Winery. Ben and I entered through the deli and tried some delicious cheese spreads- simply orgasmic.

We squeezed our way up to the bar for our free tasting. We each tried about five wines, and after not tasting one that I really cared for, we made our way quickly out of the winery.

We figured that we could handle just one more, so we stopped at the Beringer Winery. The short, informative tour led us through the hills of Napa Valley, where the Beringer brothers used Chinese laborers to blast into the hills to create a wine cellar. We got to touch the American oak barrels that contained aging wine. At the end of the tour, we enjoyed a chardonney and a cabernet that I wasn't too crazy about. We made a short stop at the gift shop and decided that we had had our fill of wine.

Ben and I made our way to the hotel in Fort Bragg, CA to do some laundry and some swimming!
Day 8- (Tuesday, June 20th) Bigfoot Country!

Benjamin and I had three goals for the day: find Bigfoot, get a good picture of Endor, and drive through a big redwood. Two of the three were accomplished.

We stopped at a Bigfoot gift shop along Hwy 101 that was close to Eureka, CA. We obtained a map with all of the recorded Bigfoot sightings and their locations. The locals told us about a Bigfoot museum located in Willow Creek, CA (about an hour and a half northeast of where we were), so Ben and I decided to go.

On the way, we spotted a big touristy sign for "The Drive-Thru Tree!". After paying the $1.50 per person, I drove through a gigantic Redwood tree while Ben took a picture. Upon getting out and looking at the other trees on display, Ben and I noticed that the tree was held up by three huge wires. These wires were choking off the trees that they were around- it was one of the saddest sights I've ever seen.

We arrived in Willow Creek at the Bigfoot museum, only to find out that it was closed on that particular day of the week. Frustrated, we wandered down the block to an information center. We asked the locals about the museum, and the old lady offered to call the museum owners and eventually got someone to open it up for us. While we waited for the museum owner to come, I questioned the older woman about her belief in Bigfoot. She indicated that her husband (rest his soul) had been in the forest service for 50 years before his death and never saw any evidence of an ape-like creature living in the area. But... she also mentioned that many residents in Willow Creek still believe that there is something out there.....

After giving the owner of the museum our $10 donation (required to have someone come and open the museum), Ben and I entered the Bigfoot exibit. There were numerous casts of Bigfoot's tracks, stories from the newpaper about Bigfoot sightings, and pictures of Bigfoot.

We finally reached Redwood National Park around 3:00pm. Ben and I stopped at the Founder's Tree, which is the tallest Redwood in all of the park.

We made another stop at Fern Canyon, which was along the ocean. Since it was a fee area, we stopped at the booth to pay the nice man $5.00. He warned me that I had to cross three "creeks" to reach Fern Canyon and assured me twice that I would be able to make it across in the Dodge Neon. I hesistantly said, "Okay..." and drove on. We reached what I thought was the first "creek", which was just a tiny stream of water going across the pavement, and I said "That's number one." We crossed two similar tiny streams of water, and I said, "Those weren't bad at all. Why did that guy even warn us?" That's when we reached the first of the real creeks. It looked as if the road were washed out! I screamed, "You've got to be kidding me!" Ben assured me it would be alright, and I slowly took my foot off of the brake. Crash! Into the water we went, as the water went flying across the windshield. Sccraaaaape! This was the sound of the front end of the car hitting the other side of the creek. To reach Fern Canyon, we had to go through two more similar instances. Believe me, I never got used crossing them, even on the way back.

But, Fern Canyon was beautiful, and we were able to get about 10 feet from really huge wild elk while on the path to the ocean beach.

Oh yeah, and here's our picture of Endor (last picture). Can you see the Ewoks running through?

Next on Nobody's Fool: Part 6- Adventures on the coast of Oregon, in Astoria, OR, and Aberdeen, WA.

Benjamin and Sherry's West Coast Odyssey Diary: Part 4

Day Five (Saturday, June 17th)- San Francisco!

San Francisco has some extremely nice people. The hotel manager, a former San Francisco tour guide, checked us in the first night and made several suggestions as to what we should see in our short stay in the beautiful city.

Suggested by the friendly hotel manager, we set out to get to the top of the mountain very close to the Golden Gate Bridge for a fantastic view of San Francisco from the sky. We later learned that where we took this picture from was not the "mountain" we were supposed to go to, but oh well.... Ben and I got to chase around a couple of really cute lizards, and I saw a jack rabbit leaping into the woods.

Ben and I ventured onto the buses to get around San Francisco. Our first stop was the Exploratorium. The outside was really, really beautiful, and the inside was filled with all sorts of displays to explore different aspects of science, complete with screaming kids of all ages.

It was back onto public transportation and to the heart of the city- Golden Gate Park. We walked about a half mile to the Japanese Tea Garden, following a really cute couple who seemed to know where they were going- and they did.

We stopped at the De Young Museum briefly to get something to eat and view some modern and African art. A little advice.. don't ever eat at a museum! It's horribly expensive (Ben and I shelled out almost $25.00 for two small, disgusting sandwiches, a big cookie, and a Jones soda), and it doesn't taste good at all!

It was about 3:00 in the afternoon, and we wanted to try and make it to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, which was about a ten-minute bus ride north. We walked around the park for a while and decided that it would be impossible to go to that museum that day, and besides, the ocean beach was a half-mile away. Let me tell you, it was well-worth going to the beach instead (I had never set foot in the ocean before!). Here are a few pictures of our fun on the beach...

At around 4:00, I decided we should go, since we had to make it to Fisherman's Wharf for our night tour to Alcatraz. We searched out the nearest bus station and waited for the bus to arrive(which only came every 20 minutes). A little worried we wouldn't make it in time for the tour, I asked a boy who was sitting at the bus stop how long he had been waiting. He indicated that we had just missed the bus, but there was a bus right around the corner that would take us to Fisherman's Wharf. We thanked him and ran around the corner where the bus was sitting (the driver was taking a short break). The boy followed us onto the bus and said he would show us where to get off and added that it would be a long bus ride. I again got that feeling of "Oh my god, we're not going to make it on time!". For the remainder of the long bus ride, I glanced at my watch every fifteen seconds, hoping that time would slow down for a while. The boy led us off of the bus and pointed us in the direction of the next bus that we were supposed to take. We thanked him again and ran to the bus stop, only to see another bus that went to about the same destination, but was there at that moment! So, we leapt onto the bus, only to see the correct bus stop right behind us not 10-seconds later. Ben and I waited anxiously to get off of the bus and to Fisherman's Wharf. We were finally there! We ran off of the bus and to the pier. We had made it in time!

The Alcatraz night tour was nothing short of completely awesome. What could be better than visiting an old, creepy, abandoned prison at dusk? We took an audio tour that led us step-by-step through the old prison. (on the left- Alcatraz, on the right- Al Capone's cell, on the bottom- me in solitary confinement)

Day Six (Sunday, June 18th)

Ben and I traveled down to Monterey Bay to take another whale-watching tour! Instead of seeing orcas, we were going to see the really big whales, like humpback and blue whales. We set out on our tiny boat onto the big, blue ocean.

The ocean was rough that day, and Ben and I watched the waves that were well over the top of the small vessel come toward us before the boat floated over the top of them. At first, it was really fun, like a rollercoaster ride. But then.... it got sickening- literally, sickening. The boat floated around the ocean for about an hour-and-a-half before they received word of some dolphins swimming nearby.

All of the passengers looked excitedly over the bow and watched the dolphins swim along with the boat. The only thought running through my mind at the time was "Don't puke, don't puke, don't puke." The captain and his first mate of the tiny boat overheard from surrounding boats that there were three humpback whales about a mile from where we were and went racing towards them. We finally reached them, and they were so majestic, only coming up for air every 5-7 minutes. Everyone was waiting for them to appear for the second time when it happened.... I lost it and tossed my cookies. People were giving me disgusted looks and moved away from me, while I apologized to them.

On the way back from whale-watching, I kept my eye on the land that was slowly approaching, while saying to myself, "Don't puke again, don't puke again." Guess what? I puked again. This time I sent a happy family of four sitting near the bow running when I decided to vomit into the wind, sending my partially digested food in their direction. What? It was either on the deck of the boat or trying to make it over the side of the boat. I apologized to these people when docking at the pier, and they were very empathetic.

Ben and I slowly made our way back to San Francisco after I purchased a couple of Dramamine pills. We hit up the Museum of Modern Art and then headed to Fisherman's Wharf to visit the Aquarium on the Bay. We were just in time to see a spectacular sunset behind the Golden Gate Bridge.



Next time on the Nobody's Fool Blog... drunken good times in Napa Valley and our search for Bigfoot.

Benjamin and Sherry's West Coast Odyssey Diary: Part 3

Sorry guys! I got real lazy! On to part 3...

Day Four (Friday, June 16th)

Ben and I stayed in a Quality Suites for the night in Klamath Falls, OR, and started the day off with a nice continental breakfast. Thinking that there were falls in Klamath Falls, we went on a wild goose chase looking for an actual waterfall... well, maybe the waterfall went on vacation because there were no "Falls" to be found. After feeling like idiots, Ben and I made our way to California.

One of the first spectacular views we had of California was Mount Shasta, which was way better than Mount Hood.

We took a tour in the Lake Shasta Caverns. It was HOT there in Northern California, and it kind of sucked on the way to the caverns because we had to take a boat, then bus to get there.

But once we got inside the caves, it was a comfortable 70 degrees. I feel bad for saying this, but our twenty-year-old tour guide...... kind of sucked. It was her third tour of the day (she had to keep reminding us of this), and she was less than well-versed. It was just Ben, me and two French Americans who could barely understand our awkward tour guide. She kept saying, "Pretty neat, huh?" and "Any questions?" followed by awkward silence. The caves were pretty cool though.

I think bears were a theme on this trip. This is Ben and I getting a bear hug from a dead rotting carcass while waiting for the bus.

We stopped at Sacramento, just to say that we were there. It was here that I saw my first palm tree. I was all excited as I observed the streets that were just lined with palm trees. Ben later informed me that all of these palm trees were half-dead, and then I was a little disappointed.

It was about six in the evening, and we were both dying of starvation, when we found a Subway not far from where we parked near the capitol building! Craving veggie subs, Ben and I went barging into the store, only to be informed that they were closed- two women were yelling at us, "We're Closed, We're Closed!" (then lock the damn door you stupid ladies.. geez!). After stepping disappointedly out of the Subway, we realized how absurd it was that a Subway would close at 6pm on a Friday night. Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?

Our San Francisco adventure is coming up next- including my first steps into the ocean, my discouragement with the ocean, and running through the streets of San Francisco.