AirBnB Hosting

We started a new adventure! We are now hosting travelers in our guest room through AirBnB.

To book, visit AirBnB here: 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12589773?s=tT9SYD78

1 queen bed in a spacious room. Pack n play for baby available. Dedicated bathroom during your stay (not connected to room). Our house is located 0.25 mile from miles of gorgeous biking & walking trails.

$50 per night. Extra $25 fee for small dogs (25lbs or less).

This is our permanent residence and we will be present during your stay.

Happy 4th of July

We've fallen off the Blogging band wagon so I'll just take this post to throw some pictures up! We've had a great time in San Francisco so far...

(That's InNout...not McDonalds) 

Day 4: Trinidad -> Fort Bragg

Tuesday, July 2

After waking up at our motel in a grove of redwood trees, we had continental breakfast outside under a gazebo. The fog was dense in the trees. It was a nice morning after day of bike crashing and the worst Mexican food known to mankind.  

While I was back at the room doing a few of my Branches weekly duties, Andy went and threw some horseshoes. While tossing some ringers, a fellow traveler named Dawn came over and talked with him.  I never met him but from the sounds of it, he was in his sixties, traveling the North California coast from SoCal and had a huge love for maps and redwoods trees. Dawn gave Andy tips on what trails to walk through to see 500 year old "old growth" redwoods and filled Andy with all kinds of fun facts about the coast. So many facts that he spewed them to me for the remainder of the day:)

We continued down HWY 101 until it became unbearably HOT (99oF). In the town of Leggatt, we turned off and took HWY 1 toward the coast. Soon the temperature dropped to a comfortable 80.  This road was tight and windy for 40 miles. Think Cornelius Pass Rd's tight hair pin turns but through the mountains and by the ocean for a prolonged hour and a half. Andy has been tasked with driving the entire way so far, so I had it easy snapping pictures in the passenger seat. 

We pulled into Fort Bragg at 3:10pm and checked into out Bed and Breakfast, The Weller House Inn. There was a sweet black cat outside that took to Andy as we waited to be welcomed inside. This place was built in 1886 and restored just 15 years ago. It is quite charming but also a little noisy between hearing people walk above us and the old pipes in the walls pushing water to the upstairs rooms. Our hosts name is Mandy. She is 53 and a preschool teacher in Kentucky but was born in Australia.  She is here for the summer working at the Inn in trade room and board. She is a sweet lady who lost her husband 3 years ago and wanted to get out and "explore the country again," citing that she had traveled the west coast in her early twenties. 

The day continued with a short 2 block bike ride to the local brewery to pick up some beers. I'll let Andy tell you about this part in detail as he's the one enjoying the beers. 

We also took a nice long bike ride along the towns ocean front paved trail. This was simply gorgeous. It was sunny and warm and the water was tropical blue. 

I've been using an app called TripAdvisor to help us choose things to do and where to stay most of this trip. While perusing the best of's in Fort Bragg, I discovered a place called Piaci Pub & Pizzeria. We biked there for dinner. As we stood at the entrance and looked for a table among the jam packed bar and few community tables, a nice elderly mother and daughter and a jovial local beer guzzling family waved us over to sit in between them. If you can't tell, this place is a locals hangout. I'll tell you about our food and I'll let Andy tell you about our magical conversation.

 It turns out that this place had the best food we've eaten all trip. We started with an arugula salad with blackberry vinegarette, the softest and most succulent feta cheese and local ripe tomatoes topped off with pine nuts. I think this is one of the first salads Andy has raved about! Then comes the pizza, we split a medium (back home at Pizza Vendor this size would be called a small). Half was called the "Farmers," house made sausage, caramelized onions and gooey mozzarella cheese. The other half was sundried tomatoes, olives, onions and pepperoni topped with basil. My favorite part was the crust; a perfect mix of NY style and the thin pizza vendor style. 

This day has been the best day in California yet! 

Ali

Day 3: Cave Junction -> Trinidad, CA

Today saw a rare feat - I didn’t order pancakes at a restaurant reputable for them. Instead, I preferred my wife’s priority of splitting the cinnamon roll. The roll was flaky, and made with lots of butter, so it wasn’t too bad of a trade. That was all in the Oregon Cave’s Chateau coffee diner, which has a very fun 50’s diner feel and really cool community seating. See picture.

After this, we promptly hit the road. We had adjusted the bike rack the night before so it wasn’t weighing completely on the car’s spoiler. Then this morning after we descended the spiral road down from the caves into Cave Junction, upon closer inspection, I discovered something that I would have already known if I had read the bike rack manual. The plastic gear joints of the bike rack are designed to be tightened via a twisting knob at the end of the joint. After a fair amount of twisting, my confidence was and is at an all time high.

On to California. When we crossed the border, Ali was all giddy, exclaiming more than once, “I’ve never done this!” She was so excited about it, I wondered if maybe I hadn’t been old enough to appreciate the moment of crossing a border by car when I was a little kid. Well, not really.

My favorite musical cd so far is James Last’s Tango album from the 80s. It’s just a bunch of Tangos, with Last’s masterful arranging.  

In Crescent City, my will for fast food became painfully evident as I spontaneously turned into a Burger King, at like 11:15 am... for, um, a pre lunch ourderve. "Onion Rings!" I exclaimed, for a snack. And, of all my luck, they let me know this Burger King doesn't serve onion rings. I responded by hastily ordering their promo dessert, a brownie ice cream sundae, to Alison's surprise and disgusted gasp. We waited at the delivery window for at least 3 minutes, building my suspicion that the nice young Mexican girls beyond the window had no idea how to make this new promo. My suspicions were confirmed when they handed it to me, grinning shyly. Then another girl came up, with a bunch of napkins, and said "Here, you're going to need these." 

This sundae, I later exclaimed, was the equivalent of Ivy Mike on my stomach. The thing was out of control, ice cream and fudge spilling over the sides as soon as the lid was lifted. I couldn't even finish it, and I am known for finishing my food. It was quite, indeed, over the top. 

Today was not intense traveling. We showed up in Trinidad early. We ate the worst lunch ever, which inspired me to write a later post about what to eat at the restaurants in small coastal towns (hamburgers and nothing else.)

We got our bikes off the rack and rode around Trinidad. Alison crashed,  trying to ride through sand. I got a lovely picture of a wave hitting a rock. See picture.

And, we’re about to have, um, a good rest of the night.

Andy

Since Andy hit just about every point of our day, I will elaborate on our lunch ordeal...

I was starting to feel hungry about an hour outside of our final destination for the day (Trinidad). By the time we pulled in, I had a one track mind to eat some food. After checking in at our very quaint motel, we were in search of food. In a town with a population of 367, it is not easy to choose where to eat. Our options were a total hippie vegan cafe, two ritzy seafood restaurants, a couple of burger joints, the grocery store deli and an almost Mexican food eatery. We actually walked into the hippie cafe and looked at a menu. I can’t really remember what was on it just that it was a ton of vegetables with hummus. The funky smell and feel pushed us to head for the exit before ordering.

Our food search continues with us getting back in the car and heading for the sketch looking Mexican joint on the edge of town. We pulled into the parking lot of the run down building that had white paint flaking off. I convinced myself that the cause was indeed the salt water air and not the fact that the owners just didn’t care about their establishment enough to make it look presentable. As we were walking up the ramp to the entrance, there was a shady looking character having a smoke. He quickly squashed out his Marlboro and followed us in. It turns out that this guy was the hostess, waiter, the bus boy and the chef.

We ignored all warning signs and proceeded to order food: Andy the nachos and I the steak a la mexicana. My dish was more of a chinese dish. It consisted of white rice topped with onions, green peppers, very low grade beef all smeared in what tasted like a chicken gravy. The nachos were made with burned chips, not so fresh pico de gallo and stale shredded pork. We both gagged down a few bites before realizing that we should just leave the food behind and get out of the dive. We reluctantly paid our tab and drove to the grocery store to purchase some edible food.

With the terrible lunch experience and crashing my bike, it has been difficult to feel good things about Trinidad. While the scenery is gorgeous -- with towering redwoods overlooking ocean cliffs, I think I am looking forward to heading further south tomorrow with hopes of better food and better bike riding.

Until then,

Alison

NOTE: Pictures are soon to follow.

Day 1 & 2: Scappoose->Salem->Cave Junction

WE SET OFF ON SATURDAY, JUNE 29th....

Ali really wanted to get out of Scappoose a day early for two reasons. One, we could get a little driving out of the way and stay in Salem at my brother Phil’s. Two, if Sunday rolled around and I was still in Scappoose, the pull of Branches would be too strong for my resistance. What’s a vacation if you can’t get away from your work, she argued.

Let me just say, I love my church.

I love my wife more.

We left Saturday, around 6ish, and ended up finding Phil eating dinner with some of his small group members at a sports bar called The Ram. My burger was good. We met the small groupies. They all seemed nice.

Phil was good and hummy as usual. We chatted about whatever and hit the hay past midnight. That didn't slow him down from getting up well before either myself or Ali and conjuring up some fine bacon, fruit, and a very tasty Dutch Babies (German Pancakes). They were thick in the middle, and crispy on the bottom!

We took some of his books (The Magicians, and collection of depressing short stories), and hit the road before 11. Driving went fast. I grew more and more comfortable with the bike rack, which I will state first here: the bike rack could be the bane of this trip. I don’t trust it’s design, nor my implementation, which are two strikes against it. One fowl bump or a gust of awkward wind, signaling the third strike, and we could have some misery. Our WRX’s spoiler is awkward for it, the bikes don’t fit very well on the rack itself, and instead of being made of trusty metal, it’s joints are a hardy plastic. Plastic at 70mph becomes a lot less hardy. Least to say, my stress levels about the bike rack are bit high.

Speaking of stress. I was very concerned about Branches Sunday service in Hillsboro. Timmy, my brother in law, and Branches Hillsboro’s latest production director hasn’t been in the position very long, and the sound system is a bit of rocket science. This week, we had a hired band coming in, not having practiced in the space. They had played at Branches before, and had a miserable experience with the system. Add on top of this the building being rented out the night before, so Timmy and a colleague were going in at 6am to set up the system that morning....

On Saturday night, at Phil’s, I couldn't sleep. I was so nervous about the HIllsboro situation. So, I did what any good Christian should do - I got on my knees. I keeled at the bed, where Ali lay quietly asleep, and I prayed sincerely for the production of the following day.

God answers prayers. You can call it coincidence. But, from all accounts, I heard Hillsboro had an amazing day, and I choose to believe I was a small part of that... well, of course, God and me.

Back to Sunday. While Hillsboro Branches was rocking, we were rolling down the I5, flimsy bike rack be scorned.

We brought along fast food coupons, some for McDonald's and some for Burger King. These have me a bit more excited than I should let on. I finally got to use one, with eager anticipation - 2 whopper jrs., and 2 medium fries, for 4 bucks. This occurred at Sutherlin. We paid for the ice cream cone ordered by the police officer behind us in the drive thru, a strategically sound move.

Alison insisted on Taco Bell for herself, and they were unruly slow. Ugh.

We were back on the road. CD 4 came on and was Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head, their best album.

And, uh, at some point we winded our way up the mountain to the Oregon Caves, of which I’ll let Alison describe. I’ll just say, the lodge is to my satisfaction, and I’m really looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

Andy

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Before I continue on about the Chateau at the Oregon Caves, I must first give you some background on my road tripping experience. Well, it’s almost completely non existent. Aside from a few 5 hour drives to Eastern Oregon around Thanksgiving to go hunting in my childhood, I have never really taken a ‘road trip’. I have never been further South than Eugene via vehicular transportation. All this to say, I have been quite amused with the idea of traveling for hours a day just for the sake of seeing the sights! Not to mention all the fast food that you are allowed to consume along the way (supposedly).

Today’s drive seemed to breeze by. I will mention that our car does not have air conditioning so we roll down the road windows down and hair breezing. I made the comment today that I almost think I am enjoying the road trip more because with the windows down, I feel more in touch with nature (as dorky as that sounds).

We jumped off of I5 at Grants Pass around 3pm and it was by far the hottest I was all day. Getting on HWY 199 meant driving about 35 miles an hour slower which in turn meant less air flow in the car. Anyways, you get the point...it was hot!

Now to the Caves. After following a switch backed forest service road for 18 miles we finally arrived at Chateau and the entrance to the Oregon Caves. When the lodge finally came into view, Andy’s expressions were so fun to hear. I picked staying here because he loves lodges. He gasped and was immediately in love with where we had arrived. The towering Douglas Firs surrounded our resting place for the night.

After checking into our small but cozy room, we walked across the drive to the Chalet (ranger station) to see if we could still hit a cave tour today. We were in luck! They had one leaving in 20 minutes so we hurried back to our room and changed into our warmer spelunking clothes. Even though it was 90 degrees outside, the cave maintains at brisk 44 degrees year around. They tell you multiple times, “It’s like you're walking into a refrigerator.”

Ranger Billy guided our group of 12 through the ‘living’ cave all the while telling us plenty of fun facts. He informed us that this cave is 500 billion years old, used to be in the Pacific Ocean,  the stalactites only grow 1 inch every 1 thousand years and that we were in fact in a haunted cave. We choose to take some of his “information” as grains of salt. All in all, the caves were awesome! Too much to put into words but a must see if you’re in the area. I think our nephews would love it here.

In Roseburg, we stopped off at Fred Meyer and picked up some sandwiches for dinner as we didn’t want to spend well over $20 a plate of dinner here at the Caves. I also tried to prepare us to be somewhat healthy before leaving home by cutting up fresh veggies. After our spelunking adventure was over, we went back to our room and enjoyed our picnic with a round of cribbage.

There seems to be a lot of history here. The Chateau (lodge) was built in 1934 as part of an economic stimulus to help pull America out of the Great Depression. Before that, the caves were discovered by a bear hunter in 1874. Many things have been added since the completion of the lodge. For instance, in the 1950s the added a “coffeeshop” which is more of a 1950s dinner. Tomorrow morning we will eat breakfast here. I’m pretty excited to try the cinnamon rolls.

All in all, this trip has been so very fun. It’s taken about 24 hours to really relax and shut off my mind to the things back home -- Branches, school and the fact that I left a load of wet clothes in the washer-- but nonetheless, this trip is already off to a great start!

Ali

A Week of Freedom

THE countdown has begun! It's just 17 days until we load up the car and set off for our week long road trip to San Francisco. It happens to be over the week that the nation celebrates freedom, Independence Day. We too are celebrating freedom - freedom from work, school and the daily grind.

We say we are going to San Francisco but like any good trip, the adventure is not just in arriving at the destination, it's also about enjoyment of the stops along the way.

We will set off on June 30th and arrive back in Scappoose on July 6th.

THE STOPS ALONG THE WAY...

A-Home.Take off Sunday and hit the open road.
B-Cave Junction, Oregon. Here we will spend the night at The Chateau at the Oregon Caves. Odds are we will arrive later in the evening so exploring the caves will have to wait until Monday morning before we get back on the road. 
C-Trinidad, California. We will stay at the Trinidad Inn. This town is where the sea meets the forest so we will take in the sights of the ocean along with the towering Redwood forests before we set off for Tuesday's Drive. 
D-Fort Bragg, California. I snagged a deal on Groupon for The Weller House Inn, a charming bed and breakfast in the small coastal city. We'll set off on Wednesday morning and make our final push south.
E-San Francisco, California. We'll cross the Golden Gate Bridge into San Fran on July 3rd. That evening we will be taking a Sunset Bay Cruise aboard the Red and White Fleet (another deal scored on Groupon). We'll stay here for 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Express at Fisherman's Wharf. While we don't have a lot planned while we are here, we do plan on seeing the grand fireworks show on the 4th. 
F-Grants Pass or Chiloquin, Oregon. Our return home plans are still a little fuzzy as we may just head up I-5 on July 5th and stay the night in Grants Pass or we may make a slight deviation and stop into Chiloquin and say hi to some friends. 
G-Home.

Join us on our summer adventure as we will make a point to post along the way,

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Ready set go.

Hey everybody.

This is Andy and Alison's new blog. We'll post stuff here time to time about our life, as if that is interesting, right?

Anyways, stay tuned for amazing married life adventures, quips, rants and raves, and some scribbles,

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