Adventure Family

I've lived in Oregon for a little over six years and in that time, my parents have visited four times. While this is fantastic and we love to see them, when they announced they were coming for Thanksgiving, I got a little nervous. See, B and I are running out of things to do with them. They have visited the Japanese Garden, Powell's, Hood River, Timberline Lodge, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Smith Rock, the Capitol building in Salem, the Canby dahlia fields, Cannon Beach, Astoria, Newport, the Newport Aquarium, Multnomah Falls and the Gorge. How were we going to entertain them this time?

Simple. Drive six hours south.

My dad actually suggested the trip during one of our phone calls: "How far away are the Redwoods?" "Well, only about six hours, do you want to go?" "Yeah, let's do it."

So, they flew in on Sunday night and Monday morning, we took off for Crescent City.

Redwood National Park surrounds Crescent City in the northwest corner of California. Redwood trees used to cover much of northern California and southern Oregon, but these were saved from being logged in the early 1920's and thank goodness. They are amazing sights to see.

I got us rooms at the uber-retro Curly Redwood Lodge, built from one single curly Redwood tree, and the woman at the front desk was nice enough to point us toward one of the best sights: the area where they filmed "Return of the Jedi." We got up early on Tuesday morning and took off for a day of photos and highway pullouts.

We finished the day at Patrick's Point State Park, where we hunted for agates on the beach and did a little whale watching.

Wednesday was the drive home and we decided to head up Highway 101 on the Oregon coast. We made stops at Cape Blanco, the western-most point of the 48 states, the Oregon Sand Dunes and Cape Perpetua for the sunset.

After spending almost twelve hours on the road on Wednesday, we didn't want to go anywhere on Thursday, so what luck! Thursday was Thanksgiving. Nothing to do but eat and watch sports. Which we did. A lot.

So, now, my parents have officially seen everything Oregon has to offer. Well, except for the John Day Fossil Beds, the Wallowas, Crater Lake, the Three Sisters, the Steens, the Alvord Desert, the Willamette Valley wine country, the Pacific City dune and Mt. Bachelor. Guess we have to live here just a bit longer.

Precipitation 101

In Alaska, the Eskimos have 300 words for snow.  In Hawaii, they have just as many words for waves.  Here in Oregon, I feel like we have about that many words to describe precipitation.  

Here is a quick primer:

drizzle:  that annoying constant mist.  no need for a rain coat.

showers:  actual decent size water drops, occasionally falling through the day.  still no need for a rain coat.

rain:  constant rain throughout the day.  waterproof jacket needed.

heavy rain:  rain you can actually hear on the roof.  break Oregon code and bring an umbrella.

showers and sun breaks:  see showers above, but add in moments of sun in between the showers.  give up on the jacket halfway through the day.

freezing rain:  ice on EVERYTHING and the city will refuse to salt the roads and just wait for it to melt.

fog: when you can see about 40 feet in front of you.

freezing fog:  a weather phenomenon that causes slick roads.  for real, this happens.

the marine layer:  a layer of fog that comes in along the river from the coast.  this won't lift until around 2pm and it will feel like you've been in a bowl of soup all morning.

snow:  white rain.

snow showers:  occasional white rain.

heavy snow:  what closes the freeway in the mountain passes.

snow squalls:  sudden bursts of windy snow followed by blue skies.

wintry mix:  white rain mixed with normal rain.  this causes the schools to close.

Pineapple Express:  the remnants of typhoons in the Pacific ocean.  warm, warm rain that melts the snow.  i.e. a skier's nightmare.