Day 15 (7/25) – Breakfast provided by the hotel and today was the final leg of our journey. Starting out from Klamath Falls, Mt. Shasta dominates the southwestern horizon. We drove all the way around it and past its western edge on our way to Shasta Caverns. Since we had to skip the caves on Vancouver Island we hit the backup caving spot here. This cave tour requires a boat ride across Lake Shasta then a bus ride up the mountain. It was hot, but with some air moving it was tolerable.
The caves were neat (and nice and cool as always). They had a fancy lighting system installed in the last large room which puts on a light show accompanied by a soundtrack. That was fun.
Stopped in Redding for lunch/dinner at Lumberjack’s. Had a massive and delicious slice of chocolate cake. Corinne, Heather, and myself working together couldn’t finish it.
Then the final drive–with a short detour in Danville for a bathroom break–and we were home again.
Day 14 (7/24) – Breakfast at the hotel and headed east on route 138. Broke up the drive by stopping at Toketee Falls. This trail starts with a surprise. The parking lot is bordered by a pipeline for a hydroelectric station. The pipeline is made of Redwood staves and it’s spraying water everywhere. It looks….concerning. The area isn’t deserted so presumably somebody knows it looks like this. It didn’t burst while we were there anyway.
We hiked the trail to the overlook of the falls. I didn’t have a tripod with me, but I managed to brace the camera well enough on the railing to get a smooth-water shot. It was a bit warm, but there was a senior-citizen group hiking the trail, so if they could make it I figured we could too.
Continued out route 138 to the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park. It is the bluest body of water I have ever seen. So blue.
The only path down to the water is currently closed for rebuilding so we had to admire it from the top of the crater. We had lunch at the Rim Cafe and walked around a little in that area.
Finished the day by driving out the south entrance to Klamath Falls for a stay at a Fairfield Inn. We attempted to go to a Pizza Hut for dinner. But after being there for about 10 minutes it became clear no one had any intention of serving us so we went across the street to Abby’s Legendary Pizza.
Day 13 (7/23) – Hotel breakfast and the discovery that Corinne’s fall in the shower the night before cost her the inside corners of her front teeth. Thankfully, no medically-significant damage done. The dentist addressed the aesthetics a few weeks after we got home.
The morning was spent across town at the Albany Historic Carousel and Museum. This facility’s genesis was in the early 2000s when a local woman decided Albany should have a classic carousel and then spent years building community support and raising funds until finally being able to build the facility. They received the raw mechanism of an old carousel as a donation and established their own from-scratch wood shop and paint shop to produce the working carousel they operate today. They also have a handful of classic horses on permanent loan from the owners which they keep in a museum space.
They’re still in the process of building the initial set of creatures for the carousel, but the carousel is almost full. The work is all done by hand with solid wood. We took a short tour of the carpentry shop (sadly no one was working at the time). The paint shop can be looked into next to the gift shop. Neat place. Lots of intense dedication to the crafts involved and the care shows in the quality of the work they’ve produced.
The carousel has 3 rings of animals. The inner 2 move up and down. The outer ring doesn’t move, but you get to reach for the brass ring. I grabbed many plastic rings, but we didn’t go around enough time for the brass ring to show itself (I was the only person on the outside grabbing for rings).
Heather rode a serval, Corinne rode a dragon, Jess rode a cow, and I rode a bison.
Lunch at a DQ Grill-n-Chill and then on to the Cascades Raptor Center in Eugene. More birds that are either recuperating or unsuitable for release into the wild. We caught an educational talk by one of the keepers. A doe and fawn were lounging on the property. Another deer down by the road.
With some time to kill yet, and not much more distance to go to our destination for the night, we drove back across Eugene to the Eugene Science Center (dwarfed by the neighboring athletic complex for the University of Oregon). A small facility with a commensurately low price, it was worth the entrance fee for just the 90 minutes or so we had. Not many people there so we were mostly able to just roam around and interact with whichever exhibits we wanted. Corinne attempted to block all movement in the fluid-dynamics simulator.
Stayed the night in Roseburg at a Holiday Inn Express. Went to Garden Buffet for dinner (Chinese food).
Day 12 (7/22) – Breakfast at the hotel. The usual things: yogurt, sausage, cereal, muffins, bagels, English muffins, oatmeal, etc.
The first stop of the day was the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center. It’s not very far off the highway; easy to stop on the way by. Further up the road are the Forest Learning Center and the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The observatory, however, has been closed and will remain closed until at least 2027. The road was destroyed in a landslide.
The visitor center has an interesting set of exhibits. Including a walkthrough volcano diorama to show off the interior structure.
Lunch was at the ilani complex. I had it down as a point of interest as a large entertainment complex (though mainly a casino). We needed to eat something, it was on the way, and I figured there’d be food there. Maybe even decent food at subsidized prices–but I guess that’s not a thing at casinos anymore. At the entrance they had a few fast-food places. Corinne had fried rice, I had surprisingly decent street tacos, Jess and Heather had mediocre pizza by-the-slice (though it was huge slices!):
Back across the Columbia River into Oregon. We stopped in Portland at Hopscotch–a set of interactive, immersive, art exhibits. A ball pit of translucent balls over changing multi-colored lights. A room sculpted into a cave using discarded, plastic grocery bags. A room with strings of changing multi-colored lights hanging from the ceiling with 4 wall of mirrors. A bouncy floor with projectors and motion-responsive, algorithmic art designs. And more. It was certainly unique. The girls had a blast.
Destination for the night was another Best Western Plus. This one in Albany, OR. Dinner at Elmer’s.
Day 11 (7/21) – Breakfast from the bin as we packed up the hotel room and then loaded up the van. Out of Vancouver headed south across the border. Once we returned to the U.S. we stopped for lunch at Bob’s Burgers and Brews. Then into Seattle to visit the Space Needle, Chihuly Gardens & Glass, and a quick IMAX movie about the James Webb Space Telescope. Had tourist-trap-expensive ice cream at the top of the Space Needle which we ate while hanging out on the rotating, transparent floor.
Dinner was a smorgasbord of nearby options. Nuggets from McDonald’s for Corinne. After grabbing those we walked over to the armory which had a food court. Heather got a Subway sandwich and Jess and I got individual pizzas from Mod Pizza.
Back in the car to Lacey, WA where we spent the night at a Best Western Plus.
