Pacific Coasting With Amy

From Cottage Grove to Astoria, then west along the Columbia River to sights Bob remembered from his time as an auditor, then north to Mt. St. Helens, Bob, Amy, and I—three homebodies—played tourist on a thousand-mile road trip.

Our drive up scenic Highway 101 felt as adventuresome as it looks in the movies, only with Bob behind the wheel of a GMC Terrain instead of a red convertible and no one wearing a scarf.

We stopped to eat sandwiches from our cooler at Otter Crest State Scenic Viewpoint and saw a Gray Whale in the water far below.

Haystack Rock, home to Tufted Puffins, looms in the coastal fog, removing all hope of adding a new bird to our life list. Even if we’d brought a telescope, there would not be any puffin sightings on this day.

You take what you can get, so we settled for a big, wooden puffin.

I think wind farms are beautiful and am perplexed by people who don’t appreciate their simple magic.

It was a beautiful day along the Mighty Columbia.

Bonneville Dam was a must-see. Moving water always moves me. I believe it’s the negative ions.

The dam blocked fish from migrating upstream to spawn, so the engineers built a fish ladder.

It takes lots of muscle and DNA imperative to spawn another generation of steelhead or salmon.

When life throws you garbage, turn it into something flashy. At least this stuff is no longer in the river.

I knew there must be a good reason why this border collie needed protective eyewear, but didn’t have the courage to ask their owners.

An hour further, and Bob stopped in front of Gunkel Orchards. We were there for peaches, but after tasting their nectarines, we bought them instead, all in agreement that they had the best flavor.

The Stonehenge Memorial near Maryhill was another place Bob had visited during his work travels.

The next day, we drove north to Mt. St. Helens. This destination was on my wish list. As you may know, this mountain blew its top in 1980. I had seen it in its moonscape form five years later and was interested in seeing how its recovery was coming along.

Well, it still appeared scarred by the blast, but had a whole lot more green than it had forty years ago.

We stopped at the visitor center to watch a video showing the blast and hear some of the stories about that terrifying day. We were surprised to learn that the people closest to the eruption felt their houses shake but heard no sound.

After meandering through the museum, we went for a hike and Bob found a friend.

Amy stopped to admire many flowers, and one of them turned out to be an orchid.

We flew over Mt. Hood and could see Mt. St. Helens in the background.

So that was the sightseeing leg of our tour. I think we did a very nice job impersonating tourists.