Month: August 2014

In the ‘Hood…Mt. Hood

Standard

Well, it looks like I’ve taken over the blog.  Carol is working too hard and then when she’s not working, we’re out looking at stuff.  This last week it was Portland, and we’ve had some fun here!  Columbia River RV Park is very nice (other than the jets taking off from PDX) and the people here are really friendly and helpful.  Everyone has a favorite thing to do / place to see, and we just don’t have enough time to take it all in!  Portland is probably the coolest place we’ve been to so far (other than San Francisco, of course, but it’s different – Portland is really laid back, which fits us better than SF’s entrepreneurial / everyone’s involved in a start-up / check out my clothes and don’t you dare park there kind of attitude).  Here’s a sample of what we’ve done while in the City of Roses –

First off, Mt Hood – totally awesome – we rode the lift, had a drink in the Blue Ox Bar, and generally just bummed around for a while looking at views…we talked to a couple of ‘boarders while we were there, and, expecting Spicolli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, I was pleasantly surprised at how polite and knowledgeable they were – refreshing!  Pics from Mt Hood –

The last picture in that group, George and Dan, were two guys I met while playing golf at Rose City Golf Club in Portland.  George has played keyboards for 30 years for another person with the initials “DR” (hint: she used to be associated with The Supremes), and Dan and he were playing a free concert on the Commons at Tualitin (a little town just south of Portland) as part of their Summer of Jazz Festival, so after Mt Hood, Carol and I stopped in and listened to some of their concert.  Very cool.

Next, we were off to “The Dalles”, a trip along the Columbia River Gorge…lots of waterfalls…and kite surfing on the river – cool area, but not really what we were expecting.  I expected a “gorge”, you know, something like 300 feet of canyon wall with the river at the bottom and scenery galore, but really, the road just meandered up the side of the Columbia River, which was scenic and all, but just not Wow! – if you know what I mean.  Here are some pictures from that day – there were some cool waterfalls along the side of the Old Columbia River Highway –

 

And then a trip to Tillamook to see the cheese factory, and Astoria, the farthest Lewis and Clark traveled on their discovery journey.  We decided to get a Tillamook Ice Cream cone at the factory, but it was like a 45 minute wait!  We ended up going down the road a bit to Rockaway Beach and buying one there – no line – same Ice Cream!  Beautiful coastline between Tillamook and Astoria (named after John Jacob Astor, railroad tycoon) and we took our share of pictures along the way.  We stopped at the commemorative Astoria Tower, but opted not to climb to the top – the view from there (even from the bottom of the tower) was fantastic!  Some pics from that leg of the journey –

While we were in the Portland area, we were able to meet up with Gary Cunningham.  It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Gary (his first comment to me was how gray I’ve gotten) and it was really great catching up with he and his fiance’ Karin (hope I spelled that right).  They moved up to the Portland (actually Vancouver WA) area a few months ago and are very happy with their new home.  I don’t blame them a bit – so much to do and the weather (at least in the summer) is fantastic!

Be sure to catch the next couple of blogs!  There is some real adventure coming up – believe you me!

 

Crater Lake – Really?

Standard

When I think of Crater, I think of a meteorite smashing into the earth (or the moon, maybe, or quien sabe’?) but anyways a big rock making a big dent.  But that’s not what happened here.  What happened to form Crater Lake is a volcano erupted and then collapsed, forming a big bowl and then filling up over time with rainwater and runoff.  It took a long time, then about 7300 years ago, another volcano erupted, this time smaller, creating the island you see pictured in some of Carol’s pictures.  All in all, whatever caused it, it is really another beautiful sight we’ve seen on TheRitchieFactor’s Oregon Trail.  Hmmmm…perhaps my closest reference is Sunset Crater near Flagstaff – but wait! – that’s a volcanic eruption too, isn’t it?  What was I thinking?  Do all these “craters” come from volcano eruptions?  I give up.  You figure it out.  Enjoy the pictures.

 

We are in Portland now, having spent some time (and some money) in the Seven Feathers Resort and Casino RV Park.  They gave us a $4/night discount with a casino player’s card, so we visited the casino to pick them up and guess what? – we spent WAY more than what we saved for a 4 night stay.  We did have some fun, though, so I guess it’s “entertainment expense” at this point.

One thing we saw from our RV space in Seven Feathers was a helicopter carrying water bags to drop on a small fire that had broken out fairly close to us.  There are a lot of fires in Oregon right now, and we saw this ‘copter make three trips with water from a nearby pond before he moved on.  There was also a small spotting plane working with him.  Interesting, but sad, really.  Carol and I are both wondering what the deal is with these Oregon forests, really – they cover just huge areas and there are “bald” spots all over the place, but they don’t look like they burned – they’re not blackened, just bare.  Really weird.  Like maybe they’re been “harvested” or something, but then again we’ve seen harvesting operations being carried out, and they don’t bare-cut the forests, but do a pick-and-choose type of harvest, leaving behind smaller trees for next time.

I’m thinking back to what we’ve covered in the blog here and I’m thinking we haven’t covered anything about the Oregon, Coast, have we?  It’s absolutely stunning, to say the least.  It’s different than California, in that there are lots of rock formations just offshore – not that there aren’t any in California (think Pebble Beach) but here they are just everywhere, making for some great scenery and picture opportunities.  It’s odd how they start right at the border between California and Oregon – or maybe that’s how the people that drew up the state boundaries decided where California ends and Oregon begins – it’s just odd.

 

Playing Golf with A-Bandon

Standard

Well, I did it!  Thanks to my daughter Suzie’s generous retirement gift, yesterday I was able to play Bandon Dunes, one of the top 100 golf courses (#63 according to Golf.com) in the world.  In a word, it was AWESOME!

Nestled on the Oregon Coast, I’m sure this is how golf was originally imagined when the game was invented in Scotland back in 1574.  Carol and I arrived about an hour before our 11:00am tee time just to get the “lay o’ the land”, and were greeted by a course representative who told us “Why don’t you hit the practice range for while, since you’re so early?”.

How early are The Ritchie's for an 11 AM tee time?

How early are The Ritchie’s for an 11 AM tee time?

Which we did.  I hit a few balls on the driving range (Titleists, of course), then putted for a few minutes on the largest putting green ever.  Let’s just say the putting green was pristinely manicured and quick, giving me some trepidation towards my upcoming round.  We made it back to the clubhouse in ample time, checked in, met John (a 7 handicapper), who was playing with me, and Sue, his wife, who like Carol was walking along.  The starter walked us out to the first tee, and gave us some pointers – “Well, you can’t see the pin from here, but it’s right over that ridge, which you’ll want to avoid, then up the hill to your right”.  OK.  At this point, all I wanted to do was not top the ball off the first tee.  When I felt solid contact, I breathed a sigh of relief, for sure.  However, my relief was short-lived, as it was my second shot that found the bunker.

Getting ready for my 3rd shot. Where's the pin?

Getting ready for my 3rd shot. Where’s the pin?

I swatted my way out the bunker short of the green, chipped up and two-putted for a double-bogey, and was on my way to an otherwise enjoyable round of golf.  John had his share of problems, as well, which set me a little more at ease once I saw him hit a 2nd ball after topping his first – OOPS!.  Once I got the first hole out of the way, we settled into enjoying the scenery, and quit worrying about the score so much – although I can tell you this – every tee shot was ominous, every 2nd shot was short (except for my birdie on #8), and every putt was daunting, even those from 3 feet.  On one hole, John missed a 4 footer, then drew his ball back and tried again…for at least ten times before he finally made it!  First, he was left, then he was right, then left, then right, etc.  Thought for a minute he was in the military…  And I’m telling ya, he was a good putter!

So we made our way around the course, marveling over the views and the way the course just kind of “blended in” with the surrounding sand and native plants and grasses, giving way to very tight fairway grass, and greens that had no edge or fringe area.  Every hole was different, every hole was magnificent – did I mention that it seemed like every hole was uphill, and into the wind?  Some pictures on the course:

 

By the turn, I was getting tired, I could tell, and my feet were killing me.  I changed socks, which helped a little, but my game started slowly deteriorating, although it remained challenging and enjoyable even through the “distractions”.  I ended up shooting a 45 on the front, and 50 on the back (with very little cheating, really), which made me happy, to say the least.  These days a 95 is a pretty respectable score for me, and especially on a course like this one!

After the round, Carol and I (she was a trooper, walking with me the whole round) made our way to McKee’s Pub (named in honor of Tom McKee, one of the original visionaries who designed the concept for a world-class golf club in the manner of the old courses in Scotland and Ireland).  We had a couple of drinks (I had Makers and diet Coke, of course) and then the bartender, Frank, suggested the world-famous Grandma’s Meatloaf which we could split easily.  We ordered it up, ate it up, had one more drink, and made our way back to the car.  With a bit of regret that our day was over but with great memories fresh in tow, we headed back down the winding road that led us back out to the US101.  We turned back towards Bandon-by-the-Sea, where the RV had been parked in the midst of a row of other RV’ers, some perhaps playing one of the courses at Bandon Dunes, others not, just enjoying the Oregon Coastline.  What a day indeed!