Hello Loyal Bloggers,
It's amazing how time flies. We cannot believe it has been over a week since our last installment. We start this post with Lake Tahoe, a beautiful crater lake on the border of California and Nevada.
We drove completely around the lake on our way to Stateline for a couple Phish shows. The lake seems to us extremely pristine. Some of the coves boast water colors we've only seen in tropical climates. It's the light Caribbean blue that shouldn't be in a landlocked body of water at 7,000 feet. The entire lake area is beautiful, and many of the homes around it are stunning. We swam and the water was chilly but doable. Some of the beaches are fantastic, and as you relax on the sand or take a dip you look straight on to snow-capped mountains. In addition to the normal lake summertime activities (boating, water skiing, etc.), you also have several world-class snow skiing mountains within a twenty mile radius. Squaw Valley surprisingly hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics and after seeing it we can see why. As we said in the previous blog the Sierras are tall and beautiful, and they get seriously dumped on. It was right before we left in January of this year when parts of the range got as much as fifteen feet of snow in one storm! Tahoe reminded us a lot of the Adirondacks, but 4,000 feet higher.
With that as the backdrop, we met up with two of Pat's best friends from high school, Jim and Brian (Benner). We stayed with them and another upstater (Mike) who Pat has known for several years in a great ski condo just a mile away from the venue. Stateline itself is kind of cheesy with a lot of casinos and whatnot, but the venue was ideal. It was in a parking lot, but it only held around 5,000 people. We cannot remember the last time one of the biggest bands of a generation played to such a small audience, and the experience was mind-blowing. We had seen Phish at least once a year over the last few years, but these two shows we'll remember forever. Trey Anastasio (the lead guitarist, vocalist and song writer) has got to be (conservatively) one of the top ten guitarists of all time. This argument has been going on a long time and there are lots of opinions, but we consider ourselves lucky to be able to see someone on that level. Not only that, but it's not very common for someone of that talent to mesh so well with a band like Phish for as long as they have. They all know each other so well and can bring the house down whenever they want. Very few bands can boast the catalog Phish has. When all is said and done Phish will be remembered as one of best bands of our generation and will have an immediate place in the music hall of fame. As we said, we were lucky to see them in such good form.
Jim hooked everything up from the lodging to our tickets (for the second night, anyway) and we thank him for that. It was a memorable forty-eight hours with two of Pat's best friends. We don't get to spend a lot of time with Benner these days with him working his tail off for Patagonia in Reno, so the time we all spent together was special. Thanks again for everything boys and we'll all see each other again for a bachelor party next summer.
We left Tahoe drained after two days of dancing and partying, and we only made it north of Sacramento for a night in some random Motel 6 on I-5. We recovered fully there and made our way out to the beautiful Patrick's Point on the coast of California. We camped here for the night in a cold but almost tropical forest just south of Redwood NP. You will see from the pictures the coast there (just south of Oregon) is extremely lush and green. It's misty all the time, and moisture is what the Redwoods need. Apparently Redwoods grew all over the continental United States around the end of the last Ice Age, but as things dried and warmed all over the last groves have taken a stand in a very narrow band along the northern California coast. We walked among the trees and you'll see the moisture. The Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world, some standing 380 feet above the earth. That is well over a football field's length. We couldn't see the tops from where we were standing. The height was impressive, and some of the bigger trees looked like Sequoias.
We drove north passing Redwood after Redwood and Shauna saw her first whale in one of the most unlikely places. A random grey wale and her calf made their way into the Klamath River and starting swimming in circles below a bridge right along the 101. After a couple days on the news the whales became a sensation and there were throngs of people taking pictures as we drove by. After asking someone was was going on we parked and saw the mother whale. We quickly learned the calf left her the day before. We asked twenty people why the whale was acting so peculiarly and we got twenty different answers. Pat remembered similar previous circumstances with whales back east and none ended well. They seem to be at that point disoriented and tend to beach themselves after a time and die. We just heard (three days after seeing her) this whale did the same thing. She beached herself and volunteers got her dislodged just to have her beach herself again. Who knows why this happen, but possibly they know it's their time? The calf seemed to realize its mother was not healthy and turned on its own back into the ocean. Life is a mystery.
We continued north into Oregon towards Crater Lake NP. We were trying to spend two nights camping there but ran into the same problem as in Yosemite. Everything is first come, first served and the entire area was booked (as it was Saturday in the summer) by the time we arrived. At the time we were bummed but ended up working out. We spent a few hours around the crater, throwing snow balls at each other and taking in the views. Crater Lake itself is the deepest lake in the U.S. and the seventh deepest in the world at over 1,900 feet. About 7,700 years ago Mount Mazama blew its top and created a large crater. From then on rain and snow melt have been slowly filling in the hole that is now Crater Lake. This lake is much like Lake Tahoe but even more pristine and remote. The colors of the water are almost impossible to believe, and scientists are still baffled by some of its properties. It was recently discovered that there is still some thermal activity going on towards the bottom of the crater and may add to the insane blues you see.
The reason things worked out is that we got to spend two nights (instead of one) with Pat's brother Matt and his girlfriend on the Oregon coast's sand dunes. We enjoyed two great camp fires and a day on the gorgeous beaches along the central coast. Shauna saw her second (first healthy) whale cruising along just offshore. It was great for us both to finally meet Sarah, who Matt has been dating for a better part of a year. We both loved her immediately, and we're excited to spend another five days getting to know her better in Portland. We attempted to rent dune buggies and ATVs for an afternoon but they were asking $150 an hour, a price we weren't willing to pay. It looks like a ton of fun, but we'll have to wait until we have jobs again to go back.
From the dunes we ventured further north along the coast and 101, following Matt's favorite spots. We stopped first at Barnacle Bill's for the best smoked salmon we've ever had. It was amazing. It got better when we stopped off at Kelly's Marina for some fresh Dungeness crab. Kelly's should be on Diners, Dives, and Drive-Thrus. We picked out our soft shell crabs and drank fantastic beer (as beer does in the Pacific Northwest) and had a feast. The Dungeness is known to have a relatively high fat content and basically steams in its own butter. After the best crab of our lives, we took down the largest oyster of our lives. See the pictures.
From here Matt and Sarah departed for Portland while we spent one last night on the Pacific coast. We camped at yet another perfect golden sand beach in Nehalem Bay State Park. The Oregon coast in general is absolutely gorgeous and mostly sandy. For some reason we thought it was more like Maine, with lots of rocks and cliffs, but apparently that kind of scenery happens more in Washington. Of course it would be better if the water was warmer (it's fantastically freezing), but you can still enjoy the beach.
On our way to Portland today we stopped in the pretty Cape Cod-styled towns of Manzanita and Cannon Beach. Shauna fell in love with them both. The summers here are amazing, and we enjoyed the Goonies atmosphere until we made our way to Portland.
We're settling in to Pat's sister Cecelia's apartment for the next five days while we take in the sites of northern Oregon.
Until our next post,
S&P
It's amazing how time flies. We cannot believe it has been over a week since our last installment. We start this post with Lake Tahoe, a beautiful crater lake on the border of California and Nevada.
We drove completely around the lake on our way to Stateline for a couple Phish shows. The lake seems to us extremely pristine. Some of the coves boast water colors we've only seen in tropical climates. It's the light Caribbean blue that shouldn't be in a landlocked body of water at 7,000 feet. The entire lake area is beautiful, and many of the homes around it are stunning. We swam and the water was chilly but doable. Some of the beaches are fantastic, and as you relax on the sand or take a dip you look straight on to snow-capped mountains. In addition to the normal lake summertime activities (boating, water skiing, etc.), you also have several world-class snow skiing mountains within a twenty mile radius. Squaw Valley surprisingly hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics and after seeing it we can see why. As we said in the previous blog the Sierras are tall and beautiful, and they get seriously dumped on. It was right before we left in January of this year when parts of the range got as much as fifteen feet of snow in one storm! Tahoe reminded us a lot of the Adirondacks, but 4,000 feet higher.
With that as the backdrop, we met up with two of Pat's best friends from high school, Jim and Brian (Benner). We stayed with them and another upstater (Mike) who Pat has known for several years in a great ski condo just a mile away from the venue. Stateline itself is kind of cheesy with a lot of casinos and whatnot, but the venue was ideal. It was in a parking lot, but it only held around 5,000 people. We cannot remember the last time one of the biggest bands of a generation played to such a small audience, and the experience was mind-blowing. We had seen Phish at least once a year over the last few years, but these two shows we'll remember forever. Trey Anastasio (the lead guitarist, vocalist and song writer) has got to be (conservatively) one of the top ten guitarists of all time. This argument has been going on a long time and there are lots of opinions, but we consider ourselves lucky to be able to see someone on that level. Not only that, but it's not very common for someone of that talent to mesh so well with a band like Phish for as long as they have. They all know each other so well and can bring the house down whenever they want. Very few bands can boast the catalog Phish has. When all is said and done Phish will be remembered as one of best bands of our generation and will have an immediate place in the music hall of fame. As we said, we were lucky to see them in such good form.
Jim hooked everything up from the lodging to our tickets (for the second night, anyway) and we thank him for that. It was a memorable forty-eight hours with two of Pat's best friends. We don't get to spend a lot of time with Benner these days with him working his tail off for Patagonia in Reno, so the time we all spent together was special. Thanks again for everything boys and we'll all see each other again for a bachelor party next summer.
We left Tahoe drained after two days of dancing and partying, and we only made it north of Sacramento for a night in some random Motel 6 on I-5. We recovered fully there and made our way out to the beautiful Patrick's Point on the coast of California. We camped here for the night in a cold but almost tropical forest just south of Redwood NP. You will see from the pictures the coast there (just south of Oregon) is extremely lush and green. It's misty all the time, and moisture is what the Redwoods need. Apparently Redwoods grew all over the continental United States around the end of the last Ice Age, but as things dried and warmed all over the last groves have taken a stand in a very narrow band along the northern California coast. We walked among the trees and you'll see the moisture. The Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world, some standing 380 feet above the earth. That is well over a football field's length. We couldn't see the tops from where we were standing. The height was impressive, and some of the bigger trees looked like Sequoias.
We drove north passing Redwood after Redwood and Shauna saw her first whale in one of the most unlikely places. A random grey wale and her calf made their way into the Klamath River and starting swimming in circles below a bridge right along the 101. After a couple days on the news the whales became a sensation and there were throngs of people taking pictures as we drove by. After asking someone was was going on we parked and saw the mother whale. We quickly learned the calf left her the day before. We asked twenty people why the whale was acting so peculiarly and we got twenty different answers. Pat remembered similar previous circumstances with whales back east and none ended well. They seem to be at that point disoriented and tend to beach themselves after a time and die. We just heard (three days after seeing her) this whale did the same thing. She beached herself and volunteers got her dislodged just to have her beach herself again. Who knows why this happen, but possibly they know it's their time? The calf seemed to realize its mother was not healthy and turned on its own back into the ocean. Life is a mystery.
We continued north into Oregon towards Crater Lake NP. We were trying to spend two nights camping there but ran into the same problem as in Yosemite. Everything is first come, first served and the entire area was booked (as it was Saturday in the summer) by the time we arrived. At the time we were bummed but ended up working out. We spent a few hours around the crater, throwing snow balls at each other and taking in the views. Crater Lake itself is the deepest lake in the U.S. and the seventh deepest in the world at over 1,900 feet. About 7,700 years ago Mount Mazama blew its top and created a large crater. From then on rain and snow melt have been slowly filling in the hole that is now Crater Lake. This lake is much like Lake Tahoe but even more pristine and remote. The colors of the water are almost impossible to believe, and scientists are still baffled by some of its properties. It was recently discovered that there is still some thermal activity going on towards the bottom of the crater and may add to the insane blues you see.
The reason things worked out is that we got to spend two nights (instead of one) with Pat's brother Matt and his girlfriend on the Oregon coast's sand dunes. We enjoyed two great camp fires and a day on the gorgeous beaches along the central coast. Shauna saw her second (first healthy) whale cruising along just offshore. It was great for us both to finally meet Sarah, who Matt has been dating for a better part of a year. We both loved her immediately, and we're excited to spend another five days getting to know her better in Portland. We attempted to rent dune buggies and ATVs for an afternoon but they were asking $150 an hour, a price we weren't willing to pay. It looks like a ton of fun, but we'll have to wait until we have jobs again to go back.
From the dunes we ventured further north along the coast and 101, following Matt's favorite spots. We stopped first at Barnacle Bill's for the best smoked salmon we've ever had. It was amazing. It got better when we stopped off at Kelly's Marina for some fresh Dungeness crab. Kelly's should be on Diners, Dives, and Drive-Thrus. We picked out our soft shell crabs and drank fantastic beer (as beer does in the Pacific Northwest) and had a feast. The Dungeness is known to have a relatively high fat content and basically steams in its own butter. After the best crab of our lives, we took down the largest oyster of our lives. See the pictures.
From here Matt and Sarah departed for Portland while we spent one last night on the Pacific coast. We camped at yet another perfect golden sand beach in Nehalem Bay State Park. The Oregon coast in general is absolutely gorgeous and mostly sandy. For some reason we thought it was more like Maine, with lots of rocks and cliffs, but apparently that kind of scenery happens more in Washington. Of course it would be better if the water was warmer (it's fantastically freezing), but you can still enjoy the beach.
On our way to Portland today we stopped in the pretty Cape Cod-styled towns of Manzanita and Cannon Beach. Shauna fell in love with them both. The summers here are amazing, and we enjoyed the Goonies atmosphere until we made our way to Portland.
We're settling in to Pat's sister Cecelia's apartment for the next five days while we take in the sites of northern Oregon.
Until our next post,
S&P
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