Ocean in View

We hear that traveling with children requires extra planning and preparation. Since we are on our last few months before having a little young one, Traci and I decided to explore the Washington Coast. Our original plan was to make a trip to Moab with the Chief for the Easter Jeep Safari, but having to drive that distance with a vehicle that doesn't have overdrive is quite hard on the engine. On top of that, I had a feeling that my throw out bearing might be on it's last leg and I didn't want to risk anything with Traci carrying a baby child. Anyhow, the Washington Coast is an area of the state that we have not explored much of, so we packed up the Chief with all the essentials and headed west.

We drove on the Washington side of the Columbia river until Biggs Junction to refuel and then switched to the Oregon side for the rest of the way. I'm not sure if the semi trucks enjoyed having to pass us as we putted down Highway at 60 mph but that's life. Anyhow, we stayed with Dorane our first night where we enjoyed a great supper, a good nights rest and playing with Mac and Cheese. Our plan for the following day was to visit Baby "R" us and take our time to Long Beach, WA. We allowed the GPS to guide us to the closest Baby "R" us, which so happened to be the farthest away and after an hour of stop and go through traffic, our throwout bearing gave out. Oh, the joys of a city!… Stop and Go traffic with bicyclist who believe we should share the road. Fortunately we were able to make it to Baby "R" us and after a little shopping continued our journey west. Despite that our throw out bearing grinding every time we shifted gears, our drive to Astoria was amazing with daffodils upon daffodils everywhere. Once at Astoria, we took a quick snapshot of the bridge that would lead us into Washington and headed north to Long Beach.

When we arrived at Long Beach we searched for an area to park the Chief until we realized that we were already on the beach. It was there that we both were reminded of the words of William Clark, "Ocean in View. O! The Joy! We are in view of the ocean. This great Pacific Ocean, which we have been so long anxiously waiting to see." Finally. Our 34 year old Cherokee Chief had made it to the Pacific. We drove the Chief at high speed of 5-10 mph since we didn't want kick up any sand. We then headed into town to go see the worlds largest skillet and enjoyed an omelet cooked "light and fluffy". The Marsh Free Museum is right across the street so we made a quick stop to see the bizarre collection of items at the store and then proceeded to look for the place we were going to call home for the night. We were both excited to spend the night in a vintage trailer, yet it turned out that the trailer was barely holding together. In fact, the whole place looked like it was barely holding together. Anyhow, they did have a collection of movies that we could watch and nothing appealed to us so we watch "Clifford" the big red dog. We learned how to be nice to each other, then we took a short drive around cape disappointment. After being disappointed we had a campfire at the beach which was perhaps the highlight of the whole trip.

On Sunday we decided that it would be in our best interest to not continue northbound and return to Portland for the next couple of nights. With our throwout bearing not working well, we didn't want to be caught further from home with no cellphone reception. On our way back we drove on the old highway 30 which parallels the new road. We saw a herd of elk crossing the road and an old M715...a relative of the Chief. Once we arrived in Vancouver, we stopped by Fort Vancouver to enjoy a nice educational walk around this old Hudson Bay Company Headquarter. That evening we enjoyed a nice meal with Dorane at her Bed and Breakfast and were grateful that she would give us a place to stay. The following day we were able to borrow Dorane's Grand Cherokee to drive around Stevenson, WA and visited the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. Although they have various neat exhibits, a 1921 Mack Truck caught our attention as it was amazing to see how primitive yet tough these trucks were built. They have also acquired a nice collection of heavy equipment trucks and huge diesel engines outside the Interpretive Center. I'm hoping I can acquire one of those engines for my hot rod one day.

Tuesday was just about enjoying a nice drive back to Walla Walla. We drove on the old highway along the gorge and visited the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum, also known as the WAAAM. We reminisced on the good times we have had at the museum in the past, visiting with Traci's parents in 2010, being able to drive a Willys MB with the Bechtels, celebrating Ed & Juanita's 40th anniversary. Although we weren't able to make it to Olympic National Park or Seattle, the trip was great and we were able to see other great places. Spending time with my best friend is great. It's wild to think that the next trip with the Chief will include a little one sitting in the back seat. I'm going to be a dad...I can't believe it.