Oregon Christmas Trip 2008
Our annual visit to Oregon was fun, but again seemed to involve spending most of our time on the road to one part of Oregon or another as part of a relentless relative-visiting machine. It’s a little frustrating to be told about all of the interesting places we should visit – as we pass them by – while knowing that we won’t be stopping at any of them.
But it was a good trip and a wonderfully white, idyllic Christmas. Happy New Year to all, and let’s hope that 2009 is a particularly fine year!
Oh yes, and here’s the link to the Oregon Trip Gallery.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:13 am
Your photos remind me of how long it’s been since we’ve been in western Oregon and also remind me I don’t want to go in the winter. Actually, we did spend one winter in Corvallis. Snow and ice were novelties to us native Californians. After the first snow and ice storm, Karen pulled out of our apartment driveway and promptly spun out across the road. She walked back and told me I had to drive her to work 🙂
I think our last time in that part of Oregon was a 500 mile cycle tour. We started in Salem, crossed the Columbia and headed west to Cathlamet. Crossed back at Puget Island and took highway 30 into Astoria. Down the coast to Florence, over to Eugene and back to Salem.
Thanks for the photos. Maybe the Oregon coast is worth another visit. We’ve just fallen so much in love with Bend that it’s become synonomous with Oregon to us.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:55 pmReally enjoyed the photos!
*The things on those Australian hats are corks, not balls. They’re supposed to help keep the flies from getting to your face when you are in the outback. However nothing, including fly nets, really can keep them away from you, and they love sucking on your eyes, nose, ears, dancing in your mouth, etc etc.
* The first suspension bridge you liked was actually another Australian thing – it was a miniaturised tribute to Sydney’s ANZAC Bridge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Bridge
* Yet again, the bridge at Yaquina Bay was a small tribute to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge
* LOVED Kan & Kathy’s home – beautiful log cabin, plus that’s what Christmas should look like!
* An architectural preservationist friend likes the job McMenamin’s does with its buildings.
* Even photos taken while still moving were really cool – I liked the one where you can see the ice snapped off the ends of trees – I could see what you were talking about, plus see the movement.
Anyway, lots of great photos – thank you for taking the time to share them!
January 4th, 2009 at 5:08 pmThanks for the comments!
Phil, I’ve been up and down the Oregon coast a few times now and it’s quite nice. Same for the coast of California north of the Bay Area. Definitely worth a visit. Probably best in moderate weather for most people. 🙂
We got very close to Bend a few years ago, but still haven’t made it there! And I’ve been very much wanting to see it.
Snuva, you may be right about the ANZAC-like suspension bridge (clearly another sign of an Aussie underground at work!), but I dunno about the Yaquina bridge being based on the Sydney Harbor Bridge… McCullough had a very similar-looking arch bridge that was completed a year before the decade-long construction of the Sydney bridge had even begun. I suspect that the style – like McCullough’s deco appointments – were popular all over at the time.
I agree with your other comments though, and thanks very much for the kind words. And the correction about the corks, I couldn’t quite remember if that was correct. Usually I only see them in old Monty Python sketches. 😀
January 4th, 2009 at 5:38 pmI wasn’t really suggesting any of the bridges ACTUALLY has any relationship to any Australian ones, just pointing out that there seems to be an Australian undertone to your trip to Oregon. It’s subtle, so subtle it probably isn’t really there. . .I’m suspecting a conspiracy.
January 4th, 2009 at 8:53 pmNo no no no Snuva, don’t try to distract us from the sinister Australian Conspiracy now that I’ve pointed it out. “Oh I was just kidding…” Yeah, right! 😉
January 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pm