Eureka..ka..ka..ka.

Fooking stupid reviews getting me all wound up. Nothing bloody wrong with this place at all!

Ha.. i'm not going to lie. It's not the best hotel we have stayed in.. in fact would say at a pinch its the worst we have done during the whole trip but that does not make it a bad hotel. We have been really very lucky with where we have previously stayed and are also snobs. Well I am!! 

Its a bit rough around the edges but it is super clean with a very comfy bed. Location is great too..

We spent a bit of time before heading out trying to research this friggin marathon and see if there was any chance of the road being open. Dan did everything he could to find information but it was pretty scarce really.  We still don't know what time the road might open again so we're going to have to take our chances.  It's only about 30-40mins from here so its not like we can really go elsewhere and take time on the way... Thankfully it started at 7.45am so we're thinking that is so they can at least get the road back open this afternoon.

 There is something about only giving 7 hours for the course & and if runners havent' hit a certain point by a certain time they will be made to do the half marathon instead so we are clutching on to the hope that it means they will get one of the entrances open around 2 or 3pm.. Dan has come up with another route around that area that will be really stunning and should enable us to come back up the Avenue (the wrong way for where we are going but its tough) and then come back via the 101..... It all means we won't hit our next town, which we were looking forward to seeing, until late evening at best but if there is a chance of getting to do this drive we really want to grab it. It's not like we're coming back so can do it next time.

Anyway... Dan managed to avert the sulking and got me to put my pragmatic head on whilst we were in the bar 2 blocks down from the hotel - Lost Coast Brewing. At the end of the day, shit happens and this is hardly the end of the world. It will be a terrible shame if we cant do it but this never came up on anything we looked at so what could we do. And at least we now had warning so could come up with alternatives... I guess its the risk you also take with not planning things as carefully as I did for the last trip. But again, this didn't ever come up anywhere and its apparently a bloody annual event!  Hey ho.

The bar was good and we grabbed food in there as we were starving and again, had no reservations. Eureka is a place that is more restaurant oriented than bars so we missed a trick there but to be honest, I didn't have it in me to get dressed up and find somewhere that could find us a table. We had one here, they did food and that was fine.  And it was good food too...

D located another bar for us to try that was a brief walk across town. Now, I was not expecting Eureka to be what it was when you go into the old town. Much was pedestrianised and it was quite bohemian and funky. But with lots of bloody college kids screaming around the place.. euugghh...

The bar was called -  Sirens Song Tavern and at first glance appeared a bit of a dive and was a bit smelly!!  but it was ACE.  There was a really excellent band on playing a fantastic jazz set - not sure exactly what type of jazz (not the improv type thankfully) but it had a hard funky beat to it but with a touch of improv too.. they were fucking excellent man!  It was seriously cool music. As were the band members.

But this bar.. oh this bar was just THE best place to people watch. Dan and I barely spoke to each other we were so absorbed.. It was such and eclectic mix of people..  the slightly eccentric - man with big grey beard wearing a pleated skirt and long socks - uber hippie - like seriously big thick long hair and beards.  Soccer Mom - looking a bit out of place.  Average joes - like us.  College football stars - all clean cut and loud.  Beatnik/hippy wish they were's - but really serious about it. Like they were making a career out of it but it was a bit cliched really as they were clearly at College and making an effort to be this way!  3 single woman all dressed up and nowhere to go types... and this very strange group of men - 2 of which looked like they were straight off the farm in middle country but the other was fully suited, hair slicked back and looking like he was trying to be Robert De Niro in Goodfellas or something!!!   People just kept wafting in with coffees and food, standing around and doing some wavy dance to the music and then going out again.

Then a group of serious jazzfans arrived and took over the floor and there was some very interesting dancing going on there. I think they thought they were at Woodstock... 

Eventually we managed to tear our eyes away long enough to choose to move on (bar was really quite empty now to be honest) and we headed back with one last stop back at the LCB before retiring for the night....

California dreaming....

(Fri night)..  Ashland is a lovely little town. Really like the look and feel of the place. Maybe becuase it is actually a Shakespeare homage town?!  The hotel we stayed in was really good - the Stratford inn. Bit of faux Tudorage going on in the corridors but I was OK with that!

We had a nice little wander around town then, as it was raining again headed into Granite Tap House and was 3 floors up affording us a great view over town. Liked it in there and we also had the chef giving us lobster dish samples to see what we thought as he was playing with a new item for the menu :-)

From there we moved to Standing Stone Brewery where we were going to eat. I am getting rather fed up of the same old same old menus but this one was different. This one had VEGETABLES!!
We have looked at going to actual restaurants obviously but we never know when we are going to arrive somewhere so getting reservations isn't easy to sort.

Anyway, after a short wait we were seated and were soon munching on grilled oysters and this lovely warm veg salad for me. Yum...
We only had a couple more in there and then headed back as both were starting to flag and it was another fairly decent day of driving on Saturday to get us further South and into California.

Saturday. -  lovely hotel breakfast set us up for the day, very quick plan & book hotel session for Sun and Monday including a private winery tour...

So then we were packed up again and on our way. We needed to travel straight across to the coast and then down so we were going via Crescent City for lunch.

This was somewhere we had originally had booked to stay on Sat night until I realised that the way our plans were looking I would have a big push to get to SF with no decent chance at getting a wine tasting in around Napa or Sonoma.  So I changed plans and we are going straight to Eureka for tonight..

It was a lovely drive that took us through more forests, mountain areas and then there it was. The sign that said we were leaving Oregon.. Bye Oregon.. you have been wonderful and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you!  And then.. the ' Welcome to California' sign and we were there... Back in CA..

Arrived in Crescent city and straight to a place Dan had found for lunch which was great. Really good food - veggie friendly and lots of salads!  We then went for a walk along the beach and down the pier as I was getting a bit achy from days in the driving seat and needed to stretch my legs.  We'll stretch them I certainly did fighting against the incredibly strong winds that had whipped up whilst we'd been happily driving along.

 Jaysus.. it was crazy out there!  Even seagulls were struggling to fly and we saw one walking sidewards on the beach!!  Hahaha. Anyway, there wasn't actually that much to Crescent City so we were fairly pleased we had changed plans and cancelled staying here. Besides, we might not have been able to go on the private wine tour we had just booked if we had.
Finally made it back to the car and then on our way to Eureka....

I have been a bit nervous about this place in Eureka as since booking I have read some shit reviews about the area and the hotel so I am a bit edgy. I even looked at cancelling it yesterday and going somewhere else altogether but we'd get charged full price as it is too late now.. So its safe to say I was not rushing to get there!  And why rush anyway when you are driving either through the Redwoods or along a beautiful and dramatic coastline?!

We did make some stops on the way to get pics etc but the wind was getting worse. This didn't bode well for our night if it was going to get this bad or worse even... yeah I was extra looking forward to being in Eureka!!  Dan did his best to reassure me that it would be fine and I agreed that I was daft to look at so many reviews and wind myself up. I stopped doing that a long time back for this very reason as people complain or get super negative about the smallest of stuff and give places really bad reputations.

Anyway, we arrived and hmmm the area we are in doesn't look super pretty but its not on its arse and yeah, there are some homeless people around but that does not make it a bad area. Being homeless does not equal criminality.   I was annoyed that I had fell into believing the shit I had read.
The hotel we had booked.. sorry motel..is fine. It is really clean and has all we need. Its a really weird set up in how it is built but not arsed about that.

However.. on check in we were given some possible bad news.. There is a marathon tomorrow (Sunday 7th) along the Avenue of the Giants which is exactly where we had planned to go on way to our next stop. We won't be able to go to it again if we don';t see it Sunday so I was GUTTED. Absolutely gutted and poor Dan's heart sank as he just knew there was probably a night of sulking to come..........

Well that wasn't quite what we planned....

Finally got my arse in gear and we headed on out for breakfast in Bend. Dan had found a place called 'The Breakfast Club' that looked good so we headed there.
It was tremendous!
Lovely little diner type place (just like in the movies/series and right down to the type of menu material!) with a really friendly lady serving us. Endless supplies of coffee and really scrumptious food!
We were well set for the day so off we set.
Stopped on the way for some water and a break and was greeted by a man in his pyjamas getting coffee. Its bloody catching..!
As we left there I said to Dan that I seriously hope i don't regret not filling up there...  But we had over half a tank so it was OK.. My view is that if I am getting to around 100miles of fuel left then we need to start looking. There should always be somewhere with in a 100mile radius...
We followed the route to Crater Lake on the Sat Nav but as we were turning off I did see an actual sign on the road saying we should take a different highway.. But like the wise old things we are we said the Sat Nav was fine and would be taking us the quickest route..
It took us a very weird route which made us follow a road then turn around and come back the way we had come. We were a tad confused but then realised that we obviously couldn't have got in the entrance from the side of the road we were on.. it was one of those situations.

NO.. it was one of those situations where the entrance is closed because there is still about 4 foot of bloody snow blocking the route!  Ahhhh shit, bollocks and crap.
Ahh well, it was a chance we took to be fair and I had always known that we may struggle with the odd place that was up high as it is still early season.
After sitting there for 5 minutes staring at the snow block we agree that we might as well just head straight on to Ashland now. So we turned and set off.. on a very long, forest surrounded route with approx 120 miles of fuel left. And according to the Sat Nav, the next main junction/area was 79 miles away. So, hmm, do-able but taking me to the edge of my stress levels for sure. Now at home I drive around on fresh air all the time something that freaks Dan out as he won't let it drop below about 3/4 full! But  at home, I don't drive in areas of VAST forest land with no signs of life let along 'gas'..!
I had seen that the Sat Nav will tell you if there are gas stations if you programme it. Could we find that bloody setting..? of course not.
Then Dan found he needed a 'restbreak' pretty urgently so he was getting stressed now but there was absolutely zero in sight. Find the rest area probably find the gas stations too...
Pulled over in the end and whilst he was 'resting' I managed to sort out how to get the Sat Nav to tell us where fuel stations were. Felt a bit better then..
Dan then proceeded to look up about Crater Lake and found that the South Entrance was always open. We had gone to the North.. duhhhhhhhh!  Bad research there Sarah.....
Anyway, we happened to pass that route to the South Entrance on what was now our route to Ashland but it said it was a further 23 miles away and we now had only 80miles of fuel left (so I should have filled up at that other petrol station.. idiot!)  no bloody way was I taking that risk. I knew there would be no fuel stations up there so we had to drive past. Thankfully we saw a sign for a little place called Prospect that had fuel stations and was 11miles away. WooHoooooo we're saved. We won't run out of fuel on the side of the road in the middle of this human-less mahooosive forest!

Prospect was a interesting little town to say the least. It was like an enclosed community really in the way it was set up but I don't think it actually is. Found the one pump stations and I so wanted someone with a white beard, dungarees, red check shirt and straw hat to come out to serve us!  Think I have got Toy Story 3 stuck in my head there....(get it???).
The guy that came out was lovely, filled us up and then came back to tell me that my credit card wouldn't work.   He did say that his machine could be flaky but did we have another. I gave him my debit card and followed him in.. Didn't work again..(Gas was $40 btw and we had about $28 cash between us <gulp>).. shiiiittt..  Thankfully he tried again and it worked. Phew.. I didn't have to leave all my belongings behind whilst I went to find cash...
Anyway I had a good chat with him about Crater Lake and told him what had happened. He said that the entrance we had passed 11 miles back would be fine but it would mean a 35mile drive back to have to come back those same 35miles to carry on to Ashland. I asked him if it was worth it as I had really wanted to see this place... long story short, the way the weather was he said we wouldn't really get the benefit of the place and might not even be able to see much but had it been a brighter day then absolutely you go back there as it is stunning...

Got back in the car still unsure what to do as at the end of the day this is a road trip so driving has to happen.. until Dan told me that I had a text from my credit card company  - they had declined the card at the petrol station as they thought it was being used fraudulently -  there were 2 payments on there that even I didn't recognise - and had now frozen it until I told them it was OK!!  Yeah, that is what I bloody need right now.
Right that's it, we're heading to Ashland now so I can get the card sorted and just give up this driving malarkey for the day. Clearly this was not meant to be. I could not have settled whilst I thought my card had been cloned AGAIN and just needed to get somewhere on data to look into it.
FUCK!  Well at least we had a full tank again ;-).
Partway back it all clicked with me what the other payments were and I was able to respond and un-freeze my card. PHEWWEEEEEEEEE! But that was too late for Crater lake.. I reassured myself with what Prospect Pete had said about the weather plus it was even cloudier and actually raining now and just looked forward to seeing another new town.....

Driving me round the Bend.....

Ahhh I had to say it!!

Anyway, last night we wandered downtown and headed for Deschutes bar.  We had a leisurely couple in there and planned the next couple of days stays.
We're off to Crater Lake next and then will stay in 'Ashland' which is about 1.5 hours further on and heading south like we now need to.

We have actually travelled 874 miles so far.
Seattle to San Francisco is 808 miles.
We are currently still 491 miles from San Francisco!!

So Bend is a cute little place. Reminds me of a big town but done in a much smaller way!  There are some lovely little shops and restaurants here and of course bars. Lots of bars.. it is well known for it as well as the number of breweries here.
Deschutes Bar we went to Bend Brewing company where we also grabbed some food. Which was delicious. I wanted a plate of wonderfully cooked vegetables (yes I have reached that stage) but as it wasn't on the menu, I opted for a mahoosive smoked turkey sandwich with a cup of Spinach Bisque on the side!  It was lovely..

From there we went to McMenamins.. these have places all over and they buy up disused Theatres, schools, cinemas etc etc and turn them into unique and funky bars still maintaining some of the original building features/original use.
This one had previously been a school..
It had more than one bar area too.. we were happy in the first one we chose.. it was nice and chilled (and Dan found his beer of the holiday so far) but that closed at 11pm and we still had full drinks so we moved over into the other one.

That felt like we were at a Frat party!  There was a big games room at the side of the bar area (for shuffle board and pool I think) and it was also attached to a spa or something.. But that is no fooking excuse for a woman being in there in her bathrobe.  I  mean it.. IN HER BATHROBE.....WTF. What the actual Fuck!!!
Its one thing that some areas of England go out in their pyjamas to the shops but being in a bar in your bathrobe??  One had to assume she had come from the spa but it was only her still wearing one. No-one else.. and yes of course I got surreptious photos ;-). Hahaha....
Made our way back to the hotel from there, had a midnight feast of cheese and bisuits and then crashed out.

I am now currently persuading myself to go and get ready so we can get brekkers and then head on to Crater Lake,, which I am very much looking forward to...

Snow?? But its 85 freakin degrees mate...

I really should have got a picture of the breakfast table at the Lighthouse. It was so elegantly set with fine china, chargers, fresh sunflowers and about 67 sets of cutlery each!  My friend H would have had a pink fit about it.. .it was right up her street!

Ellen served us and it had been her that had welcomed us in the day before. And she really did welcome us too. It was so genuine and warm. Then she disappears until the next day leaving everyone to their own devices in the cottage and lighthouse. There's a full kitchen you just use as you want, musical instruments, a stereo, 2 sitting rooms, real fires and on and on..

After breakfast and pack up she opened up the gift shop just for us. The lighthouse is still open to the public during the day but obvs when guests are there it is all closed to them.. 

We said our goodbyes to Janice/Jill & her husband who were heading off to Eugene - big hugs and kisses all round and then the same with Diane and Larry but she got quite tearful god bless her. Her holiday had started badly as her Aunt passed away as she had just set off but she said this had been the best possible ending to it for her and she knew being here with all of us was just meant to be...

Ellen had also told us all over breakfast how much she had enjoyed being around us and with us. She said many groups are very quiet but listening to us all chatting and laughing and seeing us fully enjoying the experience really made her day.....  See us Brits just make all the bloody difference!

So now we are pushing back inland to go to Bend which is perfectly located to get to Crater Lake. Its about 205 miles away but almost horizontal on the map so we're not really moving further south. But its how we want to do it and we have plenty of time still to push on down towards San Francisco. We don't have to be there until Tuesday. 

On the way we briefly stopped at Sea Lion Caves. I had read a couple of things on a forum about this place which said it was a massive tourist trap and you could just go in the gift shop and watch the sea lions on the monitor there for free rather than pay to be taken down there to see the exact same thing!!  So that is what we did!!  Hahahaha... we wandered around outside to see the very foggy view as well though.

Today the journey is all about the end destination so there won't be much stopping off as not much to see.. or so we thought.  The all year round Xmas store just there, roadside in the middle of nowhere, with no other shops for miles was one thing!

Haha.. but yeah as we're now going inland again its forests, lakes, rivers and snow capped mountains. Just cannot describe the contrasts from beach to this. Its so lush and green and imposing and WOW!  Driving along in 85 degree heat with snow on the side of the road is bloody weird I have to say..

And the mountains.. oh...they just rise up out of 'nowhere' in front of you peeping over the top of the huge pine trees looking so crisp and white but bloody treacherous too! 

We had quite a lot of food left from the lighthouse feast we'd taken so we'd packed it up and brought it with us to hopefully find somewhere to have a picnic along the way. The decision over whether it should be lake or river side, or in the forest or by a mountain was painful ;-) oh what a fooking tough life we have hey.. Where oh where in the beautiful scenery should we eat our french cheeses, smoked turkey and drink beer and red wine... its just SOOOOO difficult!!  Hahaha...

Just found a spot really - saw a sign that showed picnic tables, saw there was a lake and just went for it. It was delightful.

I did find I was getting very tired though on the journey so needed to pull over for a little break. I am more than happy to be doing all the driving but it does get tiring when doing so much....we had originally said it would be shared but Dan isn't that arsed and is a little less confident than I am about it as he hasn't done much driving on 'the other side' of the road!  Plus, he just does drive by's all the time instead of pulling into loads of places so it's not worth the heated discussions!  (Also, I just fall asleep if left in the passenger seat with nothing to do!!!)

Anyway I pulled over and Dan was like ' yep, have 10mins Sarah and just rest your eyes..I'll turn the radio off so its nice and peaceful...' lovely... and then he loudly fiffed and faffed his way around the front seat. I mean I know this car is bloody huge but seriously what the F do you find to do in that passenger space that makes that much noise!  Apparently there were insects getting in...??!! He then proceeded to get in and out of the car about 3 times.. I gave up and moved on.

Arrived in Bend easily enough and checked into our traditional local Motel!  Yay..  Quick freshen up and then headed off downtown for a well earned beer.... (me that is. Not Dan.. his faffing doesn't equate to well earned!!! Heehehe)

Lets go find a punchbowl...

(Wednesday 3rd)
After breakfast we packed up & checked out. Before we properly headed off we took a walk up on the cliffs (or the bluff as they call it here) just by the B&B as we decided to be intrepid explorers today!!! Stunning views up high over the shoreline. It was still very misty and the sea looked quite rough so the waves were crashing on the rocks below us.. so beautiful.

We went into Depoe Bay itself still hoping for a whale watching boat ride but, despite the fact it was definitely getting brigher and warmer, you couldn't see a bloody thing when you looked out over the sea.  There were boats going out but we weren't convinced you'd get to see much so Dan suggested
we just leave it for another day "....and after all, we have been on one of the best whale watching boat trips we could go on so why worry".  And he is right, it will take a lot to top the one in Santa Barbara the other year.

So we mooched around a little and had a snack/beer in a lovely little cafe there, bought some tat and some saltwater taffy and pushed on.

Route was all down HWay 101 so again there are some breathtaking views. However we peeled off onto 'Otters Crest Loop' as this ran alongside the hway & closer to the coast. Definitely a good move as we found some beautiful places.  Cape Foulweather was amazing. You could look along the coastline so clearly and see Otters Rock, The Devil's Punchbowl (area) and the huge golden stretch of Beverly Beach. The fog was still around but it was much warmer with sun and blue skies too so it made it look particularly dramatic!
From there we moved on to the actual Punchbowl which was something I have been looking forward to. And it didn't disappoint.

OK so it was completely dry of water at the time we arrived so I am sure it looks even better when it is filling up but dry was good for us as we were going to find a way down there and into it!  Which we did yippeeeeee.. It took a couple of false starts but we finally find a little path & a steep drop that got us onto a beach over to the right of the bowl.  We took a good old walk on the beach first, past beach waterfalls and numerous rock pools.

 I spent AGES investigating the rock pools, clambering around on and off the rock formations, whilst Dan had pushed on, up and over some other rocks and was sitting proudly high up watching some seals sunbathing!

I finally met back up with him and we climbed over closer to the seals to watch them properly. Of course we were really conscious about getting too close and once we spotted more than one of them waking up and looking over at us we retreated. But I tell you, I was close enough to have been able to throw a fish to them.. if I had had one!

Made our way back the way we had come as we had noticed that the tide was slowly moving in so we wanted to get into the bowl still.... made it over there with a fair bit of climbing and scrambling and that was it, we were in!  It is just full of rocks really but the two openings to the sea had the water crashing in and around so it looked awesome.. as did looking up out of the bowl to clear blue skies. Very difficult to explain how fantastic it was really. I spotted a crab too hiding in the rocks.. managed to get a decent pic of him.

The water was getting more and more crashy now so we made a hasty retreat and found our way back to the 'path' we had taken and back to our car feeling excited and proud of our little adventure.  Ha. I bet people do it every day but there was hardly anyone else there so.........

We stopped in Lincoln City for lunch at Rogue bar.  Couldn't manage it all so we boxed it up to take to the Lighthouse with us!
Along the way we stopped at Cape Perpetua to see the Spouting Horn and Thors Well. Basically not a lot to see as our timing wasn't the best. It was too close to high tide to be able to clamber over to it but as it wasn't actually high tide we didn't get to see it the horn spouting or the well 'draining' the sea... ah well.....

And on to the lighthouse we went..  It was just bloody wonderful. So pretty, so quaint so private and excluded.. ahhhh yeah. Everything I wanted. The other people staying in the cottage were brill - we had a lot of fun with them and some very interesting conversations about Roundabouts (they love them!), Marmite - they had never heard of it. Dippy eggs and how you get into them and toast soldiers!!

 Hahahaha. Sadly I cannot remember everyone's name but Janice/Jill was Funny.. She thought I was so cute with my little english accent and proper way of doing things and we had some great banter about Americanisms and the correct English way!  Her and her husband were from just outside Sacramento.

Another couple - Diane and Larry - were around 70 and from Louisiana- they were awesome. We chatted into the night with those two. I could have spent more time with them to hear their stories and experiences. There was one couple I wasn't massively sure about but mainly because the husband trod the fine line between banter and being offensive once too often for my liking. Especially the next day during our 7 course breakfast that everyone gathers in the cottage for. Which was fantastic.

 

I have to say despite having to deal with 8 other people first thing in the morning and someone who doesn't know he's just crossed a line with me....!  (Oh yes there was another young couple staying there who now live in Zurich but she was from Minnesota and he was from South Africa. We didn't see much of them the evening before but the others had all met them a the cheese and wine reception - which we missed as we got there later than intended due to our intrepid explorations of Punchbowl!!!)

And I DID get my time on the porch, sat with Dan overlooking the ocean, eating food from the local deli, sipping wine whilst wrapped in blanket and watching the sun set...............It had been a most wonderful day and this was the perfect, dreamed of ending to it. I was so happy I could have cried....