Florence, Oregon

Every year during my childhood, as far back as memory takes me, I traveled from Orangevale, California to Oregon and Washington to visit relatives on our summer vacations. My father had two weeks off each summer, and we would drive on I-5 and Highway 101, making stops along the way to visit with Aunts & Uncles, finally arriving at our final destination in Hoquiam, Washington where my grandparents lived. For many years my great Aunt & Uncle lived in Florence, Oregon, and that was almost a guaranteed stopping place on our first day of travel. I have very fond memories of spending time in Florence and playing in the nearby sand dunes, visiting Sea Lion Caves, and enjoying the Oregon coast. My Aunt & Uncle moved from Florence to Hoquiam when I was still a teenager, and from then until now I had not been back to Florence. When Dan suggested we hunker down somewhere on the Oregon coast between our visit to Washington and our return to Sacramento (to avoid being on the road during the Labor Day traffic), and when he randomly suggested Florence, I couldn’t have been more pleased.

We arrived in Heceta Beach (3 miles north of Florence) on August 27th. Our RV Park is a 10 minute walk to the ocean beach, and when everything settles down in the evening, you can hear the waves from our 5th wheel. We drove into Florence that day and try as I might, I couldn’t relate it to anything I remembered from 30+ years ago. I really wanted to find my Aunt & Uncle’s old house, but didn’t know where to start. My mother and sister said they could drive to it if they were there, but no one remembered a street name, or specific directions. The dunes were familiar, though, and I appreciate the beauty of the Oregon coast more now than I ever could have as a kid. The weather has been (mostly) cooperative so we’ve been able to take walks and runs on the beach, ride our bikes into and around Florence, and take one longer hike on a trail in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. My Grandparents are buried in Coquille, about 65 miles from Florence, so one day we drove to the cemetery to visit their gravesites and pay our respects.

I have enjoyed revisiting some of the memories and places of my youth. Things are never quite the same as you remember, but that’s not always a bad thing. New experiences, blended with the old impressions, can combine to form something even better. I found this to be true of the visit to some of my old stomping grounds.

Next Stop: Sacramento!

Valdez, Alaska

On 8/8/8 we arrived in Valdez, our last planned stop in Alaska. Valdez is a very small town (population 4020) located near the head of a deep fjord in the northeast section of the Prince William Sound. It is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains, which are heavily glaciated. (I was able to see glaciers in the mountains that surround the area just by gazing out of our windows.) The natural setting for Valdez is one of the most beautiful on Earth, and it has been called the Switzerland of Alaska. A beautiful walking/biking trail winds through town and the outskirts, and we were lucky enough to get in one long bike ride and one run during our short stay (between rain showers). Oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline is loaded onto ships at the Valdez oil terminal, here where the pipeline terminates.

Although we could have spent twice as long in Alaska and still not seen it all, we are satisfied with our experience over the last three months. And other things are beginning to tug at us. Hitch itch, a new grandchild to be born soon, another volunteer hosting position. So, “time to move on, time to get going, under our feet, grass is growing”. Later this morning we will rig everything for travel, climb into the truck, throw in our “Travelin’ Tunes” CD, and be on the road again. Our trip back to the lower 48 will take is into Seattle in about nine days. After a brief visit with family in the area, we head back to Sacramento for about six months. This was a great adventure, and although I am ready to move on, I will never forget this most wondrous and unique part of our county.

Seward, Alaska - Kenai Peninsula

Since leaving Anchorage, our time has been spent along the wild and scenic Kenai Peninsula. First we spent a week in Homer, and then we headed over to Seward, for another week-long visit. The Kenai Peninsula’s diverse natural landscape represents Alaska in miniature. The ecosystems on the Peninsula include world-renowned salmon streams, vast wetlands and salt marshes, coastal rainforests, alpine tundra, and productive estuaries, bays and coves. The peninsula extends approximately 150 miles southwest from the Chugach Mountains, south of Anchorage. It is separated from the mainland on the west by the Cook Inlet and on the east by the Prince William Sound. That is just the text-book geographical explanation, but there really aren’t words to describe the stunning landscape this time of year. Towering mountains, still capped with snow; fields of fireweed in full bloom; glaciers you can hike right up to and touch; blue skies dotted with puffy clouds floating above hanging shrouds of mist; glacial creeks running fast, furious, and endlessly. Kenai Peninsula is made for picture postcards, and even the most novice photographer would find in hard to take a bad picture here.

When we arrived in Seward, it was (surprise, surprise) raining – or, heavily misting, not sure which. For the next several days the weather remained overcast, cold, misty, and raining. But finally after four days, the skies cleared and we were treated to beautiful blue sky, puffy white clouds, cool breezes and 60-degree plus days. Down right warm for a change! Exit Glacier (so named because it is the easiest exit off the Harding Ice Field which spawns over 40 glaciers in all) is a destination for anyone visiting the area. An easy one-mile hike takes you to the edge of the glacier, or in another direction to the “toe” or base of the ice where you can touch it if you want. This is a very popular destination for tourists, and for the hardier, there is a 7.8 mile round-trip hike (with a 3000 foot elevation gain) to the base of the Harding Ice Field at the top of the glacier. This forested area is heavily populated by bears, and one sign warns how to handle an attack from a brown bear as follows: “Play dead unless it starts to eat you, then fight back”. Well, that’s pretty straight forward… However, you are also reassured that most charges end without injury. Well, I feel better now!

Hopefully the pictures I’ve included can give you a small glimpse into the Kenai Peninsula.

Next stop: Valdez, Alaska