Exploring the Oregon/California Coast

On our second full day in the Redwoods area, we decided to explore the Oregon Coast. We drove north from Smith River California, and stopped at several viewpoints and beaches in the Samuel H Boardman scenic corridor. The weather started out foggy from the marine layer, but it quickly cleared up and we had a beautiful sunny day. Our first stop was the natural bridges overlook. This is one of the most scenic spots on the Oregon coast, with views of rock arches soaring over blue-green water.

Just up the road we took the short but steep path down to "Secret Beach." This is a beautiful sandy beach overlooking several big rock formations. We spent over an hour here, walking on the sand and climbing over rocks and generally enjoying the views and sunshine. Our last stop was at the Arch Rock overlook, which had a short loop trail overlooking some offshore sea stacks and islands, including one with a large arch.

Looking down to the natural bridges.

Making our way down to Secret Beach.

The views from Secret Beach.

Looking out from a little cove at Secret Beach.

Arch rock.

From here we drove back south to Brookings, where we stopped in Recycle Video Games and had lunch at Khun Thai. We finished out the day with some time on the beach and watching the sunset from our AirBnB.

Mario (left) and David (right).

Lunchtime!

The path next to our AirBnB led down to the beach.

David on a nice sunny day!

Sunset from our AirBnB.

No complaints about the views! :)

The next day, Saturday, we began the six hour drive to Portland. We had great views on the drive along the coast, and our first stop was the Umpqua River Lighthouse. This is a whale-watching spot, but unfortunately it was the wrong time of year for whales. We still enjoyed taking in the coastal views and the sunshine.

Continuing north, we stopped at Oregon dunes, specifically the Tahkenitch dunes. There are some trails that lead over the dunes down to the beach (about a mile each way)...but since we were in a rush we had to just wander around near the parking area for a bit and look at the dunes.

Next we stopped at a little restaurant for a healthy lunch in the town of Yachats at Beach Street Kitchen. This town was actually all around a very cute place and we wish we had more time to spend checking it out...maybe next time! From here, we continued on our way to Portland, stopping at another Recycle Video Games store in Newport, before turning inland and heading towards Corvallis to see the stadium, and then onward to Portland.

There were lots of big bridges on the Oregon coast.

We made a quick stop at the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

The Oregon Dunes.

Sunny, but still pretty cool on the coast!

We read that most all of the grass you see on the dunes is invasive from Europe 😞

A colorful and healthy lunch at Beach Street Kitchen!

There are little blackberry patches all over Oregon!

There were lots of views like this on the drive, where rivers met the sea and mountains.

Oregon State's Reser Stadium in Corvallis

We then drove the rest of the way to Portland - which we cover in our final Oregon road trip blog post.

Caves and Redwoods in Southern Oregon and Northern California

For the next leg of our Oregon road trip, we left Crater Lake and began the long drive toward the coast, with several stops planned along the way. We had a late breakfast in Cave Junction at the River Valley Restaurant. It was a nice little family diner. Cave Junction is a small town of just 2,000 people, situated along Hwy 199 where the road to Oregon Caves branches off. Oddly enough, Paul's cousin used to live here!

After lunch we stopped by Taylor's sausage country store then drove up to Oregon Caves National Monument where we had reservations for a tour. The road winds up a mountain, taking about 40 minutes of driving until it dead-ends at the cave. The cave, which is one of the very few marble caves in the US, was established as a national monument in 1909. It's an impressive cave, with some neat formations and several species that are found only here. David was a little caved-out, so he sat this one out and instead hiked to the top of the mountain over the cave to take in the views.

Big portions - and a logging truck in the background!

In the late 1800s and early 1900s people used to write on the cave walls.

One of the big rooms in the cave.

There were some impressive formations in the cave!

Some steep sections of the cave had a lot of stairs.

It's just as pretty above as below (if not more so).

Leaving the caves, we continued driving southwest, and made a stop at the Darlingtonia botanical trail. It's a small loop trail just off the side of the road that goes past a grove of carnivorous California pitcher plants, also known as the cobra lily. The plant only exists in southwest Oregon and Northern California, so it was cool to see hundreds of this unique species.

Arriving in Smith River, California, just south of the Oregon border, we checked into our AirBnB. We would be spending three nights here, so we splurged on a little cottage right on the ocean - and it was worth it! We had great views overlooking the beach, and got to observe the changing weather patterns: mostly cloudy from the marine layer, but with a few sunny hours here and there. After settling in, we drove north to Brookings and had dinner at Pacific Sushi, and finished the day with a walk on the beach at sunset and some time in the hot tub on our deck.

Pitcher plants have translucent "windows" that the bugs try to escape through.

A field of pitcher plants.

The amazing ocean view from our AirBnB. It usually wasn't this sunny!

Ramen time.

The beach below our cabin was very peaceful.

Our AirBnB was in this row of cabins directly overlooking the Pacific.

The next day was our "redwoods" day. Redwood National Park is unique because it's jointly operated by the National Park Service and California Department of Parks and Recreation. The area is a UNESCO world heritage site, and preserves the tallest trees on earth. We woke up relatively early and went straight to Stout Memorial Grove, which is part of Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park. It was good to get here early and enjoy a peaceful little hike, taking in the stillness of the forest before it got crowded later in the day. Our next stop was just down the road, the newly renovated low-impact Grove of the Titans trail. This was a really great hike with plenty of views of redwoods and good information on interpretive signs. We would definitely recommend this trail.

David with some very tall trees.

A little bridge just off the Stout grove trail.

It's hard to get a sense of how tall the trees really are here...

The water was extraordinarily clear.

One of the biggest trees we saw.

Path to the Grove of Titans.

Did we say enough times that the trees are huge?

A cool looking tree.

Part of the trail was a tunnel created by a fallen redwood.

The heart of the Grove of the Titans.

After these two little hikes, we drove into Crescent City, California and had lunch at SeaQuake Brewing. We spent a little time exploring the area, including the city's light house, and an area with lot of very loud sea lions, before making a quick stop at a grocery story and heading back to the AirBnB. We finished of the day by driving up in to Oregon to Harris Beach State Park around low tide and checking out the tide pools. We saw plenty of anemones, starfish, and even some crabs.

A beer flight at lunch.

Loud (and ornery) sea lions.

Crescent City, CA is pretty campy...

Coastal views from Harris Beach.

We called this butt rock.

Lots of critters in the tide pools.

Big coastal rocks on a foggy evening.

A crab!

Some little shy guys.

A cloudy sunset from Harris Beach.

The next stop on our Oregon road tip was more of the coast, and making our way to Portland.

Notre Dame game in Chapel Hill

It's been a while since I've been to a Notre Dame football game (the Citrus Bowl in January 2018). When my Dad mentioned he'd be in DC with a friend and suggested meeting somewhere halfway between DC and Atlanta, we noticed it was the same weekend as the Notre Dame game against North Carolina, so we made plans to meet up for the game. It was a quick weekend trip; I made the 6 hour drive up to the research triangle area on Friday, and came back on Sunday.

Friday evening we started with a visit to Duke University's campus, visiting the chapel at sunset. It's a really impressive building that reminded me of European cathedrals. We had lunch in downtown Durham at the Durham food hall. It's a little small compared to the food halls in Atlanta and some other cities, but it's a neat little space and we enjoyed it. 

The chapel in the evening light.

The interior is impressive.

Pizza and beer for dinner at the Durham food hall.

Saturday we met up with my friends Lindsay and Casey (who I went to Notre Dame with) for an early lunch at the Boxyard RTP. It's a cool little development made up of old shipping containers, with several restaurants and shops. From there we drove over to the campus of the University of North Carolina, and had a little time to walk around and see some of the buildings before heading into the stadium. The weather was perfect for the game - low 70s and cloudy with a nice breeze. Notre Dame dominated with some great plays on offense and pulled off what was technically an upset win. Great to see it in person!

Boxyard RTP on a beautiful early autumn day.

I had lunch from Lawrence BBQ. It was a little pricey, but yummy.

Hanging out with Lindsay and Casey.

My Dad's shirt isn't Notre Dame, but it's green. Good enough. :)

UNC's bell tower.

The old well is the symbol of UNC.

A pre civil war building.

Inside the stadium - decent view from our seats.

Go Irish!

Selfie time with Boomer.

Some on field action.

A lot of the UNC fans left early when Notre Dame had a big lead. :)

With Notre Dame playing more games in the south thanks to an ACC alignment, I hope to make it to some more games in the upcoming years, and meet up with Lindsay and Casey again.