Day Two-Overlook, Tamales and Pan Dulce, and Blinded by the Light

May 29th, 2021

So, the Welcome Center to NM was almost 18 miles across the border at the first town.  I kept looking for it, thinking it would be just across the border.  So, we stopped, stetched and took our bathroom break and a pic at the sign.  When we got to the Texas border we stopped on the side of the freeway and put on our straw cowboy hats and took a pic.  Next stop was the Scenic Overlook drive on the way to get Tamales.  Took a couple of tries to get the exit right, but finally we got our pics on the overlook and off to Gussie's Tamales and Pan Ducle.  We ordered a half dozen of the red pork tamales and I grabbed a few things of sweet bread to try.  We didn't really care for the tamales.  The maza was kinda bland to us.  So, definetly not the best oes we've had.  I tried the pan dulce.  I don't think I've had authentic ones before.  It was denser than I thought, but they were good.  Not something I'd really want again.  But, we weren't trying to fill up, just try different things.  McKay didn't like any of them.  Then we went downtown El Paso and took some pics at San Jacinto Plaza and then off to the hotel to check it.  It's really hot today, so there's no need to go to White Sands really early.  We want to be there close to sunset, and hopefully, it will cool off a little then. 

 Gulf States Trip May 28 - June 13, 2021

Day One

Friday, May 28th.  I worked all day, trying to get all the things done at work that I could before leaving for my two week vacation.  Lot of config requests for the Union rate updates to get in.  I didn't want to leave early anyway; we were just planning to go as far as Tucson anyway, so we didn't need an early start.  We finally got everything packed and ready (holy cow, how many bags of snacks did we bring?!) and left the house about 6:30.  The kids wanted dinner before we left, so we stopped at Panda and got dinner.  Then, with out bellies full, sitting in the parking lot, we said our prayer before our road trip, and then headed south to Tucson.  Not really any traffic at all.  We hit a little slowdown close to Pichaco Peak, or somewhere--a car in the left lane, suddenly had to pull off to the left shoulder and I had to hit the brakes hard, but everyone was ok.  The hotel in Tucson was nothing to write about.  The WiFi seemed to be out in the room, so the TV had no connection.  The Exit sign near our room was hanging by the cords.  The room was hot, the AC hadn't been turned on, so it took a while for it to cool off.   We just got ready for bed and hit the hay.  Driving to Las Cruces/El Paso tomorrow.

Blackberries for breakfast, Cannon Beach, Blazing Trails, Dew? What's That?

7/5/2016

I got up early, as usual, so I could run to the bathroom and then come back and take the dog to do his business as well.  The dog run area was in a field next to blackberry bushes.  Now, blackberries are in season in August, so early July is really early to find many ripe ones, but I did manage to grab a good handful of them that morning.  So, I had a yummy snack of fresh blackberries for breakfast this morning.

I spy ripe blackberries

my treat

We packed up our tent this morning (last time for this trip) and did a good job with Leave No Trace at our campsite as we packed the van back up.

We headed out of Bay Center and crossed the border in Oregon not long after.  The Astoria Bridge is a fun bridge to cross.  I thought about stopping in Seaside to walk down the boardwalk, but I decided to pass it and head on to Cannon Beach instead.

What a fun time at Cannon Beach.  The kids had a blast in the water, jumping waves, and building sandcastles.  The dog wasn't too sure about the water.  He's definitely NOT a water dog.  He liked to chase the kids (and other dogs as well) but, when his feet hit the water, he was backing up fast.  We let him off the leash a little, but with other smaller dogs around, I didn't want to have to chase him down to stop him from bowling them over.  After a while, he sat down on the sand with me as we watched the kids playing in the sand.

There wasn't a lot of shells there, it was more of a sand beach.

lot of people on the beach

McKay loved his sandcastle!

lovely mist rolling in

That's about as far in as Scout would go

running along the beach

perfect pic!

Dog at my feet, kids playing in the distance

Haystack Rock

After about an hour and a half, it was time to go and continue on our way.  We stopped at Tillamook Cheese Factory.  It was super crowded.  I've never been there when it was that crowded. It was probably because it was the holiday weekend still and a lot of people must have taken that week off.  Plus, we got there around 1 pm or so, so lunch time.  The line was super long in store, the cafe, and the ice cream line.  I left Daniel outside with the dog and went in to the store with the kids to look around.  We got a couple of blocks of cheese, some fudge, some magnets for Daniel, and a bright orange Tillamook beach towel for myself and a nice beach bag/backpack to go came with it.  After that, we needed to decide ice cream or food.  I think Daniel wanted food more, but the line was already long and then we would have to wait again for them to make the food, so we opted for ice cream instead.  The line was still long, but we got through it.  Nothing like enjoying some fresh Tillamook ice cream in waffle cones or bowls!  Yum Yum.  We had enough treats in the car to fill in the gaps until dinnertime.

We got back on the road and headed for Waldport and our KOA for the night.  We had time once we were there to walk down to the beach there.  Daniel went first with the dog.  One of the kids was having an issue with shoes so we were behind a few minutes.  I guess I thought I knew where the path to the beach was, so we started down this really good, well-traveled trail.  After a few minutes, Jorren came back up (of course he was way ahead again) and said, not that way.  He tried another way, but that didn't look good either.  I ended up going with him to the first path he rejected and saw that it ended at an abrupt cliff down to the beach, with sharp rocks below and no path down them.  I went back to the second way and saw that it was a very narrow, not well-traveled path with lot of blackberry bushes covering the trail.  It wasn't ideal, but it looked like the only choice that had a chance of being successful. So, I sent Jorren down first to see.  It was really steep the first part, but after a bit, it was more manageable.  So, McKay and I headed down.  As I was going down, I thought that there was no way that we would make it back up the same way.

Once we were down, there were other families there.  I asked them if they all came down that way, and they laughed and said no, that there was another path (they pointed it out) that just had some soft, deep sand at the end that was steep, but otherwise it was pretty easy.  Well, at least we had a better way back up!

The kids enjoyed the time there and once the family with the little dog left and went back, I was able to let Scout off his leash since there was no way he was going to get lost or run off there.

KOA sign

Waldport Bridge

Beach

We headed back up to the KOA and had dinner and got ready for bed.  I had to teach the kids about what dew was when I told them to bring their towels and shirts in for the night and not leave them out since they would be wet in the morning if they did.  My desert rat kid, Jorren, looked up at the clear blue sky and asked, "Why?  Is there a storm rolling in?"  So along came the lesson on dew.

Beautiful morning, No Cell Service, Cape Flattery, Forks, Lessons Learned, 4th of July

7/4/2016

Happy 4th of July!!  We slept pretty well on the deck of my friend's house.  I woke up early to take care of some bathroom business, and then I couldn't get back to sleep.  So, I took a short video of the backyard of our friends house.  It was a beautiful, peaceful setting.  So nice to experience that.  Something was growling/grunting in the woods somewhere.  I'm not sure what it was, but it never made an appearance.

We got the tent put away and all our sleeping bags, etc, had a nice breakfast and then headed on our way.

I was a little surprised at how small Neah Bay was.  I guess I was expecting a little more of a town than that.  The other bad thing was there was a detour around the main street of town due to the Fourth of July parade and there was absolutely no cell service, so I couldn't get GPS on my phone and the car's GPS system didn't have the way mapped to Cape Flattery at the NW tip there, so I had to rely on the signs for getting there.  We made it ok, but I've discovered I don't like not having service on my phone!!

Cape Flattery

Luckily, there was parking when we got there.  We started down the trail and as we walked, I noticed we were heading down a lot.  That only means we have to walk up on the way back which is never a happy thing.  It was a beautiful walk though. Daniel and Jorren blazed way ahead  (everything Jorren does is a race to get there first) so I walked with McKay.  About 3/4 there, we saw Jorren coming back onto the trail from the side, so somewhere along the way, he and Daniel went off on a side trail (not supposed to do that), but at least they made it back to the main trail.

There were several look-outs near the end of the trail, so we stopped and took pictures at all of them.  At the very end, the lookout was up a couple of very steep stairs.  When I got up there, I saw Daniel was there with the puppy.  I wondered aloud how he got him up those steep stairs and he told me he had to push him up there.  So, we do have pictures of all of us up there at the end.

The walk back wasn't too bad, just the last part was a little steep, but I made it.  The parking lot was full when we got there and people were waiting for parking.  I told someone that they could have our spot but I had to go to the bathroom first, if he wanted to wait.  Man!  I've been in some smelly biffies before, but this was really bad!  I couldn't pee fast enough to get out of there!  Sheesh!

We left there and had to head back into Neah Bay and past it to Seiku to start heading south on the 101.  That's where we started our journey down the coast on Hwy 101 at the junction of 113 and 101 at Sappho, WA.

Start of our journey on the 101 South

We jogged down to First Beach before heading through Forks to enjoy the beach for a bit.  Jorren decided to not wear his fisherman sandals down to the rocky beach and instead wore his flipflops.  Since it was so rocky, he wore them into the surf and of course, they came off. He was only able to recover one and the other one started heading out to sea.  By the time I realized what had happened, it was out there a ways.  I asked him why he wasn't trying to get it and he told me it was too far out.  I wouldn't accept that, and I made it try to go out and get it.  He's a strong swimmer and I didn't see any signs of rip tides, it was just cold and uncomfortable.

He finally made some decent attempts until someone came over to us and told us that she would rather give me the money to replace them than to watch him try to get the sandal because it was so far out  (it wasn't really that far!).  I just told Jorren that was it and it was time to go and walked away.  I guess the lady took pity on us and she went and got the sandal (I told you it wasn't that far really) and brought it up to us as we were drying off and changing clothes in the car.  Then, we had a little impromptu lesson about trying something, even if it hard, and failing, rather than trying at all and waiting for someone else to do it for us.  I told him I would much rather see him try and fail at something than not try at all.

Anyway, back to our trip.  We stopped in Forks at a Twilight shop just because there was a penny smasher inside.  We didn't buy anything though.

We drove down 101 to our KOA at Bay Center/Willapa Bay and pitched our tent for the night.  It was still early though so we hung around the camp a bit.  We went down the path to the bay.  Now this was a bunch of steps straight down to the beach.  The kids were pretty disappointed since there wasn't much of a beach.  The tide was out, if you can call it that.  I don't know how full that bay usually gets, but Daniel walked out on the beach trying to get to the water and he was out there about a 1/2 mile or so.  I took some great pictures of the sunset.  But, it was cold out there, and we didn't bring our jackets and blankets.  The staff at the KOA said they usually sat down there at night to see if someone around the area let off fireworks, but I didn't really feel like walking back up the stairs and then back down again with our jackets and blankets and the kids didn't either, so we headed back to camp and I got out the lighted helicopter toys that I bought and we spent the rest of the night near the campfire, shooting those up in the sky and catching them, seeing a few big firework bombs through the trees around us.  We went to bed late, since it doesn't get dark until 10 pm there.

my walking companion

posing on the trail

One of the first look-outs

The light was behind him, so I had him turn sideways.  It turned out to be a great shot

another look out shot from above

Locking himself in

Huzzah, Magic Powers!

Looking out at the caves below

Close up

McKay got me!

Look who we finally caught up to

We made it, including the dog!

Look out

Tatoosh Island and Cape Flattery Lighthouse

More caves

I'm not sure if he's attacking me or defending his tree

He's definitely attacking this rock that he claims looked like troll

He came back down after reaching the top to walk back with us, so I caught a pic

First Beach, the back side away from the beach

First Beach

Willapa Bay. In the distance is Daniel

Sunset

Space Needle, Gum Wall, Alki Beach, Packing the car again and We're Off

7/3/2016

Yeah, I know it was Fast Sunday today, but we didn't really have enough time to do everything in Seattle that we wanted and my dad said he wasn't super excited about going to church on Fast Sunday, so I booked tickets for the Observation Deck at the Space Needle for early Sunday morning for a discount and I had my dad drive us down there so we wouldn't have to worry about parking and he could spend more time with us.  So, we went to the top deck of the Space Needle and walked around.  It was a bit cloudy still, but we could see everything in the downtown area just fine.  The kids loved the interactive screens they had all around the inside.  There was a selfie camera on one side that you could use your card that they took a picture of you with a green screen background on the way up and you could take a selfie with that camera.  It was pretty neat.  We walked around and took lots of pictures for about 45 minutes. Then, we found my dad who was parked around the corner and he drove us to Pike Place Market.

The kids don't enjoy shopping that much at the market cuz it's too busy for them, but I brought along some different types of gum and we started chewing it so we could add our gum to the recently cleaned gum wall beneath the market.  After that, we ended up walking through the lower levels of the market to find a bathroom.  We stopped at a bakery at the top to grab some donuts and sweets.  There were some giant Texas-sized donuts we took pics of.

Then, down the stairs to the waterfront.  I don't mind going down the stairs, but it's a little different when you're going up.

My dad picked us up down below and drove us around Alki beach next.  There were some volleyball tournaments going on, even with the cold weather.  The kids wanted to go out on the beach, but the tide was out... way out!! We had to wade through a couple of feet of soggy seaweed mush to get out there, but we managed it.

Then, after drying off the best we could, it was lunch time.  Dad took us to Taco Time!  I have't eaten there in years.  So, I got my crispy meat burrito, with lots of hot sauce.  I haven't ever found anything that comes close to that.  So good!!!

We topped it off with some ice cream from Baskin Robins and then headed back to pack up to hit the road again.

We left and then, got a call from my dad when we were about 5 miles away that one of the kids had left his sandals there, so we swung back around and went back to get them.

I had made arrangements with a family friend, the Maxfields, to crash there at their house that night. They live just outside of Port Townsend, and we were looking to stay the night somewhere in that area so we could get through all our activities for the 4th without it getting too late.

The drive was good and we were there in 89 minutes, the time it took Monty Python and the Holy Grail to play all the way to the end.  LOL.

We set up our tent on their deck and had some dinner and talked until it was bedtime.

Here's our "green screen" shot before getting to the top

Here's our selfie cam pic

The gum wall!

Making it stretch

Getting the right spot

Look!

Getting it ready

Smash!

Mission accomplished

I think that's mine, the green one with the loop at the bottom

Gum wall mission, done!

Giant Texas donuts

Famous Sign

At the bottom of the Pike Place stairs

Seattle from Alki

Harbor Island to the right

wading out

and splashing back

Our Alki Statue of Liberty

Space Needle in the background