And the trip continues…Well the trip in July did continue, but I have been on the road again, so am behind in finishing the big hubby bucket list trip!
So, we left Eureka and my son. I am a happy mamma that he has a life that he loves, but it always is hard to say goodbye especially after I have spent a few days with him and miss so the day to day about this life.
We hit the road again after being in one place for a few days, we took California Hwy. 1 for part of the trip, which is always a great drive. Paul had not been on this Hwy before and thus we had to make a stop and let him put his feet in the Pacific Ocean. I found a neat little piece of driftwood to add to my collection of rocks and thus to bring home to my garden. We stayed outside of Portland, in Vancouver Washington. I had been the regional manager for a couple of sites in Portland for several years and thus wanted to touch base with old staff and friends. Vancouver was a good meeting place for us all and it kept us out of the big city, something that we decided to avoid anytime we could. It was great to see all my old staff and visit with them.
We got some great tips on our drive on the Columbia river. Paul had wanted to do that and I was all in, as there are several waterfalls along the way. We spent two days, driving the river as we stopped anytime we wanted to look at waterfalls and anything that caught our attention. We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, Horsetail Falls, Wahkeena Falls and of course the Big Daddy, Multnomah Falls. They were all just breathing taking. I loved the small ones and the big ones had such grandeur, it was hard to take in. We took our time, which was good as sometimes parking was an issue but we would just keep trying till we found a spot so we could get out and enjoy them up close. There were one or two that required a short hike to get to, and then a few you could hike up higher to get a better view. We took in to consideration our age and lack of being in great shape, but did all of the short trails and got great views of them all. One of my staff was a big fisherman, so he told us about the Bonneville Fish Hatchery, which was very educational and fun. The star attraction was Herman the Sturgeon who is at least 79 years old and has a great story. He is over 10 feet long and weighs nearly 500 pounds!
We spent the night in Kennewick, Washington and are so glad we gave ourselves two days to drive the river as there was so much to see. We had loaded up on sandwich stuff, so both days we had great picnic lunches in wonderful roadside stops. It was on to Coeur d Alene, Idaho for a few days of golf, shopping and a great spa for me. Our neighbors here in Crystal Beach have family there and have talked about how pretty and neat of a town it was, we wanted to see for ourselves. It is a great little town, with so much to do and see. We ate great food, found wonderful little shops and Paul got to play golf in the cool weather and with the trees. I will let you know he had to buy more golf balls along the way, as all of the courses had so many trees, he lost more than a few, but he loved all of the courses and how green they were and how nice it was to play in cool weather. I went to the big resort in Coeur d Alene and enjoyed a lovely day being pampered, and after two weeks on the road and several more weeks to go, I was ready.
It was then on to Whitefish, Montana and Glacier National Park! We did not start making our reservations till about 3 months before the trip (long story) and Glacier is one of the National Parks that requires a time entry and there were none to be had. I had found out that if you book a tour, they have the entry times, so I booked us a tour. It was one of the best things we did on this trip. Several years ago, we had got to Yosemite National Park, and it was stressful. Someone had to drive, someone had to figure out where we were going and what we wanted to see and then trying to find parking was awful. The crowds often kept us from seeing the major sites like we would have liked to. With a tour all of that is not an issue. They picked us up from our hotel, did all of the driving, and knew where to go, where to eat and where the good bathrooms were. Not to mention they had a wealth of knowledge about the park. It was a great day, and so glad we had the guide to get us around and take all of the stress off of us. I usually had a song of the day depending on what came to mind during the day. We saw a ton of mountain goats, so the song of the day was the “the lonely goat herder “from Sound of Music LOL ! As we were on the “Going to the Sun” road, it began to rain and then we got a little hail and then the sun came out! I really loved Glacier National park, the lakes, the mountains, the meadows it has it all, along with some lovely old lodges. Just a side note, if you want to see a Glacier in this park you have to hike 14 miles. We decided to wait till our Alaskan cruise in 2026 to see Glaciers!
It was a long day, but so worth it. I have added some pictures of the waterfalls and some of Glacier Park. More to come as we travel on to Yellowstone!
