Back Home Again

We left on July 17th and returned home on July 31st. According to the car’s data, we spent 51 hours in the car and traveled just over 2,300 miles. We made stops in Grant’s Pass, Oregon, for a visit with a childhood friend; Hood River, Oregon; Moses Lake, Washington (a place of personal significance); Astoria, Oregon; Yachats, Oregon; and Crescent City.

I took almost 1,000 pictures — a lot are pictures of birds in flight and waves crashing on rocks using the auto feature. But there are also pictures of beaches and flowersd and redwoods and lighthouses and elk and sea lions and maybe a whale in the distance. I’ll be sharing some of those pictures in the days ahead, once I figure out what is worth sharing and how to organize it. Don’t worry, I won’t post anywhere near all 900+ photos.

Meanwhile, a few thoughts from the trip. When I was a kid, my family went on a 10-week, 10,000 vacation across the country. Pulling a trailer behind the suburban, my parents somehow managed to make that trip and still keep their sanity. After two weeks, I was ready to be home. There is a difference between trailer traveling and staying in hotels. For instance, I got really tired of trying to figure out where we were going to eat each meal, while my parents knew exactly where we were going to eat most nights. So, as much as I enjoy any time on the coast, I was ready to come home and return to the normal course and pace of life.

Eating out was made more difficult by the combination of restaurants still struggling to find staff and there being far more vacationers out and about. With rare exceptions, every stop for lunch and dinner was met by a wait for a table. Some restaurants only worked with reservations. Some refused to take reservations. Some … who knows. It all worked out more or less, but the challenge of figuring out that “rules” at each restaurant was exhausting at times.

Additionally, while the Delta variant is spiking in many parts of the country and counties in California are starting to impose mask mandates even on the vaccinated, in the places we went it was almost as though the pandemic didn’t exist. Sure, staff and employees all still wore masks, but almost none of the customers or travelers did. I’ll admit I wasn’t 100% in compliance with wearing my mask indoors, but I probably did around 70-80% of the time. Almost nobody else was. I feel bad for the employees who have to wear the masks while the customers go maskless. This is one of the reasons I’ll likely keep trying to wear a mask until I’m seated at a table, or I’m outside. If the staff is doing it to help protect themselves and their customers, seems like it’s the least the customers can do to help protect the staff.

And I’ll share one other political note … when we were in Astoria, we stayed at a bed and breakfast. We talked with the owner each morning. She and her husband are from California. At one point, I asked her what brought them to Astoria. She said “politics … and taxes.” So, here’s the thing. She doesn’t like, apparently, the liberal politics of California, but … moved to a state that is almost as crazily liberal as California is. And also … taxes in Oregon are just as high as in California. Unless she’s a millionaire, she actually may be paying more in income taxes in Oregon than she was in California. True, Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax, but overall, the tax burden in Oregon and California aren’t that much different. So … I’m still trying to figure out why she moved. 😉

That’s it for now … expect pictures in the near future. And I’ve got a few more musicians to feature in My Top Three feature. And, oh yes, I’ve got other things to say.