Home Sweet Home

 I started the drive about 8, did three hours. Cary drove the remaining eight...breaks for gas and food, of course. We are pretty tired of motels so we made it all the way home. Lots to do, as usual. Hope for a good night's sleep!

Florence and Friends

 (this should be before the post about Tehachapi)

We ate breakfast in the room--I brought in the toaster. Watched most of the Sunday morning show (it started at 7 and we got up about 7:15)

Ginger and Mark were expected about 11, but she got confused about where we are, took a detour to Lincoln City! So we looked for a place for lunch, settled on the Dunes Cafe. It was packed, to be expected on a Sunday morning in the summer--only one cook! It took 40 minutes to get our food.

When Ginger and Mark did arrive they were hungry, so to make things easier we got stuff at Subway to take back to the motel and eat on the patio. Nice visit. The wind came up, chasing us back to our room. The time sped by, time to head back to Salem.

Parked near the Subway, very cute car!

Because we had time we browsed the Goodwill and St. Vincent thrift stores, got gas (3.53) and picked out supper at Safeway: fried chicken and potato salad for Cary; a turkey and cheese sandwich for me. We have enough food for another breakfast in the morning before heading for home.

Tehachapi

 Lunch at Andersen's Pea Soup again. I helped drive for a few hours. Because of the wildfires in the area, we discovered most of the motels in town are full of firefighters (thanks, guys and gals)! We found a room on the second floor of the Baymont, but the clerk failed to ask if we qualified for a discount...she rang us up and then we mentioned it. Too late. We are still arguing with the policy--you have to ask first! Every other motel has always asked us. Once they put it in the computer, it is carved in stone apparently. They have not heard the last of us. Note: we did get the discount! 

Supper at Denny's. We had the most pleasant, exuberant young man as our waiter. It was very busy in there, so he was doing lots of running. Elias

Picture from the motel room window. I wanted a train to go by--which they did with great regularity, but not while I was ready to take a picture.

Because I forgot to post the info about our Oregon adventures, this is out of order!

 

 

We made it to Willows

  Doing this on my phone. We left Florence at 7:15. I took over the driving 🚗 when we got to I 5, drove 2 hours. Lunch at a Black Bear Dinerin Yreka. By the time we gotta Willows we were ready to stop, found a nice Super 8--but I can't get online with my laptop! Nice room, breakfast in the 🌄.

It is now the next day and I am online in Tehachapi, will post a picture.

Can you see Mt. Shasta? It looked quite ghostly!

Bandon, North Bend and Florence

 

                                   

Hungry when we got to Bandon, ate at a cute place called The Loft. I used the extra zoom feature on my camera to make the lighthouse look very close.

In Wild River Books Cary found the new Doris Kerns Goodwin book he wanted.

After we found a motel in Coos Bay (had to pay $8+ for one with a refrigerator), we made arrangements to visit Susan. Oh, and two thrift store visits--two 50 cent books for me.

She sold her property and homes, moved into this great apartment, still out in the country. She served sandwiches and salads. We had a great visit and made arrangements to meet for breakfast.

Friends Cafe and Diner, still new enough to be a quiet place to eat. Susan and I had blueberry french toast. Cary had biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, hash browns and some fruit.

We found two yard sales before leaving Coos Bay, then two more before arriving in Florence. Getting here on a Saturday meant we were taking a big chance on finding a room for the next two nights. But we lucked out and could even check in around 11 at the Travelodge. Very nice staff. Then we could go eat lunch!

                    
The view from our seats at Mo's--great clam chowder and more. Took a stroll down the main street, found goodies in the kitchen store, and Cary even found a shoe horn in a thrift shop--something he had wanted the whole trip-- then needed some ice cream to cool off.

Baby Birds in a nest in a corner of the porch outside the ice cream shop. We saw Mama bird come feed them.

Back to the motel for catching up on computer stuff and a nap. Ginger and Mark are meeting us here tomorrow.  Not sure if we have any room for supper!

Last Day in CC

 I wanted to take a drive for a few more pictures, and to soak up some more cool sea air!

This is across from our picnic area; today a couple from Medford was enjoying it--they got away from the heat too!

I really like the zoom capabilities of my new phone!

Since our upstairs neighbors carried on until well after midnight, I didn't get much sleep. I reported it to the owner; they left around 3 this morning. New neighbors tonight, fingers crossed.

More books, lunch at the Chart Room

 Cary finished his last book, so we returned to Sylvia's for a refill; he found a biography on LBJ by Doris Kerns Goodwin that should take him to Tucson. I ended up with three books (to make up for not finding any last time).

Lunch at the Chart Room, a 25 minute wait, but very nice outside, sunny and cool. I took pictures, but will return to get better ones tomorrow. Still getting used to my new phone.

While we were waiting, I did get a shot of the beach from the parking lot.

Earlier we saw this cute little trailer in the Good Harvest parking lot--

Happier Campers are a real thing--I thought the owners of this just customized one. I am still reading about it on the internet.

                             from our apartment window, about 8:10 p.m.

New Phone, a learning curve and more time at the beach

 I upgraded my phone to a Samsung Galaxy S24. Had to go back twice: once to turn on the phone and once to get the correct cable for my new charger. I may still have to go back to ask some more questions. So far I like it. Marco, Andrew and Dave provided more help than I have gotten at Tucson Verizon stores.

After lunch we went back to the beach where many kids were learning some life saving techniques from an official California lifeguard. Many had been surfing too. I could get a pretty good picture of the lighthouse with the extra zoom my new camera provides.

We tried the Chart Room but it is closed on Tuesdays (and Mondays), so got Mexican at Perlita's which we brought back to the apartment. 

Another Picnic

 

I needed one more picnic before we leave CC on Friday. Cool, but no wind.

Sleepy weather. About 2:00 a.m. our upstairs neighbor (we didn't have one when we went to bed at 10) showed up. Luckily he only clomped around about 20 minutes. I did go back to sleep. Bur still took a short nap.

I am trying to use up as much refrigerated and frozen food as I can before we leave. But we do have plans for another Chart Room meal...and maybe one more Mexican!

Two Days

 Lots of berries still getting ripe behind our apartment. I picked some yesterday and again today.

               Naturally, since we had berries we had to get some ice cream!

The sun never appeared today, but we went out to find a spot to sit and watch the beach, the waves, the lighthouse and some flowers.

Yesterday we went to Torero Famosos for a delicious supper; I had leftovers for dinner tonight. We are only going to be here for four more days of meals, so we need to use up a few things. That said, we have two more meals we are planning to get in restaurants!

At the Fair

 I thought I would have to use five-year-old pictures of the fair. My phone is full, so I got out my camera, downloaded the pictures where they vanished into various folders in my photo files. Somehow, after about two hours, I found some of them!

Adorable almost two-year-old twins

Cary talked to the owner of this Morgan for a few minutes.

This is the car I first learned to identify as a very young kid. Very distinctive.

I took pictures in the craft section but they are too well hidden on my computer!

When we got home (stop at Walmart for a few things), Bella the housekeeper showed us the upstairs room. Very fancy! Two bedrooms. A foosball table. Fireplace. Dining for six. But very rickety looking stairs leading up to it. There are three or four things I would change about where we are, but overall we are quite pleased!

On the beach and at the museum

We wanted pictures from the museum to put in our Power Point, and it is always fun to talk to Karen. Some of my microwave bowls were in the gift shop; she said a lot had sold to the workers there! Some are out at the lighthouse.

This is a first order Fresnel lens. I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture.

I took more pictures while we were there; I may post them later!

After lunch we went down to the beach, so refreshing. Wish I could soak it all up to take home!