Travel In The Great Northwest
From Sequoias To Sea Lions
Portland, OR Vacation
I was working as an RN in a cardiac rehabilitation program when my boss asked me if I would like to attend a conference in Portland, Oregon.
Would I? I was thrilled as I had never been to the northwestern area.
If you haven’t had an Oregon and Northern California vacation, pack your suitcases to begin a wonderful vacation. I took vacation time in addition to the seminar, plus my husband came with me.
As for Portland, I found the people friendly, lodging in Oregon hotels or motels is no problem, and the salmon is delicious. I did a lot of walking in the city, which was relatively safe at that time. I do not know if it is still as safe.
Considering Portland is the rainiest city in the USA, I never saw a drop!
We decided to take back roads so we could see the countryside. We skirted around Mt.Hood loving its beauty. We stopped at an orchard. We bought lots of apples and pears, and I think I must have eaten my weight in fruit those next couple of weeks. These were ripe and just picked.
We visited Crater Lake National Park. It is 6 miles wide and it evolved from a collapsed caldera of a volcano inside Mount Mazama.
It is the most gorgeous blue you can imagine and the scenery is gorgeous. The lake was formed when the mountain collapsed from an eruption 7,700 years ago. The lake is 1,949’ deep. There is a museum, gift shop and a café, plus they show a film twice daily.
Next, we stopped at the Klamath Falls in southern Oregon.
We stopped at the California National Monument Lava Beds, which were established as a national monument in 1925. It is located in Siskiyou and Modoc Counties in California. The Lava Beds went on for miles, with black lava rock as far as the eye could see.
There are 25 lava tube caves available for tourists. We viewed the rugged landscape, which has cinder cones, lava flows, spatter cones, lava tube caves and pit craters. It was interesting, but we soon headed south.
Dawn Redwoods, Coastal Redwoods and Sequoia Trees
The next morning we headed to the Redwood National Park area in northern California. Almost 50% of all the redwood trees live on the rugged northern California coast.
You feel absolutely insignificant as you look up and around you at these magnificent redwoods and sequoia trees.
Yes, we drove through a sequoia tree!
The trees are 8’ to as much as 20’ round in diameter. They tend to grow in clusters as each foot a tree grows up the roots do not grow down but out three feet.
The roots are so intertwined with all the other groping roots from the grove that by the time a few hundred years have passed, there is no way a tree can fall down.
Largest Sea Lion Cave
After this wonderful experience, we drove up the coastal road heading back north and spent some time on the beautiful beach walking by their huge boulders.
The last activity was to visit a sea lion cave in Florence, Oregon. This is the largest Sea Lion Cave in the world.
When you arrive you pay a small fee, and then take an elevator to the cave floor. There is a large glass to stand behind to observe the sea lions frolic and play. They swam in and out of the cave at will, but the thing I didn’t realize was the noise level. They were loud!
Time For The Seminar
Finally, our vacation together had come to an end as we drove back to Portland. My husband flew home the next morning, and I started attending my seminar.
However, I still had another whole week of meeting new people, and seeing the sights of Portland, and I had a great time.
