travel diary
It's still way too hot to sleep, so I can also just write my long due blog!
First of all - thank soooooo much for all the lovely birthday emails and comments - every single one of them warmed my heart!
We celebrated my birthday first in Newport (Aquarium) , then in the evening at the Doug Fir in Portland, a nice place in a lovely city.
But let's start where it starts... (I'll make it short, promised!)
The KLM flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco was calm, the catering was great (even though they didn't have my vegetarian meal at first -they spoilt me later) and we arrived tired in a cold san francisco. I think 3 people told us the Mark Twain quote! "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco." We spent our 2 days there with shopping on Haight Ashburry, and doing other touristy stuff.
Next day: Napa! Our bed & breakfast "La Belle epoque" was super cute and we enjoyed 3 hours of wine tasting! This house really suited me I thought! The hotelier knew us by names when we arrived, she was just baking cookies for all of her guests. Can it become more of a cliché?
The scenic road through Napa valley was very impressive, but I felt sorry for myself that I couldn't take any wine home.
On our way to the Redwood Nationalpark we stopped at Mendocino, a colourful coast town that I only knew from a silly German Schlager so far!
Redwood! Trees! Photographing trees or forrests is a challenge as often you have high contrasts, but I took my time and was quite pleased with my new camera, the Fuji s5 pro.
We saw Elks (a lot!) but no bear that we later started to call "honks" Don't ask why!
From Redwood we drove to Crater Lake - a beautiful area. Lots of snow, even though it was warm. Oh and way too many moskitos - they ruined the romantic "pizza, wine & sunset" plan we had.
What I love doing in the USA is stopping at random cafés, diners... some are just so beautiful, or simply an interesting photo object.
Arlene's Café (somewhere between Crater Lake and Florence):
Hot Rod Grill in Florence, OR:
The coast in Oregon is really pretty. We loved to drive, stop, snap a pic, watch the beautiful seaview houses... We had to stop in Astoria because Tommi is a huge fan of the Goonies movie. I think the best food we had on this trip was at the Urban café there- simply delicious!
Oh I didn't count the cheesecake in here!
The next stop was the Olympic National Park which I think i loved most. The combination of rain forrest, wild impressive coast and lonely beaches is irresitable.
Oh and we saw a mountain beaver (no pic!), bald eagles and lots of Bambis! = this made me a happy girl
After so much time in the nature we were happy to spend the last days in Seattle - having fun shopping, dancing, talking, meeting friends...
We went out dancing, saw a show by the very cool Marshall Scott Warner at the Tractor Tavern (where I've met an old classmate, too), visited the falls where Twin Peaks was filmed and had a "damn fine cup of coffee" at the local Twede's café.
Seattle was just such a beautiful city - you have the mountains, the coast, we had the loveliest weather, and even lovelier people around us. I already miss it!
If you are not tired yet, more photos are here!
First of all - thank soooooo much for all the lovely birthday emails and comments - every single one of them warmed my heart!
We celebrated my birthday first in Newport (Aquarium) , then in the evening at the Doug Fir in Portland, a nice place in a lovely city.
But let's start where it starts... (I'll make it short, promised!)
The KLM flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco was calm, the catering was great (even though they didn't have my vegetarian meal at first -they spoilt me later) and we arrived tired in a cold san francisco. I think 3 people told us the Mark Twain quote! "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco." We spent our 2 days there with shopping on Haight Ashburry, and doing other touristy stuff.
Next day: Napa! Our bed & breakfast "La Belle epoque" was super cute and we enjoyed 3 hours of wine tasting! This house really suited me I thought! The hotelier knew us by names when we arrived, she was just baking cookies for all of her guests. Can it become more of a cliché?
The scenic road through Napa valley was very impressive, but I felt sorry for myself that I couldn't take any wine home.
On our way to the Redwood Nationalpark we stopped at Mendocino, a colourful coast town that I only knew from a silly German Schlager so far!
Redwood! Trees! Photographing trees or forrests is a challenge as often you have high contrasts, but I took my time and was quite pleased with my new camera, the Fuji s5 pro.
We saw Elks (a lot!) but no bear that we later started to call "honks" Don't ask why!
From Redwood we drove to Crater Lake - a beautiful area. Lots of snow, even though it was warm. Oh and way too many moskitos - they ruined the romantic "pizza, wine & sunset" plan we had.
What I love doing in the USA is stopping at random cafés, diners... some are just so beautiful, or simply an interesting photo object.
Arlene's Café (somewhere between Crater Lake and Florence):
Hot Rod Grill in Florence, OR:
The coast in Oregon is really pretty. We loved to drive, stop, snap a pic, watch the beautiful seaview houses... We had to stop in Astoria because Tommi is a huge fan of the Goonies movie. I think the best food we had on this trip was at the Urban café there- simply delicious!
Oh I didn't count the cheesecake in here!
The next stop was the Olympic National Park which I think i loved most. The combination of rain forrest, wild impressive coast and lonely beaches is irresitable.
Oh and we saw a mountain beaver (no pic!), bald eagles and lots of Bambis! = this made me a happy girl
After so much time in the nature we were happy to spend the last days in Seattle - having fun shopping, dancing, talking, meeting friends...
We went out dancing, saw a show by the very cool Marshall Scott Warner at the Tractor Tavern (where I've met an old classmate, too), visited the falls where Twin Peaks was filmed and had a "damn fine cup of coffee" at the local Twede's café.
Seattle was just such a beautiful city - you have the mountains, the coast, we had the loveliest weather, and even lovelier people around us. I already miss it!
If you are not tired yet, more photos are here!