5000 Miles of Freedom: California Dreaming

February 8, 2009 - In response to Baron Von Chaos' comment I would like to clarify that I was NOT comparing my loss of employment to Pearl Harbor but simply taking a famous quote and applying it to something that happened in my own life. No disrespect intended and I apologize for any pain I may have caused, now Baron go pound sand. On to tonight's blog.

Sarah and I woke up yesterday at Bandon Dunes resort to a beautiful spring morning. By midday it was 63 degrees, perfect blue skies, and a slight breeze. Since I was not playing golf at the resort we did the next best thing and that was walk the different trails they have running throughout the 3 courses and down to the beach. The first picture was taken from the ridge line right above the main lodge/restaurant looking over the first tee (right) and 18th green (left). As you can see the day was absolutely perfect.

Alternative tee box, I think it was the championship tee box, for a hole heading out to the ocean on the Bandon Dunes course. The golf pro told me that the Dunes course has 6 holes on the water.

After we walked the Dunes and Pacific course trail we headed down to the beach. The resort has over 8 miles of beach front property that can never be developed. While Sarah and I were down there we were literally ALONE. I felt like a sea explorer who found land after months out at sea, it really was a unique experience to be out there all by ourselves. The picture really doesn't make sense since I am on land pointing out to sea but it is kind of a trademark move that JM and I came up with (credit to Pat Bateman).

I love this shot. Since it is just the two of us on this trip we often find ourselves in the situation where the other has to take a picture of one when we are somewhere unique. Lucky for us the sun cooperated and gave me the chance to capture this picture.

Once we were done with our hikes we hit the road heading south to finish the Oregon coast. The last 80 - 100 miles of the Oregon coast between Bandon and the California/Oregon border is bar far the most scenic and was the highlight of the drive in Oregon. I am sure the weather played a big part in that but it was undeniable beauty. The following picture is of the coastal highway sign that has lined the 101. I made sure NOT to pull of the road near any ditches.

This picture is dedicated to my good friend EC Hoffman who helped inspire me on this trip. When we came upon this sign I quickly pulled off to take the shot. EC, I hope you like the picture.

The "Ocean View" from just over the hill.

Some great shots of the drive south. I have been taking video of some of our stops but can't figure out how to upload them to youtube and then post the link. If anyone has experience with uploading videos please send me an email with directions. Every time I try and upload the file I get an error message. It is an AVI file FYI.

As I said Sarah and I are trying to get "couples" pictures in front of every state sign that we pass. We missed Washington and Oregon because we crossed the border on an interstate. Yesterday we crossed into California for about 30 minutes before we headed back up into Oregon to stay at the tree house resort (pictures to follow). We were able to get Oregon and California crossed off. I really like the California shot.

As I said we stayed in a tree house last night. It was a pretty strange place run by a bunch of Oregon hippies. Our drive to the place took us through an old growth forest and Sarah got the following pictures as I was driving.

This is a picture of the treeloon, our house last night. It is supposed to modeled after an old west saloon. The actually room was nice with an old brass bed and a working sink. The facility is really set up for large groups of kids or families. There are ropes courses and zip lines all over the property. We got up early thanks to the rooster crowing at 6:15am and hit the road. It was a cool experience but not worth the $100 it cost to stay there. Note to self - don't spend $100 on hotel room without a bathroom.

We passed a German Shepherd breeding kennel today and decided to pull into look at the puppies, we were quite surprised at what we found. the breeder specialized in hybrid German/wolves. Yes that is a male wolf Sarah is standing with. He was 13 years old weighed about 140lbs+ and was one of the more intimindating/impressive animals I have ever seen. The picture is not great but when he stood up he was significantly taller than Sarah.