The Oregon Coast and Mt. Shasta

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First let me ask a rhetorical question: Did you know there's internet in Denny's? Only in California, my friends, only in California...

But pretend for a moment that we're not in California (or that I'm not -- you are probably not in California at all, so you don't have to pretend). Instead, pretend that we're on the coast of Oregon. Imagine the Pacific Ocean, a cool breeze, the shimmering water, agreeable weather. Aaah, isn't the Oregon Coast lovely?

It is lovely. We drove down the coast and settled on Florence, OR for a night's stay. We found a nice state park, set up camp and then went to Safeway for dinner, smores materials and gas. It is worth mentioning that we bought the cheapest gas of the trip in Florence. It was $2.87 a gallon, but somehow I managed to remember the phone number I had in DC (Jake, care to take a stab?) which is apparently still connected to my Safeway Club Card and that gave us ten cents off each gallon. If only gas were always so cheap. Also, you may or may not know that it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. Luckily it seems they have a fleet of teenage boys to take care of it for you.

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Anyway, dinner in hand, we drove to the beach. Florence is in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area which is a fancy way of saying there were hills of sand in addition to flat expanses of sand. Dinner was good, sunset was awesome, the beach was lovely and quiet. Later that night our campsite was not as quiet (drunk people in the adjacent campsite!) but that did not ruin the deliciousness that is smores. Also the temperature was nowhere in the frigid range, so I had quite a pleasant night's sleep. All in all, Florence was a huge success...

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The next day we had breakfast in town and headed back towards I-5. We stopped in Redding, CA for lunch and I tried to find Marcus's time machine to score some Must See TV, but it was nowhere to be found. So we just ate subway and kept driving. It was really, really, really hot.

We stopped for the night in Mt. Shasta, in part because there was a KOA there. Very nice and quiet and actually they were having a root-beer float social that evening, which I'm sure was lovely for the kiddies, although we didn't participate. We went to a Mexican place in town (thanks AAA!) where the food was decent but the service was not. Luckily, that was more comical than annoying -- never in my life have I seen a waitperson spill not one tray of water glasses but two in rapid succession (it was a brief glimpse into what my life would be like if I waited tables). That and the waitress brought Jon beef taquitos instead of chicken and when she got to the table she said, "Oh these are beef. You can't have beef can you?" Jon shook his head. "Okay, well I guess I'll get you some chicken ones."

Jon thinks it's cute when there's food hanging out of my mouth
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But like I said, it was entertaining. And then we went back to our wonderful tent and I slept like a baby because it was very warm and thus I had none of that cold-nose business that sometimes (okay, all the time) makes me cranky. In the morning, we went to the Black Bear Diner for some delicious breakfast and then parked in an internet cafe for a few hours before heading back to I-5 and down to Palo Alto...

And now we are in PA (or Redwood City rather) waiting for the Volvo to get new oil and freon (we found out when it reached 115 in Redding that the A/C is not in tip-top shape). Hanging out for a few days with Jon's dad before we figure out our next move. Originally we were planning on hitting the Grand Canyon, but it appears to be 114 in Flagstaff, AZ right now. It should be noted that K Johen wisely warned us about this possibility, but according to the way of the Rosengreen, we ignored his sagacity. Stay tuned to find out where we actually go next...