We crossed the Oregon border after a visit to Arcata to see our good friends Amy and Jason.  We enjoyed the Farmer’s Market in Arcata, and saw the new Guardians of the Galaxy at an awesome old movie theater downtown that served beer and food directly to your seat.  The legend of the area is Big Foot, and it was all the talk, so we ventured up to the Big Foot Museum, not sure I am a believer, but I hope he does exist for the fun of it!

Once we crossed the border it we found a magical campground on the coast with what I call “the gooines rocks” like the coast in the movie “Goonies”.  Going from a state of 44 million to 4 million, you can really feel the difference.  Oregon is beautiful, green, peaceful, calm, and serene.  We drove up the coast to about Florence, played in the sand dunes with Bianca and saw a baby seal on the beach.

We headed to Bend, where we crossed through Diamond lake which was still frozen.  There is lots of snow still all over the area.  We enjoyed good beer in Bend, and played in the snow with Bianca up at Mt. Bachelor, it was her first time in the snow!

Then we cut over to Eugene to visit KO.  Her dog is a Great Piraneese, she and Bianca played and played!  KO, and her gal, took us to a fun Beer Garden that had 5 or 6 food trucks, music and a great outdoor space so we could bring the dogs.

From there we headed to Portland and stayed at a rather surprisingly gorgeous campground on the river in Champoeg.  We drove to it via 20 miles on hwy 219 just west of Woodburn, this area had beautiful farms, flower fields, and was incredibly well kept.  Definitely thought we could live there on a farm.  We met a really nice couple from Canada, who gave us all sorts of great places to check out on our adventures to Alaska.

We headed to Hood River driving up the Columbia Gorge, which has just spectacular tree lined mountain ridges, and the river is something to behold.  Nature makes you feel small here as it is so grand.  Very humbling.  We’ve be driving along lots of rivers ever since Arcata, including the Eel, the McKenzie, the Willamette, and the Columbia.  All gorgeous and wild, and much larger than any rivers we have in California.