Review - Medusa

It seems like it took forever, but this morning I finished Medusa by Clive Cussler. This novel was from the Kurt Austin series, but this title moved fairly slow.

The premise was that there was an outbreak of a disease in China. As a result, the Chinese government sends a prominent doctor to the United States to help develop a vaccine that comes from the deadly Blue Medusa jelly fish. The lab where it is being developed is hijacked and Kurt Austin and company have to rescue the lab in order to save the world.

I was a little bored by the novel. It wasn't one that I looked forward to reading each morning. Bottom line is that if you enjoy Cussler's novels it's okay, but not much different than his others.

For me, it's on to Mr. Monk Goes to Germany.

Oregon Coast, Pictures, Part 5

Fort Clatsop and characters recreating Lewis & Clark 2nd winter post at the mouth of the Columbia River, near Astoria; Lewis & Clark National Park


Officer's quarters at Fort Clatsop


Typical soldiers quarters at Fort Clatsop


Canoe landing at Fort Clatsop


Canoe replicas at Fort Clatsop


Road heading back to Newport; fog comes in and is heavy when the temperatures are high inland


Columbia River Gorge on the way home

Oregon Coast, Pictures, Part 4

Tillamook Cheese Factory, Tillamook, Oregon


Assembly line of the cheese factory


Jetted tub at the Inn at Discovery Coast in Long Beach, Washington


Inn at Discovery Coast, our room (#1) lower right


Along the beach path, Long Beach, Washington


Sunset from our room in Long Beach, Washington


Breakfast basket for 2: yogurts, fresh fruit, juices, muffins; delivered to our door

Oregon Coast, Pictures, Part 3

Beach at Newport, Oregon

Sea Lions on the rocks near Sea Lion Caves (sure they are wheelchair accessible--only 37 steps to the caves!)


Heceta Head Lighthouse near Florence, Oregon


Bob Meyer, demonstrating glass blowing


Adding color to the vase


Using gravity to help shape the vase


Creating a weak spot in the glass in order to break it off the blowing rod; he will later connect it to another rod in order to heat it up and continue to shape it


It's not the one he was working on, but this is the one we bought


RV Park in Newport, Oregon

Oregon Coast, Pictures, Part 2

Highway 101, along the Oregon Coast

Highway 101, along the Oregon coast, feeling Lewis & Clark seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time after a long journey


Oregon coast


Bridge and Marina from our RV Park in Newport, Oregon


Sea Horse at the Newport Aquarium


More sea horses


Jellyfish at the Newport Aquarium

Sea anemones at the Newport Aquarium


Lighthouse at Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport, Oregon


At the top of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, a lighthouse still operating under the care of the Coast Guard

Oregon Coast, Pictures, Part 1

Piles of salt along I-80 near the salt flats

Salt Flats


RV Park in Reno


Valley outside of Susanville, California


Forest therapy on the way to Crater Lake


Crater Lake


Cliff along Crater Lake, part of the rim of the former volcano


Campground at Diamond Lake, just outside of Crater Lake


Road out of Crater Lake, heading toward Roseburg, Oregon


Elk along the road heading towards Reedsport, Oregon

Oregon Coast, Part 3

We made it home. After leaving Newport, we headed inland to Corvalis in order to catch I-5 and head north to Portland. Newport temperatures during the day were running low 60's while Portland was running near 100.

After leaving Portland we headed out to the Columbia River Gorge and watched as the vegetation gradually turned from the lush green of the coast to the dry brown of the interior. We finally ended up in LaGrande, had dinner and then checked into our RV park for the night. A nice enough park.

Friday we headed out to home. We stopped in Boise to have a late breakfast with Josh Clawson, one of DeeAnn's former students. After hearing of the major traffic slowdowns, we stopped for dinner in Ogden but still got trapped in a traffic problem in North Salt Lake. We arrived home about 8:30 pm.

The next few posts will be some of the pictures of the sights we enjoyed along the way. The big question now is where do we go next year. I'm leaning towards Glacier National Park.