Road trip to the Oregon Coast

Since cruising, Disney, museums, and etc. are closed due to COVID-19, we came up with plan G for a vacation, a road trip to Oregon. Ended up being a very nice trip, with beautiful scenery. Our first stop was the Twin Falls Perkins. Kent had his usual potato pancakes (which were not as good as they usually are) and DeeAnn had eggs, bacon, and a strawberry crepe (which was really good). We stopped in Boise for a look at the Boise and Meridian Temples, then had a short drive to our first stop for the night in Ontario, Oregon where we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

Boise, Idaho, LDS Temple

Meridian, Idaho, LDS Temple

2nd meal of the trip!

The drive to Yachats was prettier then we thought it would be. We were treated to a spectacular sunrise, beautiful rolling hills and farms, and a lot of fun curvy road surrounded by thick green trees.

Fortunately, the worst of construction traffic was 
not on our side of the road!

 

We arrived in Yachats, Oregon, around 4 pm, with plenty of light to see that we were going to have a great view of the ocean.  The waves crashing on the rocks were loud and breathtaking.  Our room at the Overleaf gave us a great view of the ocean.  We got an extra bonus by seeing humpback whales...mostly their spray but that was still exciting.

View from our 3rd floor balcony

Who is that masked man?

Critter Sightings!

We spent 2 nights at the Overleaf and loved it.  Then we headed down the 101 to Brookings, Oregon.  It started out pretty foggy but that lifted as we headed south.  We thought the road would be more crowded but, probably due to COVID, it was not at all.  We went through a tunnel and crossed a few fun bridges.  

This friendly cat seemed to be the resident
hotel mascot.

The Beachfront Inn was nice. The room was roomy and but the view was a little less dramatic; More beach, less rock. It also had plenty of options for food nearby. The first night we went to a nearby Mexican place, breakfast the next morning was at Millie's Pancake House, and the last night there we ate at the Beachfront Inn restaurant which was across the street from the hotel. It was good, but expensive. So we spent our full day there relaxing, napping, watching the ocean, and a little TV.

It was foggy the next morning as we headed out for Nevada where we spent our last night. It was a long drive but the highlight was a short jaunt through some California Redwoods.  They were so pretty and the trees were an awesome sight. Other than a drive and picture past the Medford, Oregon LDS Temple, the rest of the trip was a tad boring... except for the very curvy roads outside of Grants Pass. But we made it to the Winnemucca  Holiday Inn Express and ate a the very nearby (on the property) restaurant, Don Amigos.  We both thought it was pretty good.

Agricultural California checkpoint.

Medford, Oregon LDS Temple

The next morning we headed home... through the smog and smoke from the horrible fires in California.  We were worried that the sun would be blinding heading East in the morning but there was so much smoke in the air that that was not a problem.  The sun was dingy orange most of the way and even into the Salt Lake valley where we could barely make out the outline of the mountains until very close.

We had a great trip, one we hope to repeat someday. Traveled a total of 2026.7 miles. We got over 50 miles per gallon of gas, only having to fill up three times the whole trip! Definitely different from other vacations as COVID precautions were abundant... we wore a mask everywhere outside our hotel room (and in the car), social distancing markers on the floors, and restaurants had tables closed so people couldn't sit close together. We were happy to be home though and grateful that all 3 cats seemed to be alive and doing great... we were a tad worried about the kitten.  A week after our trip, Oregon has been hit with horrible wildfires fires in places we had just been. We hope they recover soon.