2 posts tagged “oregon”

We awoke this morning to one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen from the window of our suite.  I'm not sure any picture can capture it, but my daughter made a nice attempt (see left).  It was an awesome sight!

Unfortunately, the "expanded continental breakfast" at the hotel would only be served until 9AM so we made ourselves presentable and headed down to the lobby for waffles and muffins.  It wasn't great but it would do.

After REpacking the car, we had to gas up the car.  We stopped in to a gas station and as per normal in California, I immediately jumped out of the car and feed my credit card to the gas pump.  A man in a company polo then promptly approached me and informed me that there was no self-service in Oregeon.  What?  It was the weirdest thing to get back into my car and while someone else pumped my gas, along with the gas of seven other drivers.  VERY odd!  My mother-in-law headed into the convenience store to buy something.  During this short time, she learned from an employee there how the "lazy" Oregon voters voted out self-serve fueling in favor of jobs.  He wasn't bitter, however, as he continued to race from car to car to pump more gas on handle their credit cards.

Another odd thing we noticed were the high number of "coffee shacks" that dotted the city of Bend.  One of them even sold biscuits and gravy!  What's up with that? 

We then began our journey to Spokane, Washington, where my Aunt and Uncle live.  While we drove through the beautiful snow-covered mountains and the very scenic highway that runs along the Oregon/Washington border, the kids enjoyed some Nintendo Gamecube games on our new car's video system.  We did insist, however, on making sure they saw the wonderful landscape.  As beautiful as the scenery was, we were anxious to get checked into our hotel and head over to my Aunt and Uncle's house for a wonderful evening with family, including some rarely seen cousins!

More to follow...

We started out from Central California yesterday morning.  After a late start Monday and a lot of driving, we saw the amazing Mount Shasta (below left)

and had dinner in Klammath Falls, OR, a very beautiful logging/tourist community. At first we had a bit of trouble finding a desirable dinner destination.  The navigation computer pointed us to a couple of places that sounded good but were closed or never seemed to be there in the first place.  We finally settled on Sizzler, whose marque read "Yes, we're open."  Hmmm.   Jordy said of his dinner:  " Yum, Oregon French fries are the best EVER."  :)  The sunset was absolutely gorgeous.

As we left Klammath Falls and headed towards Bend, our car was bombarded by swarms of little bugs

(see picture below right) who found their life's end on our windshield and hood.  We didn't arrive at our hotel until about 11:30PM.  Richard, the Manager of the Quality Inn was VERY helpful, assisting us to bring our bags up to our second floor room.  Our Suite was very comfortable, even for the five of us -  two parents, two kids and one mother-in-law.  The adjoining rooms  (with shared bathroom) were a good choice.  While the breakfast is not spectacular, I would still highly recommend this Quality Inn based upon our room and overall service experience.

Next stop... Spokane, WA.