Exploring the American Landscape
Beaches and more
Our journey south from the Columbia River along US 101 took us through miles of rural scenery, filled with dairy farms and small fishing communities. In places where the road runs right along the coast, we could sometimes make out dramatic pillars of rock down topped by hardy evergreens just offshore. Unfortunately, persistent rain and … Read more
This November 7, 1805 journal entry from William Clark perfectly encapsulates his peculiar spelling and punctuation style, along with the very understandable relief of getting to the long-awaited destination: the Pacific Ocean. At the mouth of the Columbia River, just west of the town of Astoria, Oregon, the Lewis & Clark Expedition completed the journey … Read more
We emerged unsettled but unscathed from our visit to the remote areas of Eastern Oregon, and after crossing the Cascades we discovered a wonderland of green. After months of seeing dry, sagebrush-filled landscapes, the leafy moisture of the Columbia River Gorge is almost hard to fathom. I’ve definitely been unreasonably excited to see moss on … Read more
Even after being on the road for almost 8 months, even after extensive reading of reviews, even after plenty of time spent analyzing satellite maps, we are still encountering places that completely defy our expectations. Eastern Oregon is one of those places. We were in the area mostly to see the John Day Fossil Beds … Read more
If I had told Ken that we should walk for miles and miles on the soft upper sand dunes of a Florida beach, with no prospect of actually going in the ocean, he would have thought I was crazy. And with good reason – everyone knows that the only good place to walk on the … Read more