Craters of the Moon N.P, by Dan

After an all you can eat pancake breakfast (Dan 6) (Barney 1) (Abigail 2)
(Jimmy 8) (Bree - did not get up in time!), we headed on across Idaho. We stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument. Poor Bree was not feeling the best and lay down on the sofa in the RV, occasionally popping her head up for a quick look, that’s why I am writing this short blog.

Craters of the Moon is a barren area of lava flows, cinder cones (mini volcanoes), and volcanic tubes. This is an arid region, and the meager rainfall is quickly siphoned away through the loose volcanic soil. Historically uninhabited, and unused except for hunting, and trapping. It was called "Craters of the Moon" because, it was imagined that this is what the moon must look like. (Yes I stole that bit from a web page).

As it was a very small place to visit, the kids finished their junior ranger programs and we headed west towards our next town which was Stanley. We had already done a lot miles so we stopped when we noticed a little ranch in the middle of the mountains, so we stayed there the night. It was beautiful and there were still signs that they had a lot snow there, including the hundreds of snowmobiles that were available for hire during the snow season.

The next morning we made our way to Stanley which was a lovely little town that was recommended to us by lots of people. The drives continue to be an amazing part of our trip. Everywhere seems to has such stunning views, and what’s more, they seem to be different. Many days we travel a lot and it makes such a big difference to stay off the big interstates and pick the longer scenic drives.

We are now in Nampa after filling our boots in an all you can eat restaurant and will be heading into Oregon in the morning.

OK not too good at this blogging! Forgot to post it. We have now been in Oregon for a few days and have made our way over to the coast (Newport). From here its straight down the coast Rd to San Francisco . Our first night in Oregon we stayed in the middle of a national forest. When we got there we were the only ones in the whole area, we thought more would turn up but nobody did. It was kinda scary sleeping in the middle of the forest all by ourselves. After a lovely fire we headed off to bed and it was not until the middle of night that we worked out why we were alone. It was COLD. Summer has not turned up in Oregon yet, instead we woke up to snow.
From what I have seen of Newport is a lovely place and we will be checking it out today.

The rest of the Idaho photos are here.

The coast Oregon

It's been a while since I last posted a blog. We've been on a mammoth, exhausting drive across Idaho and Oregon, to get to the Oregon coastline. At last we have arrived. The weather in Oregon has been rainy and cold, so we just headed across as quick as we could. The scenery was second to none, but the weather made it impossible to enjoy. We arrived at the coast three days ago and are slowly driving south towards California.

The Oregon coastline is famed as one of the most beautiful drives in America. And that's not untrue. The shoreline is beautiful. Most of the beaches are protected as state parks, and so they are clean and perfectly unspoilt. Oregon has a lot of trees, and these grow right up to the beach edges. It makes for some stunning scenery.

chips. I've so desperately missed chips since leaving home. They just We arrived firstly in Newport, Oregon. The locals told us that the best scenery was either heading north or south, but we were tired so we stayed for two days in Newport. Our RV park was next to the big bridge there, by the docks, and at night we could hear seals singing! The first day we arrived at dinner time and so we just eat and relaxed for the night. But on our second day we ventured out. Dan had discovered a 'fish n chip' shop that claimed to sell real English fish and chips. I've been missing proper chips so badly since we left. Chips just don't exist here. Chips means crisps here, and if you order burger and chips, you get burger and a packet of crisps. So disappointing. And everything else comes with fries, which just aren't the same. So we headed to this fish and chip shop for lunch. The place was packed! People were queueing for their chips. It was a good sign. But sadly, despite the queue, the chips were nothing more than crinkle cut oven chips, all soggy and very disappointing. If someone opened a real chip shop here, they could make a fortune!

After our soggy pretend chips we just headed off for a drive, and stumbled accidentally upon Yaquina Head area of natural beauty. We were allowed into it free of charge with our America the Beautiful Pass, so we headed in to see what was there. We were so lucky to stumble across this place! The main attraction here was the old lighthouse, which we toured. But down by the black pebble beach was seal island. Despite the cold and the wind we headed down to this beach where the kids were delighted to find rock pools full of sea life. Starfish of all sorts of colours, sea urchins, sea anemones, hermit crabs, huge mussels and clams, were but some of the creatures living here. I was as excited as them to explore the rock pools. The beach was a hive of wildlife activity. In the sea were some huge rocks, almost islands. One of them was topped with literally thousands of sea birds. One seemed to be home to a large family of Pelicans. And the other few were inhabited by seals, and their new pups. Most of the seals were sunbathing on the rocks, calling to each other occasionally. But four of the seals were playing in the ocean, near the shore, where we could just sit and watch. They were waiting for the pelicans to catch fish. As the pelicans pulled a fish out of the sea, the seals would swim over and steal it. We had so much fun sitting there for an hour just watching the seals and pelicans playing in the ocean. It was magical.

The following day we started heading south towards California, where our trip will finish in just over 2 weeks time. The coastal drive has been beautiful. Beaches full of driftwood. We stopped last night in an RV park near some sand dunes, and this morning we will take a walk along the dunes before driving south some more. We are chasing the sunshine it seems. Hopefully we will see some more sun before we leave!