Heading North - Sunday...

You are in: Timeline -> 2001 -> California Trip -> North 3

Sunday morning dawned with pretty much the same weather as Saturday - i.e. a bit foggy but generally good. We hit the road as early as possible and filled up with petrol at the nicest full service garage in the world. I guess I should emphasise that petrol is effectively free here in the States, and the entire trip (nearly 2000 miles) cost us about $60 (40 quid) in fuel...

More spectacular scenery - here's some rocks in the sea somewhere off the coast of Oregon:

And here's another view...

This view doesn't reveal the highly commercialized entrance to a place where you go down and see sea lions, or sea otters, or something. We didn't do it, as you can see most of these things from the ferry across to Bainbridge anyway. Anyway, we were on a schedule, and most of all - we were hungry!

Anyway - we stopped at the Pines Restaurant. Fabulous. Entirely proper, old style American vast food. Tasted great, and if you happen to be on the 101 in Northern Oregon, then I would highly recommend that you stop here and grab a bite to eat.

We loved the sign - "Divided we fall", remember that this trip was shortly after September 11th, and so everywhere was being suitably patriotic - and rightly so.

Furthermore - you'll note that this restaurant, unlike ALL the ones in California, welcomes smokers. Not that we smoke, but it was nice to see...

All right - taking a photo of the outside of a restaurant is a bit tacky, but the wood pine tree was kind of nice...

And so onwards, North... Another hundred miles or so (we'd done so many miles another hundred was just a moment's driving). Eventually we reached the border with Washington State. There's a long long bridge over the River Columbia that marks the border between Oregon and Washington. It was raining by this time. But then, we we're right near Washington.

And "Welcome to Washinton - the Evergreen State". I wonder why its called the Evergreen State? Could it be the continual rain and evergreen pine trees that cover the landscape...? (Speed limit - 55 mph)

Having crossed the border into our home state it felt like we we're nearly home. Only another 250 miles or so... There are long straight tree-lined roads on the 101 heading up the coast here...

We drove up to Edinburgh (eh?) and turned right to head back towards Seattle and Bainbridge Island. Here's a photo of the speedo in the car - proving that not only did we really drive a long long way from San Jose (904.5 miles by this point), but that also we had little regard for the 55 mph speed limit in force on the road. Mind you, we were in the middle of nowhere on an empty road.

And so eventually home. Arriving back at 7:30 at night, having driven 10 miles shy of a thousand miles from San Jose along what were mostly back roads. We were tired, happy and in need of a beer by the fire...