Our mystery hotel for last night and the next 2 night is the lovely Renaissance Hotel in the centre of Seattle. Very easy walking distance to the Public Market and waterfront. Gourmet food, fresh fruit, seafood and flower stalls dominate this busy marketplace. Being tourists, we had to do the tourist thing and have a Duck Tour. This hilarious tour in an amphibious bus, had a driver straight out of Monty Python, and toured not only through city streets, but put t...

Friday. Leaving Portland behind, Seattle is next in line. Beautiful blue skies and warm summer temperatures make it a perfect day for out on the water. Seattle is about 2.5 hours drive north of Portland and on the coast. Aaron's friends Dean and Stef invited us all for a day out on their sailing club's 36 footer. A light breeze guided us across the bay, complete with seal sightings, until it was time to anchor for lunch. Tasty gourmet sandwiches and several bott...

Thursday. While it would have been lovely to stay and enjoy all the Manor had to offer, we decided to check out downtown Portland. The light rail dropped us into the centre of town, and right near a multitude of food vans, Portland is famous for. Vans sold a huge variety of food from almost every country imaginable, except Australia haha. The wonderful aromas had me dying to try something even though I had just eaten breakfast. We ended up getting 3 small soft ta...

Up early and tents packed, it was time to hit the dunes. Training film viewed, paperwork signed, fitted with helmets and firmly buckled in, we attacked the dunes in our 4 seater ATV. About five minutes in and white knuckles, I feared this was going to be the longest hour of my life! As I got used to it, it turned out to be quite fun, and the hour passed quickly. A brief stop at McD's for early lunch and wifi, and we were soon on the road again. Over the beach han...

Tuesday. Today was driving day. The aim was to get as far north towards Portland as we could. We left our Yountville hotel quite early and started up the coast road north. Lovely glimpses of the Pacific Ocean surprised us as we travelled through small national parks and pine forests. A brief stop to refuel the car and then ourselves at the iconic Taco Bell, we continued north until we passed a sign about 6pm, advertising ATVs and sand dunes. After a few enquiries...