Well I have always pictured the western part of Oregon as cold and rainy and foggy and guess what? It didn't disappoint me. We had just that kind of day…mostly. We left Roseburg at 8:10 AM today, 55 degrees and overcast, and headed for the coast. The original plan was to visit some wineries, but Steve decided he wanted to see the Oregon coastline, so we made a detour. Most of our drive today was the scenic route through the countryside, up the coast, and back through wine country. (Unfortunately we were running late and were very tired, so we drove on past the wineries. Honest!)

We began our drive through fertile farm land and grazing land populated with donkeys, mules, horses, cows and sheep. I even saw a black sheep among all of the white ones, and he didn’t appear to be an outcast from the herd. Smile. We drove through hills and along rivers and the sky began to fall. Even the tops of the hills were in the clouds. And it misted and it rained and, as you will see in the early photos, it was a drab and dreary day.

Our route took us through heavily canopied roads of hardwood trees where the sun doesn’t shine even if it wanted to. We followed the Umpqua River, winding around hills and small mountains, and we crossed the river at least two times on old cement bridges. And a white haze hung above the river, casting an eerie mood over the green water. And the river was calm enough to mirror the trees growing beside it.   

Eventually we reached the coast, but initially the road did not follow the coastline where we could see the ocean. So we took a side road to the Oregon Dunes and parked the car in a lot. And Steve made the steep climb in soft beach sand to the top of a very high dune to get a glimpse of the ocean while I chatted with volunteers from Minnesota who were there to protect the birds.

And the road continued through small towns like Port of Siuslaw and Florence where the chain restaurants do not exist. The area is protected by the US Forest Service as the Siuslaw National Forest, where there are countless hidden campgrounds and a few scenic turnoffs where we could get closer to the beach and take a few photos. At times the clouds came down to the ground and we could barely see ahead of us on the road. Later, we saw blue sky off the coast which eventually worked its way inland and we got a reprieve from the mist and the rain for a while.

We drove through town after town, and the further north we drove, the more touristy they became. We saw houses on the hillsides overlooking the ocean, and hotels with waterfront properties. And the houses were sided with cedar, some stained gray and others allowed to weather in the salty air of the sea. We drove through "tsunami debris zones" one after another, and we wondered if they were referring to the tsunami that hit Japan.

Around 2 PM we left the coast and headed east toward Portland. And the sky came down once again and we drove through rain most of the way to the city. Again we passed through town after town and as we got closer to the city we went through the Chehalem Valley and drove by countless wineries and vineyards. We passed them all, but decided that one day we would return and go tasting in some of these little boutique establishments.

Our route eventually put us back on I-5 with stop-and-go traffic all the way into and through Portland, a city where glass built high rises, shabby industrial areas and an active working port all co-exist in apparent harmony. We arrived at our hotel at around 5 PM. Tomorrow we head for Seattle.