A Day in the Clouds

 Well, we left Seattle on Thursday morning after stopping for coffee at - what else - Starbucks.  They do it up with lots of class in their hometown, they write your first name on the cup &  when it is ready they call you by your name and the item you ordered.  We drove through the lovely state of Washington which has, rather shortsightedly, cancelled its tourism advertising budget this year.  There are loads of things to draw people to the state, bringing them in to spend their apparently much-needed cash, but hey, why advertise it?

We did stop at Mount St. Helens  http://www.mountsthelens.com/, where the 1980 volcanic eruption reduced hundreds of square miles to wasteland.  Much of the vegetation in the blast zone is recovering, though.  The drive up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory was a bit challenging, with some pretty steep climbs as you move from below 1000 ft elevation up to more than 4000 ft.  We were actually driving in the clouds, we went so high!  Then, when we got to the Observatory, part of the mountaintop was obscured by the clouds, so that was a bit disappointing.

We made it to Roseburg, Oregon that night.  We followed part of the Applegate Trail (apparently a diversion from the main Oregon Trail followed by the early settlers.)  We made an unscheduled stop at the Applegate Trail Interpretive Centre and Museum http://www.rogueweb.com/interpretive/ at Grave Creek.  The creek was so named because a young settler who died of typhoid fever was buried beside it.  So, it made us wonder - if Oregon names its creeks in honour of something that happens nearby, what do you think made them name the next creek Jumpoff Joe Creek?

We made our way from there to San Francisco, where we will be staying for the next 3 nights.

 As we drove across the Oakland-Bay bridge, we were surprised to see how the clouds hung so heavily over the peninsula.  Ironically, I hear that back home there are scorching temperatures and outrageously high humidity.  Well, here in San Francisco it is much cooler, and windy, with forecast highs of only 20 Celsius for the time we are here! Our hotel is within walking distance of Fisherman's Wharf, so we will start our exploring tomorrow.