First
of all I want to apologize that it took this long to put up this post, but we just got into
town yesterday and have been very busy since. So, Friday morning we left the hotel in San Francisco and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge to get to 101, the highway that hugs the coast from California up to Washington. Unfortunately it was really foggy for a lot of the drive so we couldn't see some of the scenery, but the parts we could see were really beautiful. We decided to camp just north of Eureka, CA and found a spot right on
the beach which was awesome. In the morning we got up at 6:30 because we knew that the last leg of the trip was going to be a reasonably long
drive. We continued up 101 on windy roads through huge forests of redwoods, and when we saw a sign for a tourist trap called Trees of Mystery we decided to stop and see more of these enormous trees. (We figured it had to be good when we saw the 50 foot tall Paul Babe the Blue Ox). It was a pretty fun diversion that had a collection of strangely shaped or just amazingly huge redwoods, as well as a gondola ride (the kind you use at ski
slopes, not the boat) up throug
h the trees to a lookout point. One attraction was a little grouping of trees that are all really close together which they call the cathedral tree, and apparently there are dozens of weddings held there each year. The gondola rid Bunyan ande was really fun, and it was nice that Nika was allowed on. Nika was definitely a little nervous about being up in the air, but she was good and the ride really gave us a nice view of the trees. Apparently on a clear
day you can see the ocean from the lookout spot, but when we got
up there the fog was again an issue and we couldn't see much past the trees in front of us. It was a little disappointing but the trees themselves were really pretty so it wasn't too big of a deal, and we really needed to get back on the road anyway. After we left the Trees of Mystery, we continued north through Crescent City and on into Oregon. We were interested to see the southern coast of Oregon because some of the jobs that Jeff has been look
ing at are located
around there, so we were paying close attention to see if they looked like nice places. We stopped for lunch in Gold Beach which was cute, and on up through Bandon where we saw the Coquille River which was really beautiful. At Reedsport we took Route 38 east to meet up with the main interstate (I-5) and finish up the last part of the drive. The drive along 38 was really pretty also, it was really windy and followed the Umpqua River for the most part which made for nice views. The worst part of the drive was when we reac
hed Eugene (which is actually where I was born) and
we hit a lot of traffic from fans leaving the University of Oregon's first football game of the season. (They did win though.) Because of the traffic the last 120 miles of our drive took over 2.5 hours which was very frustrating. But, we did reach my dad's house in Portland safe and sound around 7 pm. It was such a huge relief to get here and know that we don't ha
ve to pack up and go somewhere else the next da
y! So now we will start our job search and then, based on the job location, we will start the apartment search. We want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading this, I hope you've enjoyed following along and we will try to e-mail and such to keep people updated as we get settled here. We miss everybody from the east coast already, and we will be in touch soon! Love, Emily, Jeff and Nika
of all I want to apologize that it took this long to put up this post, but we just got into 
town yesterday and have been very busy since. So, Friday morning we left the hotel in San Francisco and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge to get to 101, the highway that hugs the coast from California up to Washington. Unfortunately it was really foggy for a lot of the drive so we couldn't see some of the scenery, but the parts we could see were really beautiful. We decided to camp just north of Eureka, CA and found a spot right on 
the beach which was awesome. In the morning we got up at 6:30 because we knew that the last leg of the trip was going to be a reasonably long 
drive. We continued up 101 on windy roads through huge forests of redwoods, and when we saw a sign for a tourist trap called Trees of Mystery we decided to stop and see more of these enormous trees. (We figured it had to be good when we saw the 50 foot tall Paul Babe the Blue Ox). It was a pretty fun diversion that had a collection of strangely shaped or just amazingly huge redwoods, as well as a gondola ride (the kind you use at ski
slopes, not the boat) up throug
h the trees to a lookout point. One attraction was a little grouping of trees that are all really close together which they call the cathedral tree, and apparently there are dozens of weddings held there each year. The gondola rid Bunyan ande was really fun, and it was nice that Nika was allowed on. Nika was definitely a little nervous about being up in the air, but she was good and the ride really gave us a nice view of the trees. Apparently on a clear 
day you can see the ocean from the lookout spot, but when we got 
up there the fog was again an issue and we couldn't see much past the trees in front of us. It was a little disappointing but the trees themselves were really pretty so it wasn't too big of a deal, and we really needed to get back on the road anyway. After we left the Trees of Mystery, we continued north through Crescent City and on into Oregon. We were interested to see the southern coast of Oregon because some of the jobs that Jeff has been look
ing at are located
around there, so we were paying close attention to see if they looked like nice places. We stopped for lunch in Gold Beach which was cute, and on up through Bandon where we saw the Coquille River which was really beautiful. At Reedsport we took Route 38 east to meet up with the main interstate (I-5) and finish up the last part of the drive. The drive along 38 was really pretty also, it was really windy and followed the Umpqua River for the most part which made for nice views. The worst part of the drive was when we reac
hed Eugene (which is actually where I was born) and
we hit a lot of traffic from fans leaving the University of Oregon's first football game of the season. (They did win though.) Because of the traffic the last 120 miles of our drive took over 2.5 hours which was very frustrating. But, we did reach my dad's house in Portland safe and sound around 7 pm. It was such a huge relief to get here and know that we don't ha
ve to pack up and go somewhere else the next da
y! So now we will start our job search and then, based on the job location, we will start the apartment search. We want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading this, I hope you've enjoyed following along and we will try to e-mail and such to keep people updated as we get settled here. We miss everybody from the east coast already, and we will be in touch soon! Love, Emily, Jeff and Nika
