“To visit the West Coast, now and always, is to be overwhelmed by its beauty – the blue water and blue skies, the temperate air and the beaches and the looming mountains not so far away.” – Ross Douthat
The West Coast has a way of calling three Mississippi boys home. This year I joined friends and fellow journalists Layne Bruce and Randy Ponder on our second adventure touring the Pacific Coast. We made our first adventure several years ago flying to San Francisco and driving down Hwy. 1 to San Diego. This trip we decided to fly to Portland and then drive to San Francisco. This photo was made from a rooftop restaurant our first night in Portland.
The soccer junkie that I am, I took advantage of gorgeous weather for an early morning walk to go tour Providence Park – home of the Portland Timbers of MLS.
We began our road adventure later that morning leaving Portland headed for Eugene with a first stop at Multnomah Falls – a stunning 620 foot waterfall, the highest in the Columbia River Gorge.
From there we made our way toward Mt. Hood for some beautiful, snowy views.
We lunched near Mt. Hood at the Crooked Tree Tavern and then took in the depth of the remaining snowfall at a roadside park.
A sign of how high the snow had been.
We arrived in Eugene that night and stayed at the nostalgic Timbers Inn.
Our next day on the road was a bee-line to the coast with a wonderful lunch first at The Crazy Norwegian in Port Orford, Oregon.
Just beyond the “Crazy Norwegian” the stunning views of the Pacific Coast that we love so much came into focus.
My friend Layne captured this video of me standing at water’s edge at Klamath just across the California state line from Oregon.
If the Coast wasn’t breathtaking enough, driving through the great Redwood forests were equally magical.
We continued our travels into beautiful Healdsburg, California for a lunch stop before migrating south, across the Golden Gate Bridge.
I never tire of the beauty of San Francisco.
From there we entered beautiful San Francisco, one of my favorite cities on the planet.
We made the most of our time in San Francisco, including planning our next adventure to complete our West coast swing. The current plan is to fly back to Portland and travel northward to Vancouver.
Joel McNeece, Layne Bruce, and Randy Ponder.