Category: Destinations

This is a geographical breakdown of places we have visited in our travels.

September 30, 2020 Camp Rilea OR

It has been a long time since we have been on the road. Packing Scout seemed to be a little more difficult as we kept remembering things we forgot to pack and were running back in constantly. Eventually we got almost everything loaded, (except for wine glasses) and got on the road for the coast pretty early.

The trip over to the coast was uneventful, and we started by stopping into Camp Rilea to get a spot for the night. Camp Rilea is a small Oregon National Guard Post that allows retired military to camp in an area that is much like an aire in France. The only difference is it is next to the rifle range where soldiers do their annual qualification. Luckily for us no one is shooting today so it is nice and quiet.

Once we got checked in, we decided to head over to Reach Break Brewery which is one of our favorite breweries in Astoria. We got there just as they were opening, and like many places in Oregon they have closed off their inside dining room and are serving everyone in outdoor seating. We prefer outside seating, but today was one of the first cold days of the year. The marine layer had set in and refused to go away so it was pretty chilly and damp.

We tried a taster tray of 5 of their beers. They were doing a fresh hop sampler where they took three different hop varieties and applied each of them to the same beer. We could taste the fresh hops in the beer, but could not really taste any difference between the three different hops. We also shared a fish and chips.

Our next planned stop was Ft. George Brewery where we planned on having a pint. When we got there they had a sign saying that they were only seating people by reservation. The next reservation was in 30 minutes and since we only wanted a beer we decided to move on.

We went back to Reach Break and asked one of the brewers what place he would recommend that would be open. He recommended a brewery on the other side of the Columbia River in Washington called North Jetty Brewery. We had been there once before several years ago, so we were off.

The bridge over the Columbia River near Astoria.

Astoria is located near the mouth of the Columbia River, and the bridge across is an impressive structure. The river here is over three miles wide, and ocean going ships have to pass under the bridge so it is quite tall near Astoria. We always enjoy crossing it. The views from the top are spectacular when it is not fogged in.

When we arrived at North Jetty, they had indoor dining available that looked effectively distanced so we had another taster tray indoors. They were serious about mask wearing as Ton and I both stepped away from the table a couple of feet without our mask on and were admonished by the bartender.

We were hoping for a break in the marine layer, but we did not get it. So after our taster tray we decided to head back to Camp Rilea to settle in for the evening. We took a walk down to the ocean but the fog and the damp drove us back to Scout for the night.

May 20, 2019 Munich GE

Well unfortunately the weather forecast was correct, it is really raining out.  We lay around the room quite a while in the morning trying to figure out what to do for the day indoors.  

We finally settled on the Munich Residence as the trip advisor said that it was the best place to spend a rainy day as it was only 100 yard walk from the subway to the entrance so you do not even need to open your umbrella.  

The Munich Residence is the former palace of the Bavarian royal family the Wittlesbachs.  Construction was begun around 1380 and continued in spurts until the mid 1800’s.  When finally completed it has 130 rooms and 10 courtyards.  It has a full sized concert hall that is still used today.  It was very heavily damaged during WWII and not fully reconstructed until the 1980’s.    It has been converted into a museum both to highlight the architecture, but to show period furniture, art, and religious relics.

The Antiquarium is a room nearly 200 feet long.  It was built to display Roman and Middle-Age statues.  It also served for serving royal banquets.
An impressive ceiling from the Kings chambers.
Artwork from the 1800’s showing a Turkish influence.
The Ancestral Gallery lined with portraits of the Wittelsbach family.

We spent most of the afternoon winding thru many of the 130 rooms of the residence.  It was a nice dry way to spend the afternoon.  When we were finished with the residence we decided we needed to visit the actual Augustiner Beer Hall.  A short tram ride later we arrived at a giant beer hall with a huge outside sitting area. It was pouring but we were able to get a good seat in the beer hall.

St. Augustine the inspiration for the beer.

We both enjoyed our meals the night before so we decided to order the exact same dishes tonight.  They cost a little less, and we both thought the meals last night were a little better, still we did not leave any food on the table.  The Augustiner Beer is much better in our opinion than the Hofbrau House.

The interior of the Augustiner Beer Hall.

Just as we were thinking of leaving a Bavarian Band started up, so we had one more round and enjoyed the band.  When we finished up it was raining quite hard, and it looks like the forecast of up to an inch of rain was accurate.  Just hope the forecast of 1 to 2 more inches of rain overnight is not accurate.

The oompah band at Augustiner Beer Hall.

May 19, 2019 Munich GE

Last night we discussed our next step. The weather once again is intervening in our plans.  The weather over the next three days is forecasted to rain 2 to 3 inches, with periods of high wind and high temperatures in the 50’s.  Munich was one of my bucket list items so after a lot of discussion about how to best do it we decided to use some of our hotel points to get a hotel in Munich for two nights.  We arranged to park François on the Army base here so he is well secured.  Our new friend Scott even offered us a lift into Munich in his rental car.

We arrived in Munich about noon and headed over to our hotel to check in.  We had arranged to meet Scott for dinner at Augustiner Brewery later in the day.  After we had checked in we began to get our feet wet with the Munich mass transit system.  During the trip we ended up using Trains, Subways, Busses, and Trams.  We made multiple trips without any major incidents, and whenever we looked particularly confused locals often offered us help to understand what direction or platform to get on.

The spectacular town hall of Munich.

Our first stop was the Marienplatz which is the center of Munich.  It is a long and wide pedestrian zone full of restaurants, churches, shopping and museums.  The rain that was supposed to already be starting was delayed so the afternoon was sunny and warm.  We were enjoying our stroll up Marienplatz when we got a text from Scott asking which Augustiner Brewery as the front desk at his hotel said there were many.  We picked one based on our location, and asked him where we should meet.  It turns out we were only about 50 yards apart while we were texting each other, and when I looked up I saw him.  Having worked out the logistics of meeting each other we decided that since we were also right in front of the Hofbrau House we should have a beer there.

Street scene from the Marienplatz.

The Hofbrau House is probably the most famous beer hall in Munich.  Nearly every American who passes thru Munich has to have a beer there including us.  

The interior of the Hofbrau House.  A tourist must see (and drink) in Munich.

After the Hofbrau house we headed over to one of the Augustiner Breweries.  The Augustiner Breweries were founded in 1328, and there really are a bunch of them.  The weather was still really good so we found a seat outside.  

The Augustiner we ended up picking for dinner, one of at least four we passed.

Ton wanted to try the white asparagus (spargle in German)that Northern France and Germany are famous for, it is regular asparagus but the farmers cover it with dirt so it does not undergo photosynthesis to turn green.  This asparagus is a real delicacy in Germany.  It has a very short season being available only from late April to early June.  It has no fat and 0 calories (before you coat it with Hollandaise sauce), and lots of vitamins.  

White Asparagus, a delicacy for Germans.

My choice was a much less healthy schweinshaxe (pork shoulder).  It is roasted so that the skin is crispy almost like a pork rind, with the meat under it tender and juicy.  Both of our meals were really good.

Schweinshaxen, my favorite German dish so far.

As we were eating and drinking Ton asked me something and I answered her in Thai, the table next to us had three Asian people and as soon as I spoke Thai they perked up and said hello in Thai.  It turns out that Ken, Pup, and Ploy were from a solar panel company in Northeast Thailand.  They were in Munich for a trade show, but being good Thai they gave us an in depth rundown of the restaurant scene in Munich.  After our meal was done they asked us if we wanted to join them for another round of beers, so Scott, Ton and I were off to another restaurant for some more Schweinshaxn, (according to Pup the second best in Munich) and beer.

It turned into a really nice day where we made a new American and three new Thai friends.  By the time we finished with the last restaurant the clear skies were gone and it was raining buckets so we dashed for the subway and back to the hotel.

Washington

Our neighbor to the North.  We have not explored Washington that much in Scout as we had done a lot of traveling there in our early days in the Pacific Northwest.

September 14, 2017 Whidbey Island WA

Today was our last nights camping on this trip to Alaska.  We took care of some business at the Navy Base getting Ton’s military ID card updated, we also did some shopping at the base.  We picked up a collapsible wash bin for plates, and a new mini-rice cooker.

We both really enjoy Whidbey Island and spent the rest of the day visiting some of our favorite places and a new brewery.  We ended the day by going to one of Ton’s favorite restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.  It is Christophers in Coupeville and it has the best mussels we have ever had.  We had our biggest meal of the trip, and we will probably get two more meals out of the leftovers.

We appreciate sunsets so much more when we are in our campers.

We made it back to the campsite just in time to enjoy another spectacular sunset over the Puget sound.  Another great day on the trip, hopefully we will have many more in the future.

Savoring the end of the trip to Alaska.

August 6, 2017 Wenatchee WA

Today was our 36th anniversary so we decided to take it easy and celebrate in a town we had been intending to visit for a while.  We had visited Wenatchee in the past with our sons as part of a hockey trip and remembered it as a small farm town.  We had heard that it had boomed since we last visited.  

After a lazy start to the day we started the visit by trying to get a spot at Confluence State Park in Wenatchee.  They did not have anything available but overflow in the day use parking lot, but the location was good even if the price was not ($25)for what was nothing more than a parking lot.  We decided to stay there anyway.

Next stop was Costco to stock up on some final things before we headed up to Canada. We were looking for some good local beer, and some fruit.  We found them though it was a little pricier than we expected.  So far Wenatchee is not cheap.

The next stop was Pybus Public Market it was billed as the newest attraction in Wenatchee and was indeed nice.  The best thing for Ron is that he got to see the last twenty minutes of the Timbers game, and even better, they won.  

While at Pybus we were looking for a nice place for dinner when Ton realized that most of the restaurants in town were closed on Sunday.  This caught us off guard as we are used to the restaurants in Portland all being open on Sunday.  Since we were now committed to the area we had to look at our alternatives. 

Watching the Timbers and sampling beer.

Leavenworth was about 20 minutes away and had a lot of open restaurants so we headed there for a German dinner.  We also visited a couple of breweries. So thank you for saving the day Leavenworth.

It is still extremely hot and smoky.  The high was 96 degrees, and visibility was only a couple of miles.  Hopefully we get a break soon.

August 5, 2017 Wanapum SP

The plan for the first day was to head from Portland taking Forest Service Road 25 and US-12.  FS-25 is a summer only road that goes between Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens. We were looking for a new way to head east and this was new to us.  FS-25 was a very rough road built just for Tigers.  While paved there were areas of very high disrepair that required paying attention to what was going on.  The drive was pretty but the views were spoiled by the intense smoke we are currently getting in the Pacific Northwest.  A combination of a severe heat wave and very large wild fires in British Columbia made for very poor air quality and visibility. 

A very smoky Mt. St. Helens.

In typical Corbin fashion we blew threw Yakima, Ron missed the campground and ended up driving an extra hour until we spotted Wanapum State Park.  A little pricey compared to the Forest Service Campground we planned to stay in but having full services is nice as it was in the mid 90’s when we pulled in, so the AC is getting a test run tonight.

October 20, 2016 Prosser WA

From the beginning we intended to visit Grand Coulee Dam.  Ton had it on her mini-bucket list.  When we woke up in the morning it was raining quite hard and continued the entire time we drove to Grand Coulee.  The dam is impressive and is the largest on the Columbia River system.  We watched a movie on the construction of the dam and poked around the visitors center for a while before moving on.  

The drive out on the Grand Coulee Scenic Highway was very beautiful.  Unfortunately with the bad weather there are no pictures.  We will definitely be heading that way again in the future when the weather is better.

Looking for a place for the night we decided we needed a full service campground to clean up before heading home the next day.  We settled on Wine Country RV park in Prosser Washington.  It turned out to be a good choice.  As we checked in they told us there were 10 tasting rooms a quarter mile away, and the RV park was having an evening wine tasting.

We headed down to the tasting rooms and sampled some wine, and ended up having a nice dinner.  As we were setting up for the night the clouds lifted and we were treated to this sunset.

Another beautiful sunset.

November 18, 2015 Whidbey Island WA

Today was an easy day.  Woke up late, drove over to the Navy Exchange to see if they had any good deals for Christmas, and then headed up the island to our favorite coffee shop in the PNW.

Useless Bay Coffee is located in Langley and features good coffee and excellent baristas.  In a nice old building.  In addition we tried the Pizza in a waterfront restaurant with a pretty view towards the Cascade Mountains and Seattle. The whole country has been going thru a cold snap and even here it was frosty as you can see from the picture below.

The proverbial frost on the pumpkin.

By the time we finished lunch and our coffee we realized that by the time we drove back to the campsite it would be dark.  Sunset today was at 4:30 pm and it was totally dark by 5pm.  Ton did get a couple of decent pictures despite the dark.

Sunset on the Puget Sound.

November 17, 2015 Whidbey Island WA

This will be a very short trip to one of our favorite places.  This is our fifth trip to Whidbey Island.  We really enjoy the island and one of Ton’s favorite foods is caught fresh off the island.  Penn Cove Mussels are awesome and there is one restaurant that we think prepares them better than others.  We returned to Christophers for a four course dinner that started off with Penn Cove Mussels and finished with a wonderful desert, and the price is incredibly reasonable.  If you get a chance and you are  on Whidbey Island make sure you check it out.

Our excellent dessert after our Penn Cove Mussels.

We are camping at one of the very best military campgrounds at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.  The sites are right on the sound and fantastic.  They recently remodeled it and really got it right except they moved the spots back a bit from the water.  In the old days you were within feet of the beach.  But it is still outstanding.

A very large drift wood deposit near the campground.

January 19, 2020 Burns OR

We realized that Scout has been lonely in the driveway and has not moved in nearly a year.  This is definitely not good for a RV so we were looking for an opportunity to take a trip before we take our spring trip to Europe.  Ton has a much more active social life than I do and she was having a hard time freeing up time, and she is also not a fan of cold weather camping.  On the other hand I had time on my hands and was going a little stir crazy at home so we made a decision for me to take Scout out on a trip by myself, this means the pictures are not going to be as good.  I do not have an agenda besides getting out of the gloom of Oregon and finding some sun.  The initial thought is to head towards Arizona.

Today was about getting over the mountains before the next storm runs thru and makes crossing over the passes difficult.  Ton and I spent the last couple of days stocking up Scout for the trip.  She was even nice enough to cook some of my favorite meals so I can microwave them.  So I was ready to make an early start as the best stop for the first night was Burns which is about 330 miles.  Last year we took a different route home thru central Nevada and it was really beautiful, so I decided to head south that way and this long drive would get me in position to do it.

The weather was clear and pretty warm on the west side of the mountains, but as I climbed up the temperature began to fall until it reached freezing and a there were a couple of accidents.  One of the accidents involved two cars and was pretty serious.  Some people get careless and try to drive too fast.  One fool even tried to pass two snow plows that were spreading cinders until the guy in the plow made it clear that was not going to happen. Between the accidents and the snow plows the trip over the passes took a while.

Detroit Lake Reservoir had been drained in preparation to receive the spring snow melt. It made for an eerie picture.

Once I descended down the weather was good and the skies were clear.  Eastern Oregon was its’ rugged and remote finest for the last three hours of the trip.  I love the emptiness of the high desert.  Last winter the campground we usually stay at  was closed when we went thru here and we ended up in a hotel.  This year I checked and their website indicated they were open, and sure enough they were.  So all ends well today and I hope my longest drive is behind me.

Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters were out today once I crossed over the mountains.

January 16, 2019 Klamath Falls OR

We almost did not make this trip.  Ton has been battling a rash that is making her very uncomfortable, she decided to push thru.  Then the day before we were going to start, right after we completed loading Scout for the trip, Ron’s back went out.  We decided to push down to Klamath Falls and see if we felt like continuing south.  The drive was pretty easy though we did run into some unexpected snow coming over the cascade mountains.

Some unforecast snow on Willamette Pass.

To make it a little easier on both of us we decided to use some of our hotel points for the first night to allow for a little easier access to the bathroom and the bed.  Somehow it feels like cheating on Scout.

February 14, 2018 Bandon OR

The final day of “Good Brew Hunting” had us dealing with some disappointment.  The first two breweries we had planned to visit were not going to open until 4 pm which was too late if we were going to get home at a reasonable hour.

We did visit 7 Devils Brewing in Coos Bay.  We enjoyed their IPA a great deal.  This is another first class facility.  The owner is an artist and has done a first class job of decorating the place.

Ton liked the painting of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy.

We had planned to make Yachats brewing the last stop for the day.  The beautiful weather we had been having had finally broken and we had more typical Oregon Coast weather, a mixture of sun and rain.  The drive from Florence to Yachats is really spectacular and we enjoyed the views.  When we got to Yachats we found the brewery closed despite their website saying they were open, there was a note on the door reflecting limited winter hours that was not reflected on their website.  

At this point we punched home into the navigator.  As we were driving thru Newport we came to a seafood place we had always talked about stopping at, so we did.  We split a Captains Platter of fish, shrimp, scallops, and oysters.  After our late lunch we headed to the house.

The “Good Brew Hunting” trip was now over with 11 breweries visited in three states.  Ron’s favorite brewery was Arch Rock and his favorite beer was the lager from Arch Rock from Anderson Valley.  Ton’s favorite brewery was Anderson Valley with Arch Rock a close second, and her favorite beer was Anderson Valley and her favorite beer was also from Anderson Valley their Brother Davids Triple.  

A rainbow as we were pulling into the neighborhood.

The “Good Brew Hunting” tour was a total of 3818 miles over 20 days and Scout averaged 13.26 mpg.  One thing we have noticed that with the heavier tires we put on in Alaska we are averaging almost 1 mpg less, but I think it is worth it for the extra weight capacity.

October 13, 2017 Pendleton OR

Today we started our trip in our rental RV which has been named Elephant for the trip.  It is a 30 ft Cruise America Rental RV.  It is certainly a different driving experience than Scout, much wider and also slower to turn.  

Joining us on the trip this time are three of Ton’s best friends from Thailand.  They are three sisters Jeap, Noi, and Dang.  This will be their first time traveling in an RV so it should be an interesting experience for them.

We left early expecting a slow start with Portland traffic, but got a lucky surprise and shot out of Portland pretty much without slowing down.  As we left Portland we ran into the after effects of the major fire which had burned in the Columbia River Gorge for a significant part of August and September.  It has left quite a mark, and roads and parks in the gorge are still closed due to the after effects.

For the day we made stops in Hood River at a nice orchard, and walked around downtown Pendleton.  The girls enjoyed the cowboy town and the turn of the 20th century architecture in Pendleton. We also stopped at the Pendleton Woolen Mills which is one of the landmarks of Pendleton.

Double rainbow in the Columbia River Gorge.

Tonight we are staying at Emigrant Ridge State Park where it apparently snowed seven inches last night.  The camp host assured us that things were going to return to normal, even though it was flurrying when he told us this.  We are going to give the Cruise America heater a good test tonight.

August 3, 2016 Burns OR

We had decided to drive the Owyhee National Scenic Backcountry Byway.  On the way we were running out of steam and decided to stop for the night in Burns.  Ton had heard that an old friend of ours sometimes spent time in Burns so when we checked into the park we asked for Gary, and not only was he there, he was about 4 spots down from us.  We spent the evening catching up with Gary, it was nice to see an old friend and we were glad to see he was doing well.

Along the drive today we stopped for a quick walk in the Cascades.

Gary gave us some of his home roasted coffee, and it was awesome.  Ton has a new idea to try when we get home.

August 2, 2016 Stewart State Park

Paul, Dee and their girls were going to head off to Crater Lake despite the smoke that was still lingering.  Ian and Julie were going to go swimming and Julie was going to prepare a proper English Roast Meal.  Ton and I decided we would contribute by heading into Medford to get some beer.

Medford and Ashland between them have 8 breweries now.  We decided to check out 3 of them.  The first stop was Walkabout brewery.  This was the one we were most interested in, but when we pulled up the parking lot was empty, we got out to verify it was closed and it was, as we were walking back to Scout a guy walked out and said sorry they were closed.  We asked when they were open and he asked if we were from out of town, we said we were and he said come on in and try a sampler.  You have got to love people who are passionate about their business.  We had a great chat about beer in the area, and enjoyed some good beer.  Of course we took some back to share later.  The other two breweries were ok, but we picked up samples none the less.  Mission completed we headed back to the park.

The smoke finally cleared out a bit.

While we were gone Julie had cooked up a wonderful authentic English Roast meal.  Good food and good beer made for a great night.

August 1, 2016 Stewart State Park

Good friends made a tough day enjoyable.  Besides the smoke from the fire which was about 20 air miles away, the high temperature for the day was 104 degrees. Not exactly ideal camping conditions.  But with our friends there we all made the best of it, and surprisingly the park was almost at capacity.  I guess Oregonians are a tough lot.  Dee cooked up a fantastic Thai meal on cookstoves, Ton and I were thoroughly impressed.

Interesting shot of the sun thru the smoke at our campground.

July 30, 2016 Joseph Stewart SP

We are starting the trip out by joining some friends of ours on a weekend outing to Southern Oregon.  The state park we are staying at is halfway between Medford OR and Crater Lake.  One of our good friends from Portland has never visited Crater Lake during their time in the US, as they are English.  They are going to use the  State Park as a base for a trip into the National Park. 

It was an uneventful drive until we got off of I-5 at Canyonville.  As we were heading east out of Canyonville we began to see smoke from a forest fire and quite a bit of fire fighting equipment.  We decided to press on using the logic that they would close the road if the fire was a threat.  After a few miles we could actually see the flames and several helicopters attacking the fire.  But as there was no one stopping us we pressed on.  The smoke was very thick at times reducing visibility to less than half a mile.  

Fire fighting helicopter attacking the fire near the road we were on.

Eventually we arrived at a smoky Stewart State Park.  Several people were leaving, but we all decided to stay and see how it went.

October 12, 2015 Crater Lake NP

Today we headed south towards Eastern California.  As we had a little bit of time during the day we swung thru one of our favorite National Parks, Crater Lake.  It was a small detour to run the rim road around the lake.  As always it was beautiful, but Ron had forgotten that the forest around the lake is almost 100% evergreen.  So no fall colors.  

The view of Crater Lake from near the visitors center.

For the night we stayed at a small Air National Guard Base near Klamath Falls.  Maybe the quietest military installation we have seen.  I am not sure there are any permanent personnel on the base even though there is a barracks.  It should be a quiet night.

August 10, 2015 Burns OR

Today we planned to do the Steens Mountain Loop on our way to Idaho.  When we went out to Steens Mountain in June the loop was closed due to snow so we settled for staying in a nice campground on the mountain.  This time we made it around and the drive was great.  It is about a 50 mile gravel loop where you climb from about 3500 feet to 9800 feet at the summit.  It is the highest road in Oregon.  Steens is a fault block mountain which makes it different than most of the mountains in Oregon which are volcanic.  One side of the mountain is pretty wet by Eastern Oregon standards, resulting in Malheur Lake and the wildlife refuge there.  The other in the rain shadow is the driest in Oregon with only 6” of rain per year.  The dry side is called the Alvord Playa and is reminiscent of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

The view from the top of the highest road in Oregon on Steens Mountain.

After leaving Steens we bit off a long drive to Mountain Home Idaho.  This is what happens when you let the destination drive your day. As a result of forgetting about the time change we didn’t arrive at the campground until after 7pm, a ten hour day.  We are going to try to slow down a little for the rest of the trip and limit the driving hours per day to something a little more comfortable.