Post-trip:
Becky decided that she wanted to
take the least-direct route home in order to stretch the vacation. We left Lee
Vining at 1:30 on Thursday, 9/4 and started our migration north by way of
Monitor Pass (so winding and fun to drive!), Lake Tahoe (so blue and populated
by the wealthy!) and finally Truckee (so cute and straight out of Sunset
magazine!). We purchased some personal hygiene products (since you can’t leave
those in the car due to bears), got a last minute room at the Hotel Truckee
Tahoe and took much-needed long, hot showers. The hotel was conveniently
located across the street from the Fifty Fifty brewing company so we walked
over, had tasty dinners, two beers each (great porter and a citrus-y ale!) and
made it back to the hotel in time to catch the last quarter of the Seahawks
game.
The next morning, we found a
great coffee shop in downtown Truckee where we picked up a couple of delicious
pastries and large coffees. We wandered the old-timey main street peering in
the windows of the numerous cutesy shops and restaurants before getting back on
the road at 9:30. Our next stop was Lassen National Park.
Our goal at Lassen was to visit
the geothermal area known as Bumpass Hell. It’s the largest geothermal area
west of Yellowstone! Along the way we discovered there is a trail to the
summit of Lassen Peak that is only 5 miles round trip and 2000 feet. We decided
to tick another Cascade volcano off the list, but were dismayed to learn the
trail is closed for restoration. Boo. We still got to hike in the 1.5 miles to
Bumpass Hell to see the boiling mud pots, steaming fumeroles and yellow
crystals of sufur dioxide that formed on the ground. Definitely worth a stop if
you’re ever at Lassen.
Continued west to catch up to I-5
and stopped in Ashland for dinner at the Standing Stone Brewery. Only tried one
beer here, a citrus-y ale, but it was very tasty and refreshing. We drove
another 10 miles up to Medford where we knew we’d find cheaper accommodations,
checked in to a hotel and crashed.
The next day we drove up to
Eugene so we could wander the campus and Pete could reminisce about his days
there. It was game day against the Michigan State Spartans and the whole city
was crawling with people decked out in their finest Ducks gear. We looked into
getting last minute tickets, but couldn’t stomach paying $109 each so we just
got lunch at Burrito Boy, one of Pete’s favorite haunts from college, and
pounded out the last five hours of driving back to Seattle. The cherry on the
trip was that we got home in time to watch the Ducks trounce the Spartans on
TV. A fine ending to a fabulous trip.
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