Pacific Coast Highway Day 11
Pacific Coast Highway
Day 11 - April 27, 2003 - Mercer Island, WA to Pendleton, OR
Ted made breakfast again, this time French toast and we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the dining room. We packed the car, said our thank yous and left Mercer Island at 10:10. We went west on I-90 to I-5 and then north toward the Canadian border.
There was a lot of traffic leaving Seattle on this Sunday morning. There were a few clouds but it was mostly sunny and already 60 degrees. Going north along I-5, out of the city, there are small towns, many shopping centers and farms along the way.
Casinos are a big business and are run by the Indian tribal councils. This portion of the interstate is grooved/cupped and throws the car from side to side. At Mount Vernon was saw several apple orchards in full bloom.
As we approached the border at Blaine, Washington, we could see the Canadian and American flags flying side by side on both sides of the border. On the four south bound lanes traffic was backed up for miles.
As we drove in we saw no problem driving into Canada, but we could see it would be very congested getting back to the U.S. Just on the other side of the American checkpoint, we made a U-turn and were allowed into the long line by a compassionate soul.
We were only eight cars from the inspection guard but it took us nearly half and hour to go through the process. The inspector asked to see our passports, asked us several questions why I had done a U-turn, and for Gennie to take off her sunglasses. He then returned our passports and welcomed us back to the U.S. Many cars were stopped and searched in the inspection area. We were lucky.
We drove back on to I-5 but this time going south where we had a great view of the Cascade Mountains to the east as we headed back to Seattle. As we approached the city, we took I-405 and then turned east on I-90.
We stopped for gas at Issaquah and then drove east toward the city of Ellenburg. The drive was quite scenic and the car climbed the hills to over 2000 feet as we passed through the snow-topped Cascades and ski areas.
At Ellenburg we turned south on I-82 through a huge valley with immense flat fields of hay, fruit trees, and vineyards. The surrounding hills are very dry due to the lack of irrigation and we wondered if we were not in the Grand Junction area with the similar terrain.
We stopped at a view point on Manostash Ridge, with an altitude of 2672 feet, and we could see the whole lush valley and the snowy Cascades in the background. On the other side of this ridge we found nothing but sage brush and open range. This is certainly a different Washington from the Pacific Northwest.
We dropped into Yakima which is the northern gateway to the Washington wine country. On both sides of the interstate there are thousands of acres of vineyards just beginning to leaf out. Throughout this area, there were many little lakes and we found families fishing and enjoying the warm Sunday afternoon.
At Umatilla, I-82 ended and we turned southeast on I-84, a diagonal that took us into Oregon, and eventually to Idaho and Utah. We had called ahead to make reservations at a Best Western in Pendleton, Oregon where we stayed the night. We asked about restaurants, but did not get too much creative help, so we drove around Pendleton to find gas and a place to eat dinner.
All the cars seemed to be at the Mazatlan Restaurant. We stopped, went in and had a good dinner. We then got gas at an ARCO station - we are again in Oregon so they have to pump! We have found that a lot of gas stations do not take credit cards - only cash or debit. We returned to the Best Western and worked on two days of the journal and posted them on the net.
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