Murica - the first week back...

Minor league baseball in the summer. Murica...

After burning up most of my remaining annual leave hours during the first three weeks of July in Taiwan, I've now begun Home Leave. Inquiring minds may want to know that this is a Congressionally-mandated period of time designed for people in my line of work to become acclimated again to life in the United States after having spent a lengthy period of time abroad. Apparently, legislators feared that having been exposed to dangerous ideas like universal health care or gun control, we needed to remember what it's like to be American again before heading overseas on our next assignments. I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to do to bring that about - watch a lot of Fox News or hang out with some middle-aged white guys whose formal education ended with high school and who have never possessed a passport? I'll be spending August in the Pacific Northwest, where my father and sister reside, before my wife, daughter and I head east on Labor Day to commence training for my next post in Addis Ababa. Before settling down here in Bremerton, however, the three of us took a seven-day, six-night road trip down to the Sacramento, California area, where I lived during my high school and university days. The result is the plethora of photos that follows...

We began our journey by forsaking Interstate 5 in favor of the more scenic Highway 101, cutting through western Washington to join up with the route in the town of Shelton. We broke for lunch in the (legal) pothead mecca of Raymond (population 3000), close to the Oregon state line:

We crossed the mighty Columbia River on the Astoria-Megler Bridge and drove up the steep Coxcomb Hill to the 125 foot (38 meters)-high Astoria Column (1926) to take in the views of the area below. As you can see, the weather was very cooperative:

Standing beside the Subaru Legacy we rented for the trip:

Highway 101 follows the beautiful Oregon coastline and the views rival those of the famed Pacific Coast Highway in California. I've done the drive in stages from Malibu in California to Aberdeen (Kurt Cobain's hometown) in Washington, but this was the first time for Shu-E and Amber to take in the scenery...when they would look up from their electronic devices. Fog would make its presence felt from time to time:

We ended our first day at a motel in Newport and dinner (fish-and-chips and an Oregon microbrew) at the Off the Hook Bar and Grill. Unfortunately, my wife and I didn't get much sleep as the family of four in the room next door talked amongst themselves in loud voices into the early hours of the morning. In the end, I had to phone the front desk at 0300 hours to complain about the noise; a phone call to the room ended the conversation, but they kept the TV blaring on 11 all night long. Murica...:

Needless to say, I was somewhat bleary-eyed the next morning as I walked with my daughter to have breakfast at the Fishtails Cafe. The wife often skips the most important meal of the day, but I wished she would've joined us that morning just to see the look on her face as I dug into the stack of French toast covered in cream and smothered in marionberries. Murica...:

After checking out of the motel, we made the short drive to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, a small but fun facility devoted to the state's nautical wildlife, including jellyfish, octopuses, sea otters and sharks. The child had a great time...:

Leaving Newport and passing by the Yaquina Bay Bridge, where years before I was stopped by the police for exceeding the speed limit. I was let off with a warning, most likely because my elderly parents were in the back seat at that time. Memories...:

The west coast is definitely the best coast:

We made a stop at Cook's Chasm to see the Spouting Horn, where water is blasted out of a sea cave. What looks like a puff of smoke in the photo below is actually my camera catching the last of the mist of one small geyser:

I also managed to catch a small blast at the six-second mark of this video:

As these other videos might indicate, it was extremely windy:

Next stop along the coast was the Sea Lion Caves. A tourist trap, perhaps, but the sight (and smell) of a herd of Steller's sea lions hanging out in a huge sea grotto reached after a 208 foot (63 meters)-descent by elevator was worth the price of admission:

Another group could be seen from an outdoor viewing platform:

As beautiful as the coast was, progress was slow so we headed inland soon after the Sea Lion Caves. Although we were no longer paralleling the Pacific, the scenery was still nice as we followed the Umpqua River, passing a herd of elk at one point at a wildlife sanctuary in Reedsport:

Relaxing after a long day of driving at the Apple Peddler in Sutherlin, Oregon:

The next day we finally joined I-5 for the drive south to Sacramento. Unfortunately for the girls, the beautiful scenery of the Mt. Shasta area was obscured by a haze of smoke caused by raging brush fires, which also occurred three years ago when we drove through eastern Washington,  Idaho and Montana. We didn't make any stops except for gas, bathroom breaks and lunch at Penny's Diner in Dunsmuir, California:

We eventually reached a Best Western in Roseville, which would be our home for the next three nights. 30+ years ago, Roseville was a redneck town best avoided, but the population has exploded in the years since I left, to the point that very little was recognizable. Dinner was Thai, something almost unimaginable back when I was a high school student:

On Saturday morning I took Shu-E and Amber on a tour of Citrus Heights, passing by my old house (now up for sale), as well as the homes of some of my good friends and, of course, my alma mater:

The highlight of the day, and of the entire road trip, was meeting up again with my old friends Joe and Rich at the house they share with their brother Paul in Cameron Park. It was the first time to see them in person in five years:

Posing with a rifle while holding an historic anti-Mormon tract, with a cigar store Indian in the background. Can this photo get anymore politically incorrect?:

Joe and Rich took us to Clarksville, a ghost town with a lonely cemetery hidden on a hill behind a shopping center. A family of wild turkeys was our only (living) company:

From the cemetery, we drove into Sacramento to catch a River Cats game. During the years I lived in the area, Sacramento and Washington, D.C. were the two largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. without a professional baseball team. The Solons of the Pacific Coast League played in the city up until 1960, and a later incarnation of the team made Hughes Stadium its home in 1974 and 1975 (several years before my family moved into the region from southern California), but the city was without a team until the River Cats came to town in 2000 (by which time I was in Taiwan). Now the San Francisco Giants' Class AAA affiliate, the team has been a success at the gate, thanks to Raley Field, one of the finest minor league ballparks in the country (note the view of Tower Bridge behind the right field fence). Though the River Cats lost 2-0 to the Iowa Cubs, I had a great time at the game with family and friends, while eating hot dogs and drinking beer. Murica...:

Minor league baseball means promotions, and my daughter enjoyed "Princess & Pirate Night". She received a water bottle for completing a scavenger hunt between innings:

Joe took the opportunity while at the game to promote a mutual friend's English school in Taichung, Taiwan:

Despite the loss, a fireworks performance followed the game. Murica...:

On Sunday, I took the girls to see some of the sights of Sacramento. Frankly speaking, there aren't many, although the downtown area does to see to have more cafes, clubs and restaurants than in the past (why do places always get better once I leave?). Being the state capitol, the 19th century capitol building was the natural place to start:

Looking down the Capitol Mall toward Tower Bridge:

The California Vietnam Veterans Memorial:

Inside was an exhibit on the automobile and its connection to the California lifestyle:

Another section had a series of photographs of Johnny Cash getting ready for his famous concert at Folsom State Prison:

The California State Assembly, the lower house of the legislature:

The gubernatorial portrait of Jerry Brown during his first two terms as governor. I remember the controversy it generated after its unveiling in 1984:

Lunch was another retro experience, this time at The Original Mel's Diner on J Street:

But the truly reto experience was afterward, when I took the girls to Sutter's Fort, originally built in 1839 and connected with the ill-fated Donner Party and the California Gold Rush. The docent gave a fascinating presentation on traveling across the country by covered wagon (progress was very slow) and demonstrated how to fire a musket:

The lone original building in Sutter's Fort:

Patty Reed's Doll, one of the Donner Party's survivors:

We also made a quick visit to Old Sacramento, before meeting up for dinner one last time with Joe and Rich at a Golden Corral. Murica...:

On Monday, we began the long drive from Sacramento back up to Washington state. The air was thick with smoke up until southern Oregon, much of it from the Carr Fire burning outside of Redding:

We stopped by Shasta Lake, but there wasn't much to see thanks to the brush fires and the effects of the drought of recent years:

Despite its glamorous image, much of California is conservative and rural. But even in a small backwoods burg like Yreka, there are pockets of progressivism, like the Nature's Kitchen organic cafe and natural products store:

Real men do eat quiche, especially when it's made with wild salmon and comes with a bowl of chili:

Our goal was to make it to Portland, but fatigue eventually set in and we stopped for the night at a Best Western in Eugene, across the road from the University of Oregon campus. The view from behind our room, complete with ducks looking for handouts:

Go Ducks:

On our last day of the road trip, we stopped in Portland for a couple of reasons. The first was to visit Powell's City of Books, the first bookshop I've ever visited where I needed a map to find my way around! I picked up a guide book on Okinawa 沖縄 while my daughter got the first volume in the One-Punch Man ワンパンマン series. Amber and I both agreed that the hour we spent inside Powell's wasn't enough and that the store merits another visit the next time we're on Home Leave. Shu-E, who prefers to read in Mandarin, didn't share our enthusiasm:

The other reason was to see another old friend, this one from my UC Davis days. We met Andrea for lunch at Yataimura Maru, before going out for ice cream afterwards:

The years have been a lot kinder to Andrea than to your humble scribe:

Hipster humor on the streets of Portland:

Mt. Hood could be seen in the distance as we crossed the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington:

We stopped for dinner at Big Bubba's Burgers in Allyn. Murica...:

This road trip was my first time back in Sacramento since 1994, with the exception of a brief stopover in 1999 as I was traveling from Indiana to Bremerton via California (don't ask). Naturally, a lot has changed since then, much of it for the better (more cultural and nightlife activities, plus a baseball team), and much of it for the worst (more people and traffic). I've always considered myself a Californian, but I doubt I'll ever live in the state again (there's still so much of the world to see...).

And so Home Leave has begun. Along with seeing family again, I've had the immense pleasure of getting together with old friends, and I hope to meet some more before we travel to the other Washington in early September. And what better way to reacquaint myself with Murica, at least until next summer and the next assignment.