Roadtrip to Seattle - via Crater Lake and Portland

On saturday evening we arrived in Chiloquin, Oregon after what I think was our longest day of driving so far, about 6h driving time. We chose Chiloquin because it's the closest town to Crater Lake, so we wouldn't have too far to drive in the morning and would be there early enough to enjoy it without too much disturbance by other visitors.

The first motel we checked (there are only two in the area) had no internet in the rooms and after speaking to the owner, who was very honest and forthcoming, we moved on to the second motel. It was nice to get some honest advice rather than be sold something that isn't great. The owner just said look there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes here and honestly, you would be better off going to the motel down the road.

That motel was ok, it had aircon and shared wireless with the gas station in the area. It was clean but certainly no frills. But at $55 you can't really complain. The wireless turned out to be useless as they had changed the password, so we just tethered on our phones. Even in this remote area we had some internet functionality on the phones, which was good. That said, it was also painfully slow :-/

This morning we got up at 7am and made our way into the Crater Lake National Park. The photo is actually from the north entrance, since we missed taking one when we went in at the south entrance :)

So let me paint you this picture: I'm in shorts and t-shirt as usual and we arrive at this first viewing spot where you can actually see the lake and we are both excited of course. We pull up, grab our cameras, open the doors and step out. BOOM!!! 7 billion mosquitoes descend on us. And these are big fuckers, not small ones we have at home. I literally said "WTF????" and you can picture me scrambling back to the car and going through our bags as fast as I could whilst swatting mossies off my arms, legs, neck and face. I was desperately trying to find the insect repellant I specifically bought for our trip to Alaska. It's a small bottle I chucked in the biggest suitcase we have....yeah it took a bit to find.

But once I found it and we both applied it, it instantly got results. Not a single mossie landed on me. They were still around of course, but at least I wasn't being bitten anymore. This stuff works: Jungle Juice. I picked it because it had the highest content of DEET. You know the Seinfeld bit where he goes on about meds and how people pick maximum strength? Yes I did that. Here is a pic of what you need to keep insects away:

Just don't come anywhere near your mouth or eyes with your coated fingers because, you know, this is serious stuff.

After that, we got to take some photos through the trees. Once again the photos don't do this lake justice. It was perfectly flat, the sun was shining on it from just the right angle and the colours were so deep and stunning. Mountains would mirror perfectly on the lake's surface. It was still and quiet, apart from the sounds of squirrels crunching nuts and diggin up sand and some birds and insects flying around (the first spot was the only one with the sound of mossies around your ears).

Serenity is the word to use. You just had to stand there, look out on this perfect lake and take it all in. Nature can be so beautiful and peaceful. Enjoy the photos :)

A little video of the lake:

Driving away from Crater Lake and further into Oregon, the trees were amazing.

The mountains in the distance and clouds just sitting on top. It looks so fake! Just too picturebook.

Going RVing in style - towing your classic car behind your massive RV. Like a sir.

During the day Simone got in contact with one of her online friends in Portland, and they (her and family) generously invited us to an early dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish, a popular local seafood restaurant. The food was tasty and it was a very enjoyable get together, with topics of conversation thankfully deviating from just Supernatural :)

Simone had the crab (just the meat, how luxurious :) ) with mushrooms and artichoke. I had the salmon with garlic mash and greens. The salmon was nicely cooked, flaking beautifully. I also had the fried octopus and calamari with three sauces as an appetizer. Neiter of us had dessert but we took some photos of the desserts Emily and Tim ordered.

The motel we checked into today is the Viking Motel. In my opinion the best value for money motel we've stayed at so far. $70 a night and we have good internet, big twin queen bed room with brand new aircon. Tomorrow morning Simone wants to check out this humongous bookstore they have here before we lave for a relatively short drive (about 3h) to Seattle.