Melody and I started off on a road trip down to California, which will last three weeks. The first half of the trip will be with the hiking group, spending a couple of nights in Oregon, then going to two National Parks in California: Redwood and Lassen Volcanic. For the first day, we met a few people in Astoria, OR, to explore the city during the afternoon.

Spring is a good time to go looking for wildflowers, so we did that in the Columbia River Gorge. We did a bunch of hiking and a little bit of playing tourist. The weather was mixed, but the worst we had was a little rain, a little hail, and big winds. Yes, we did see lots of wildflowers, as well as a lot of views of the Columbia River.

The only thing we planned for Saturday was a hike up Neahkahnie Mountain. That took most of the day, and the great weather yielded lots of views.

We went a bit south to Tillamook County to a couple capes. And since we were in the area, we stopped by the Tillamook Creamery.

We decided to take a long weekend to go to the north part of the Oregon Coast before the crowds start to show up, so we packed up the car and headed south. We looked at a shipwreck near Astoria, visited Fort Clatsop National Preserve, and walked a bit along the Seaside Promenade.