20140620 | West Coast Trip Part III: Coastal Scenery

Click to return to West Coast Trip Part I or West Coast Trip Part II
On the first day of our journey south, we left Seattle, WA and stopped in Portland, OR for a bit before heading down to Newport, OR to spend the night.  The next few are from the Portland Rose Test Garden.  There were roses everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.
My brother and I took the chance to play with our set of macro filters - it was super convenient to be able to have the ability to convert pretty much any lens into a macro lens! (in this case, my 35mm f/1.8)





















After the rose garden, we headed southwest out to Newport, OR.  Our hotel was absolutely beautiful (Best Western Agate Beach slightly north of Newport, OR).  While we opted for the much less expensive view toward the east, this hotel was about as close to the beach as you could get.  Definitely on my list of hotels / places to return to!
This is bit of Newport Harbor.






The bridge spanning the bay


Messing with the macro filters while waiting for dinner!  My brother is pretty impressive... He's shooting with my D50 and an AI lens (no metering)!


After a good night's sleep, we explored Newport and its two lighthouses.  This is a view form the inside of the defunct Yaquina Bay Lightoutse.


Another view of the bridge from the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse


Along the way north toward the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, we saw this burning building.  We saw that there was someone working on the fire already after we stopped... Definitely a sad sight (This was taken from the main road @200mm)


Another angle...


A view of the Yaquina Head Lightouse


That night, we spent the night in Coos Bay, and set off for an early start the next morning.
A view from the dry docks of Port Orford, where we stopped for lunch.  Port Orford is a open-water port, meaning there is no natural protection from the sea, and where the boats need to be lifted into and out of the water daily by crane.


We saw a pretty beach along the way and walked down to it and looked around!




Don't mind my brother...




I really have no idea why I took this one... not nearly enough depth of field, but it turned out alright...








Some guy had his Porsche parked like this, so I figured I'd join him and then take a picture of our car...


That night, we made it down to Crescent City, CA.  Crescent City is quite a quiet, but also sad little town.  Most of its traffic is from people travelling to and from the Redwood State Park.  We weren't too hungry, and ended up buying frozen microwavable food and eating in the hotel room.


The next day, we set out to explore Redwood State Park.  While there was a LOT more we could have done (i.e., hike), we stuck with the "tourist traps," accessible by car since we had my mom and aunt along with us.  There were two trails that we drove through that was pretty much lined with redwoods.  Quite the experience, to be able to see it by car.  Naturally, our car was quickly covered in dust / dirt after that day.


Because I was driving, I didn't have very many pictures... This is Alex being himself!


After spending the night at an Indian casino / hotel, we headed down for San Francisco, where my cousin took us out to dinner and showed us the incredible view from his office.
Here he is, pretending to know what he's doing


The view from the Bank of America building - the highest building (in terms of altitude) in San Francisco - While the building itself not as tall as the Transamerica Pyramid, 555 California Street is on a hill, and therefore at a higher point.






Kind of a cool light fixture...

That's about it - the next day we just drove back to Los Angeles on the I-5, so very dry and not very much to see! Click to return to West Coast Trip Part I or West Coast Trip Part II