Karen and I headed for Patricks Point State Park on the Northern California coast after church at about 12:30 PM, seven (7) hours later we stopped in Salem Oregon for the night.
With no actual schedule to be anywhere at any particular time we slept in till 8AM before getting ready for the day ahead. After a good breakfast I wanted to go through McMinnville OR and stop at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum as they have the last SR-71A that was on active duty with the Air Force on display.
I guess the main attraction at the Museum for the average public would be the "Spruce Goose" built by Howard Hughes, but I was there to see one of the SR-71's that I worked on at Beale AFB California while in the Air Force. After paying what I classify as a ridicules entry fee of $24 each we started looking around at some of the displays.
They had a F4 "Phantom" like the one I was Crew Chief on at Alamogordo AFB New Mexico
Then we went to the second building to see the SR71A. They had her but in the back of the building with the X15 which I feel didn't do her justice. It was so crowded with the space exhibits it was impossible to get a good full photo of the plane. Karen did get a few shots with me next to her, but I was really disappointed with the way they had her presented.
On the exterior of the Museum they had an F102A which I was the Crew Chief on in Iceland, so I had to get a few shots of her, of course.
Driving along the Oregon coast gave us the chance to see some beautiful ocean scenes which we had to get.
At sunset Karen was able to get this shot as I drove.
Tuesday morning we continued down the Oregon coast and took a few more pictures.
Then about 2 PM we arrived at Patricks Point State Park and of course as soon as we could pay the day use fee we were headed for Agate Beach. Karen is the 5 th generation of her family that has come to this spot over the years and our daughter Robin and her family enjoy coming her as well (6 th generation, and Justin your the 7 th generation). I wanted to get a few pictures of the birds in flight so I ran up to them to get them to fly so I could take there picture. Some of them turned out pretty good.
It has been said that the further down Agate Beach you walk the better Agates you will find. As you can see it's about 3 miles long.
The view walking down to the beach is still great but the climb gets tougher each year we go. This past year the winter storms washed away the path to get down the hill so the Park Rangers had to make a different path and of course it was steeper or OK maybe it's because I am a little older.
As usual we had a great time collecting Agates and it is always hard to leave such a beautiful area. But we decided to head home about 2:30 PM on Thursday and after driving for about 13 hours we pulled into the driveway at home around 3 AM of Friday morning. Even though you enjoy your time away it's always good to get home to family.
Till next time!
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