Saturday Summary - Week 30 - Redwoods, Edinburgh & the Reunited in the bus adventure

May 23 – May 30 | California → Oregon → Washington | Scotland → Seattle

Where We Stayed

• Kamp Klamath, Klamath, CA (Friday & Saturday)

• Collier Memorial State Park — Chiloquin, OR (Sunday–Tuesday)

• Mohawk Restaurant — Harvest Host, Crescent, OR (Wednesday)

• Schwarz Park — Cottage Grove, OR (Thursday & Friday)

• 3 Dog Cider & Brewstillery Too — Harvest Host, Ethel, WA (Saturday)

• Marriott Holyrood, Edinburgh, Scotland (Sunday–Saturday)

Don's Week: Redwoods, Oregon & the Long Drive North

Memorial Day in the Redwoods

Don spent one last day exploring near Klamath before pointing the bus north. He and Lucky made the short twenty-minute drive south to Redwood National Park on Memorial Day weekend. Any visit to a national park on a holiday weekend comes with its complications. The Big Tree parking lot was full. He ended up parking on the shoulder of the road and walking a good quarter mile back to the Visitor's Center, where a ranger gave him a tip that turned out to be the real find of the day: Cal-Barrel Road, a little-used road through the old growth with plenty of pulloffs and, crucially, no trail restrictions for dogs.

Don and Lucky had the road largely to themselves. No cars, just enormous trees. They walked nearly a mile uphill before turning back. Don then left Lucky to rest in the bus and continued on the Foothill Trail to Big Tree itself. His verdict: an enormous tree, yes, but flooded with people. He took one photo and headed back to Lucky. Some experiences are better a little off the beaten path.

After topping off the gas tank back in Klamath, they pushed north to Crescent City, a cute town right on the Pacific Ocean. They stopped at a beach pull-off, walked on the sand, and it must have been strange going from an old-growth forest with giant trees to the ocean in the same afternoon. 

Crater Lake

From Collier Memorial, Don made the hour drive up to Crater Lake and came back with what might be his best description of the whole trip. His frame of reference: Laguna de Apoyo, the volcanic crater lake in Nicaragua we both love, dropped into the middle of Switzerland. Rocky cliffs, tall pine trees blanketing every hillside, and still quite a bit of snow on the ground for late May.

The blue is something people try to describe and rarely quite manage. Don found a line somewhere that stuck with him: the lake looking up at the sky and saying, mockingly, "You call that blue? I can do better than that." And apparently it can. Apparently, no rivers or creeks feed into Crater Lake, so there's no sediment to cloud the water. What you're seeing is pure depth, reflecting the one wavelength of light that water doesn't absorb. The result is a color that doesn't look entirely real.

A ranger at the Visitor's Center recommended the drive up to Discovery Point and the Godfrey Glen hike. Don made it to Discovery Point but felt the view wasn't a meaningful upgrade, and the Godfrey Glen parking situation was a hard no for the bus. So they drove out of the park, pulled over at a quiet spot in the pines, and sat on the bus steps for a while just listening to birds. 

Back at camp, Don did laundry in town and returned as rain started tapping on the roof. That night, the temperature dropped to 33 degrees, and no electric hookup was available despite his best efforts to find one, so Lucky got her sweater, all the blankets came out, and they made do. Which, by this point in the trip, we are very good at.

Washington Bound

The Sunday drive from Klamath to Collier Memorial State Park in Chiloquin, Oregon, just an hour south of Crater Lake, took about four hours and was, by Don's account, genuinely beautiful. The Redwood Highway wound through pines with creeks and rivers running alongside the road; in places, a rock cliff rose straight up on one side with a drop on the other. The rest of the Oregon stretch was quieter: a Harvest Host night at Mohawk Restaurant in Crescent, two nights at Schwarz Park in Cottage Grove, and then across into Washington for a night at 3 Dog Cider & Brewstillery Too in Ethel. This last stop, a cidery and brewstillery that also, as it turns out, keeps pigs on the property. Don sent photos. I love pigs. Don and Lucky got to meet them. I did not. The Pacific Northwest better have more pigs.

Karen's Week: Cobblestones, Tartans & Exploring on Foot

What I thought would be a quieter week turned into a full week of exploration. A week in Edinburgh with Mausi and Hanna, exploring the city she now calls home.

The first full day gave us perfect weather, and we made the most of it by exploring Hanna's neighborhood: the Meadows, the university grounds, and the bookstore, because of course the bookstore. I scored a great bookmark, Mausi bought a sticker for Opa, and Hanna found a wallet in the university's tartan pattern. Tartan is one of those distinctly Scottish things that never gets old, each pattern representing a family line or institution. Henry's girlfriend, Mali, has Scottish lineage, and when he visited over Christmas, he went looking for her family's tartan. The threads of this trip keep connecting to people back home.

From there, we settled into a rhythm that turned out to be just right for the three of us. The Marriott Holyrood's lounge gave us a lovely anchor, breakfast with Mausi every morning before heading out, and hors d'oeuvres, wine, and beer waiting when we returned in the evenings. Hanna joined us for most evenings. It meant our one real meal out each day was lunch, which we used to explore. That structure kept us from over-scheduling and gave the days a natural shape: go out, see something, eat somewhere good, come back, decompress. Early bedtimes.

And we covered serious ground. Princes Castle Gardens, Dean's Village, Stockbridge, Holyrood, and the Royal Botanic Gardens. One neighborhood per day, one direction on foot, and we would Uber back. We made up for every step we didn't take in Germany. Mausi's walking stamina is truly impressive. She moved through cobblestone streets and long garden paths without complaint. The one concession we negotiated was an umbrella used as a walking cane on the uneven streets. It took convincing. She carried it reluctantly. She eventually admitted it helped. That's a win.

North Berwick

We also squeezed in a day trip to North Berwick, a half-hour train ride from the city. All three of us love train travel, and even a short ride feels like a small event. North Berwick sits on the North Sea, and it's a different world from Edinburgh, open, breezy, with giant rock formations jutting up from the sea in ways that feel nothing like the Atlantic or Pacific. Completely worth it.

The Islander & the Backpack

On one of our city days, we stopped into The Islander. I have been eyeing their backpacks on multiple trips to Scotland, and could never quite bring myself to spend the money. This time, a sale made the decision easy. Mausi picked up a couple of souvenirs, Hanna found a lovely purse, and I finally got my backpack. It's going straight into daily use on the bus ( laptop, sketchbook, journal, embroidery), all the things currently living in a canvas bag I love, now living in something that will remind me of this week every single time I open it.

Food & Goodbyes

The hotel's lounge access (breakfast every morning, hors d'oeuvres and wine in the evenings) meant our one meal out each day was lunch, and we made those count. The highlight was an Ethiopian restaurant Hanna had been wanting to try. Delicious, fun, and exactly the kind of bold flavor she had been missing. Scotland has plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, but the food can run subtle in ways that leave someone who grew up with Latin and Middle Eastern cooking wanting more. Saying goodbye to Hanna is never easy. But she has built a real life in Edinburgh, and it shows. Mausi and I flew back to the US together and parted ways at JFK;  she headed to Miami, and I headed to Seattle.

Seattle: Back Together

After two weeks apart, Don, Lucky, and I are reunited in Seattle. The bus is parked, Lucky is happy, and we look forward to whatever comes next.

Next week: The Pacific Northwest begins.