A Journey to Baghdad by the Bay, Wine Country and the Corleone family retreat

Day 1- What a mix and match day. Leaving Vancouver was slow. The border was fast. The drive to Seattle was fast. I nearly shot myself in the face between Seattle and Tacoma, then it was ok, then we got closer to Tacoma and again I considered jumping out, but we were going too slow so the only thing jumping out would have hurt was my pride. Then it sped up again, then we got near Olympia and it slowed down a bunch. Then it was ok and we made it to Portland around 7pm for dinner. We had Denny's. I ate too much and didn't feel good. Once we got rolling again, we sailed smoothly into Albany, Oregon, a beautiful little hellhole in the Willamette (Will-am-it. Like dammit) Valley. Oddly enough, we're only about a few miles away from Lebanon, which I always thought was much further away. Who knew that Shawarma's came from Oregon? Not this guy. We're also not far from Springfield, Oregon...home of the Simpsons! We considered going there, but I've heard about the big rivalry between Springfield and Shelbyville (Eugene, OR), so we figured its best not to get caught up in the warfare.

I do have to take credit for making the entire drive bearable for Claire. I led a session of car karaoke, performed by me for the entire drive. I know Claire was extremely thankful for this and completely impressed with the range of my musical capabilities, with my performances ranging from Classical to 90's to Bluegrass to Coffee House Acoustics...I'd have to say my best performance of the day was James Taylor- Carolina in My Mind for two reasons. 1) I actually knew the words and didn't just make them up. 2) I changed the lyrics to California in my mind...seemed fitting. Thanks XM Radio for the great range of music.

In the morning we head west on Hwy 34 to Waldport and hit the coast. We have some fun stops planned that include the Oregon Dunes, Sealion caves, lookout points and some wildlife petting zoo that is probably going to get us both killed.

A few of the sights from the day:

Port-a-Potties.