Was it good fun, was it hard and tiring sometimes and was the scenery outstanding….Yes, Yes,Yes.
What an experience and we are in awe of the beautiful National Parks we have visited. But we have covered these in our earlier blogs.
We are also in awe of how well our Morgan (Marilyn) endured everything that was thrown in our way. And it is realistic to note that some of the paved roads were so seriously compromised with incredible potholes that we referred to these roads as “car breakers”. But Marilyn held on and met the challenges. She is the ultimate touring type Morgan (my opinion of course). The 3.7 Cyclone Mustang V6 made our life on the road that much easier. 
Cleaned top to bottom and under the bonnet. Vacuumed and shined. Marilyn looking sharp ready for delivery to the shipping agent tomorrow for her return journey to NZ. 
Marilyn blending in with the beautiful Crater Lake.
We are in Redondo Beach for three days to wind down the big adventure. In the few days since our last blog we travelled down the Pacific Coast from Monterey towards LA. The weather was a little un-cooperative with what the locals refer to as the June Gloom. We left the Yosemite National Park via the South Gate and drove through rolling countryside and so much horticultural activity….especially pistachio orchards. It was incredible. 
The Ocean was calling and we pressed on. And the cloud cover increased as we got closer to the Coast 
We participated in the tourist “must do” The 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach. The mansions were noticeable and the famous golf course was even more impressive. 
We did find a great espresso cafe in Carmel so we thought a double shot might help the sun come out. It didn’t!
Time for some window shopping but the prices in this lovely little town attached to the south side of Pebble Beach were seriously up there!
Heading south on the coast road and the June Gloom stays with us. 
check out the elephant seals. These animals are huge. And the beach was crowded with them. 
We stopped for a break to look at a museum (Mullins French Car Museum). Some truly beautiful French cars..one Bugatti reputed to be worth US $42 million!
Here are a few samples of these French cars most being of the 1930s era. Quite magnificent. At the time the French car industry was up there with the best in the world. 
So lets go. LA awaits and we could not find any excuse to not venture onto the LA freeways. OMG you need to concentrate hard and have eyes in the front and the back of your head
And the speed varied from 10 mph to 70 mph! But we did get to our hotel in Redondo Beach.
The finishing line! And there was a sense of great relief. In the end Marilyn Morgan was magnificent and carried us safely for over 6300 miles.
So here we are. The journey is done. This is probably the final blog. 
Thank you all for your supportive comments…and for staying with us. THANK YOU.
The challenge will always be to adequately describe the sights and the colours, the geological structures and the water falls. The area open to visitors is only a very small part of the total area of the park. But the Yosemite Valley and the overlook from Glacier Point is more than most people can absorb. The scale of grandeur is amazing. So at the risk of going too far …here are a few more photos from Glacier Point. This point offers vistas of the Valley from one of the mountains above the Yosemite Valley 
This post is really a bit feeble in trying to give you an idea of our visit to Yosemite Valley. But hopefully some of our great time in Yosemite has been shared with you. And for those of you that have been to Yosemite that we have refreshed memories of your visit.
I have sorted out my IT issues on the blog and so we are back in business. And the photo above is an enticer to hold your interest as we have some more Yosemite wow stuff coming your way. The above shot is taken from Glacier Point and from here there are massive overviews or vistas of the Yosemite Valley.
Every way you look there is so much to see. And of course there is El Capitan. A huge bald block of granite which is popular with tourists and mountain climbers. About 3000 feet straight up. Recently made more “famous” by the documentary Free Solo and climber Alex Honnold who climbed it in less than two hours without any (no ropes or safety kit) straight up. Simply hard to imagine.
Yosemite Falls
Vast alpine meadows and valleys. Rich and productive farmland. This country is just so huge and vast.
We managed to find an ice cream , chocolate and fudge shop. The ice cream was as good as any we have had, probably the taste good factor was enhanced by the 100F temps.
Mount Shasta majestic and dominant. Always there on the horizon
over these two days we drove for 600 miles (1000 kms) in total. The days were hot and sunny. The cold beer at the day’s end was very welcome.
The Lake still has large areas of ice from winter on the surface. 
A winter and summer playground on a grand scale.
Rear window fully “open” and side windows open to create generous amounts of fresh air through the cabin.
We climbed up the road heading through trees so densely packed it is hard to see very far into the shaded ground of the Forrest. 
Still a lot of snow around! And then we see the Crater Lake. WOW and get ready for some beautiful breathtaking scenery and blue, so blue water. 
How can words do justice to just how spectacular the Crater Lake is. I will leave my iPhone photos to get the messages across to you.
The crowds were starting to build so it was time to head back to the resort for a cold beverage. Maybe more than one !
We had a night in a beach front hotel in Newport. The beach was wide and wind swept. Not a swimming beach in my opinion 
We walked along the beach in a sort of an early morning sea fog and were quite surprised to find houses built right on the waterfront. I wonder how long they will be there and whether climate change will have any affect on them. 
We head off south down the coast toward Coo’s Bay. It is a beautiful coast it is windswept big time. The coastal trees are pushed into almost horizontal growth patterns. Similar to the coastlines of NZ. 
Simply beautiful isn’t it? And onward we travelled to the south. It feels like we are on the homeward track.
And a nice sunny spot to sit and enjoy the latte coffees. 
sometimes all the stars line up.
Not too bad is it? A lot of variation but always very scenic.
A chance meet up with a French guy who bought this 1958 Alfa Romeo in Portland. He is shipping the Alfa home to Paris
The countryside is very pretty . The sun is getting very warm over the last few days. To day we are hitting temps of a little over 100 degrees F
It had been a good decision to leave early and get the miles under our belt. We arrived at our resort with time to spare and time to have some cold beverages overlooking the golf course. Before we knew it it was time for a well earned dinner and to enjoy some beautiful cloud formations as the sun set. 
And now it is time for some “shuteye” (sleep)…stay with us.
Next stop was the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. One of the main exhibits here is the famous Spruce Goose. An eight engined and enormous operational aircraft built entirely from wood. It is so big it is difficult to see it all when standing close by and even harder to capture pics on camera. But here goes with some pics 
I suggest google ‘Spruce Goose’ as there is so much to tell about the plane and the stories behind it. Here is one last pic of the inside of the plane looking towards the the tail. 
We also visited the Space museum hall. It was good to see balanced exhibits of the USA and Russian early space exploration efforts. The Apollo missions were well covered. The successes and the unfortunate failures. 
moon buggy
lunar landing module
very cool stuff!
So much brain power to create so much capability. Hopefully in the future the creativity will also be directed to more positive endeavours for all.
It was so good to be back at sea level and hear the roar of the waves instead of huge semi-trailer trucks. The last pic is from our room in the hotel. Beachfront and loving it
We had a longer drive of some 280 miles from La Grande and still more or less following the direction of the Oregon Trail walked by the settlers some 180 years ago. They targeted 20 miles per day and we target an average of 60 plus miles per hour!
And yes as you can see we were dressed for a cool and showery start for the day. An hour or so into the journey it was roof down time as the sun was out and our intrepid leaders had found another watering hole. A coffee stop. But there was no espresso coffee in this part of the world
Our route was taking os down the side of the Columbia River otherwise known as the Windy River by the locals. And windy it was…..very windy. After a while and at a driving speed of 65mph and more plus the wind speed we were driving into, the conditions were not ideal. But it was still scenically very good. very soon we were seeing vine plantings that were quite extensive. Oregon is very well regarded in the wine world
A great place for a lunch stop and some carefully limited wine tasting. After the late lunch we decided on making a bee line to Portland. The miles and the strong head winds had got the better of us. Despite the wind the sun was warm and the views of the Columbia River were ever changing and spectacular. 
The floats were absolute proof of the rose growing activity here in Portland. They were beautiful.
It was a warm evening and seeing Portland from the river gave us another perspective. Saw some very beautiful mansions complete with float planes and fizz boats.
A very moving film presentation made the challenges they confronted all very real. Unbelievable commitment and endurance. We left the museum with a renewed appreciation of what they achieved. Over the last three days we have been driving through the country that these settlers walked in search of new beginnings in the West. It is a fascinating history.
We sort of swamped the lady making the coffees. Probably will be a talking point for a while in this very small community.
And then into “bald” (in comparison) hills and rivers and lakes as we continued through some really lovely farming countryside.
We lunched rather late (Oregon is one hour back compared to Idaho) in Baker City. One of the bigger supply cities for the settlers travelling on the Oregon Trail 180 years ago.
G 'n G go west... 