Our return from the desert this spring took us to the Napa Valley then north along the Oregon Coast and into BC. To do the trip justice, and to have time to photograph the coast, one needs to spend several nights at various stops along the way. As it was, other than Napa, we only spent one night at each stop. Consequently the trip was a bit rushed and I didn’t take huge volumes of photos.
Our trip started with two nights in Napa. We had visited the region a couple of times many years ago when wineries offered free tours with wine tastings at the end. Much has changed. There are many more wineries and they seem to have discovered they can skip the tour and get right to charging visitors for wine tastings. I don’t object to paying a reasonable price for a wine tasting however I thought the two wineries that we visited were grossly over-priced for the mediocre wines they offered. At $40 to $45 for a tasting that included 4 one-ounce samples, you basically are paying $40 for a glass of wine! Temecula was a much better deal and the wine we sampled there was better than what we sampled in Napa. OK that’s enough of a rant about Napa.
The next three nights we stayed in Eureka, CA, Coos Bay and Astoria, OR. The Eagle House Victorian Inn was a beautiful old Victorian Inn overlooking the bay in Eureka. In Astoria we stayed at a beautiful, newer hotel that had been built on an old pier.
As mentioned, most of our days were spent driving. To do the coast justice one really needs to have the time to photograph the areas in early morning or late afternoon. Much of the area we passed in mid-day. Rather than provide a detailed description of our trip I will just sum it up with some of the photos I did take.
Wind At Your Back 
The black and white for that first one is excellent!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it. This is but one example of how a B&W photo can be much more powerful than the same shot in colour.
I will be making this same trip shortly, although starting in Napa, where we live. Thanks for the inspiring pictures and words about Oregon and North. Check out our wine country blog: http://www.topochinesvino.com.