Sightseeing

When we begin to sightsee, who knows where the sight we see will be.

It is nice to buy things (and many things we buy are necessities), but most things we buy come and go. Memories on the other hand usually stay with us our entire lives.

Build memories for yourself (and your family if you are so blessed). Go sightseeing. There are so many sights to be seen in this world.

You might begin your sightseeing adventures close to your home (or not). Pick a place to go to, to visit.

The decision to go somewhere is up to you (and your budget).

Look for things that interest you. Interests may take you far and wide.

Here Are Some Suggestions

Museums

You might go to a rock museum. My husband and I visited The Crater Rock Museum in Central Point Oregon (in the USA). We spent a couple of hours going through the exhibit. We saw rocks, meteorites, petrified wood, fossils and more.

This is just one of the rooms in The Crater Rock Museum in Central Point Oregon.

There is another rock museum called the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro Oregon.

Both of these museums have such wonderful collections. Admission is very reasonable too.

Gardens

Most (if not all), states in the United States have magnificent gardens that you can go visit. Wherever you go, check and see if there is a garden nearby that is available for you to walk through and enjoy.

Beautiful Dahlias as seen in The Oregon Gardens in Silverton Oregon.

My husband and I went to see the Oregon Gardens in Silverton Oregon.

The gardens were in bloom and quite a site to see.

You could go to the Portland International Rose Test Garden in Portland Oregon. There you can see more than 10,000 individual rose bushes. The variety and color is beyond description.

Ocean Shores

You might enjoy going to an ocean shore. The ocean and their beaches are vast, beautiful and ever changing.

This is Gleneden Beach in Lincoln Beach Oregon. At low tide, you can see fossils in the exposed shoreline rock.

This is an area where you can see fossils sticking out of the rock. Be careful not to damage the fossils so other people get the chance to see them.

This is the beach at Seaside, in Seaside Oregon.

A beautiful day on the beach at Seaside in Seaside Oregon.

Some ocean shores are just a short distance away from restaurants, shopping, arcades, beachfront walking paths and if you are lucky you may find a carousel.

Seaside Beach in Seaside Oregon is a great example of this.

This is a picture of the carousel in downtown Seaside Oregon.
Isn’t it beautiful.

Other ocean shores are rugged and can be a bit of a walk to get to.

The Pacific Ocean as seen when looking left from the Columbia River South Jetty Observation Tower at Fort Stevens in Hammond, Oregon USA.

Aquariums, Zoos and a Safari

I believe that all of the states in the USA have aquariums and zoos that people can visit.

You might enjoy going to see the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport Oregon.

Portland Oregon has a wonderful zoo with Lions and Tigers and Bears (Oh My).

Winston Oregon has Wildlife Safari. It is a 610 acre drive through wild animal park. You can drive your own vehicle through it and see many animals just walking along side your vehicle.

The Bonneville Fish Hatchery – Cascade Locks Oregon

At the time of this writing, there was no cost to go see Herman (a 79 year old Sturgeon). Herman is 11 feet long and 500 pounds. He has lots of friends like him where he lives.

You should see the rest of him.

The hatchery also has trout that are in various stages of their lives, waiting to be released into the wild.

Wildlife

Many places you may go to might have wild animals for you to see.

During certain times on the year, Depot Bay in Oregon has whale watching excursions.

On the coast of Oregon (in Florence), you can see Sea Lions in the Sea Lion Caves.

If you enjoy trails and lakeside activities, you might see Blue Heron, Deer and Elk at Fort Stevens in Warrenton Oregon.

This young Deer was walking along an asphalt drive in Fort Stevens.

An Elk decided the grass at the back of my truck, at our campsite looked delicious.

This is a Roosevelt Bull Elk.

Something Funny

I was a volunteer County Mounty in California. I patrolled in one of the state parks assisting visitors while on my horse. The things that happen and the things you hear about in a park sometimes make you want to laugh.

Rangers in state parks get asked some of the funniest questions.

It seems that every year some park visitor will ask a Ranger “Where are the bears kept at night”?

The Ranger has to explain that the park is not a zoo. There aren’t any cages. Bears are not taken in at night. They are loose, roaming wild in the park.

The Not So Wild

Ok, maybe this isn’t a wild animal but I’ve got to tell you, like any wild animal you may look but don’t touch, and keep your distance.

This is our Harlequin Great Dane.

Bridges

When you go to see a site, There is a good chance you will travel across a bridge.


We were out “sightseeing”, about to cross The Astoria-Megler Bridge northbound when this picture was taken. We would leave Oregon and enter into Washington State on this bridge. We were headed for the lighthouse at Cape Disappointment in Washington State USA.

The bridge seen here is The Astoria-Mengler. It is one of the top four scariest bridges for truckers in the USA.

It is a steel cantilever through truss bridge (cantilever closer to the Oregon end of the bridge, through truss closer to the Washington end of the bridge).

The main span is 1,232 feet in length, making it the longest “continuous truss” in the nation. What a site it is to see.

This cantilever style bridge took four years to build. It was completed in 1966. It formed the final link, in the US highway system, from Canada to Mexico.
At this point on the bridge, Oregon is behind us and that land seen in the distance is Washington State USA.

Don’t Forget to Look Around as You Go

When traveling to a place, you may see many amazing things alone the way. Often, my husband drives us to places. This is lucky for me because I love to take pictures of things along the way as we go.

If you can do so, pay attention to the sites as you travel to your destinations. You may see waterfalls, view points, statues, bridges, buildings, rock formations or maybe a volcano (the things to see are innumerable).

Pertaining to waterfalls, did you know there are more waterfalls in our world that can be seen by a person in a lifetime. They are all so unique, all varying in beauty, shape and size.

This is just one of many waterfalls that can be seen along the Historic Columbia River Highway (picture taken from I-84 while we were traveling west).

Now, as for volcanos, I read that there are more than 160 of them in the United States.

I am lucky in that respect, as there is an active volcano in Washington State (in the USA), that I can go see whenever I want to (at a distance). It’s called Mount Saint Helens.

At the time of this writing, Mount Saint Helens has a lava dome that is currently a thousand feet high. The mountain also has a glacier that is approaching the size of the glacier that existed just before the mountain exploded in 1980.

Simply saying it is an active volcano might be an understatement because it is listed as the 2nd most dangerous volcano in this country.

I captured this picture of Mount Saint Helens in Washington State while we were driving on highway 30 in Warren Oregon.

I’d love to go see Mount Saint Helens in Washington State USA, The Louvre Museum in Paris France, Yosemite National Park in Sierra Nevada California USA, The National History Museum in London England, Crater Lake in Southern Oregon USA, The Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey California USA, The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman Montana USA, The Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay British Columbia, The Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona USA, The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose California USA, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Massachusetts USA and Yellowstone National Park in the USA (primarily in Wyoming but three percent is in Montana and one percent is in Idaho).

My list of places I’d “Love to go see”, will change over time as I will go see many of the sites on my list (and I will add new sites I want to see).

Think of someplace or thing you would like to see (either local to where you are or not). Make a list, make a plan and go see those places and things. Make a memory for you (and yours).

Below the Subscribe button, you will find a collection of post with a wide variety destinations you may want to visit. Just click on any title of any story that you feel you might enjoy reading.

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