Agates, Agates , Agates

 So the rain came back on and off again.  We decided to hit up a couple more beaches and check for more agates. We were quite successful. The goal is to get enough agates to make either a decorative window or a tray with the agates and resin. I would also like to make a charcuterie board as well.  

Here is what we have so far. I added some coloured jasper as well, have to have a pop of colour.

We brought a brisket from home and that is what we had with supper.  Len has been trying a new cooking method with the brisket. He gets a whole one, cuts it into smaller pieces, smokes it for 8 to 10 hours, cools it and then we vacuum seal them and freeze them.  We then bring a piece out and cook it on low for about 8 hours and we end up with a nice tender smoked pieces of brisket. So far it has worked really well. Doesn’t it look delicious 

Here are a couple of beach pictures as well. We finished up the evening with a short campfire before the rain came back.

Rainy Day and Finally Sunshine

 So Wednesday it rained most of the day, there was about an hour reprieve where we sent for a short walk out on the the beach to see if the reports on a dead whale were true. There had been a sperm whale discovered at Fort Stevens Beach up near Astoria and then I saw on Facebook that there was one here in Winchester Bay.  We found it, seems to have been there for awhile as it definitely smelled fishy. Rather sad to see. I think it is a grey whale, it wasn’t really as big as I thought it should be, must have been a young one.

So we finally got some sunshine on Thursday so we decided to drive down to Bandon.  We found quite a few rocks on the main beach but the tide was still pretty high so got a little wet trying to run from the waves.  We also decided to have lunch at the little bait store on the river front. I had a shrimp wrap, which is with local bay shrimp and Len had the Fish and Chips.  Still excellent. 

Len had bought a lottery ticket for the 1.4 billion jackpot and we said that if we won, we would buy a house here in Bandon, this is such a nice little town and the scenery never disappoints.

On Friday we woke up to sunshine again and decided to head north. We ended up north of Yachats at Tillicum Beach Campground.  When we got down to the beach all we could see was sand with just one small gravel bar. Night tides seem to be happening around lunch time.  However waves here were actually quite small and when it hit the shore it wasn’t hard to outrun them. The longer we searched the tide kept going out and lo and behold there was gravel everywhere.  We found a bunch of agates and bucket of neat ones for polishing this summer.

Found this amazing sand pictures, not sure how it was formed as there were no rocks for the water to go around but this design was in a number of different spots

Brazilian Dinner in Florence

So before Christmas I decided to join some local facebook pages. What happens in Coos Bay, What’s going on in Florence and the Yachats page.  I also joined a bunch of rock hounding pages as well. It was great before Christmas as I found out about a bunch of craft fairs and holiday lights.  It has been a good source of local information and events or activities that I might not find out about.  So last week I saw a post on one of the Florence Pages for a Brazilian Dinner at a local ramen noodle place.  They started last year with a once a month pop up dinner of a different nationality.  They have done Philippine, Moroccan and this month was Brazil.  The pictures and descriptions of the dinner looked and sounded amazing so we got tickets to the early seating.  It was $35 each and worth every penny.

The first course was a Moqueca de Camaro which is a Brazilian Shrimp coconut stew.  It had added vegetables and a little kick of cayenne.  I am going to have to look up the recipe and give it a try.  I could have eaten an entire pot of this, the sauce reminded me of a red curry sauce without the heat. The shirmp was tender and had a little bit of heat to them, but not enough to make you sweat.

The main course was feijoada which is a black bean stew with chorizo and pork shoulder, churrascaria picanha which was a piece of season beef with Chimichurri sauce, collard greens and garlic rice.

The black bean stew was so good, it was nicely seasoned and the pork and beans were so tender you didn’t have to use a knife. The beef was medium rare and the chimichurri sauces which is made with parsley, oil and spices was very fresh.  The greens and rice were also very good.

We finished the evening with a corn pudding. It was very creamy, and it was a little sweet but also a bit savoury.  I had already had a couple of bites before I remembered to take a picture.

Both Len and I decided that we would definitely do this again. I followed the Eatwell Organic Noodle page, so we will see what they pick for next month.  We picked up some fresh ramen noodles from this restaurant last week and they were really good. Going to have some tomorrow with our brisket.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy again and then the rest of the week is supposed to be nice.  There is also a rumour that there is a dead whale beached on a local beach so we are going to do laundry, clean the trailer and search out the whale.

Bob Creek & Ocean Beach

 So today we had sunshine with clouds. It was also a long weekend here for Martin Luther King Day, so there were a lot more people in the campsite.  Also a few more people on the beaches as well.  We still managed to find a few agates and rocks. We hit low tide at Bob Creek, there are some really neat shelves of rocks that make for great tide pools.  

With the tide coming in, I took a video showing a small creek through the rocks. A combination of fresh water as well as the ocean tide coming back in. 

At Ocean Beach there was not a lot of gravel, which is where you find the agates but we did manage to find some up in the rocks amongst the hill side.  Tides have been high and I don’t think a lot of people explored this area. Got a neat picture of some holes that occur because rocks and shells have been taken out of the rocks. Also managed to see some really cool sand pictures.  You see these  kind of designs when you get little creeks running in the sand and the different colours leave these designs.  These designs has some purple sand that comes from the different minerals in the rocks.

We finished off the evening with a sunset and a campfire, which was the first one we have had because of the rain.  Everyone including Lukie had a great day

Agate Festival in Yahats

 So we headed to Yahats for their Agate Festival. This is the first one they have had since 2000. Yahats is a very nice little town, They have a bunch of little shops and restaurants all with in walking distance and you can see the ocean and river from the downtown area.  The Agate Festival was in the common building  and was throughout six rooms.  They had some really neat vendors. There was a lady who recycled wire from crab traps and welded them into Sun Catchers and added Agates. I got one of them for the lake. There was another lady who modded soap into crystals and different rocks. We though about purchasing some but with it being so humid right now we figured they would just get to sticky. We bought some raffle tickets and I got a phone call on Sunday and I won the driftwood bird house. Our friend Yvonne has a little craft store in Yahats called Just Local, so she will pick it up for us and when we see her next we will pick it up.

After the festival we went and had fish and chips at this little fish market. I had Albacore Tuna and boy was it good. The batter was very light and the it was nuggets instead of pieces.  The Tuna was excellent. It was a lot denser that cod or halibut, not as flaky but maybe meatier. I ended up only eating about half, brought the rest home with us. I reheated it in the air fryer today and made myself Fish Tacos. 

On our way back to the trailer we stopped at a couple of beaches and managed to find a few agates. I did however find the largest one I have ever gotten, it was at least the size of a golf ball.

Speaking of Agates I almost forgot to mention that they opened up their Presbyterian Church to see the Agate wall that they have in front of the Pulpit.  It is six panels, each panel has 15 gallons of agates, 15 gallons of epoxy resin and total weight of each is 350 lbs. 

Rainy Week

 So this week we have seen rain, rain and more rain. We are not as bad off as California but Highway 101 down by Port Orford sank and was closed for a few day, they now have a temporary road in its place. I am just glad we decided to head North rather than south into Crescent City.  This park is very nice and quiet, and super clean.

On Tuesday we headed into Coos Bay to see Avatar 2 in 3D.  We both enjoyed it, my knees did act up a bit from having to sit for 3 hours but I made it through it. We left Lukie in the trailer with a fresh bone and the food network on the TV. If we leave the TV on it hides the noise from the outside and he doesn’t bark. 

We did manage get out a bit between rain storms. We went North to Yachats to visit Yvonne and check out the area before the Agate Festival on Saturday. We found our way to the ocean and found a really neat sink hole, it was cool to see the water come up and then sink back in to the rock like a big drain. 

Took a nice selfie of the three of us, with the the stormy sea behind us.

We finished off the day with some fresh made ramen noodles that I added to my beef soup. I found this little ramen shop in Florence that make their own noodles. They were delicious.  Going to try some with the pesto tuna.

Hiking to the Beach

So Sunday was a day of laundry and movies. It was very rainy so we really didn’t do much.  The laundry building here is very nice, super clean.  Someone has also put a puzzle to do while you are waiting for the machines.  I think I have done most of it, will have to fine another one at a thrift store to replace it.  Very nice idea. Almost makes me want to do laundry.  Does make my shower time longer as I can’t help but work on it before and after my shower. 

We did take advantage of a break in the rain to take a walk around the marina, saw this very cute carving on a bench.

So today we headed north and stopped at the first park we came to. There was a rambling path out to the beach where there is a nesting area for the snowy plover.  There was a little wooden map that showed the trail but there were no distances listed.  So turns out it was a 3 mile hike to the beach.  Unfortunately didn’t realize that until we got to the beach. Once your on the trail you think we’ll it can’t be much further so you keep going.  Let’s just say that by the time I got back to the truck my knees were a little upset with me.  Luckily it wasn’t a difficult trail and I took my walking stick with me. However today I will be doing a lot less walking. It is Cheap Tuesday at the movies so we are going to go see Avatar in 3D.

Don’t you love Lukie’s new raincoat.

Sunshine between the Rain

 

So today we actually woke up to sunshine, the rain was supposed to stay away until this evening.  We decided to go and check out the dunes and the beaches in the area.  Winchester Bay is in the Oregon Dunes National Park.  

When the weather gets a bit more stable we are hoping to get the bikes out to ride around the area. It was just at the end of high tide so there was not much room to walk on the actual beaches but we did hike amongst the dunes and sat and watched the waves crash the shore.  The ocean was rocking and rolling and very mesmerizing, I think it is like watching a campfire or snow falling, it is very peaceful and calming.

We finished up the day by visiting a fish market in the marina and bought some fresh bay shrimp for our salad and a can of Tuna with garlic and pesto, supposed to be very good on pasta.  This fish market catches and cans its own Albacore Tuna. They have all sorts of different combinations of spices, going to have to try them all.  They also had some really neat wooden statues outside.

Back in Winchester Bay

So it has been awhile since I posted. We made it back home just in time to travel to Calgary to spend Christmas with Aaron Chelsea and the grandkids.  It was a little bit of a shock when the temperature went to -35 degrees.  It eventually warmed up to -5 for my birthday, which was like spring.  I got to spend the day with Addy and Ainslie, we went for Chinese food for lunch, bubble tea and then a shopping spree at Ikea.  Came home to a homemade birthday cake from Chelsea. 

It was a great day.  Christmas was good, everyone was happy with their gifts and Aaron cooked a brisket for dinner that was so good we didn’t even need knives. 

We headed home on Boxing Day because the weather was looking sketchy for later in the week. The roads were good until we hit the bottom of the Moyie bluffs. It was sheer ice all the way, we just drove slow and it took us over 2 1/2 hours to get to Yahk, but we made it home.

Len got me a Salmo Dinner jacket for my birthday, it is one of those oversized warm fuzzy pull over, should be perfect for the rainy weather in Oregon.

New Year’s Eve, Brenda came over and we watched the new Knives Out and had MacDonalds for dinner, we had coupons.  I got a call from the booking people about my knee surgery, I have a meeting with the Anesthesiologist on January 31 on the phone. I had to get a chest x ray, an ECG and blood work so I managed to get it all done before we headed back south.  The booking person said that after the meeting with the Anesthesiologist it could be anytime in the next six months for the surgery, though probably closer to the end of the six months. 

So on Wednesday morning I had my lab tests done got home and we headed across the border. The weather and roads were good until we hit The Dalles in the Columbia River Gorge, then it started to sleet and visibility was very poor. We did make it all the way to Portland and decided to get a hotel otherwise we would have gotten into Winchester Bay until after 10 pm.

We got up the next day and made our way down the I5 through Drain and Elton and into Winchester Bay.  We had stored our trailer at the Winchester Bay RV park and it was still intact and in great condition when we got back. We got it all opened up, unpacked the truck and got everything put away. This park is very nice and not a lot of people here which is fine. Their is a great building for the laundry and showers. It is very clean and well maintained.