Rainy Days Lazy Days

So basically the last two days have been slow for us. We have been keeping close to the condo. Yesterday I managed to update two days of the blog which you have probably already seen. It is much busier this week at the condo than last week. We tried to go to the hot tub on Wednesday night and they were both packed, so on Thursday we decided to try and go in the afternoon. It was empty, had the place all to ourselves.  Had an early dinner, watched a couple of movies and had a good sleep.

Finished off the South trip for the blog this morning. Also did some computer work on a photo book for a friend of Len's who has retired from the Brewery. We actually did go out today to pick up a few groceries and do a little shopping. Cooked a Pot Roast for dinner, with fresh Costco cookies for dessert. I am going to try and log some geocaches today, so that I can be all caught up when Kathleen comes to visit.  She is going to come down and stay a few days with us. We will see how coastal caches we can do in a day.

Spring break in Oregon starts this coming week and they all seem to be coming here. The cars were backed up 7 deep up the street. It caused a traffic jam that the Seaside police department wasn't sure how to handle it. So tomorrow we are going to head over the bridge to Washington again and check out the Lewis and Clark state park at Cape Disappointment.  We have been there before but we didn't really get a chance to spend much time.

Day Three of South Coast Trip

After a good night’s sleep we were up and ready to get back on the road again. Willie Nelson definitely could have been part of this trip. We headed out of Florence and our first stop was the Sea Lion Caves. This is a tourist attraction that allows you to go underground to a natural cave where the sea lions hang out. Both Len and I had already been here on previous trips so we just looked around and decided not to take the tour, we couldn’t hear the sea lion outside either, so who knows if they were even around.


As we headed down the road I found a geocache at a view point that gave us an awesome view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse. They say that this lighthouse is the “Oregon Lighthouse” it gets more pictures taken of it than any other lighthouse on the coast. Unfortunately the fog was back so it looks kind of hazy.

 Len also discovered a colony of Stellar Sea Lions just hanging out on a outcropping. Stellar Sea Lions tend to be bigger that California Sea Lions and they are a lighter brown.  We think that the tide was higher when they got up on to this rock and it seemed like it was a long way from the ocean.

 

 

After we saw the Sea Lions we stopped at Seal Rock. It was called this because there used to be numerous seals that used to sit out on this large rock and area, however they do not come around this area anymore.

There are a number of wood carvers in this area. Here are some samples of some of their work. They use only cedar and carve out of a complete piece. They had some really cute projects that we hadn’t seen before, these carvings were for fences, the bears are designed to sit on the fence rails.

After purchasing a new bear we headed towards Newport. We decided to stop at the Pig N Pancake for Lunch. This restaurant is a franchise in found only on the Oregon Coast. The same family owns all the restaurants since 1961. They have excellent food.  It is a must for us every time we come to the coast. We decided not to spend much time in Newport because we thought we would come back this far and spend a whole day. Newport is the home of the Oregon Coast Aquarium. This is the place where they house Keiko the whale from the Free Willy movie. I got to see him in 1998 right before they moved him to Iceland. So it was through Newport and the onward to the Devil’s Punch Bowl.

The Devil’s Punch Bowl is hard to explain so here is a picture. We did find out that during low tide you can walk from Otter Rock and walk right up inside of it. That would be amazing, but you would definitely have to judge your tides correctly.

 

After the punch bowl we headed discovered Cape Fowlweather. Not the same way that Captain James Cook did on his third trip around the world. There is a small gift shop there and for a change is was a little sunny and the wind was not wailing the way it usually does here.

 

 

Next onto Depoe Bay. Depoe Bay holds the record for the world’s smallest bay. This place is renowned for whale watching and even has a whale watching center that is manned by volunteers every day to see how many migrating grey whales they see. Len has been looking for Grey Whales this entire adventure but just hasn’t seen one. We found a great place for some fresh caramel corn, so we bought a bag to munch on for a tour of the Three Capes Scenic Loop.

 

The Three Capes Scenic Loop encompasses Cape Meares, Cape Lookout and Cape Kiwanda. Since we were coming from the south, the first town was Pacific City where Cape Kiwanda is.  Cape Kiwanda is home to the Dory boats, which are small lifesaving type boats. The tide was high so we couldn’t walk out to the large rock.

The next area was Cape Lookout which you will see from this view of the cape forming a bay at Netarts. 

 

 

After that we went to Cape Meares to see the lighthouse. The road has been closed to through traffic but luckily that occurred right after the turnoff to the light house. We never seem to be here when this lighthouse is open, but we still got a great picture.

 

So by now it was 5:30 and we decided it was time to head back to the Condo. We are going to relax tomorrow and try to get caught up on the blog and some rest. I am looking forward to sleeping in.

Day Two of South Coast Trip

Well we were up bright and early to hit the road again. We decided to try a geocache in Brookings before we headed up the road and I discovered that I hadn’t downloaded the caches on to my GPS properly so Len pulled over and I pulled out my laptop to try again. I finally got it up and running and we ended up at this little pull out for a quick find and a few pictures. The temperature down south seems to be a bit warmer than up north because as you can see the blossoms are out.

As you can see from the picture above the fog was out in full force again this morning but as we were driving along we found a break in the fog at a place called Whale head. There was a resort and RV park on the upper side of highway and this site below. I got some cool pictures of the sand. As Lenny says I like to experiment with my artistic side. I also got a picture of a couple of Canada Geese hanging out with some Seagulls, we weren’t the only Canadians in the area.

Our next stop along the way was Gold Beach. We headed out to the beach the back way because we have learned when using the vehicle GPS it takes you the shortest route to your location it doesn’t matter if it is the worst possible road or alley. We were driving behind the airport when I saw a geocache right there. As I was wandering through the sand dunes, Len met a fellow out for a walk. Turned out it was the Mayor of Gold Beach. Len explained what we were doing so he didn’t think we were complete whack a dos, he thanked us for coming to visit and wished us a good time for the rest of our vacation. We found this memorial to all the residents of the area who had died because of the ocean.

 

After finding a few more caches we were back on the road to our next stop which was Pistol River State Park. We had to stop for bridge construction so I decided to do another cache and Len took another picture of the dunes.

 

   

It was getting close to lunch so we stopped again for some bread to make sandwiches because we were headed to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse and decided that this would be a great place to have lunch.  The lighthouse was closed so we didn’t get a chance to go and see it but Len got an excellent picture of it. As we were having lunch a couple of guys drove up and guess what they were both geocachers out doing caches in the area. I got to discover his car as a mobile travel bug.

 

 

After lunch we headed to Bandon where we explored the downtown pier. There was a number of wood carvings all over the pier, you could also rent crab pots and trap crabs right on the pier. We also visited a candy store called Cranberry Sweets. Turns out one of the main industries in Bandon is cranberry growing, there were cranberry bogs all over the area. Turns out Rachael Ray had visited the store and tried out their cranberry walnut pate. It was my kind of store, there were free samples everywhere. We also explored the state park and went and took pictures of the Coquille River Lighthouse.

 

 

 

We were planning on trying to get all the way back up to Newport for the night but we decided that we still had too much to see, so we decided to get as far as Florence and call it a night. We made it through Coos Bay again and then went to see the Umpaqua River Lighthouse which is around Winchester Bay. This light house is part of an active Coast Guard Base and is right by the mouth of the river. It was supposed to be a good place to watch for the migrating grey whales but the fog started to roll in again so we couldn’t even see the ocean. 

 

We made it through Reedsport and onto Florence. We found a cute little motel, Ocean Breeze just outside of Florence, it was in one of the travel guides, and it was inexpensive and very cute. It was very clean and had been recently renovated. We checked in and then went into downtown Florence for dinner. The motel owner recommended a restaurant called the Water Depot. It was quite a small restaurant, there was only about 15 tables and 8 seats at the bar. We got in right away, we got a small table in the corner. The place was full the whole time we were there and there was also a bunch of take outs as well. We stared with crab cakes and garlic sourdough bread. I had the crab encrusted halibut with a chili lime sauce and caesar salad and Len had a flat iron steak with rice and asparagus. Both our meals were delicious, I had to restrain myself from licking my plate the sauce was so good. After dinner we got back to the motel, watched a little TV and then went to bed. These have been very long days. 

Day One of Trip South

Well it is Monday morning. We put a call into the front desk to have the room cleaned while we were gone. Usually if you are only in a place for a week, you do your own house cleaning but if you are at Seaside for two weeks or more they give you a free house cleaning half way through your stay, they just ask that you have it mid week instead of on the weekend, so we decided to have them come in while we were done. It will be nice to come back to a clean house. It was not the nicest weather as we headed out of Seaside that morning, but we were determined to make the best of it. We made chicken salad out of the leftovers from the night before and packed cheese and jerky for a picnic lunch later in the day. So with coffee and my coke zero we headed off on our Southern adventure. The plan was to drive as far as far South as we could and then slowly head our way back.

So we stopped in Newport to pick up some bread to put our chicken salad in, we couldn’t find a bakery so we bought a small loaf of sourdough at a local supermarket. We ended up just stopping just a few miles up the road at Lost Creek State Park, right before Seal Rock. It was a nice little view point with an awesome view of the ocean. Too bad it was not the best weather. We had a little difficulty with our chicken salad, the sourdough bread was a little too chewy for the filling, half of it ended falling out onto the pavement. The crows were really happy, so chicken salad was enjoyed by all.

Well after we ate we packed back up and were on the road again. The weather had improved as far as there was no rain and the sun was starting to come through by the time we hit the South Coast, better known as the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  Everywhere you look here there seems to be sand, it comes right out to the highway. There are numerous ATV, dune buggy and horse rental areas to go and explore the area.

 

We finally hit sunshine when we got to the Coos Bay area. There are three cities here that all blend together, North Bend, Charleston and Coos Bay. Driving into North Bend you cross the Conde McCullogh Memorial Bridge, this bride is named after its designer, this was the longest bridge along the coast when it was built in 1936. McCollogh was known for building most of the bridges on Highway 101, his designs are well known for their architectural beauty. McCullough advocated that bridges be built economically, efficiently, and with beauty He helped design over 600 bridges, many with architectural details such as Gothic spires, art deco obelisks, and Romanesque arches incorporated into the bridges.

When we were in Coos Bay before we decided to go out to Sunset Bay State park and look around. We stopped at the view point and as we were sitting there we heard all these dogs barking, when we got out of the car to take a look we discovered that it was actually sea lions not dogs. It was getting dark so we weren’t able to get any pictures that time so because it was sunny we thought we would try again. We found the view point and it was sunny this time but unfortunately the fog was coming in off the ocean and we could hear the barking again but we couldn’t see anything.

 

This is literally the same picture a minute later. The fog was like smoke floating through the air.

 

We had never experienced fog like this before. We have been in fog before but we have never seen it come in like this.

 

So back into the truck and on the road again, we headed overland on the old 101 highway over Seven Devil’s road and towards Bandon. We decided that going to Crescent Beach, CA was too far to go, so we decided that Brookings was as far South as we would go. Brookings is the last town before you hit the California border. We did get sunshine finally as we were heading into Gold Beach. Every view point that we came across we stopped so we could get some pictures. Not sure what the name of each viewpoint was I just know it was between Bandon and Brookings.

 

We found an older Motel to stay at in Brookings. It was called Spindrift, the manager was very nice, an ex-marine who was very concerned that the room was clean enough to meet my standards. The room was basic but was very clean, it did smell a little musty, because I don’t think they get many guests. We had supper at a small pub across the street, which was very good. I had some deep fried artichokes that were very light, almost a tempura batter. We finished dinner and then went to be by 9 pm. We were pretty bagged from a long day of driving.

Lincoln City and Crab Races

So today we woke up to rain again, but we decided that we were going out anyway. We decided to head to Lincoln City which is about 2 hours away. So because of the time change we were an hour later than we normally were so we decided to grab an egg mcmuffin at McDonalds and off we headed. We decided to stop at Twin Rock Beach at Rockaway to see how the waves were. You can get some pretty awesome pictures here but the tide was a little too far in so we didn’t stay long.

 

Our next stop was some gas in Tillamook and then to one of the beaches at Lincoln City. You can see that it wasn’t really very nice but surprisingly there were quite a few people there. Some were flying kites, some were making sand castles and some were walking their dogs. Len didn’t get a picture but there was a woman who as she was walking onto the beach with her boxer, the dog decided to take a poop and instead of picking it up in a bag like a responsible dog owner she started to cover it up with sand, and with one foot up in the air the dog jerks forward and the she lands face first in the sand. I think she landed in the poop, which was perfect. Her husband was nice enough to come and help her up. I almost went and got her a free bag from the dispensers they had attached to a couple of poles, but I didn’t want to waste my time.

After the beach we decided to go check out the outlet mall. This one is better than the one in Seaside as it has, Children’s Place, Columbia, Old Navy, The Gap and Bath & Body Works. Len got some new shoes to replace the ones he bought the last time he was here. We also picked up some more stuff for the grand kids, you know me I like to buy a couple years in advance if it is a good deal. We also picked  up a good deal on soap and house fragrances from Bath & Body Works.

As we were headed home we were driving through the town of Garibaldi and Len saw the little locomotive that they use on the coastal railroad in the summer. So we stopped into take a picture of it.

 

 I noticed that over at the community centre they were holding Crab Races, so I went to check it out. It was hilarious, they have a large plank with runways, they place a crab in each runway and when they lift the board and each person bangs on the plank to make their crab run down the plank to the net below. It cost you dollar to enter and there are prizes if you win. We did learn from a local fellow that Crabs are right and left handed. Depending on which way they are facing they will either want to run down or up. The best part of it was I got to get 1 ½ crabs for $10, guess what I had for supper, it was delicious. Couldn’t have gotten much fresher, caught yesterday, cooked and cleaned today. I love being on the ocean. So it will be early to bed tonight as we are going to head for California tomorrow and then explore the south coast for a couple of days.

March 9th A Lazy Day

Well today was pretty uneventful. Len wasn't feeling quite up to snuff so we decided to stay in. Spent the day knitting, sitting on the deck in the sunshine, reading and watching some tv. The good thing about being on vacation for  three weeks is that you don't hve to feel like you have to do something everyday. We got an update on Lindy, she went to the vet for an anti-imflamitory. She has lost two pounds, don't we all wish we could lose weight that fast. She is putting a little weight on her leg, but she is not really allowed to do much. She stays in her kennel for the most part only go outside to do her business. She is on a steady diet of turnips and just a bit of food. We have to be very careful with her so that she doesn't reinjure her left leg or injure her right one. They say it will be at least and eight week recovery. Glad she is in good hands until we get home.  So we should have some more adventures for you tommorow.

A Day in Astoria

Well today we headed to Astoria to check out the Astoria Column and the river front.  The Astoria column is a tower that was built in 1926 with financing by the Great Northern Railway and Vincent Astor, the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor in commemoration of the city's role in the family's business history. Patterned after the Trajan Column in Rome, the Column was dedicated on July 22, 1926.

The tower is 125-foot and includes an interior spiral staircase with 164 stairs that leads to an observation deck at the top. There are 14 murals that show significant events in the early history of Oregon with a focus on Astoria's role including Captain Gray's discovery of the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis & Clark Expedition. It was built at a cost of $27,133.96. We climbed up to the top, what a fantastic view, it was a complete 360.

 

 

After finding three geocaches up at the column sight we headed down to the waterfront to take a look around. We saw the trolley go by so we decided to find the nearest stop and go for a ride. We have been trying to take a ride on this trolley the last three times we have been to Astoria, but it is always closed down and doesn’t open up till Spring Break. So this time we thought we might get lucky. There is also a geocache on the trolley somewhere so hopefully we can find it. So onto the trolley we went but surprise they weren’t actually open they were just requalifying drivers to get ready for the summer season. I did find the geocache though, and explained to the drivers what it was all about. They knew that the cache was there but they didn’t really know what it was. I also found out from them that they were expecting 29 cruise ships this summer to dock in Astoria on their way to Alaska. We had to get off the trolley at the end of town and walk back to truck because they weren’t on a regular run. It was a nice walk along the wharf.

This is one of the boats that take the river pilots out to the big ships

 

 

We then decided to go and visit the South Jetty. The Jetty was built to assist the large ships coming into Astoria harbour before they make their way up the river to Portland. The Columbia River bar is where the largest river entering the Pacific Ocean in the western hemisphere meets the broadest reach of open ocean in the world. This area is considered the most dangerous piece section of water in the world There are two types of river pilots, one that navigating through the bar and the other who navigates up the river to Portland. The pilots for the bar get to the ships by taking smaller speed boats out to the ships and literally climb up the side of the ships to get on board.

While we were out looking at the jetty and across the river at Cape Disappointment I decided to go overland and look for a geocache at the most northwestern point in Oregon. The directions said to take the back trails because it was a little shorter going than walking the beach, so Len dropped me off and then he headed over to the Jetty to wait.

So the trail that was supposed to be easier turned out to be a little wet this time of year. I got past the first few puddles and about half way through I encountered a swamp but because I was already half way there I didn’t really have a choice but to keep going forward. Luckily the piles of grass were quite thick and if I stepped carefully they would hold me up. I must say that I was much luckier than I have been on previous swamp hikes. This one I managed to walk the mile, walking on water and I only got one shoe a little wet. So I found the cache, got a picture of the lighthouse across the river and headed to meet Len at the Jetty.

Len was busy at the Jetty, he saw a snowy owl and spent some of his time stalking it trying to get close enough to get a good picture of it, without spooking it. He did manage to get a couple good pictures of it with his telephoto lens. He also got some great shots of the jetty and a ship coming through the opening.

 

 A Ship going through the bar.

The elusive Snowy Owl

 

 Clam Diggers

After our little adventure we were a little tuckered so we headed back to the condo to relax out on the deck before we had our prime rib dinner. To top off the evening we got to Skype with Aaron, Chelsea and the girls who are vacationing in Hawaii. You have to love technology..

 

Len enjoying the shorts weather.