9/7/2010
I can’t believe I forgot to comment on the weather yesterday! We finally lost our sunny clear weather and woke up to typical Oregon coast weather. It was low thick clouds and random drizzle most of the day. We had a short period of clear sunshine while we were at Seaside and that was it. Unbelievably I sunburned my face in that time! Today looks to be the same. We went to bed with a view of mountains and woke up to a view of clouds/fog beyond the parking lot. Not too scenic. Hope things improve!
Well, here I am 12 hours later and things did not improve, but worsened dramatically! It was all wet and gray today. The sun never shined at all anywhere that we were. We were really lucky with our beautiful clear weather the first week here in Oregon. So, we are happy. We will be even happier if we wake up to a clear 24 hours tomorrow. It will be very sad if the only 24 hours we have to spend at Crater Lake are spent seeing nothing but the inside of a cloud! So, we set off a little later this morning because Clay slept in. He used the treadmill at the Best Western the night before and it did not reopen until after 8am. Complimentary breakfast was at 7am and it looked nice with eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon and biscuits and gravy. But, the coffee was so weak I actually first thought it was a bad carafe of tea. But, I tried the pot at the front desk and it was only slightly better. So, I really missed my dose of caffeine. We did
not eat the breakfast there, so maybe it was all bad.
Clay had walked to Fred Meyer the evening before with the idea of getting himself a Diet Coke, but he got sidetracked by a Party platter of Marionberry coffee rolls and a tub of Maple French Toast Twists in the bakery section and bought those and forgot his beverages. It was enough food for four and that is what we ate last night and again for breakfast, with the rest of our squeaky cheese and we’re still working on the 2 pounds of cherries! I also think I forgot to say that we bought and ate Sea Foam at Seaside yesterday. It is like a Cadbury Violet Crumble bar, but not as good, too much chocolate. Anyway, we tried some for the first time after lunch. I remembered it when we saw so much real sea foam today!
So, we started out from Tillamook thinking that as the sun warmed things up that it would clear up. But, it didn’t at all. So we started out to head for the Cape Meares area to do the Three Capes Scenic Loop drive along the coast. But since visibility was so low we decided it would be a waste of time and we would just hurry down 101 and go to the aquarium at Newport. We did not realize that the aquarium is mostly outdoors! Oh well.
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| Clay at Munson Creek Falls |
On our way, I spotted a sign for Munson’s Creek Falls and Clay looked it up and it was the highest falls on the Oregon Coast at over 300 feet. It was a good slog through rainy woods, but it was worth it. (That is from memory, the route map is out in the car and I am not going back out in the rain now! If it needs to be corrected, I will do it when I come back and paste in photos. Sorry! Inserting here with photos and that is all correct.)
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| Another creepy forest trail to falls |
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| Oregon seashore this morning |
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| Siletz Bay |
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| blowhole at Depoe Bay, OR |
We stopped to look at a spouting whale statute at Depoe Bay, since you could barely see the surf there for the sea spray and rain and fog that would surely be the only whale we would sight spouting there. I did see one dolphin leap over a wave crest though, amazingly. I was watching waves to try to count off for Clay to photograph a blow hole there and just happened to see one. We stopped at Rocky Creek Scenic area. It was very scenic.
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| low visibility at Cape Foulweather lookout - go figure! |
We stopped at Cape Foulweather and admired the fog as we read the signs telling us to look down for sea lions on the rocks and to the left for Yaquina Head Lighthouse and we saw nothing beyond the fence except fog! It lived up to its name. Another classic on a clear day moment for us!
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| Yaquina Bay Bridge |
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| Devil's Churn |
We stopped at Devil’s Churn, which was a cleft in the cliff where the surf would wash up a tunnel it is carving and get all foamy. It was near Otter Rock. This is a noted area for storm watching. I guess we were getting a classic view of loud surf sounds and mostly the inside of a cloud!
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| Otter feeding |
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| Tufted Puffins |
As mentioned earlier we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium at Newport where the famous octopus was apparently off exhibit, but we did see tufted puffins (now tied for my new favorite animal with sea otters). We were there right on time to stand in the rain and watch the sea otters get fed.
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| Oregon seashore this afternoon |
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| Cape Perpetua Scenic Area |
We stopped at Cape Perpetua. We did get to see Heceta Head Lighthouse. So, of all the 9 Oregon coast lighthouses, we were only able to see 2, the rest were lost to the mists and the fact that we cut off the coast at Florence.
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| Cape Creek Bridge |
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| Heceta Head Lighthouse Scenic Viewpoint |
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| Top side of Cape Creek Bridge - right into tunnel! |
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| Heceta Head Lighthouse |
So, we decided to end our time on 101 at Florence and go to the Sea Lion Cave; the World's largest sea cave or something like that. We parked, walked across 101 and went to pay and they informed us that 3 weeks ago all the sea lions had left and there was only 1 in there now after none for weeks! We were offered a $3 discount if we would go down to view the empty cave. We decided not to go down. She had a live webcam showing the one lonely sea lion down there in the cave and we did not think live would be an improvement on the view.
http://sealioncaves.com/home/
So, while it sounds like a washout of a day, it really wasn’t. The drive is dramatic; think Amalfi Coast, then take away the Italians and the stone retaining wall along the edge, then add a lot of bicycles. It was really very scenic. The fog and mist and sea spray just made it all the more dramatic, though probably not any more beautiful since a great deal was completely hidden from us.
We ate lunch in Newport. We saw a place called Pizza Cucina as we entered town and Clay was hungry for a pizza. We ordered a 10 inch to share. It was a thick crust, which we don’t like, and it was slathered in garlic butter. You could smell it on approach from the kitchen! Not a happy choice for a couple spending a day in a car! So after we needed a palate cleanse, and we did not drive far before spotting an ice cream parlor. I was happy to have a strong peppermint, which did the trick for me. Clay selected a chocolate peanut butter and it only made things worse for him! Anyway, in the car driving inland on 126 to Eugene to spend the night, Clay found a Red Lion Inn in the directory he picked up in Portland and called ahead to book a room. We hope to only be about 2.5 hours from Crater Lake in the morning. We are crossing our fingers that this rain moves out before our time is up in Crater Lake!
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| dinnertime in Eugene, OR |
The hotel desk clerk recommended McMenamins North Bank in Eugene as a good local place to eat dinner and it was. Clay had a tasting tray of 6 beers and I had a Pinot Noir Blanc that was from their own winery and it was good. The food was good. Clay had ribs and I had a southwestern chicken sandwich. Clay had a brownie with ice cream and caram-ale sauce and I had a horrible mocha milkshake. During dinner Clay was yawning and I asked him if he was ready to go home. With huge eyes, he said "I AM ready to go home!" I laughed out loud at him, and he started back tracking about only not wanting to go back to work, just this entire vacation has felt too much like work and he just wants to go home but not to work. Um-hum.
Well, that is it for tonight. Clay just came back soaked from working out on the treadmill and getting ice. This Red Lion Inn has all outdoor entry guest rooms in a bunch of separate buildings and we are far from the ice machine and fitness room. This Red Lion Inn is nowhere near as nice as the one at Portland Convention Center, but it is still so much better than the closet we inhabited on Spirit of ’98; we need to keep that in mind!
I need to put in an endorsement here for
http://www.visittheoregoncoast.com/. You can find loads of information there, but even better for road trip purposes you can order a free Official Mile-By-Mile Guide to Hwy. 101. We found it invaluable with its milepost information and the ads and the photos. If you are going to do any part of this drive, go online and order the Guide! You won't be sorry. So, anyway, this is the soggy end of our coast drive!
