We made the 100 plus mile trip from Portland to the Oregon coast today. We passed through many of the vineyards in Oregon. Oregon is a big timber state but they also have considerable agriculture. Not only do they have many fruit trees they grow filberts. Know what they are? Hazelnuts.
We entered the coast at Lincoln City. You pass through small towns/villages and then you get these breathtaking views of the ocean and coast line. Pictures to follow.
We arrived at our destination, the Port of Newport RV Park and Marina, in a light rain. I had turned the lights off of "automatic" on Fiona and on "on" since there are highway signs telling you to turn the lights on for safety in certain areas. But, I learned that F-150's keep their lights on when you turn them on and they stay on until you turn them off or back to auto. So, we ran the battery down!
I had checked the battery before we left and almost changed it out since it was four years old. Another one of those "almost did it right" situations. We have a generator that can charge batteries but I would have to unlock it from its position in the truck and take it around to the front of the truck to use it. It would be easier to just attach one of my two electric battery chargers except I left them in our storage room in Pensacola. No problem, a quick walk to the office and the polite manager sent one of the maintenance guys over. He arrived before I could walk back to our site.
We found the battery was too far gone to jump off. A four year old battery that has been totally discharged is not one you want to rely on. So, the maintenance guy cheerfully volunteered to run me to the nearby NAPA store where I could buy a charger. Now I have three battery chargers but one of them is better than the other two because it is with me! I charged up Fiona's battery overnight and we retired to have dinner and watch TV and to bed.
September 26, 2014 Friday Touring the Oregon Coast
After coffee and my faux bagel (we haven't found real bagels since Colorado), Fiona cranked up just fine. Off I went to the Ford dealer, located only about a mile away. We had a new battery within an hour and I was back.
Lib and Maggie had taken a nice walk and we were ready to be tourists. We took a tour of the harbor area where the commercial boats dock. These are pretty large vessels that go out in the Pacific fishing for tuna, salmon, crabs, halibut, etc. Joy Greer would have loved the smells.
We heard the sea lions barking and it didn't take us long to locate a group taking advantage of some floating docks along the side of one of the piers. We learned these are all male sea lions and mostly young ones. The older, larger males have left for California for mating season. These young males have learned that it is not worth the swim just to get beat up by a larger male so they are here waiting to get larger and tougher. Females stay in California year round.
We can't imagine the big males because these guys are huge! They communicate by barking and we can even hear them when we are in bed at night. We are just next to the water.
They lay all over each other and take snoozes but someone is constantly barking
Ahhh, a good scratch feels sooo good!
The sea lions are all over the place in the harbor.
When they aren't barking at each other they snuggle and nap
The fishing fleet at Yaquina Bay
And you can buy fresh fish right off the boats
You also have the usual cast of harbor characters
We had been told that the bridges across the inlets in Oregon were beautiful structures. They were designed by Conde B. McCullough. Here is the one over Yaquina Bay here in Newport.
The Yaquina Bay bridge built in 1934 for $1,300,000 by the WPA
Not to get political but the Government sure did a lot of good things during the years of the WPA. We have benefited from the infrastructure they created for decades.
Oregon, from what we've seen so far, also does a good job of keeping the ocean front open to the public. There are many pullouts for vehicles and State of Oregon parks as you go down the highway.
Tourists at an Oregon State Park
At Yaquina Bay there is a lighthouse on the point. We developed an interest in Capt. James Cook and want to read more about him and his exploits. These Oregon inlets were important because the trappers found entry into this region through the inlets. This set up the trade and development of the area that followed. Being boaters we can't believe the hazards they had without NOAA weather reports, GPS and color digitized charts! Not to mention, they had no engines! Imagine trying to enter a harbor and sighting rocks below and being at the mercy of the wind and currents.
A wave breaking on the rocks
The Oregon Coast
We drove north (because we are going south in a couple of days) to Depot Bay. This area boasts the smallest harbor on the coast. The channel is very narrow and empties into a very small harbor. We were told that sometimes the boats have to come in with a following sea and they literally surf all the way through the inlet into the harbor. Wow! We've surfed some pretty big boats but only for a few hundred feet at a time and we didn't like it (though it is exhilarating). We couldn't get a good photo of the inlet.
We had a late lunch at a place called Moe's. No, not the Moe's Southwest Grill chain.
They have a lot of Moe's on the coast and they specialize in seafood and chowder. I had the grilled Cod and Lib had fish tacos. Very good! But, the locations of the Moe's are super because you usually have a good view of the coast. This one was at a place called Otter Rock. While seated the couple next to us started pointing out the whales passing by. Whales! We ran out the door and got some photos. You can see the whales blowing in the pics and we could sometimes see a body roll but no big tails up in the air. You need to watch the Pacific Life ads for those pics. Of course, those are computer graphics.
You can see the whale blowing in the top right of the photo. We were told these are Gray Whales
Gray whales reach about 50 feet in length and weigh about 80,000 lbs. These are baleen whales so they eat by filtering plankton. They were everywhere. I could take a photo like the one above almost every time I depressed the shutter. The couple with us told us you can sometimes see the whales clearly if you are at the right outlook when they come by.
It was getting late in the day so we decided to head back toward Newport and the Safeway!
Tomorrow we plan on a lay day of doing chores and watching some Saturday football games.
Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
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