#203 Central Oregon Beach Trip

A two night trip to the Oregon coast is the meat of this post. The plan was to visit some of our favorite sites and eat at some of our favorite seaside restaurants. A great plan got even better when the weather turned super nice on the coast—sun and fog, while the valley sweltered in unseasonably hot conditions. My photo kit included three cameras—a Nikon Z50 with a 24-200 lens and a Nikon Z5 with a 24-70 lens for landscapes, and a Lumix LX 100ii for quick grab shots and interiors. The trip also included short stops at the two local casinos (Spirit Mountain in Grand Ronde and Chinook Winds at Lincoln City) where Anne won enough to almost cover my losses.

Book Store

Our first stop at the coast was at our favorite used book store, Robert’s Bookshop (SE Hwy 101 in the old Nelscott District of Lincoln City). Opened in 1987, the bookstore has more than 200,000 used and antiquarian books—1.64 miles of bookshelves. Anne found some art books for her watercolors and I bought two photo  books of Ansel Adams’ work. Check with the shop about trading or selling books. 

Anne found the books she needed for her watercoloring.

  

Bridge and Marina

We stayed in Newport at the Hallmark Resort near the Nye Beach District. It’s not inexpensive, but then nothing is today. Our accommodations were lovely and we had a great beach view. Our hotel was close to the famous Yaquina Bay Bridge and the Newport marina. During our stay we made a couple of trips there for photos. The bridge was started in 1934 and opened in 1938. It’s over a half Mile long and is 133 feet above the river. There are good views of the bridge from its base and from the active marina.

Even tattered and wind torn Old Glory still looks good.

Beach Scenes

One of our favorite spots to visit in the area is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse Natural Area (BLM). Here you can visit the lighthouse (tours available in season), see seabird rookeries, go tide pooling, and see sea lions. The lighthouse saw first light in 1783 and stands 93 feet tall. Another area worth a visit for the views is the Devil’s Punchbowl on Cape Foulweather between Newport and Depot Bay. The punchbowl is a large natural sea cave (without a roof) that can spout at high tide. We visited at low tide, but the views from the overlook are grand.

A foggy view of the lighthouse.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse at sunset from Nye Beach.

Several varieties of seabirds nest on the rocks around Yaquina Head.

Piles of driftwood are put to interesting use on the beaches at Lincoln City (old Taft). 

Sea lions lounge on the spit at Salishan south of Lincoln City.

The view north along the coast from Devil's Punchbowl.

At the Devil's Punchbowl overlook we saw this poor squirrel clinging desperately to a tall dead tree. Obviously frightened, the squirrel let me get quite close. Its perch was very precarious with a long drop beneath. Perhaps it had been chased to this perch, but we could see it wasn't comfortable.

Food

There are some great places to eat on the Oregon coast and we are blessed with a nice variety of eateries in this section. Two of our selections were rebuilds. Both Dory Cove Restaurant and Otis Cafe had had thier original shops burned down. And both have comeback stronger in nearby locations. There are also plenty of fine dining restaurants in the Newport area as well. We couldn’t get a table at Local Ocean (the beach restaurants do get crowded), but we did eat at Georgie’s next to the Hallmark Resort. The restaurant, opened in 1998, has wonderful ocean views. Not far from our accommodations in the heart of the Nye Beach District is a great Irish pub called Nana’s. It’s a staple in the area and we think it’s a little touch of Ireland a block from the beach. We also found Triple-D funk at the 24 hour Newport Cafe on Hwy 101 in the middle of town. As you can see from the pictures, we never go hungry when we travel.

Late Lunch at Dory Cove.

Breakfast at Georgie's (Thanks Charleen and Dave)

A chicken pot pie for me and steak and ale pie for Anne.

Breakfast at Newport Cafe

Highlight of the Trip

The Siletz Bay Wildlife Refuge was established in 1991, but we’d never visited it. That’s a mistake we won’t make again. This is a hidden gem. The refuge contains salt marshes, mud flats, sloughs, conifer/hardwood forests, and rivers which attract a good variety of birds. The refuge has a nice parking area, several hiking options, is open from sunrise to sunset, and is free, though no pets are allowed. Look for the sign on the east side of Hwy 101 after crossing the Siletz River south of Lincoln City.  We had a wonderful time on an easy 3/4 mile walk.

Wood Thrush

This pair of noisy Canadian geese were creating quite a racket defending their nest from another pair.

The path we took in the refuge was well maintained.

We packed a lot into our two days in Newport. And even though we been there many, many times before, there’s always something new to see or discover.

A Newport Sunset

 

Fall Scottish Trip, Part 4

Luib Waterfall, Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye. The last post had us on the Isle of Skye and that’s where we pick up the story. On our first full day on the island we planned to expore the peninsulas of Duirinish and Waternish. Our first objective was Neist Point Lighthouse, the most easterly point on the island. 

Neist Point

To get to the lighthouse we drove about twenty miles of single-track roads, battling sheep the whole way. The last five miles of road narrows even more and there are fewer pullouts or passing places. I ended up backing up three times and had others back up a couple to get out to the parking area for the lighthouse. 

From there it is a three-quarter of a mile path down to the base of a small peninsula and then back up and finally down to the lighthouse. The lighthouse, like Buchan Ness where we had stayed a couple of days before, has converted the keeper’s cottages to self-catering. The wind, always strong here, was mild for the point—only 25-35 mph. 

Neist Point Lighthouse

Brave or Foolish Sheep

I hiked down to the point where I could view the lighthouse and then back while Anne huddled in the car out of the weather.

Portree Harbour

The Car. Next on our agenda was lunch at the Stein Inn, the oldest pub on Skye. Just as we approach the finally turnoff to the pub, the car started acting funny—actually, there was no humor in it—when I would brake the car would lurch and clunk and the same thing happened with each turn of the steering wheel. We were miles of single-track road from the main highway and about 25 miles from our B&B in Portree. I got the car turned around and nursed it back to Portree at 30 mph with flashers on. I didn’t dare pull off to let traffic by because I never knew when the steering would go completely out. Back in Portree I called our rental company, Arnold Clark, and they said they’d send a repair truck out in an hour or two to evaluate. The repair guy arrived in about 45 minutes, listened to my story, drove the car in the B&B parking lot, and said, “Wow!” We took the car to his shop (about 3 blocks away) and he put it up on the rack. The diagnosis was that front suspension bushings had fallen off and we were lucky to get back to Portree. 

Our Broken Car on the Tow truck

Arnold Clark told him and us to tow the car to Inverness in the morning (a three hour trip one way) and we’d receive a new car which we could drive back to Skye. There goes our second full day on Skye.

The next morning at 8:00AM we climbed into the cab of the tow truck with our car strapped to the truck bed and headed to Inverness. 

It felt like we were being tailgated the whole way.

The tow driver was good, but he was used to being thrown around in the truck on the narrow road—we weren’t. It was a rough ride. When we talked with the dealer in Inverness, he said this problem happens often with the Peugeot 3008 and they should all be recalled. 

Our new rental -- only the color was different.

He then gave us our new rental, another Peugeot 3008.  We transferred our remaining stuff to the new car and took off to salvage our time on Skye. 

The Storr

Meal Falls

Sligachan and the Red Cuillins

Our last day on the Isle of Skye was almost a total washout, heavy rain most of the day.

On the Way East

Aviemore. We left Skye and drove across the north part of the country to Tain and Dornoch. 

Dornoch Cathedral

Grotesques -- Like Gargoyles without the Spout

Pagan Greenman

After golf at Dornoch we took the opportunity to walk around the cathedral in Dornoch, but the sky shows we got the two nights we were in Tain were real highlights. The first night as we drove out to the Tarbat Ness Lighthouse we saw a spectacular rain squall with rainbow on the North Sea. 

The next night when we drove out of Tain to a local village pub a few miles away, the sky was on fire with a gorgeous sunset as intense as I’ve ever seen.

The next day we started our week of timeshare in Aviemore in the Cairngorm Nat’l Park. We had planned to play golf if the weather this late in the season would cooperate. Luck was with us and we had good rounds at Grantown-on-Spey GC 

Grantown-0n-Spey GC

and at Moray New in Lossiemouth

Moray New GC

NATO jets fly directly over the course.

The jets are LOUD!

—both excellent courses that we enjoy. Our non-golf time was spent continuing to look for fall colours. We were especially successful at Loch an Eilein Castle and the area around Aviemore. 

The road into Loch an Eilein

Loch an Eilein Castle

Old Scotch Pine

The End of the Trip. Finished with our Highland adventures, we ventured back to Crieff and Edinburgh to get ready to come home. We still had some chances for stunning photos in our last few days 

Rumbling Bridge Falls

Sma'Glen

and then enjoyed an afternoon in the capitol city. The trip had been the latest we’d ever been in Scotland and yet we only got rained out of golf once and had to change plans only a couple of other days. 

Veteran's Day Memorial in Princess Gardens

Sitting outside with a cider first week in November. Not too bad!

We had had the most trouble with a rental car of any of our trips, but even that made a good story. Looking back on what we did with this late 2700 mile trip in Scotland and the fantastic photos we brought home, it’s easy to say the trip was huge success.

Strathearn

NEXT: Rest and Happy Holidays.