#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

 

Scotland Spring 2016, #2

I’ve finally put down my camera and my golf clubs long enough to put together a post for the travel blog, telling you and showing you a little about our trip.  Before we headed north up the A9 from our home base in Crieff, Merlindale B&B, we did have a chance to grab another of the World’s Best (so say the ads) Bacon Roll at the Horn Restaurant between Perth and Dundee.  I don’t dispute the claim since I’ve certainly had no better or bigger bacon roll (a staple of Scotland’s golfing community).  

Thus adequately fortified we trundled north.

After a night in Dornoch serenaded by the massed pipe bands [see the last blog post], 

The Pipe Major of one of the bands.

Anne and I started the day’s drive to Durness in the far northwest corner of the mainland by driving west along Loch Fleet where while stopping for a  brief look at the ruins of Skelbo Castle,

Skelbo Castle

we spotted a sea lion basking in an unusual position.  

From Loch Fleet the road to Durness goes through Lairg, the village with a world class loo [details in one of my posts of an earlier trip].  We didn’t need to stop at this loo, been there/done that, 

but we did stop to grab some shots of three wild goats just lounging by the side of the road.  

From Lairg it’s 38 miles of single track road to Laxford Bridge.  Driving on single track roads is an acquired taste.  

Typical Highland single-track road.

The narrow road has passing places every quarter mile or so and is not too difficult to drive once you get the hang of stopping or passing appropriately.  

Along Loch Shin

The passing places, though, gives you some great places to pull off for photos even though you’re really not supposed to.  The countryside in this section of Scotland, referred to mostly simply as the Highlands, is very stark yet beautiful.  

Views along River Laxford

Hills of heather and rock are dotted with lochs and lochans (small lochs) and burns or rivers.  There are very few trees left and the land is home to a few crofts (small farms) and sheep—in the spring there are lambs all over.  

At Laxford Bridge we turned north for nineteen miles of mostly single track road to get to Durness.  At this point we were ready for lunch and a real break from the driving.  The trouble is there are no villages between Lairg and Durness large enough for even a pub.  We turned off the main road for a six mile trek to Kinlochbervie, 

once a thriving seaport village.  We discovered that Kinlochbervie is fairly quiet now, but in the hamlet/burg/spot-in-the-road called Inshegra an old school had been converted into a tea room called (duh!) Old School.  We split a delicious fresh crab sandwich and recharged our batteries with lovely lattes.  

Loch na Thull

Back on the single track to Durness the landscape got even more dramatic with loch and lochans coming right up to the road and backing up to massive (for Scotland) mountains.  

This was the slowest part of the trip because of all the photos stops.

When we arrived in Durness the first thing we did was drive the couple of miles west of town to Durness GC, one of our favorites and a truly spectacular, isolated nine hole track.  Much more about the course will come in a post devoted to the golf of the trip.  

Balnaseil Beach with Seaweed Eating Cows

When we pulled into the course’s parking area we saw a herd of black cows meandering the pristine Balnakeil Beach.  We later found out that the cows come down to the beach to eat a certain type of seaweed when there are especially low tides.  After golf and before we checked in at Glengolly B&B, we stopped at a beach parking area to watch a fantastic sky show as heavy winds created beautiful patterns in the clouds.  

It’s times like these that I am so thankful for digital cameras—I couldn’t have packed enough film to capture what nature provided.

That evening we ate at the Oasis Pub at Sango Sands a little east of the village.  

Then we drove back to Balnakeil Beach for a second sky show.  This one featured a rainbow and beach reflections.  

       

       

       It was a glorious day!  It ended with torrential rains pushed by 40-50 mph winds hitting the town just as we tucked in to bed at the B&B.  I was already looking forward to the morning’s porridge—a special of Martin Mackay’s—Scottish oats porridge topped with burnt sugar and single malt whisky.  

Oyster Catcher in flight

NOTE: I’m going to be entering shows with some of the photos from this trip and selling them at Highland Games and would like some feedback on which ones are your favorites.  Pick two or three and let me know which ones you’d chose.