The First of 2020

Sea Lions on the Salishan Spit

It’s difficult to write a travel/photography blog when I’m not traveling and/or not taking pictures. This winter is one of those where things seem to get in the way of travel and photography—weather, family matters, health, etc. It’s been so long since the last post that I actually had somebody ask if there was going to be a next blog [Thanks Abbie.] This post will actually include some details (mostly about places to eat) of a recent three day trip to the Oregon coast and a selection of some of my favorite images that I haven’t shown before.

Newport and Florence. We found a four day/three night window for a trip down the coast starting with two nights in Newport followed by one night in Florence. It rained hard most of the first day 

and we hunted up some inside things to do. We did have a nice visit to Robert’s Books in the old Nelscott section of Lincoln City. 

This is one of our favorite bookstores and almost every coastal trip includes selling and buying of books at Robert’s. We did have lunch at the the Newport Cafe on the main drag through town (Hwy 101). It was the first time we had been there and it was so good (absolutely delicious fried oysters) that we went back for breakfast on our last day. 

After lunch we managed to get enough dry time to go out to the lighthouse on Yaquina head for a few pictures, 

but it was so windy and misty that only a few pictures were worth keeping. Dinner was at a local pub near the lighthouse, 

Szabo’s Seafood and Steak House. Szabo’s has had a good reputation for quite a while and lived up to it’s reputation this night. The special was a great dish of spaghetti and meatballs for $10.99.

The next morning we met our nephew Jon who lives in Newport for breakfast at the Coffee House on Bay Street (the harbour). Good breakfast and coffee, but better visiting time with Jon.  It was again stormy without being photogenic and we ending up spending a good deal of time in the local casino without going broke. Dinner was a light meal in our Worldmark condo unit at Scooner’s Landing. Our last morning in Newport was our second visit to Newport Cafe and a leisurely drive to Florence looking for possible photo stops without much success  We had better success with a coffee stop in Florence, 

Bridge in Florence over the Siuslaw River

The River Roasters, where we visited with a fellow writer for an hour. The shopping in Old Town was so good we had to make a stop at our parked car to drop off several jars of stuffed olives to take home. The best, though, was lunch at Lovejoy’s Tearoom near the Florence harbour. The tearoom had been recommended by friends Judy and John and was the find of the trip. 

Lovejoy’s is a quaint British-style tearoom with excellent lunches (I had sausage rolls and salad) and great service. After such a pleasant lunch, a later dinner at one of the local restaurants was just okay. 

Florence harbor at night

Since we were staying at the Three Rivers Hotel and Casino (good room, great price) and since we didn’t lose in the casino, we didn’t let the weak dinner bring us down.

The last day of the trip started at The Brown Hen in Florence, always a great place for breakfast, and ended with a long non-stop drive back to Canby. It was only three days and there weren’t many good photo ops, but we at least got in our first trip of 2020.

Some Favorite Photos.

1. Anne at the Tay River, Dunkeld, Scotland. The Tay is an outstanding fishing river and the bench is on the grounds of Dunkeld Cathedral.

2. Branklin Gardens in Perth, Scotland, in the fall. Branklin is a two acre garden inside the city and it always has something in bloom. We visit every trip.

3. Buchan Ness Lighthouse on Scotland’s east coast. Built by Robert Louise Stevenson’s father, the lighthouse is automated and the keeper’s cottages are now rented out as self-catering. We’ve stayed twice.

4. Buzz, our jeep-tour guide in Canyonlands National Park. He didn’t jump, but the cliff is where Thelma and Louise went over the edge.

5. Trees and the Kootenay River in Canada. Two years later and the entire copse was gone.

6. Anazasi (Ancient Ones) dwelling, Pueblo Bonita in the Chaco Canyon settlement. At one time this pueblo consisted of more than 600 rooms.

7. This scene was one of my favorite images from a three day stay in Rottenburg, Germany.The lady smiled at me and went about her gardening.

8. In the village of Glencoe in the Scottish highlands I saw this door and couldn’t resist taking several photos.

9. The Glenfiddich Distillery (Scotch whisky) is one of the largest in the world. This series of pot stills produce 10 million liters of single malt whisky a year.

10. This is an abstract image from an arch in the Saint Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, NM. All the church is lovely, but I was most attracted to some of the details.

Bonus Photo: Kilchurn Castle at the edge of the Highlands in Scotland. The castle is surrounded on three sides by Loch Awe and there's a quarter mile path to the castle on the fourth side.

In Memory of my sister-in-law Beverly Jean (Holweger) Stryker, who loved seagull photos:

NEXT: Hopefully we’ll be traveling soon.