#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

 

Summer Photos and More

It’s been hard to get back to writing the blog entries for several reasons. For one thing,  we’ve taken no big trips to write about—some little ones, but nothing with photos to write home about. More importantly, health issues have taken priority. After two accidental falls (in Death Valley and Rio Grande Gorge, see previous posts) this spring, my legs and hips were giving me trouble enough that I thought I ought to talk to the doctor. His initial diagnosis was spinal stenosis—according to the Mayo Clinic, spinal stenosis is “a narrowing of the spaces within your spine, which can put pressure on the nerves that travel through the spine.” Suffers of lumbar stenosis may experience pain, tingling, numbness, and muscle weakness particularly in the lower back, legs, and feet. For me the condition means that walking very far (a block or two) gets painful to my hips, my legs get very tired (lethargic or leaden), and my feet tend to drag instead of lift as I step. This explains a lot about how difficult it was to tour in Scotland and play big courses. Golf, though, is a little better than just walking because relief comes from the frequent stops to hit the ball [Did I just say that the worse I played the easier it got?].  

St Fillans GC, where we are members, was a relatively easy flat walk with only one hill. It's a great wee course whether I'm healthy or not. 

Coffee shops or tea rooms gave me a needed break from walking.

Boat of Garten GC in the Highlands was hilly, but taking an electric trolley (electric hand cart to our American friends) made the course walkable.

Fraserburgh GC in the NE corner of Scotland was one of the links courses we played. The links courses seem to be easier to walk.

After a tough round I'd find ways to reward myself, like with homemade ice cream for dessert at Anderson's Restaurant in Boat of Garten.

Treatment for the condition at this point is fairly basic—pain relievers, which for me is tylenol, and physical therapy to stretch and strengthen back and leg muscles. Physical torture, I mean therapy, has been twice a week sessions with a professional therapist and a set of exercises every morning (Anne and I agreed that we can’t have coffee or computer until after we’ve exercised)—it’s been a 100% effective incentive except when we went camping. PT has also developed a set of exercises to do in the gym on the days I don’t play golf—now that’s a real incentive to get to the golf course. I can’t walk the course yet, but I’m working to get to where I can walk 9 holes, instead of taking the cart (buggy, to my Scottish family) like I do now.

All this has meant that traveling and the blog have taken a back seat to the gym and golf. I am now far enough improved that I can at least put together this post. Part one you’ve just read and part two is some summer photos I’ve taken from the activities we’ve been able to do. Hopefully the next post will have more interesting content (and less old age aches and pains banter) with some small trips in our future.

     Summer Photos at Highland Games. We attended both the McMinnville Celtic Festival (four days after we got back from Scotland) and the Portland Highland Games. Both were exciting, fun, and exhausting.

Here Anne is in our booth at the McMinnville Games. This festival is especially fun since I went to college at Linfield (where the games are hosted) for four years.

At the Mac Games it was fun to watch Mark Wechter, one of my former students at Brookings-Harbor HS. He is now world champion in senior division and competes worldwide.

Anne rests as we set up at the Portland Highland Games (about our fifth time to attend). We're in the gym at Mt Hood CC in Gresham where the games are held.

Here our booth is fully set up next to Granny Fi's Shortbread stand--we had the smell of great shortbread next to us all day. At the games most of the vendors struggled with sales--all except Granny who sold out everything.

     Family Gathering and Ankeny Hill Wildlife Preserve. In early July Anne's family had a gathering in Salem to celebrate Anne's sister's 50th wedding anniversary. Bev and Noel Stryker wanted to renew their vows with all the family present. It was a grand party and I even got away a couple of times to visit a nearby wildlife preserve.  

The Anniversary Couple (Bev and Noel) with grandkids (Stavros and Alex). 

Kevin Hoiland tended bar for the affair. He's an expert mixologist.

The Stryker-Tsangaris-Hoiland-Jones Clan(minus me, the photographer)

Hawk Hoiland, nephew Jon's favorite pal

At Ankeny Hill Wildlife Preserve are several ponds, and even though June is little late, there were still babies about. 

At least I can identify these: bee and California poppy.

And I know these are some kind of thistle.

     The Sisters Campout. For several years we've made it our tradition to camp out with Anne's youngest sister's (Charleen's) family in the Sisters, Oregon, area. The Hoiland gathering is a large clan (34 this year) with lots of trailers and motorhomes. This year was our first not to be in a tent--this was our maiden voyage with our new travel trailer, Morse the MiniMax.

Anne, our new 2017 F150 hauler, and Morse the MiniMax (bed, bathroom, kitchen on wheels).

Our camp location is about eight miles from Sisters, OR, in fir forest.

Camp is now set up.

Indian Paint Brush

Found only one of these really attractive caterpillars--checked all the similar nearby bushes, but could only find one.  

Found only one of these as well; and boy was I lucky to find her.

Campfire was well tended each night (shovel and water close by).

Next: That will depend on PT and what the doctors say.