We took an unusual spring vacation to visit our son Paul for his period of spring break during his freshman year at Oregon State University. We decided to visit the Oregon Coast, which was supposed to be cool but sunny at that time of year. It was cool, but we saw very little sun. We had a great time anyway.
We flew in from Las Vegas and Paul picked us up at the airport in Portland. He made it a useful trip by taking a friend from OSU to the airport on his way to get us. We drive to Corvallis where he showed us a bit of the town we had not seen before but that he now used a bit. Beth had not seen Corvallis at all and She had only seen tiny residential schools. William Woods, where she spent a year was the size of Paul's entering class. Then we hit the road for Waldport, where our rental house awaited. We had a pretty winding drive from Corvallis to the coast, encountering very little besides farmhouses tucked away in river valleys until we came to Newport. Newport is the commercial center and somewhat less touristy town on the coast than some of the others we could have chosen. Lincoln City is very touristy and Yachats is more upscale. We were staying in Waldport, which is probably the least touristy of the towns. But the new, suburban part of town is mostly vacation homes. The old part of town is primarily a fishing village. Our house was a nice and spacious two bedroom with an ocean view. But not before a moonlight walk on the beach, which was windy and cloudy but otherwise pleasant.
The next day was aquarium day. After a lazy start we drove to newport and Spent much of the day at the Oregon Coastal Aquarium and the Mark Hatfield Marine Research Center. The Coastal Aquarium exhibits the Pacific Ocean and the environs around the Oregon coast very well. It does not pretend to be encyclopedic about the oceans. The first exhibit we walked through displayed Pacific Ocean jellyfish. I did not know that jellyfish could be so interesting. Almost all displays had live jellyfish. Those that didn't displayed jellyfish anatomy in a manner in which they could not be live. There were jellyfish of all sizes. The most interesting were the translucent fish about an inch or two in diameter. You could see all of the organs in the jellyfish moving and you could see the pulsing motion of the jellyfish as they swam. The next exhibit was a large tank filled with Pacific Ocean fish of all kinds - sharks, salmon, and smaller fish. The unique aspect of this exhibit is that they made the tank with a tunnel through it. You walk the tunnel and see the fish under, over and around you. The tank is quite large, the entire walk of the tunnel is about a quarter mile long. But it winds around and you take about 45 minutes to complete the walk and enjoy being alongside the fish. The final exhibit we enjoyed at the aquarium was outside. In the rain. There was an area made into natural habitat for the local sea birds. You could see murres and other birds nesting less that 50 feet from you. They knew that they were safe, so they were not bothered. There were also pools with seals and playful sea otters. They never stopped while we were watching.
We broke for lunch and drove to downtown Newport to find a resistants. Seafood, of course. We walked along the old town area spending a lot of time shopping. There were touristy shops but also antique shops and shops filled with wares from local craftsmen. Including a couple that had wine tastings. We deferred then because we wanted to get back to the days theme, aquariums. We went back to aquarium central (the two are close together and do not really compete.) The Hatfield Center is more of a hands on place with many exhibits that use expensive technologies like microscopes and digital displays. There are many more docents there to answer questions than at the other aquarium. There are also hands on "tidepools" and other touchy feelie exhibits. The most interesting was the feeding of the giant octopus, though it was hard to see a lot. The octopus is inactive most of the time and lives in a smallish tank. When it gets fed it roils the water so that you can't really see that much. By the time we finished this aquarium it was late and we returned home to make supper and to rest.
The next day we explored our beach. It was a pleasant day; though somewhat interrupted by occasional rainstorms. The sprinkles on the beach were really pleasant. We also went to the Yaquina Head lighthouse. The museum was pretty interesting, filled with exhibits about the geology of the area, historical exhibits and botanical exhibits. The visitor center is in an old quarry. We did not see much of the quarry or lighthouse outside that day, though, as it was pouring quite heavily when we were there. But our pass was good for later in the week as well, so we would return. We settled in quickly after shopping and ate supper at a restaurant on the bay in Yachats. The food was quite good. The view was spectacular. The surf pounded on the rocks below us. You could see the roiling foam and whitecaps long after dark.
Banking on the next days weather forecast being accurate, we had reservations for a sunset horseback ride down near Florence. The weather held pretty much. While the day was partly cloudy and warm, the temperature dropped the second the sun set. Our ride started out nice and warm as we took the trail down to the beach. It was sunny. But we passed through a number of very large patches of skunk cabbage. The flowers were a large and beautiful yellow, but the smell was not great. We got down to the sand dunes just before the beach as the sun set and rode down the beach as the sun set. The fog was moving in, as were higher clouds, so the sunset was not spectacular. Once it got fairly but not completely dark we turned around on the beach, the wranglers let us speed back to the point where we go back into the dunes. This was the high part of the trip for Beth, who could gallop her horse full out. Paul and Maggie enjoyed the galloping too. I have never gotten the hang of riding fast, so whenever my horse got into a gallop it was quite literally a pain in the but. He wanted to get home, but was a good sport when I slowed him down to a trot or a walk. We wove through the trees and bushes along the trail in the dark, relying on the wranglers to get us home. Which they did.
The following day was our whaling cruise. We got to the boat early and milled around for a while with the other people waiting for the cruise. The day was clearer than before, almost sunny. But the seas were very rough. We set a few crab traps before leaving. Children in the group baited the traps and bigger kids threw out the traps. The crew allowed nobody on the upper deck before we cleared the wier, and then only eight at a time. We went straight out. The swells were quite high, making the boat rock a lot. Before the cruise was over several people got seasick, including a kid who had just wolfed down a bag of chips that he didn't even chew. The view of the Newport bridge back toward shore was great. As you retreat to the sea, you see more and more of Newport and the bridge becomes smaller and smaller. The sea was at its calmest when my turn came to go onto the upper deck, but the deck still swayed 10 feet from side to side. We saw a few whales on the trip, but none were closer than half a mile away. Aside from sea birds, the closest wee got to any animals were the crabs in the traps and the sea lions on the wharf in Newport harbor. The boat naturalist donned a crab hat and showed us the crabs. The kids in the group petted them and oohed and aahed over them. The trip was fun, but the wildlife was not there that day. We finished the day by walking the rest of Newport. We stopped in our second seafood restaurant for lunch (what, beef on the coast?) and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. We stopped at one shop that proudly poured Oregon wines and visited others with Oregon based goods. It was a good day despite the weather early in the day. We finished the day after supper with another walk on the beach.
The next day was another lazy day for the most part. We started slow and did some general touring. The
The weatherman predicted that the next day was going to be rainy. He was very correct. We decided early that this would be a good day to drive up to Lincoln City and visit the mall. The drive up and back was quite pretty when you could see anything. The harbors at Depoe Bay and Cannon Beach were picturesque. The mountainsides racing down to the seashore were fun. But there were times when you could not see 100 yards because of the rain. This made it less than fun for the driver. We stopped for lunch in a Mexican restaurant that served authentic southern Mexican food. It was family run and the food was very good. I ordered a particular brand of beer but they had none cold, so I ordered another brand. When we left the owner tried to GIVE me a bottle of the first brand, now well chilled. I could not eat into their profits. I want to see places like that thrive. They have too much competition from the Taco Bells of the world. We walked around the mall in the rain, each of us buying something that we either needed or buying things that we knew we would need as gifts for Christmas. Then we drove home. That night was video night, it being still too rainy for a walk on the beach.
It was time for Beth to go home, so we drove her to the Portland airport. We did not waste the time though. After a few more stops in Corvallis on the way up, we got her there on time so that we could take our time on slower roads coming back. It was wine tour day. Our early stops were at the old standbys. We went to Erath and Sokol Blosser first. Their wines are top notch, especially the pinot noirs. But we found that one of our favorites, a late harvest riesling desert wine had doubled in price. We did, however, find some interesting and affordable wineries that were new to us. Chateau Bianca makes a wide variety of wines, including a very good port, which is unusual for Oregon. We also got a case of chardonnay at $9.00 a bottle that tasted like a much more expensive wine. Eola Hills Winery is not impressive form the outside. It looks like a warehouse instead of a fancy California tasting room. It looks like a warehouse from the inside, too. But tucked away in one corner is their tasting room. They make a wide variety of wines. We found that their late harvest riesling and their raspberry flavored desert wines were both quite good. so we had found an inexpensive replacement for our old favorite. We have a lot of wineries in the south end of the Willamette valley yet to explore. But then, Paul has 3 more years at OSU.
The next day was bright and sunny. This was our lighthouse day. There are three lighthouses in the Waldport/Newport area. We visited Yaquina Head and Heceta Head lighthouses. We did not go to Yaquina Bay lighthouse. We wanted to go tide pooling instead.
We started the day at Seal Rock at low tide. A prime area for tide pooling. We saw plenty of sea stars and anemones of all different colors. We saw tiny fish (sculpin), small crabs, and other little critters in the water. We climbed around on the rocks for about three hours. Finally the tide was back in enough to push us away from the rocks and onto the sandy shore.
The day continued to be bright and sunny on our return trip to Yaquina Head lighthouse. Having already been to the visitors center, we decided to take the Salal Trail to a point overlooking the lighthouse. You could not go into the lighthouse because of remodeling. The Salal Trail climbs about half a miles worth of switchbacks to the top of Salal hill. The salal was in bloom, a decided plus for the trip. From the top of the hill you can see both south to downtown Newport, Nye Beach and Agate Beach and north to Beverly Beach and beyond. The day was clear and bright, so the views were superb. But the best view was to the west, looking down onto the lighthouse, which stood a bright white against the blue sea.
After a quick lunch, we headed down past Yahachts to Heceta Head. The lighthouse can be seen on a point of land sticking out from the highway south of where the Siuslaw River enters the ocean. The mountains rise swiftly behind the lighthouse and its point.But to get to the lighthouse you climb a trail on the north side of the river. Where the river met the sea we saw four surfers lying on their boards. Whenever one would try to surf a sea lion would follow him. Why? No one knew. So we took the trail up to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is visible above you at several points along the trail. Each view is unique. so is the white clapboard New England style cottage where the lighthouse keeper lived. Finally, we got out to the lighthouse. The view from the grounds around the lighthouse is spectacular. You look down on another 1930's vintage bridge spanning the river as it enters the ocean. You look down on breakers crashing on the rocks below. You look down on bird rookeries. And you look up at the lighthouse. We arrived at 4:00pm, when the lighting was grand. The last tour of the lighthouse had just finished. But another group of people wheedled the ranger into doing one more tour. We attached ourselves to it quickly. She gave us the history of the lighthouse and its few keepers. Whoever kept this lighthouse liked the job and stayed until they died. The prisms that focus the lights were very interesting. The glasswork itself was worth the tour. We went back out after the tour and watched the breakers some more before returning to our car and home for dinner.
Our time at the beach was done. We spent the next day, after a leisurely breakfast, driving to Portland. We only stopped at Paul's dormitory to drop off some things. It was primarily a day and night of rest, sitting finally in front of the tv after a nice Chinese dinner. We spent our last day in Oregon at the Portland Farmers Market. The market is open all day Saturday. It contains produce during the proper seasons, but this was early spring. There was no produce, but there was plenty of food. Mostly ethnic, though a lot of the foods that are available at a carnival were there as well. The market contains mostly craftwork in the off season. There were plenty of booths filled with quality photography and worked goods there. They ranged from painted saws to useful goods like exotic salt and pepper shaker sets to gag GIFts like tongs that were modified to look like they were passing through your scull. Maggie bought an "insect mask" made of sieves and spoons. There were T-shirts and handmade clothes. There was also music--some part of the market and some from buskers. All of it was good. We wandered around the market for several hours before heading to the airport for our flight home. The market was a lot of fun! The whole trip had been relaxing and enjoyable. But Monday was back to work again.
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