October 5, 2002 - Newport, OR
Ah, rain, mist, clouds, fog, or wind won't restrain the true intrepid fulltimer. So, we're off to see what Newport is all about. Other than all the cutesy little shops down on the waterfront. As we were leaving the lovely TTN park about 5 miles south of town, there was a couple waiting for the bus. We offered a ride, they accepted. Hank and Thea are Canadians, born and raised in Holland, recently retired and getting used to their new-to-them motorhome. After we ran an errand, we found them walking and invited them to join us. They had a scooter but no toad (aka towed), and the weather conditions precluded scooter riding so they were going to be bus-riding pedestrians. First stop was the Yaquina Head lighthouse. Except that it didn't open for tourists until noon, so we hiked (walked, really) up Salile Hill. This shot was taken about half way up. And from the top, a shot looking north giving some perspective as to how far this point of land sticks out into the sea. The other point of land up there is Fowlweather Bluff, named by Capt. Cook.
Looking south toward Newport, and then the lighthouse from the top of the hill.
One of many, many caves or tunnels this coastline is full of, and then Barb and Thea went up to the top of the lighthouse. Not sure what Thea is looking at, but both Hank and I were glad we let our knees just think about the view from the top.
This area is part of the National Parks system, and is a fee area. And since I turned the magic 62 earlier this month, we spent our $10 for my "Golden Age Passport: A Lifetime Admission Permit". Wahoo! Now Barb will have to be nice to me, because I'm her ticket to great free stuff! At least until she gets as old as I am..... The picture on the right was taken from the beach after Barb hiked down another 1,456,987 stairs. Well, maybe not that many, but more than I was willing to tackle today. The damp and cold seem to make the joints more noticeable, eh?
Barb loves flowers. Even if they're just pink seaweed, washed up on the cobblestone beach. Neat sound when the surf bounces and rolls these stones around. Some compare it to a crowd applauding. And there's the stairs I was willing to let Barb climb alone. See us at the top?
Some of those rocks in the surf are seals (actually, the two smaller rocks you see are seals). They're all over the place. Must be good fishing for them. And then an interesting sort of affair. The abandoned gravel quarry turned into handicapped accessible tide pools! Only the low tide wouldn't be until 5:19 PM. We decided to come back later.
But since we were there anyway, we might as well walk down to see what could be seen. Hank and Thea had lived on their boat for 10 years, and of course Barb and I are pretty familiar with the water as well, even if we only lived on our boat for about a year. And we were glad we went down. The rock formation, from quickly cooling lava, was interesting, and there's a rock crab even Marc and Claudia couldn't clean! The poor little guy by my foot was already dead, but there were plenty others about the same size scrambling around.
In San Francisco, at Fisherman's Terminal, some very expensive moorage had to be abandoned because the radical environmental movement had made it illegal to harass or kill these smelly beasts (sea lions). I don't know the end result or where all that is today, but here in OR they must have the same problem. At least there weren't a lot of them, and the moorage isn't that expensive, but they're still smelly beasts. All males, and noisy besides. And on the right, there are some rats with wings (pigeons) to boot. But the clam chowder at Mo's was great! And thanks, Hank and Thea for picking up the tab!
Well, at low tide the gravel quarry didn't have any more animals than at high tide. But it was still sort of fun to see what the park service had done, and nice to see the maturation of the sea life occurring. And then we had to stop and get a picture of a Monaco for friend John. My guess is that if you had this one, John, you'd only have to worry about replacing clearance lights! At least you'd probably spend less buying the unit. In its day, it was one of the better coaches, I'm sure.
And the Yaquina Bay Bridge. I really like these bridges along Hwy 101.
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