Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Today looked like it would be a reasonably nice day so we decided to head south to Brookings. It was a mainly sunny day, but occasionally clouded over and rained for a minute, with a high of about 54F (12C).

On the way to Brookings we stopped at some lookouts to enjoy the ocean and take pictures, as always the ocean was beautiful and fascinating.







We stopped at Gold Beach for lunch and to pick up a couple of Dungeness crabs for our New Year’s Eve dinner – I’m sure they will be yummy!

Brookings is the town with bears everywhere so we parked and walked a bit and took a few pictures but this was one of the times when it decided to rain a bit so didn’t go as far as we might have.




From there we went to Fred Meyer and picked up a few things seeing how we were in the area. We also got diesel there, with our card and $0.10/gallon discount we filled up for $2.689/gallon – sure beats the $2.899/gallon at most places around here (their gas was already $0.10/gallon cheaper than any place else).

While in Fred Meyer someone tapped my shoulder and said fancy meeting you here, it was a lady from the park here and I was surprised as in this part of the world I don’t expect to meet anyone I know. We had a nice chat before carrying on with our shopping.

Yesterday was our family dinner at our daughter Nan’s so on the way home we stopped at Gold Beach to call her place and talk to everyone (we had no phone signal between Brookings and Gold Beach or we would have stopped at a view point). We wish we could have been with them and it sounded like they had a wonderful dinner – after they got through telling us what they had for dinner we said we were going home to cook burgers – I think they had the better dinner but we have the better weather and scenery!!

Tomorrow we are supposed to be back to wet and windy weather, so we really enjoyed the nice weather today.

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice (but probably wet) day tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Today we were back to a dreary, cool, rainy day – just what they had forecast!

This afternoon we had a short break in the rain and the sun came out so we decided to take a run into the post office and then go and take a look at the ocean. Did I say a short break, by the time I got ready to go (about 5 minutes) it was raining again! But off we went and mailed our mail then headed for Battle Rock Park. The waves there were okay, but nothing terrific which surprised us as the wind was howling. So then we went to Paradise Point and again no large waves there so we decided it was a mix of the wind direction and waves that were working against each other. We drove out towards Humbug Mountain but again the sea was much calmer than expected. I didn’t take any pictures as there was nothing worth getting wet to take.

We came home and John checked the internet and saw that they had tried to deliver my new camera this afternoon so he made a quick run to the post office and picked it up – now all I have to do is figure out how to use it!! I am looking forward to, hopefully, taking better pictures.

Dinner is over and I am looking forward to a quiet evening of reading. At the moment the rain has stopped, hopefully tomorrow will be a nicer day.

Oh yes, a piece of trivia – New Year’s Eve will be a blue moon – only the second one since some time in the 1970’s - (a blue moon is when there are two full moons in one month) so now you can look for the blue moon on New Year’s Eve.

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Today was a beautiful sunny day with a high of about 58F (14C).

We decided to head to Coos Bay and take the scenic route and find the Cape Arago Lighthouse on the way, so just north of Bandon we picked up the Seven Devils Road. We stopped at the Seven Devils Recreation area, there was a nice beach there with a crazy girl standing out about waist deep in the water dressed just in her normal clothes – it must have been freezing cold! Not only that but also dangerous as all along the coast here they warn about sneaker, or rogue waves, which are large waves which come out of nowhere and can pull you out into the ocean. She had a friend on the beach, at least one of them was smart.

We continued on for a bit then came to a sign saying single lane road for the next 3.5 miles, well that was the longest 3.5 miles we have done in a long time!! It was 3.5 miles of my most unfavourite type of road with lots of heights, steep drop offs and twists and turns. Fortunately, we only met one other person crazy enough to take this road and it was on a bend where he had lots of room to pull over and let us by - we both let out a huge sigh of relief when we came back to the main highway! We had found out why they named this the Seven Devils Road!!! As John commented, it made the 40 Hills Road out of Lions Head look real tame! We sure won’t be back that way again!!

We finally ended up at Sunset Beach where we stopped and took some pictures and watched the waves crash in,



then drove about ½ mile further and stopped at the view point for the Cape Arago Lighthouse.


Unfortunately it was a fair distance away, not one that you can see up close, but it did look pretty sitting out on the point all by itself. The lighthouse has a 44’ high tower and was first lit in 1934.

We stopped at Fisherman’s Grotto in Charleston for lunch and had a bowl of delicious clam chowder. The people at tables on either side of us were having fish and chips and they looked really good – we got chatting with one couple for a few minutes and they said the fish and chips were really good. Certainly a place we would go back to again.

Something I haven't done in a long time is post funny signs we have seen in our travels but I couldn't resist putting this one in my blog that we saw today - Bonk & Bonk, Investigators!! We needed that laugh after driving the Seven Devils Road.

Our next stops were Staples and then Wal Mart, where we picked up some groceries, and by then it was time to head home.

When we got back John barbecued some pork chops for dinner and now I am trying to keep my eyes open to do this, they keep wanting to slam shut on me! I have a feeling this won’t get posted until tomorrow as I still have the pictures to do.

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

The last two days have been pretty quiet here in Port Orford. Yesterday I did laundry in the morning and then in the afternoon we drove to Paradise Point to watch the waves for a bit but they weren’t as good as we hoped they would be.


If you click on this picture to enlarge it you can see the Cape Blanco Lighthouse light.


We also went down by the dock and then to the park at Battle Rock and there was very little wave action there. A couple of surfers were at Battle Rock beach but all they were doing was floating around on their boards as the waves weren’t great – they would have had better luck off Paradise Point.

It was nice and sunny in the morning but by mid afternoon it had clouded over and the forecast was for rain again, and they were right. It started raining early last evening and has rained off and on ever since but at least it held off until after John had barbecued our dinner!

Last night we watched Public Enemy, not a very good movie as far as we were concerned and very confusing. On Christmas night we watched the old James Bond movie – Thunderball, it was better than Public Enemy.

Today was a lazy day, I did some cleaning and then spent most of the day reading. Tonight we went to the Crazy Norwegian for dinner, we had fish and chips and they are the best we have had since leaving Kincardine but still not as good as the Erie Belle, we did enjoy them though.

It wasn’t raining while we were out but has started again. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit drier.

And so ends great gifts of a couple of days here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Friday, December 25, 2009

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the celebration with family, friends or those special in your life. We certainly miss our children and siblings at this time of year but it was nice to talk to them all.

We had a wonderful day and the weather was lovely, about the same as yesterday. Our Christmas potluck here at Port Orford RV Park was very nice – great food and lovely people. We came home absolutely stuffed, even had a wee nap when we got back.
They say there is supposed to be huge surf tomorrow so I know what we will be doing – checking it out!

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to All! It is hard to believe that Christmas Eve is here but it is so we wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and we hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Today was a gorgeous day here in Port Orford – bright sunny skies with at high of about 15C (60F) – a perfect day.

Today we went to the local grocery store to pick up a couple of last minute items then headed to Cap Blanco, and lo and behold we saw the coast, water and lighthouse bright and clear – what a difference than the other day with total fog!!
Cape Blanceo





Cape Blanco Lighthouse



We also drove down to Hughes House,

a historical house built in 1898 – it looks lovely!

From there we headed back to Port Orford and just started driving around – what a pretty town. We found Garrison Lake, with a lot of pretty houses around it, and other roads that had really nice houses with a view. We stopped at Paradise Beach for a bit and walked down to the beach and watched the waves crashing in.
Paradise Beach





Today was our day for spotting wildlife, we saw three deer (all in different places) about 6 sea lions off Paradise Beach and a porcupine. The porcupine is the only guy I got a picture of and it isn’t a great one!!


Once back home we called our daughters who were celebrating Christmas together tonight with their families, we really miss them so it was so nice to talk to them and wish them a Merry Christmas. We will call our son and our siblings tomorrow, so even though we aren’t with them for Christmas we will have talked to them and feel in our hearts that we are with them at this special time of year.

Our Christmas dinner was a salmon filet that we had bought at Qualicum Beach, B.C and it was delicious. The dishes are now done and we are looking forward to a nice quiet evening.

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Today was a gorgeous sunny day, gotta love it. It was still cool in the shade but nice in the sun so we weren’t complaining.

Today was a cleaning day – John cleaned out the back of the truck (found out his golf clubs and shoes were sitting in a puddle of water – not good!) and cleaned the solar panels and fantastic fans – sure looks a lot better. Meanwhile, I cleaned out kitchen drawers etc. – always a fun job but it has to be done. I also spent quite a bit of time e-mailing back and forth with our daughters this morning – fun! Kelly had sent me an e-mail about the latest antics of one of her cats – certainly gave me my belly laugh for the day!

I went for a walk around the park and met a couple of other ladies in the park so had a nice chat with them.

This afternoon my latest toy, a Kindle, arrived. It looks like it will be a great way to read a book, I downloaded “I, Alex Cross” one so am looking forward to reading my first book on the Kindle. I think it will be a lot easier for me to read again as I find my arm starts to hurt after a while when holding a book and large books are really hard to hold for any length of time any more.

It is pretty well dinner time so I will get this posted before getting dinner ready.

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Today was a cool day here on the Oregon coast with a high of about 49F (9C) and a mix of rain and sun. This morning it rained off and on and at one point the rain was mixed with sleet – what is this!!! Fortunately it didn’t last and by about noon the sun was out and the rain stopped, although the rest of the day was off and on sun.

Today John cleaned out the outside window troughs as they were full of water and dirt. While he was doing that I wrapped his Christmas presents and cleaned so that was a couple of good jobs done while he was outside.

Later this afternoon we went into the hardware and grocery stores then drove south for a bit enjoying the view on a clear day for a change.
Looking Toward Humbug Mountain from Lookout Above Dock

Looking Toward Humbug Mountain from Battle Rock Park

Surfers at Battle Rock

View From Lookout South of Port Orford


There was a bit of a sunset that was pretty but nothing magnificent, that is yet to come I hope.






About 6:30 we got a knock on the door and when John answered it was a man delivering a beautiful flower arrangement – they are from my sister Pat and niece Serita – thank you very much, they are gorgeous.



I called Pat to thank her so by the time I got off the phone we were in for a late dinner.

It is hard to believe that we have been here in Port Orford for a week – where does the time go!! We are enjoying it here and looking forward to another few nice weeks before moving on.

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Monday, December 21, 2009

During the early hours of the morning we reached our highest temperature of about 53F (12C) and it was downhill from there with a mid afternoon high of 45F (7C). It rained all night and morning, thankfully it is rain and not snow or else we would be buried under the white stuff – hee, hee!!

This morning we decided to take a run up to Coos Bay and finish our shopping – figured it was better to do it on a wet day than a nice sunny one. There is still a scenic route we want to take in that area but it will have to wait for a nicer day.

We had seen an advertisement for the Pony Village Mall in North Bend (North Bend/Coos Bay are side by side) and it is advertised as the largest indoor mall on the Oregon Coast so we decided to check it out, well, it didn’t take long to walk through it and back out with our money still in our pockets! It sure wasn’t very busy and although they had a J. C. Penny and Macy’s I didn’t see anything that I couldn’t do without.

When we came out of the mall there was this bright light in a blue sky – wow – sunshine! From there we made quick stops at both Wal Mart and Fred Meyer to finish up our little bit of Christmas shopping and get groceries to tide us over till next week.

The sun was going down on the way home but by the time we got back it was drizzling again - at least it is now a drizzle and not a heavy downpour!! It stopped long enough for John to grill burgers and now we hear the odd pitter, patter of rain drops on the roof but nothing steady and heavy.

I want to thank everyone for the nice Christmas e-cards, we have enjoyed receiving them and they are all pretty neat – thanks for making our day.

At this point we have nothing in particular planned for tomorrow but at some point we have wrapping to do, not my favourite job but guess it has to be done and I can’t ask John to wrap his own presents!!

And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow although the forecast is for one more wet day.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Yesterday was a really nice day here on the Oregon coast with a high of 59F (15C) and the sun shone for most of the day – yeah!! I went for a walk and talked to Gordon for quite a while, he was sitting out at the picnic table reading his Kindle so I had a look at it and he showed me all the great things about it.

In the afternoon we drove north to Bandon, a very pretty little town on the coast. We took the Beach Loop Road and had some wonderful views of the ocean and the very rocky coast.
Neat Rock Formation

Cat & Kittens

Bandon Coast Line


Face Rock (Can You See the Face?)


We found the Coquille River Lighthouse that was commissioned in 1896 to guide sailors across a dangerous sand bar and then decommissioned in 1939 following improvements to the river channel and the installation of other navigational aids. We were surprised when we got to the jetty at the number of people on the beach, I think a lot of them were looking for oysters, and there were a few fishermen on the rocks but I don’t know if they were having any luck.
Coquille River Lighthouse

Beach at Jetty


The waves were really crashing in at the entrance to the Coquille River, I would hate to be out in a boat and have to try to enter the river through them, and yes we did see a couple of fishing boats out in the Pacific.
Waves at the Mouth of the Coquille River



Current Navigation Aid (The Fog Horn Works Real Good!!)


We left the jetty and drove through Old Town where there were a lot of cute looking stores and restaurants, but it was getting late so we didn’t stop anywhere, we had spent all our time looking at the water and taking pictures of it!

On the way home we did stop at Misty Meadows, a nice store with lots of jams etc., we had fun browsing there and even picked up a couple of Christmas presents.
Floats Decorating Fence at Misty Meadows


When we got home John grilled a steak for dinner and we spent a quiet evening. I was tired and not in the mood for doing my pictures from the day so put it off until today.

Today we are back to RAIN, it has poured pretty well all day so it is a pretty quiet day for us here on the Oregon coast. At least the temperature is staying fairly mild so we aren’t complaining. We have made some phone calls and John is working on his pictures and I am trying to get this done so I can get it posted with yesterdays pictures.

I have chilli in the slow cooker for dinner – it sounded like a good rainy day meal.

And so ends another great gift of a couple of days here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow although the forecast is for a couple more wet days then an extended period of sun. Time will tell.