Friday, December 18, 2009

Today was a drizzly day here on the Oregon Coast but it wasn’t cold with a temperature of around 12C (54F).

This morning I did laundry, a good job done for another week! The laundry here is reasonable - $1.25 per load to wash and $0.25/10 minutes to dry and one dryer took 40 minutes and the other 30 so I am not complaining.

Coffee Room & Gazebo - Port Orford RV Village

Our Site at Port Orford RV Village


This afternoon we decided to go to Cape Blanco – a bad move as it was totally foggy and wet, we couldn’t see a thing – we have no idea where the lighthouse is and with the fog we could barely see the ocean. This is definitely a clear day trip and we will return!

A couple of things that I haven’t mentioned about this part of the coast: 1 – the cranberry bogs – we have seen quite a few of them in this area. We watched a TV program a couple of weeks ago about how they harvest the cranberries and it looked quite interesting, I don’t know if we will be here during a harvest but it so I will definitely try to get pictures. The other thing is that this part of the coast is known as America’s Wild River Coast and the name comes from the rivers that flow into the ocean in this area – the rivers are the Sixes, Elk, Rogue, Pistol, Chetco and Windchuck which are in Oregon and the Smith and Klamath in Del Norte County in California. My piece of trivia for today!

We went down to the docks and saw a fishing boat coming out of the water – it was interesting to watch and sure doesn’t take long to get them up on the dock.




We made a stop at the local grocery store to check it out, they have nice fresh produce and their prices aren’t bad so it will be fine for in between trips to a larger store – i.e. Fred Meyer or Wal Mart Superstore.

Dinner is now over and once I get this posted I hope to finish the book I started the other day.

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 a wet weekend.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Today wasn’t a sunny day but it didn’t rain, so that is a good day here on the Oregon Coast! We saw a high of 12C (55F) on the truck thermometer today but I think it actually got a couple of degrees warmer and I missed it.

View from Port Orford Lookout

Port Orford Dock


We decided to take a drive south to Gold Beach today and it was a pretty drive, but foggy, so not a good day for pictures. We stopped at a restaurant/seafood outlet in the harbour at Gold Beach for lunch – we both had a half sandwich with a cup of clam chowder – very good. The seafood outlet had Dungeness crab for $3.95/lb so if we can’t find it for anywhere near that price in Port Orford we will return here. We wandered through a store, then drove through a couple of RV parks before deciding to keep heading south to Brookings.

Derelict Boat in Rogue River at Gold Beach

Patterson Bridge Over Rogue River - Gold Beach

Oregon Coast


Brookings was a very busy place and quite pretty, there are a lot of carved bears along the sidewalk on the main drag – next time I will get some pictures! We checked out a few RV parks and watched some wind surfers, then stopped at Fred Meyer before heading home.

By the time we came back the fog was pretty well dissipated but it was getting too dark for pictures. We both think this is the prettiest part of the coast for any distance – lots of huge rocks sticking up out of the water and a lot of crashing waves – fascinating.

We have had a nice dinner of barbecued pork chops, baked potato and veggie and are now ready for a quiet evening of TV and reading.

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 16, 2009

Today was a very quiet day here on the Oregon coast. The weather was damp and dreary – not a day to want to go exploring so we had a stay at home day.

We met Charlie, a former air controller, who has lived here for about 16 years and I think I heard he was 81, although you would never know it to look at him and talk to him – a very nice man and interesting to talk to.

I walked around the park a couple of times for exercise and that was about it. The rest of the day I spent getting caught up on some of my files etc. John also had a quiet day and tonight we enjoyed our Dungeness crab for dinner – yum!

It was 3 months ago today that we headed out from Sarnia on this trip – where does the time go!!

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 15, 2009

Today was very overcast with intermittent showers when we were getting ready to leave but at least it wasn’t a steady downpour. We headed out about 11:45 and stopped at the Crab Shop to buy another Dungeness crab for tomorrow night.

Tuesday seems to be a good travel day with little traffic so our 121 km (75 miles) trip was pretty quiet. There were wind alerts out but we didn’t experience any wind at Winchester Bay and just before Bandon, about 30 km from our destination, I said to John that it was nice that it wasn’t windy as predicted, no sooner were the words out of my mouth than wham, we hit the wind and boy was it blowing!!

We arrived at Port Orford RV Village about 1:30, it is a nice small park and we got an end pull thru site so have no one on our curbside and the site next to us on the roadside is empty so we aren’t the least bit crowded. The park is pretty well full but it appears that it is mainly fishermen who must come for the weekend or whatever as there certainly aren’t many people here now. The price for a month is $295.00, can’t beat that, so we have taken this site for a month. Now we know where we will be for Christmas and New Year’s and they have a Christmas dinner and a New Year’s Eve do so there will be festivities going on.

One of the travel journals I follow is Gordon & Juanita and they are here at this park for the winter. I met them both briefly, it’s nice to meet someone whose journal you have been following as I feel like I already know them.

After getting set up we drove into Port Orford, which is the oldest town on the Oregon coast, it is not a huge place but there is a grocery store. We went down to the dock and the waves were really crashing in but between the wind and rain I didn’t get out and take any pictures so these are the two I took out of the truck with the wind and rain blowing in on me.


The dock here is the only open-water port on the Oregon coast and is one of six “dolly ports” in the world where all the boats are hoisted into and out of the water daily. Of course with the wind yesterday I don’t imagine there were any boats out but it will be interesting watching them hoist them in and out.

We drove south a bit then came home, the coast looks beautiful along here so it will be fun exploring it. There is also Cape Blanco with its lighthouse to check out and apparently it is a great place to watch the ocean.

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 14, 2009

Today has been a wet, cloudy and cool day with a high of about 6C (42F), a good indoor type day.

It was pretty laid back for us, we went into Reedsport this morning to pick up a couple of things I forgot to get yesterday, then we came home and had lunch after which John got us hooked up ready for another travel day tomorrow. It wasn’t raining when he started but by the time he finished he was soaked, but as he said, he would rather do it in the wet today at 42F then in the wet tomorrow in the mid 30’s.

I have just messed around not doing anything particular, just enjoying being warm and dry on a damp, cool day!

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 13, 2009

Today started out overcast but turned into a beautiful mild, sunny day – can’t ask for anything better than this considering we are on the Oregon coast and not in the sunny, warm south.

We decided this morning to head north to the sea lion caves as they were supposed to be open yesterday after being closed all week for their annual elevator maintenance. Well, I guess if I had been smart I would have checked their web page but didn’t, so it was only when we got there we learned that the elevator still wasn’t working – darn, and the fellow said it would be at least Wednesday before it is back in business.

We drove a mile north from there to the Hecta Head Lighthouse parking lot but decided to just enjoy it from a distance rather than hiking up to the lighthouse, then we headed south. We stopped a small viewing area between the lighthouse and sea lions caves and lo and behold there were hundreds of sea lions on the beach and up on the rocks, so even though we couldn’t get into the caves and see them up close and personal we did see lot of them on the beach. Even from the viewing area the smell was pretty strong and the noise from them was very loud so I can only imagine what it would be like in the cave!
Sea Lions


Hecta Head Lighthouse


We then headed south, about as far as we had headed north, to Coos Bay for a quick stop at Wal Mart then on to Shore Acres State Park to enjoy their holiday lights. This is a walk through display with over 275,000 lights, most of them being L.E.D’s. The cost to enjoy this stunning display was $3 for parking and the displays were gorgeous, and included some animated ones - it reminded us of the displays at Waterloo park and Niagara Falls only here there was no snow and it was cold but not freezing!
Holiday Lights at Shore Acres









When we got back John barbecued burgers for a quick dinner and now it is catch up time for my bog.

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

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Yesterday was a plain yucky day – not a nice day for touring or doing any outdoor activities. It was a pretty quiet day for us here on the Oregon coast, I did laundry and that was about the height of my excitement for the day! We didn’t leave the park, just had a quiet at home day.

Today was much nicer, by noon the sun had come out and the temperatures were in the mid 40’sF (8-9C), it was actually very pleasant outside.

We decided to visit the Umpqua Discovery Centre in Reedsport, it is a way of discovering the natural and cultural history of the Oregon Coast. The discovery centre is very well done and the murals that decorate the whole display are awesome. We watched a couple of videos – one on the sand dunes, and one on bats that were most informative. I hate bats but certainly learned what a lot of good they do so shouldn’t be so disgusted by them!
Milliner's Shop at the Discovery Centre (My Grandmother was a Milliner so I am intrigued by these displays)

A Mural at the Discovery Centre

Another Mural at the Discovery Centre - This Lady's Eyes Followed Us As We Moved

After the Discovery Centre we drove up to the Drew River elk viewing area in the hopes of seeing some elk – well, we certainly weren’t disappointed. We saw quite a herd of them up close so were happy about that.
Elk


This Was the Only Guy With Antlers



On the way to the Umpqua Discovery Centre we stopped and bought a Dungeness crab for dinner – it was caught fresh today and cooked and the fellow cleaned it for us and packed it in ice so it was nice and cold all day – all for $3.99/lb. We also bought a large can of their canned salmon so it will be interesting to see what that tastes like.
Tonight's Dinner

Before returning home we again visited the Umpqua Lighthouse and enjoyed its wonderful night show! Somehow, I don’t think this is something you could ever get tired of seeing. (Click on the picture to enlarge it and you can see the colours the light throws on the trees).


Dinner is over and the Dungeness crab was absolutely succulent, we really enjoyed it and will definitely be buying a few more to enjoy while we are here.

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