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.