Saturday, January 2, 2010

Today was supposed to be rainy but we fooled the weatherman and had a reasonably nice day with no rain. We had a bit of sun and the temperatures was in the mid 50’sF (12-13C) so not a bad day at all.

We talked to a few friends today – it’s always nice to chat and get caught up rather than always doing e-mail. I did a major cleaning today and some laundry – talk about boring, but it has to be done! The only thing I didn’t get done was washing the floors – I figured they could wait until another day and I’m sticking to my story!

Late this afternoon we went out to get our ocean fix – we went to Paradise Point and enjoyed the waves

and watching a fishing boat bouncing around in the swells and then down to the harbour.


We watched the sunset over the point at the harbour, and the waves crashing up on the rocks, the sunset was very pretty and a bonus as we hadn’t expected much of a sunset tonight.





Boat Winches at Port Orford Harbour


Dinner is over and once I get this posted my book will be calling me. And so ends another great gift of a day here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Happy New Year

Well, here it is 2010 and I can still remember all the hype and uncertainty that the year 2000 caused, sure seems like a long time ago.

Yesterday was a perfectly lousy day weather wise here on the Oregon coast with torrential rain and strong winds – a good day to hunker down and stay inside. Fortunately the temperature was fairly mild so at least it wasn’t a cold day.

They were having a little do here at the park at 6 p.m. with snacks and then cake and ice cream for anyone who had celebrated a birthday or anniversary in December – Charlie was the only celebrant for December so everyone sang happy birthday to him. We had bought Dungeness crab for our New Year’s Eve dinner so we went over and had a drink (no snacks) and socialized for an hour or so then came home and had a wonderful dinner. Charlie has a miniature cannon that he shot off just before we came home, for a small thing it sure made a heck of a boom – I just about jumped right out of my shoes!!

Today was a bit nicer with some sunny periods along with a bit of rain. This afternoon we went out to Paradise Point to see the waves, boy were they huge! We walked down to the beach and stood for a while watching the water but it was chilly after standing in the wind for a bit. At one point John was taking a picture and I called to him to watch out, there was a huge wave crashing up on shore farther than the other ones, he ran like heck to get out of the way or he would have gotten a good soaker – these are what they call rogue or sneaker waves.






We then drove down to the dock and Battle Rock where the waves weren’t nearly as big. We went to Cape Blanco and it was interesting there – one side of the cape was fairly quiet while on the other side the waves were crashing in pretty good. It was really windy there so we didn’t get out – just sat and watched them from the comfort of the truck.

It really poured on the way home but had stopped by the time we got back so John finished taking down the Christmas lights – all the Christmas stuff is now put away for another year.

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

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.