Friday, January 22, 2010

Another quiet couple of days have passed since I last posted my blog but again there isn’t much to write about.

On Wednesday it was raining in the morning but we decided to take a run up to Coos Bay and do some shopping. By the time we were finished shopping the sun had come out and it had warmed up – bonus!

We decided to go over to Charleston and take the scenic route back. Last time we were there we took the Cape Arago Road as far as the lookout for the Cape Arago lighthouse but we didn’t go to the end of the road so this time we decided to check out the rest of the road. It’s a good thing we did as we had missed Simpson Reef that is home to all kinds of seals, sea lions etc. There were sea lions up on the rocks sunning themselves and all kinds of them in the water – fun to watch.

Sea Lions on the Rock


Sea Lions In the Water


We went to the end of the road and again got out and watched the ocean and saw a few sea lions swimming past there so it was a good day for seeing ocean wildlife as well as watching the waves. Now, if only we could see a whale!

View at End of Cape Arago Road




Paradise Beach


Thursday was a quiet day, it rained in the morning then was nice in the afternoon. We went down to the dock to watch the waves but they had calmed down considerably and the same at Paradise Beach. There was a beautiful sunset, I tried to get a couple of pictures - it was hard trying to catch it on the camera through the trees but we knew if we tried to drive to Paradise Beach we would miss it by the time we got there.

Sunset at Port Orford RV Village

Today was another quiet day, it was sunny this morning but then rained off and on in the afternoon with little bursts of sunshine in between. I got the laundry done but that was about it for the day. It has cooled down the last few days with highs of about 51F (10C) and lows of around 45F (7C) – we would be happy to see it warm up a bit again.

California is getting torrential rains, and snow storms in the higher areas, so we hope it gets it all over with before we leave here in a couple of weeks.

And so ends more great gifts of days here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another interesting day tomorrow, no matter what the weather is like.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wow, what a couple of wild days we have had weather wise, lots of wind and rain.

Yesterday afternoon we went out to Cape Blanco then down to Paradise Beach to watch the waves that are just so fascinating to watch. It had rained in the morning but had stopped by early afternoon so at least we didn’t have rain to contend with when we went out. John walked down to the beach at Paradise but I didn’t as the wind and rain had done a pretty good job of beating the path up so I didn’t want to take a chance on it.

Monday's Waves






When we came back we walked around the park and stopped to chat with Claudia and Gene. They have 3 fishing boats here and have just had one revamped so are doing the final touches before taking it out. While we were talking the sky cleared off and the sun came out so I said something to Claudia about the blue sky and she said “oh yes, a sucker hole”. I thought that was a pretty apt term as shortly thereafter it was completely overcast and the wind came up and the rain came on. John had thought it would be a pretty good night to grill (that’s the sucker part of the blue sky!!) but he had trouble with the wind blowing the barbecue out, on the other hand he was lucky that the rain took a short rest while he was out grilling so at least he didn’t get wet!

I would like to thank Winchuck River Store & Electric Powered Kayak for telling me what happened to the Brooking Bears (see the comment on my January 17th blog) and it would be nice if Brookings’ could get their own bears as they certainly added pizzaz to the main street.

Last night was pretty crazy with the wind and we did quite a bit of shaking but it is nice and cozy in here while the weather is raging outside so we don’t mind it at all.

This morning was totally yucky – rain, rain and more rain although the wind had died down. High tide was just after 1:30 this afternoon so we thought we would again drive around and look at the sea and oh wow, what a sight it was. The waves were just pounding in at Paradise Beach and down at the dock they were crashing up on the dock and jetty like crazy – what a wonderful show they put on! It looked like the porta potty at the dock might have taken a bit of a ride in the wind – can’t imagine that that would be very pretty!!

Today's Waves





Luckily it stopped raining just as we got in the truck and while we were out there were lots of “sucker holes” with sunshine and blue sky, but we know that it isn’t going to last! The wind is coming up again so I imagine we will be in for another windy night, at least tonight we will be doing an inside dinner so John doesn’t have to worry about grilling. There was a lot of debris on the roads today from all the wind – lots of twigs, small branches and leaves and if the wind keeps up I am sure there will be even more tomorrow.

They are calling for five back to back storms so I think we are in for a few more wet and windy days so I am sure you will be getting real tired of storm pictures on my blog.

I just started The Devil’s Punchbowl by Greg Isles on my Kindle so will be picking that up when I get this finished.

And so ends another two great gifts of days here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another interesting day tomorrow, no matter what the weather is like.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Again, it’s been a couple of days since I’ve posted but it is hard to find something to write about when you aren’t on the road and doing and seeing new things.

Thursday was a beautiful day and Tim (our park owner) built a fire for a happy hour, it was a nice visit with people from the park as well as Tim & Cindy. Other than that it was a quiet but pleasant day.

Friday it started to rain about noon and rained the rest of the day, a good day for doing laundry and I was lucky that I had the whole place to myself. I also settled up with Tim for our electric and propane for the past month and paid for the rest of our time here.

Earlier in the week I talked to a park in Yuma that we had hoped to try this year and they had just had a cancellation for February and March so we took the spot starting February 8th. We will be sorry to leave the Oregon coast as we really like it here, despite all the rain, but we are looking forward to getting some sun and warmer temps.

Yesterday was another rainy day but we headed south to Gold Beach where we picked up a couple of crabs for dinner and I bought a new sweat shirt, then we went on to Brookings where we picked up a couple of things at Fred Meyer. With our discount we filled up the truck at Fred’s for $2.899/gallon for diesel, we then drove down into California and the only gas station we saw had diesel at $3.219/gallon – OUCH!!

Tim and Cindy were in California and Nevada over the Christmas holidays and Tim says the roads in California are terrible – we can hardly wait to make the trip with bad roads and expensive fuel!!

A while ago I posted pictures of the painted bears on the main street of Brookings but yesterday they were all gone, we don’t know if it is just a holiday thing or if they put them away for the winter, I will have to ask someone about that.

Today was another VERY WINDY day with rain off and on - at times our house on wheels was shaking pretty good. Two motor homes came in early this afternoon and we are thinking they probably got off the road because of the wind.

This afternoon we went to the matinee at the local theatre to see It’s Complicated, we quite enjoyed it and the price was right - $5.00 each. From there we went to the Crazy Norwegian for dinner – we split a combination plate with shrimp, fish, clams, French fries and a pasta salad – it was very good and reasonable at a total price of $20 for the dinner and a beer each.

It is still windy, hopefully it will abate by morning. We drove to a lookout over the harbour on the way to the show and oh my, the waves were really something else. Unfortunately, I hadn’t grabbed my camera before we left so no pictures from today but I will post a few that I have taken in the last week. Hope my readers aren’t getting totally bored with water pictures!






And so ends another four great gifts of days here on the Oregon Coast and we look forward to another nice day tomorrow, no matter what the weather is like.