Saw a Walgreen's sign that said: "Fun or Snack Size Candy". I figure the fun candy is for pelting your neighbors house when you have run out of toilet paper and the snack size is what you find in your lunch box at school.
Drove around a little, but everything is closed. So crashed again at 515am back at the parking lot outdoor hotel.
805am - up again. Went to Starbucks....got there at 815am.
Are you keeping up with me?
Did some photo editing. Left at 145pm.
Went looking around Newport.....again. Highway 101 through part of town is the main drag....and crowded this afternoon.
Drove over to 1702 Yaquina Bay Road to see that tall, big, green tank on the river's edge. I think it's natural gas in there. I'm thinking if that blew it might just take Newport with it. The seals would likely whisper after that.
NOAA ship here.
Explored more along SW Bay Blvd.
Waxworks is here.
Took a picture on SW 2nd St looking toward the Pacific Ocean. (NW side of the bridge) It gives an idea of the kind of housing, apartment and condo buildings in this area long with blown trees and a general wind and salt graying of every wooded structure.
Things Rich & Strange is here.....just in case you were wondering about that thing you saw in a mansion or in that house that hasn't yet taken down their Halloween decorations.
This picture is of the Nye Beach area. Gosh, you can only do 20mph here. Bikes go the way where there is no bike shop. Chickens. What are ya gonna do?
The essence of everything Nye Beach is in this picture looking north from Nye Beach.
Love the audience of one in this picture. I wanna be that guy on that bench.
Here's a picture of the beach looking west from this seagull scene. I would never grow tired looking at the waves coming in here nor hearing them crash on the beach from morning through the night. Great view for watching folks on the beach. These two look like they are clamming with their white buckets.
The housing here is like a compact Aptos, California of a beach cottages kind of place. Love it here. Reminds me of pictures I've seen of Martha Vineyard, places in Maine along the Atlantic Ocean, and cottage communities of the San Juan Islands in the state of Washington.
In the north end of Newport on NW Coast Way at the corner of NW 1st St is this beautiful Victorian style home with the longest chimney I've ever seen for a private home. And sure....it could be holding up the house. Santa would have a long way to go to get presents in their living room.
The whole Nye area has that coastal weathered wood thing going on. Love it here. Didn't I say that? I'm saying it a lot: Love it here.
On SW Bay Blvd. up along the river, north end of the bridge, are the Undersea Gardens. Wouldn't mind checking that out sometime.
East side and south end of the bridge over the river is bunches of cool places. There is what looks like a storage area where each aisle street is dressed up as storefronts where pirates go shopping. It's called "Aquarium Village". See the pictures below:
A little north from the village is the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Next trip I plan on taking a closer look here and going to the aquarium too.
Between the bridge and the aquarium....well, of course, you have to have a brewery for the pirates: Roque Brewery & Pub & Distillery.
Oh, yes...here's a picture of the bridge.....I wonder where the bouncing white ball is and what lyric I'm supposed to be singing. Or maybe there is a slinky nearby or this is a super ball roller coaster.
Not to mention Newport has an awesome harbor full of both cabin cruising and sailboat craft.
The Nordic Tug in front in red is one of my favorite boats!
The beaches here are awesome....sand that says come bring your bare feet here and bring your dune buggies.
Need a kite ....there is The Kite Company here. You'll have long stretches of beach to fly whatever you want to keep it high in the air.
The Yaquina Bay oysters I had at Mo's here on the wharf stripp on the north end of the bridge were to die for. Gosh I wish I could get those in Seattle. The farm is a ways down the river - The Oregon Oyster Farm - the state's oldest and still local farm. I'd like to visit the next time I am here.
The youth outreach company Shangri-La is building a facility in the north end of town. They have facilities in other Oregon coastal cities. A good thing for the struggling and vulnerable kids in these towns.
There are a lot of nice little old houses on the north end. Really enjoy driving around looking at them.
I drove up into a neighborhood where homes there have a view of the ocean. The homes are pretty weathered by the salt air. On Spring Street there is a house with a lighthouse mailbox no doubt to be their mini-Yaquina Head lighthouse that is just northwest from this location.
This area of homes, in the north end of Newport, is a lot like the saltwater weathered and worn are of Carmel and Monterey shoreline neighborhoods in California. Here's a view of Yaquina Head in the distance from NW Ocean View Drive and one zooming in on the Head.
320pm - Heading north on the coastal highway, skipping a visit to Yaquina Head park, but not before stopping on NW Agate Way to grab a picture of the beach and waves at the end of a dead end street. (The picture is edited to bring out the waves even tho this was taken mid-afternoon.)
On the same street were these multi-colored apartments....
A lot of the businesses I saw on the highway included HVAC services, construction trades, the typical city stuff, car dealers, retail stores, breweries, fishing, movie theatres, etc. So there's of trades and living support here in Newport.
Depoe Bay sign came up and said it's nine miles north and that Lincoln City is twenty-four miles.
The beaches near Moolack Shores resort are 'sandy beach' gorgeous of long distance open beach.
Drove up past the Otter Rock area. Didn't stop by the small lighthouse there as in previous coastal road trips. There is a beautiful resort there in Otter Rock that would be fun to stay in sometime - Inn at Otter Crest.
340pm - Entered into Depoe Bay. Drove over to the harbor side and took a picture of it.
Most of the boats are fishing boats. To get out to the ocean they have to pass through this tight small width s-curved path under this bridge to get to the ocean (lower left in the picture). It's easier to get out of the harbor and far harder to get back in so boaters don't crash their boats on the rocks. The trick is to center their boat in the channel on a wave that pushes it in just right to make it to the safety of the harbor. It's harder in bad weather and when there are big swells.
Lots of good places to eat here. Depoe Bay would be fun to come to if one lived in Newport. The US Coast Guard Lifeboat Station is here. I took some time to drive around Depot Bay. When I was at the harbor I had to use the restroom there, but when I opened the door for the men's side there was a senior aged lady in there. I quickly closed the door and later apologized to her. She said - 'oh don't worry about it, we're all older now.' I laughed with her about the incident. She too was traveling the coast.
Took a picture of the ocean side beach bluffs here. They look like they were made by the laying down of a giant's hand.
I also took a picture of the main drag in Depot Bay.
There is an amazing amount of lava flow all along the Oregon Coast as you see above. I really don't know where it comes from. It's not like there are volcanos here, but apparently, according to geologists, lava flowed to the coast from as far as Yellowstone and closer from volcanos in the Cascades mountain range.
It was a bit overcast here in Depot....a little after 4pm.
There be whale watching here, some stores, lodges, a Thriftway grocery store, and the Depoe Bakery. Depot Bay looks to make it on fishing and tourism while many work in Newport or north in Lincoln City.
Drove up past Lincoln Beach and past the ever growing Salishan Resort. Need to explore that next time. The guy who put this in place is the same guy who put Sunriver together: John Grey.
421pm - Entered Lincoln City.
West of Hwy 101 in Siletz Bay just before the mouth of Schooner Creek are these rocks sticking up with trees on them. Oddest thing really. Just past the bridge over the creek is the Siletz Bay Park where I parked, during construction of the hotel there, to see these rocks eroding away every so slowly by the shallow bay waters.
Wandered over to see a favorite Mo's on SW 51st Street....tho for as many times as I have been to seeing the place I still have not been there, but I've heard the best of Mo's clam chowder is served here.
There's a community stage place here called "Theatre West". So cool!!
And, oh look....there's an independent bookstore here.
There's also an Outlet Mall. If you live between Florence and Newport you come here to the outlets in Lincoln City instead of going through the mountains to Corvalis or Eugene.
Charter Cable ...and here I thought this was an east coast gig.
Goodwill is here. So is AT&T.
Seems to be plenty of good things here.
Got a craving for snacks? No worry, there's a Snack Attack place here for ya.
The world's shortest river is here: D River.
There's a cultural center here and then there is this place: THE RED COCK. 'Oh for crying out loud it's a gift store !!' If you were thinking something else well you can go to the Nauti Mermaids Bar and Bistro.
Pacific Wave Resource Center? It's a marijuana shop. Who knew?!
Gotta come back here sometime and just explore all the cute little houses here. I really love what people do to create them and add to landscaping and design of their yards.
There is the quaint place to stay called the Beachfront Garden Inn and it's on the water.
Lots of shopping areas here.
Lincoln City is also home to kite flying contests on the beaches here. I used to come to them when I lived in the 80s in Portland, OR.
5:01pm - Decided I would like to go home. As much as I enjoy driving and exploring I was getting a bit homesick for the first time in my life. Saw a sign that it was 89 miles to Portland and about 160 miles to home. So I got onto Hwy 18 to head back inland. Passed the sign that McMinnville was 44 miles away.
1754-miles so far on this trip.
Drove by Widow Creek. Not really sure there was a creek.
Sidenote: I'm living alongside a whole new generation who thinks texting is just another kind of email.
Stopped at Spirit Mountain Casino Shell station to get some gas, but it wasn't open.
Just passed the sign for the turn-off that goes to Amity and Salem (sign in the Bellevue area).
Passed the Lawrence Gallery. They are having a Salvador Dali show there. He's one of my favorite artists.
5:56pm - Entered McMinnville. 1796-miles so far. Stopped at a Mobil station to get gas: 9.96gallons, 2.35/gal.
Ate some sandwiches at Burger King. This is the same place I ate at when I was on my way down 18 and off to Salem at the beginning of this trip. Great place.
Called my girl Carol to let her know that I was on my way home.
6:39pm - leaving McMinnville.
Drove by a business with the coolest sign: Goo Roo Designs. Learned later they are a smoke and headshop who makes custom glass if that's your thing. Highly rated.
On my way now to Newberg.
Drove by a dog and cat inn called "Tail Wag Inn". I guess if you don't have a tail you aren't getting in.
Drove by Tina's ....turns out that's a fine dining place and has quite the menu of expensive good eats.
7pm - Entered Newberg. - would like to explore more here sometime. It's changed quite a bit from when I lived in Oregon back in the mid-80s. Tried to look for Mr. Miller's old house. He was like a grandfather to me when I lived in Tualatin, OR. We went to the same church together and I had spent a bit of time with him. I really drove around a lot to try to find that house, but I don't think it was there anymore. Maybe someone had bought the property and tore it down to build something new. It was night time when I was looking ....so maybe it would be better to attempt it during daylight on another trip. Mr. Miller has a kind of grass growing on his property that the University of Oregon has never seen anywhere else in the world. Mr. Miller also loaded his own bullets - was quite knowledgeable about them and guns in general. He had been a gardener all his life. He was quite the person to talk to about Christian things and bible verses. I had always enjoyed by time with him at church, him showing me things at his house and going grocery shopping with him. He has long since passed on. I could feel his energy and our time together when visiting around the area where he lived ...on this trip.
Drove by a bookstore called "Chapters Books". Love that name.
Drove by a buffet called "99 Pounds Buffet" - Japanese and Chinese. Learned later it has closed down. It's a Black Bear restaurant now.
Entered Sherwood. This is a place I used to come down through here to get to Newburg when I lived in Tualatin. I hardly recognized, but that might be because it was dark when I drove through here.
Took the turn-off at Sherwood to go to Tualatin. I used to live in Tualatin in the mid-80s. Great place to live. I really enjoyed by time living there.
Downtown Tualatin has really exploded - it's very different from what I remember. Drove my my old apartment there at Rolling Hills Apartments. It's become a bit trashy these days. Too bad. Was a great place to live. I had a studio with separate 1-bedroom as they called that back then.
Tualatin has become southern Californized. They have an open mall area similar to the one in Tigard near I-5. In Tualatin mall shopping area there is a statue of an elephant. Seems inappropriate, but perhaps it's owned by someone in India where that might be of importance. It just didn't fit. I didn't like seeing it there. There is nothing elephanty about Tualatin. What Tualatin is famous for are crawdads since they can be fished out of the Tualatin River and that Tualatin has a Crawday Festival each year. So there should have been a statue of a crawdad there.
The topless place I enjoyed going to called "Giggles" is gone. Oh so many memories there. It was there in 2010.
Ah, but there is Dick's Sporting Goods nearby. It's 'home for big truckers owners'.....yea, the sign out front says that.
Driving on I-5 there is just too much space between cars. I think I should give out 'less than capacity' tickets.
In the Bridgeport/Tigard area is an open mall like those I saw in Los Angeles and in San Diego. Drove up to Washington Square shopping area and Powells Bookstore where I went all the time when I lived down here and Fuddruckers burger joint that I loved to eat at are both gone. The mall area here is totally different and yuppied up a bit on steroids.
8:38pm - Stopped at ate at an old kind of restaurant that I loved to eat at when I lived here - Bannings. And it was really, really good ....as I remember. They are open 24 hours. Just awesome food and good waiting. They really take good care of their customers. Left about 950pm and started the long trek home.
The Portland skyline....it's always been good and STILL IS !!
10:25pm - Left Portland area and crossed the border into Washington. I have to say tho that I still miss living in the Portland area despite the changes. So I hope to come back some time.
Pretty dark now driving north and through the deader than the desert at night segments of the trip.
11:34pm - Stopped at Love's truck stop just before Chehalis to take a nap. Woke up at 117am to get back on the freeway to head home.
3:02am - Took the Lake City turnoff from I-5.
3:15am - made it home. Yay!! Did 2036-miles on this trip. Really glad to be home! Oh, but this trip was everything awesome. Thank you so much to my friend Mary for making this happen.
End Note:
I didn't write much after leaving Lincoln City, OR as it was dark by the time I reached the Amity sign area and into McMinnville. I wiggled my way into Tualatin, got something to eat at Bannings and took off for home up I-5. There are so many places I want to come back to now, so many places I saw that I loved, so many places that now have memory markers laid in so I can experience that emotion that happens when you know you've been there before. I look forward to that....a lot!
I'll probably do some updates on this trip blog so look for that.
End of Trip Blog
