After a day of driving through the lush green Willamette Valley, breakfast with family in Eugene, a couple stops along the Oregon Coast near Berry Creek and Cape Perpetua, and an unintentional wipe out while descending a cliff in the dark, we got a fairly decent night's sleep in a Yurt.
If you're just joining the story, this is day two. You might want to check out the archives in the sidebar to read parts 1 through 3.
Now that I've established that this is day two, let's back up for a minute to the end of day one.
On Saturday night, we wandered up and down the streets of Newport's Old Bayfront, looking for a place to eat.
While nothing really jumped out at us (and probably a good reason nothing did jump out at us, because it was dark out and there are critters in the water, like... I don't know. The Giant Squid. Or something. This is Oregon, Bigfoot territory. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some slippery land-crawling sea creature out for LOLs, scaring unsuspecting tourists on the Old Bayfront at night.)
..where was I?
Oh yeah. Nothing appealed to us for dinner, but we did see some cool whale stuff.
D has a daughter who is very interested in whales, and he took these pictures to show her.
(I'm on a secret mission to have her come out and visit, and whale watching could be a lot of fun.)
Here is one of many many places offering whale watching trips.
The 3-hour bay crabbing intrigues me. I assume that's the activity where you lower baited crab pots into the water, wait around and tell shipwreck stories, then pull up the pots to see how many crabs you will get to cook for dinner.
As opposed to going on on a 3-hour excursion with an unpleasant sea captain who complains about everything under the sun. Actually, I can actually imagine someone organizing a 3-hour boat trip for grouchy women, purposely not serving wine or chocolate, and call it therapeutic.
"Let it all out, honey. You tell me all about it."
This is Oregon. They do stuff like that.
People here in Oregon pay for activities like that.
I don't think I want to go on that kind of crabbing trip.
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| Newport's Old Bayfront is really neat. It's a working seaport, so there are seafood processing factories right on the main drag. Because the walls are often windowless, local artists have covered them with murals that depict the local area, like this one of grey whales. |
So now fast forward back to Sunday morning.
In the past post, I mentioned that our schedule for this day was left open so we could explore whatever looked interesting, without having to watch the clock.
Today we saw a couple of cool bridges, sea lions, two dead jellyfish (they were on the sidewalk, so I'm pretty sure they were dead,) kelp, and whale artifacts.
All while properly dressed, Oregon style.
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| D is getting ready for the day by putting on his sumo wrestler socks. |
You already know we woke up in a Yurt.
Going with the Y theme, we had a Yummy breakfast at Yaquina.
(Oops, couldn't help the alliteration. I'll try to tone it down.)
Being thrifty, we had packed a cooler before leaving Portland, so we wouldn't have to eat out for every meal.
On our way into town, we stopped for D's first Oregon-style coffee drive through.
He ordered a cup of brewed coffee while I treated myself to a tall breve.
(Don't worry, I'm working on Oregonizing him and his coffee habits. By the end of his next visit here he'll be ordering a tall Americano with an extra shot... without even having to think about it.)
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Brunch was ham and cheese sandwiches, deviled eggs, tangerines, and cinnamon rolls.
And coffee.
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| Deviled eggs on the dashboard, with a view of the bridge in the fog. |
After brunch, we returned to the Old Bayfront in the morning and I regret to inform you that we did not take any more pictures, and I was thinking at that time that we should have, but that thought didn't travel from my brain down my arm, to my hand, and into my pocket where I keep the camera.
Please accept my sincerest apologies.
Meanwhile, here's what you missed:
Walking past Trident Foods, a crew was working to offload pallets of frozen whiting (fish), and we had to dodge moving forklifts and two dead jellyfish as we walked along the sidewalk.
Remember the Japanese tsunami in March 2011? A 188-ton, 68 foot long concrete dock broke off from the Miswa seaport in Japanese seaport. Fifteen months later, it washed ashore near Newport, Oregon. It has since been cleaned of all invasive species and has been put on display as a reminder and educational tool .
Sea lions. But not the ones we were hoping to see.
More murals.
A long meandering drive along the Yaquina Bay and up the Yaquina River, past several sloughs, historical markers, and an oyster farm, all the way to Toledo.
That's Toledo, Oregon. We didn't drive all the way to Ohio, although not having checked a map before setting out on this long road, I suspected that's where we might end up
We returned to the Yurt and checked out, then hit the road, heading north on Hwy 101 to Depoe Bay, our only planned stop of the day.
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Depoe Bay is the place to go for whale watching on the Oregon Coast.
They have a pod of about 60 year round resident grey whales, who don't migrate between Alaska and Baja California.
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We walked under the Depoe Bay Bridge to the whale watching center, which was fascinating.
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| At the OPRD Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay, there are counts of whale spottings. None have been seen today because the whales typically are about a mile and a half from shore and the visibility is less than that. |
This long bone is the jawbone of a grey whale.
The sign behind it talks about Mysid Shrimps, which is what grey whales eat.
According to the information here, whales eat 500-2500 lbs of Mysid Shrimp every day.
On one the papers in front of the bone, there is a tiny round jar, which holds a single Mysid Shrimp.
(imagine an exploding sound right here)
Mind blown.
Brief pause here for a personal comment:
I love museums and dig science-y stuff, and this whale center completely fascinated me. I wanted to slow down and read everything and see everything, and I was bummed that it was too foggy outside to see the whales.
(I've never seen a whale in real life.)
Spending time here with D was a real treat. He didn't rush me or say "I'm bored," as I meandered around looking at all the whale and fossil exhibits on the main floor, and reading the historical information and looking at the pictures upstairs.
(Not being rushed by other members of my party is a first for me.)
We decided we definitely want to return (on a clear day) and I decided I definitely love exploring this sort of thing with him.
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| D laughed at this last line: Oddest |
When we had seen all we could see, we decided to hit the road heading north to Lincoln City, then take the highway back over the mountains from there.
A quick stop for ice cream at Snack Attack (required - my car, my rules), a quick (sort of) side trip up to Pacific City to see the rock and the dune, and then we cruised through the Van Duzer Corridor as we crossed the mountains back into the valley.
It was so much fun!
I can't wait for our next "Zip!Trip"
by P
If you are intrigued by this part of our Zip!Trip, here are some links with more information:
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