Port Orford, Oregon

We left Newport this morning and headed south on the coast highway, highway 101. It was a scenic drive. We are heading to the area of the Redwoods National Park in northern California, but we decided to take 2 days as we expected the road to be quite slow. This section wasn't as bad as we expected and we were in Port Orford by 1 p.m. The highlight of the drive down was when we pulled into a scenic overlook. We were pleasantly surprised to hear and see a large group of Sea Lions below us. It turns out that we were at a point just below the Sea Lion Caves. We got to see the Sea Lions without stopping and paying.



We stopped at a Passport America park in Port Orford, Oregon. It is a small park with a handful of sites for overnighters. Most of the park contained aged RVs that appeared to have not been moved for years and probably are lived in full time. Passport America is an organization that provides members sites for half price. This campground was one that appeared to have no one in for full price. Anyone paying twice what we did for an overnight stay would probably be disappointed as everything looked run down and needing attention. We got full hook ups in sites that were just large enough. The cable tv worked well but we could not get a signal on the wifi even when we brought a computer to the office.

Port Orford like so much of the Oregon coast is a very scenic area. We went out to see the sunset at Paradise Point north of town. It is a great view, with "shark's tooth" rocks that are reported to be 5 miles out but appear much closer. We also stopped at the beach north of town for another great view. There were a lot of very tame deer in town near the park.

What a great sunset, just loved it, but was a little windy.


Sharktooth rocks

Whaler's Rest

We are spending a week at the Whaler's Rest Leisrure Time Park just south of Newport, Oregon. It was an easy drive here from Seaside. Easy but not quick. The drive of approximately 125 miles took around 3 hours down highway 101 which is a slow winding hilly road. It does have a lot of nice views making it worth while. We stopped at a Les Schwab tire dealer on the way to have one of our tires looked at. We had a gash in one of the drive axle tires. It looked like a sharp cut but not very deep. We don't know how it happened but our best guess is that it was a sharp rock in one of the campgrounds. The tire person looked at it and said that it was not quite to the belt so it would not be a problem. The large semi truck size tires that we use have thick side walls so I guess that we were lucky this time.

The park we are in is wooded and fairly hilly. With the help of the ranger we were able to find one of the few available sites where we could get satellite reception through the trees. The site is closer to neighbors than we like but it works. The area is scenic. The park is across the highway from the ocean. There is a state park there. It is an easy walk to go over and go to the beach. We can hear the surf easily from our site.

So far the weather has been cooperative. The mornings are cool but warm quickly with the sunshine which has so been plentiful. Our friends Bob and Julie came in the day after we did. We have been playing pickleball most mornings. There are several other pickelball players.

Barb and Julie tried their luck at crabbing. Turns out they didn't have too much luck but it is about having a good time, isn't it? Ok while Julie and Barb got a good lesson about crabbing on Friday, they went out again on Sat morning with even more dismal luck than on Friday.

Picture of our lesson on how to tell a male from a female, really simple, the male has a long skinny tower and of course the female has a very large round bottom.
Julie holding the only keeper that was caught by our group of ten, Barb and Julie caught 2 good size female, but just our luck you cannot keep the females.


Tuesday morning while Barb was painting the cabinet doors, the couple next door gave her six of the 12 crabs they caught that morning, they even cooked and cleaned them for us. Nothing like great campers. Oh, by the way they have crabbed a lot and they cheated using a boat. Just jealous that we didnt have a boat.


wow just look at this, we plan a great dinner.

Forts and aTower and Food

We had a busy day. We played pickleball in the morning and went sightseeing in the afternoon. Well, we started the sightseeing trip with a stop at the Goose Hollow Restaurant for a hearty lunch. Dennis and Bob both ordered what was billed as "the best Reuben on the planet" and they agreed that it was a very good Reuben indeed.

We headed on to Lewis and Clark National Park and spent some time going through the museum and replica of Fort Clatsop, which was where Lewis and Clark spent their winter on the west coast.
Lewis and Clark with Seamon


one of the hollowed out boats



We then visited the Astoria Tower which is on a hill and provides great views. Actually the view is great from the hill and even better from the tower. It overlooks the city and the mouth of the Columbia and the long bridge between Washington and Oregon as well as the Cascade Mountains. Even on a bit of a hazy day we were able to see Mt. Rainer and just make out the top of Mt. St. Helen's.This is one georgous tower


what a view from the top


Before leaving Astoria we just had to stop for cones at the great custard ice cream cone stand across from the Columbia Maritime Museum. We each managed to eat one of the delicious filling cones, even after the large lunch we had earlier.

Our last stop was at Fort Stevens State Park. We went to the beach and viewed the Peter Iredale Shipwreck. The rusty remains are what is left after 103 years.

Bob wanted to share this moment one ole wreck with another ole wreck.

A Cheesy Day

We took an afternoon drive to Tillamook which is about 50 miles south of Seaside. Bob and Julie rode with us. It is slow but pleasant trip down highway 101. There are numerous vista Ocean views along the route. The tourist attraction in Tillamook is the famous cheese factory. We went through and got our free cheese samples then went through the self guided tour of the facility, learning a bit about the local operation and cheese making in general. We bought some of the cheese in the store. This was followed by what was the highlight of the trip for most of us at the ice cream shop. The fare was delicious and plentiful. Oddly, Bob declined as a dietary measure. The rest of us spoiled our appetite for dinner, so perhaps it wasn't so bad for our diets either.

Julie makes a good farmer, but don't about
Bob.


Dennis didn't want to be a cow, so here I am.


good shot of the factory.

Ecola Beach

We drove a few miles south of Seaside to Ecola State Park. We were going with Bob and Julie but we decided to take the dogs, so we took Roxie with us in our car and the took their 2 dogs, Odie and Scruffy, with them in their truck. After leaving 101 and entering the park we drove down a small winding road through thick, lush Forrest for about 3 miles. Then we came to the beach.

We had been told that dogs may be off leash if they are under voice command, so we pretended to be in charge and the dogs had a good day. They played with other dogs, swam, ran and generally were having a dog day. Roxie managed to find something smelly to roll in so that she needed a bath later.
Roxie just loving this better than even food.

OH, No, here's Roxie leading the little guys astray.



The beach was beautiful on this sunny afternoon. We watched the surfers, and the surf. A lighthouse and large rocks were in the water in the cove ahead of us.


this was really a beautiful site.


There were a lot of surfers out today

Seaside, Oregon

We are spending two weeks at the Leisure Time Park at Seaside, Oregon. When we arrived on the 15th of September the park was full in contrast to nearly everywhere else we have been this summer. This is a nice park for RVers. All of the sites are full service, flat and easy to get into. There are enough trees to give it a pleasant atmosphere without endangering RV's or getting in the way of setting up satellite systems.

The town of Seaside is charming little town that is as its name implies right along the beautiful Oregon coast. There are a lot of interesting shops and restaurants.

Our friends Bob and Julie are here and we have been able to spend a lot of time with them. They were at La Conner but had to leave a week before we did. There have also been a few other pickelball players here and we have been able to play every day except one when it rained. The weather has mostly been quite nice, sunny and mild.


Bob and Julie returned to Sea Side to travel with us for a bit. Barb and Julie got right into some projects, beading of course, but since there are a lot of fruits around this time of year they decided to can peaches, and they did a great job of it.


Can't wait to eat these, think we will get some ice cream. yum.