Note: We love the wild and beautiful Pacific Northwest coast and hope to return for a visit someday. In the meantime, here is a blog post about a fun day spent on the Oregon coast.
While staying in Florence, we decided to drive to Newport to look at a couple of options there for our next stop. It is about 50 miles from Florence to Newport and it’s a very scenic drive with lots of beautiful vistas of Pacific waves crashing onto unspoiled beaches.
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Along the way, Terry got a couple of pictures of the historic Heceta Head Lighthouse, a few miles north of Florence. We love lighthouses, and the Oregon coast has a lot of them to delight any photographer.
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I made a mental note not to get too close to the side when we come through here in the motorhome.
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We stopped to check out Whalers Rest, a Thousand Trails campground as well as the Elks lodge in Newport. The lodge has back-in RV sites with water and electric, and is only a couple of blocks from the historic waterfront. That would work okay too.
Our friend Laurie Brown had also suggested the campground that the Lincoln City Elks operates, and since it was only another 21 miles further north, we figured, why not? The campground is located a couple of miles up a two-lane road off Highway 101, and as it turns out, recent construction has left the roadway very rough and uneven. The campground was okay, but we decided that we like Newport a lot better.
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Driving back, we had to stop in several places so Terry could take more pictures. When you combine the spectacular natural beauty all along the coast with Terry’s excellent eye, and her new Panasonic Lumix FZ40 digital camera, that’s one heck of a winning combination. The only problem is that she takes hundreds of pictures on every outing, and I spend hours deciding which ones to use because they’re all so good.
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Depoe Bay is famous for its spouting horns, rock formations that have holes eroded into them by eons of wave action, and when the surf crashes into them, they send up amazing waterspouts that look like a whale spouting. After an eruption of water and spray, the water foams and washes over the rocks, and then it’s time for the next wave to hit, and the process repeats itself all over again. I could spend hours watching the waterspouts. They’re just amazing to see.
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Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
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Years ago, on a trip to the area, we stopped to watch the spouting horns and got a bonus when somebody pointed out two gray whales playing just offshore. There were no whales yesterday, so we had to settle for this seagull instead.
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As we approached Newport on the return trip, Terry took this picture of another historic lighthouse, this one at Yaquina Head. She took the picture from about two miles away, using the camera’s zoom lens, and without a tripod. Though it’s a little grainy from the magnification, it still looks neat.
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The clouds and sunlight were creating amazing patterns on the sky and water, and Terry shot several pictures that capture the beauty of it all. This is my favorite.
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The secretary at the Florence Elks lodge had recommended a Chinese restaurant called Chen’s Family Dish, so we stopped for dinner when we got back to town. If you’ve read the blog for any length of time, you know that I love Chinese restaurants, and I can say without a doubt that it was absolutely THE BEST we have ever had anywhere! I had the crab fried rice, and it was light and delicious. The serving was huge, with big chunks of crab meat. I wasn’t sure I could finish all of it, but it was way too good to leave any on the plate! Terry had a seafood stir fry that included fish, shrimp, clams, scallops, mussels, and lots of veggies, over glass noodles. Again, a huge serving, and she said it was beyond delicious. The servers were very friendly, the restaurant is very clean and new looking, and the prices are reasonable. We’ll probably only be in Florence one more night, but you can guess where we’ll be going back for dinner!
Thought For The Day – I was put on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind, I will live forever.