A Visit to the Newport Aquarium

Let's go see the fish. You're only seeing a few of the pictures that I really took.


jellyfish


blue fish


white jellyfish


blue and red fish


anemones


anemones and starfish



Tube in the fish tank. These are really fun to walk through.


shrimp


crab


jellyfish These are hard to catch a picture of...they wiggle too much!!

Bridges along the Pacific Ocean

I thought a Blog Post of the Bridges would be interesting. They were beautiful.




See the ocean in this one? Bottom right are the waves.


Newport, OR, at dusk.


Newport in the morning from the other side.


Retaining wall is the actual road. Way up on the hillside. Great view of the ocean. There are chain link mesh attached to the hillsides to help prevent falling stones.


Bridge over the Columbia River into Washington.


Up we go...


And down we go.. and on, and on, and on.

The Elks Club in Florence, OR

After dinner, we drove to the Elks Club in Florence, OR. We parked, but Rick was going to straighten up the Airstream a little bit.....the Suburban wouldn't start. At all. Sigh!!! Once again, it was the starter.


This time Rick didn't wave as the Suburban was towed away in the rain. Again I stayed in the Airstream and worked on the Blog.


Totem Pole in the Elks Club parking lot. Rick walked back from the garage, he said it was about a mile down the road. The sun came out.


The car was done about 3:30pm, so Rick walked back to get it. We drove about 3 hours up to the Newport, OR, Elks Club.

Winchester, OR

The whale watch people suggested eating in Winchester. All of the restaurants have great food.


Winchester Marina


We chose the Crabby Cafe because it overlooked the Marina. Great view while we ate.


Our appetisers were clam chowder and fried clam strips. This is the house salad that came with my fish and chips. Great shrimp. Rick had halibut stuffed with prawns.


Across the street were the Sportsman Restaurant


and the Anchor Grill

Along the Road on the Oregon Coast

All of the following we saw again and again along the way. I've never been in a Tsunami Zone before. At least I was never told that I was there. We lived in Alameda, CA, for 3 years, and never gave it a thought. I lived in Boston for a year and never heard about it, either. Rick was in Pensacola, FL, Glenco, GA and Whidby Island, WA, in training in the Navy, he,also, never heard about it. We honeymooned in Hawaii and still never saw a sign like this.


Beware!


Beware!!


This is the only picture I can find anywhere that says "Super Tent".... and it only says part of it. Now it's in WA and I'm in OH.... maybe I'll remember to take one in Alaska for the next Blog addition. Yes, I'll add it to this one... hopefully as we travel. I'm getting excited!!



I thought Spanish moss was only in the South. This sure looks like it! It was everywhere, on every tree and shrub. Click on pictures to see the 2 kinds of moss.



A different variety of moss was also on every tree and shrub. Click here to see the second type.

Over the coastal mountain range to the Pacific Ocean

Most of the route through the coastal range followed the middle branch of the Coquille River through the mountains. It was a beautiful drive. There were trees along the road, but once again, through the trees, the mountains had been clear-cut. Rarely had they been replanted, or so it seemed. In the higher elevations we once again drove through the snow. It was about 40 miles down to the ocean. Lots of flowers at the lower elevations, like daffodils and magnolias in the towns.

Finally arrive at the ocean, and we couldn't see the ocean. I think it was the Sand Dunes National Monument. They were huge! You could see that sometimes they even covered the road. Went on for miles. Many campgrounds along here....there were ATV's and dune buggy's everywhere and you could hear their motors.


Signs on the road said that there was whale watching ahead. This is the Umpqua River Lighthouse.


Across the street is this whale watching station. I was SO anxious to see the whales!! There was a family there, had been there all day watching the whales. They answered all our questions and told where to sight them. First get out the big binoculars...


See this wide beach and sand dunes? The breakwall points to where the whales can be sighted...with binoculars. You scan the ocean and look for small plumes of water shooting upward. This is a whale breathing....that's all that you can see. Rick was so disappointed, he thought they might come closer and shake his hand..tee! hee! We watched for about a half an hour.


Along side the parking lot was this jaw bone of a whale. Whales are huge!! When they're almost a mile away, they don't look so big.

Day 16 Northern CA to Oregon Mountains

After leaving the Elks Club, we found the Walmart where I'd called in one of my pills several days earlier. On our way back up into the mountains,


the rainbow was hard to catch.


We could see Shasta Lake many times from the road. We were amazed at the low levels of the lake. It was down 30-40', I'm sure. As the mountains got higher, the tops were all snow covered.


As we went up into the mountains and went over the 4000' level, here you see the almost blinding snowstorm the rain had turned into. It was so much, it was staying on the branches of the trees. Up in this area was the first time we'd ever see a bear crossing sign. No, didn't see any.


On the other side of the mountains, down we went again into another valley in Oregon. Now we sighted our first forsythia in blossom, and also other pink and yellow shrubs. Spring must be here. Go away snow! See the white patches on the mountains? Those are clear cut areas where they've cut all the trees in one section and the snow is visible because of it. We saw this all over Oregon. Only occasionally could we see where they had replanted.



Took us awhile to find the On The River Golf and RV Resort in Myrtle Creek, OR. Sounded good in the AAA campbook, but directions and signage were not. The next morning, by the light of day, Rick agreed, it really was a nice place.


Some of the friendly wildlife who came up to us begging for a treat!