We had rain during the night, but it was mostly clear with the usual fog lurking about. Walks went on as normal. Depoe Bay’s “downtown” is two and a half blocks. One long block, one short, and a few business at both ends. It’s all on the east side of the street. The west side is the Pacific Ocean. Today’s photo extravaganza is all the storefronts in the long block. You’ll see plenty of gift shops. And, surprisingly, Gracie’s Sea Hag is suddenly open for breakfast.

We drove into Newport today with two purposes in mind:

The Nye Beach Shopping District

Nye Beach has a nifty little shopping district with some eclectic shops. One in particular is our favorite – the Archway Market and Cafe. It’s part cafe, part normal market, a wine store, and an interesting gift shop with some unique items. Last year we bought a bunch of stuff to use as stocking stuffers and we wanted to repeat that experience. Mission accomplished! Here are some pictures taken around the Nye Beach district (although none of at the Corner Market). Go figure. Petunia’s Porcelin Gifts (with all the rules) didn’t open until noon, so we couldn’t visit. I resisted going into Bridie’s Irish Shop for fear of dropping lots of coin on things I didn’t need. The sign about toxic clams may well explain why I haven’t seen razor clams, an area staple, on any menus. The last picture is actually a designed sculpture made of whale bones and whale teeth.

The Pacific Maritime Heritage Center

The Center is run by the Lincoln County Historical Society. It’s located at the harbor practically right next to Local Oceans, our lunchtime restaurant of choice. (You can see Local Oceans and its mural in the shots from the rook of the Heritage Center which offers a great view of the harbor and the Yaquina Bay Bridge.) But we had never been into the Museum. It sounded boring. In fact, it’s a little hidden gem. There are lots of exhibits about fishing and lumbering. Newport is a fishing capital and is sometimes called the Dungeness Crab Capital of the World. And logging is another local key industry with its capital in Toledo located just 10 miles away. Lots of commercial fishing and crabbing is centered in Newport Harbor (which is noted as one of the most dangerous harbors in the world to navigate). There is an interesting room detailing the life of Ernest Bloch, Jewish composer and humanist, who spent the last 18 years of his life in a house at Agate Beach in Newport. There is a great story about the Bloch’s crucifix statue here. And there is a special exhibit of art by Harvard educated Josie Iselin about the Curious World of Seaweed. All in all, it was a great stop and a couple of hours well spent. We were the only ones in the place!

Busy day! Then home for naps and balcony viewing in, once again, great weather. (The forecast for Sunday, the day we head south to Trinidad, CA, on is not so good – more later.) Cocktails were ,much enjoyed p the balcony. And then it was dress up (sort of – at least I wore socks) and out to dinner at Tidal Raves. Smoked salmon chowder and crab cakes for Elaine. Shrimp & crab cocktail followed by local halibut special for me. Great wine again.

Here’s a Snapseed (sort of like Photoshop, but for Android phone camera) enhanced photo of last night’s sunset. I like the effect. (By the way, none of the photos I post are Photoshoped unless I mention it.)

We awoke on Tuesday to clear skies but with fog lurking about. Back to walking today (with pics). In response to questions, the normal walk is 2.2 miles – 1.1 miles into town to the bridge by the harbor and then 1.1 miles back to the Village at North Pointe where we live. We usually leave for the walk at about 6:45-7:00. Elaine is ready first and leaves first. She walks too fast for me. I leave about 10 minutes after her, and we usually meet up unless one of us takes a different route. Anyway, today we left a little later (7:30ish). And I did take a different route. About halfway into town I took a right and headed out to Center Point. It’s a bit foggy, but that adds to the pictorial ambiance. That’s a fake seagull in the picture in case you might have thought otherwise. I also met and chatted up a gentleman from Newport, OR who grew up in Malden, MA. So we were old neighbors. Here are the pics (back to my trusty Sony RX100 VII) from the Center Point portion of the walk. The last two photos are looking directly into the newly rising sun. Note my long shadow photo a bit earlier. Also note there are no walls and long falls if you get too close to the edge. Walker beware.

When I showed places to stay in Depoe Bay in an earlier post, I neglected to mention Wyndham’s World Mark Resort. It is a huge complex that is right next to our condo looking south. Hundreds of units, all time shares. Here’s a picture of the south end of it. Right out from it is a large island that we call Bird Island. Millions (yes, I counted them) of birds – sea gulls, penguins, cormorants, and probably other varieties. No emus or canaries. If you are here in the spring, Bird Island is the birthplace of new birds. In the afternoons, huge throngs of new birds and their mothers take off and swim out to sea and land in the ocean and then they all return thirty minutes of=r so later. It’s a learning experience for the newborn, I take it. None of that in the fall though. The second picture is of Bird Island.

When I got home, we headed out for breakfast at the Surfrider. Yum. Still foggy on the beach below when we started breakfast, but i had pretty well lifted by the time we finished. Elaine likes the water fountain by the entrance.

After breakfast it was relax time. I read a bit (which usually involves falling asleep). Elaine does the crossword puzzle. The building you see in the center of the photo is the north end of World Mark Resort. Look at the ocean, all white inwards of the breakers. The sea remains angry.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the balcony. Dinner was at home. Leftovers. See you tomorrow.

Cocktails on the balcony were grand watching the surf. Dinner was also on the balcony. Cheese, crackers, smoked salmon, and what all. Yummy. We finally went to bed after watching the sunset and the crescent moon rise.

Here are last night’s sunset pictures”

Heavy mist in the morning. Good excurse to not walk. I didn’t. A little later than usual Elaine did. And then it cleared up nicely later in the morning. I should have walked.

Instated we headed to an area you have seen many times in the past – the Bureau of Land Management’s Outstanding Natural Area at Yaquina Point. It has lots of competition for the title, but it might be the most beautiful spot on the Oregon coast. It’s free with a National Park Senior Pass (which we have).

The main area is around the lighthouse. This year there are tons of pelicans around. Everywhere, not just here. In the past we have seen eagles here. None spotted this year. Lots of cormorants too.

Then there is the cobble beach. It’s 134 steps down. We view it from above. We’ve been down before. Two girls were celebrating their marriage on the beach. I got their picture coming up the stairs.

Finally there is the cove area.

Here are a couple of panoramas from the area. Click on each to enlarge.

Then it was into Newport for our second lunch at Local Oceans. I have the grilled calamari salad to start followed by panko breaded friend local oysters. Elaine had Chinook salmon crostini followed by rockfish tacos. Pale ale for me; IPA for Elaine.

Lastly, almost, you haven’t seen the Newport sea lions yet. Here they are in all their glory.

And now, finally. As George Constanza once said on Seinfeld, “the ocean was angry today, my friends.”

God so decreed it. So I didn’t walk. Elaine did. It was a clear morning, no fog, so we decided to visit a couple of favorite spots.

Cape Foulweather was named by Captain Cook way back when. Today it was fair weather. Pictures tell it all. Oh! We learned from a ranger in the visitor center that lots of kelp in the ocean is a good thing.

Just down the road from Cape Foulweather is the Devil’s Punchbowl, another favorite spot. Lots of surfers on the beach just beyond the cliff. Again, pictures tell all. I took a pretty good selfie too. On the access road there is a house with a huge selection of lobster buoys or floats. Worth a pic or two.

On the way home we stopped in Depoe Bay to try that new Fish and Chips restaurant. It was empty, but we tried it and it was good! Lots of selections for the fish – I had halibut, Elaine had ling cod. Fries were good. Cole slaw was excellent. I hope they make it.

The rest of the afternoon was at home watching football. Elaine made a meatloaf for dinner. The surf was up as we watched on the balcony.

Great sunset again. Picture tomorrow (if I remember).. Bad Patriot outcome. Bad Cardinal outcome. Oh, well. Peace!

First off, here are the promised videos from the Oregon Coast Aquarium:

Now, it’s Saturday. Foggy in the AM as usual. I did a walk. Today’s theme is places you can stay at in Depoe Bay. Most are decidedly downscale. The Inn at Arch Rock seems nice and is usually full. The arch rock, by the way, isn’t an arch anymore. It collapsed years ago. If you come to Depoe Bay, definitely do NOT stay at the Travelodge. It gets horrific reviews. It’s owned by Wyndham, but they don’t put their name on it.

The condos in our complex are individually owned units. About half are permanently occupied. The others are rented out, mainly through Blue Pacific Vacation Rentals, a local property manager with properties in Lincoln City, Newport, and Depoe Bay. That’s who we rent from.

We decided to have a quiet day. We motored into Newport for lunch at another of our go-to places, the Pacific Kitchen at Nye Beach. We stopped briefly at an overlook nearby at Yaquina Bay. Then it was lunch. Calamari to start. Elaine had coconut shrimp and I had halibut fish and chips. Elaine sipped Pacifico beer while I enjoyed a locally brewed draft lager.

Then it was back home to relax. The fog and clouds lifted perfectly in time for cocktails on the balcony. God knows!

Snacks and off to bed.

When we went to bed Thursday night, it remained clear as a bell. The sunset was perfect in a way, but without any clouds, less photogenic than usual. Here’s what it looked like from the balcony just before and during sunset. That’s my photography equipment on the table – lens cap, camera bag, and vodka tonic.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures.

Friday morning we woke to a polar opposite world. You could hardly see the ocean for the fog. I started a walk, but I turned back fairly quickly as I though (mistakenly) that it was starting to rain. So no walk pictures.

Since the fog was hanging in still at 11:00, we ate a quick lunch at home and then headed to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. We hadn’t been in a couple of years. It is located just over the Yaquina Bay Bridge (and almost under it) heading south. The Rogue Brewery is nearby, all right on the coast.

Now, a plethora of pictures from the aquarium. If you are not into fish and sea critter pictures and videos, you are about finished for the day.

Come back tomorrow for a video or two of puffins. No time to process tonight. Cocktails were on a sunny balcony. Dinner was at Thai Bay View Kitchen in Depoe Bay. Great Thai food from a nice Thai family. Thai beer for me; a local IPA for Elaine.

One word for today’s weather: perfect. Cloudless blue sky. No fog. Couldn’t ask for anything more.

We did our morning walks. I’ll run out of different things to photograph eventually. Here are today’s pictures from the stroll. The Village at North Pointe is our complex. You’ll get a view of a second marijuana dispensary. There’s at least one more. The other building pictures is Tidal Raves. Cat Lick Rock Park is interesting. Where did it gets its name? See the paragraph after the pictures.

So, Cat Lick Rock Park. “It’s a kooky tale that came about because of city discussions on how to enhance the look of the rock signage. They originally wanted a lot of moss to grow on the rocks, and ideas were thrown around on how to achieve this, including encouraging moss to grow. Someone suggested pouring buttermilk on the rock. “Then, someone said: ‘If you pour buttermilk on it you’ll have every cat in the neighborhood licking it. Thus the name simply stuck. It’s become a bit of a fascination on the internet as well, with some actually discovering the correct origin.”

Gracie’s Sea Hag Placard and Window Sign. ????

Later in the morning we decided on a trip north to Tillamook. First stop, though, was at Fishing Rock Park, just a mile or so north of the condo. There’s not even a sign for this park on the main road. You just have to know it’s there. It’s one of our favorite spots. We were the only ones there at 10:00 AM.

Then it was on to Tillamook. we stopped first at the famous Tillamook Cheese Headquarters. It’s an always jammed tourist attraction. The line was about 100 deep to get an ice cream. We used the rest rooms and left. Then we stopped at our primary Tillamook destination – the Blue Heron French Cheese Company. It’s a cheese store, a gift shop, a restaurant, a candy store, an ice cream store (serving Tillamook ice cream with no line), a wine store, and a petting zoo. They make and sell great brie and we got a couple of hunks to take home as well as some other appetizer type things. And we had our Tillamook ice cream as well as chocolate chip cookies. That was lunch.

On the way home stopped at a dahlia farm and bought some flowers for the condo. $1 a piece except for the big pink one which was $5.

Cocktails on the balcony watching lots of whales and a strangely calm Pacific – almost no waves. Dinner was at home as well. Very nice day, all in all. Hasta mañana.

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Ten points if you know the source. Answer later on in this post. Anyway, the skies were blue most of the day, but the fog lurked just off shore and came and went. One minute you could see afar and then you couldn’t. Pernicious? Maybe. But the weather was pleasant despite the fog.

We took our separate morning walks, meeting halfway to say hello. Here are the pictures that I took this morning on the walk (with my phone camera, a Google Pixel Pro 7)). The pirate is at the Pirate Coffee Company. We don’t go there. There is another coffee place downtown that we prefer. (Of course, I hate coffee, so I have hot chocolate on my occasional stops.) See the black sand beach and in one picture you can see the rope you can use to ease your way down the steep path. Coming up is way worse. Needless to say, we don’t do it anymore. You’ll see one of the four or five marijuana stores in tiny Depoe Bay. And the new Fish Market / Fish and Chips place – looks unprepossessing, but it looks nice through the window. We’ll try it eventually. And you get another selfie of me with both parts of the statue at Gracie’s Sea Hag.

After our walk we went to the Clarion Surfrider Resort for breakfast. The resort is well past its prime but they do a good breakfast with a great view. We were the first customers today. Views from our table (that’s Forgarty Creek Beach down below). The fog wasn’t bad. On the road just off the beach, it was bright and sunny.

After a little time at home, we ventured out again and went to Forgarty Creek State Park (just under the Surfrider Resort). It was pleasantly foggy. I got a good picture of Captain Seagull and another of a rabbit. I skipped a picture of the dead seal. You can see the breakfast room of the Surfrider overhead in one of the pictures. The fire engine was in the parking lot. We don’t know why. I took the picture for my fire fighter friend Bob from Arlington who should be viewing the blog. I will quiz him later. These pictures are with my Sony RX-100 VII camera.

Then it was the afternoon at home, mostly on the balcony as the fog came and went. The whales, plentiful on Monday but absent yesterday, were back. Lunch and snacks were on the balcony. Naps were involved. The first picture is from the back of the condo. You can see how clear it was. The rest are from the front and you can the fog come and go. The waves were big and the ocean was noisy.

The poem at the beginning is Fog by Carl Sandburg. Which of you knew that? Pat yourself on the back if you did.

As we left for dinner, it magically cleared. No fog. No clouds. Dinner tonight was at Tidal Raves, the excellent seafood restaurant just a short walk (and shorter drive) down the road from the condo. Once we would always walk unless it was raining. Now not so much. Everything was superb.

Good night all!

Beautiful clear night with great stars followed by a sunny cloudless morning. The highs here are in the upper sixties. What’s new in Depoe Bay? Not so much. The derelict house straight out of Deliverance is gone – torn down and now an empty lot right on the ocean. There’s a new fish market / fish and chips shop in town. We’ll have to give it a try. There is lots more kelp than usual in the ocean. You know what that means, right? No? Neither do we. We have theorized it’s related to Trump, Putin, Chinese weather balloons, climate change, sea level rise, or possibly fracking. There are LOTS of whales about. We’ve seen dozens from the balcony already.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures.

Took a walk this morning. Odd snaps from along the way: Included are a selfie with the Gracie’s Sea Hag statue (I’m on the left) and Bigfoot’s “something new is coming” sign. It’s been coming since before the pandemic. Don’t hold your breath. The whale only spouts in five minute spurts every half hour or so. It was spouting as I went by. Pretty underwhelming spout. As you can see in the picture, downtown Depoe Bay is very quiet at 7 AM. Even the seals under the bridge are sleeping. By the way, Gracie of the Sea Hag has sadly passed on, but the restaurant remains. We have breakfast there sometimes although it seems to open early only when it feels like it.

Today we drove into Newport and had lunch at Local Oceans. Seafood at its finest near Newport Harbor with the Yaquina Bay Bridge in the background. We shared halibut ceviche as an appetizer. I remembered to take a picture after we had started on it. I forgot pictures of the main dishes entirely. Too hungry and too anxious to eat, I guess. I had my favorite – the Rockfish Italiano. The description sounds a little weird, but it is delicious. Elaine had the Rockfish BLTA sandwich. Elaine had a local IPA while I sipped on an amber ale.

Then it was home for a quiet afternoon reading and napping. The weather god decided we didn’t need more sun for cocktails as it clouded up and became foggy. Cocktails went on as scheduled. Dinner was just snacks at home as we were still full from lunch. And, as we sipped our cocktails, the fog dissipated and slowly the clouds broke up, and the sun shone (shined?) again. Another lovely sunset.

Bye for now.

But, not to worry. Yes, it started out that way, but things improved rapidly and it was bright and sunny by noon. The forecast is amazingly good. We’ll see what happens.

Travel Update

Our plans into next year are as follows:
1) When we get home in October from this trip, Elaine has a couple of weeks to rest and then get ready to head out with Mianne (a regular commentor on here) and two other women for a 10-day river cruise in Portugal. Elaine will fly to Boston and stay a couple of nights with Mianne before they all head for the River Duoro. I’ll be home alone. Scary!
2) Then in December we head back to Dingle, County Kerry for our third Christmas in Ireland.
3) In 2024 we decided that we would not come back to Oregon but instead do an ocean cruise, our first in about ten years. We will fly to Oslo, Norway (via London) in May. We’ll spend four nights in Oslo before taking the (supposedly) ultra scenic train from Oslo to Bergen. In Bergen we will board Viking Ocean Cruise’s Saturn for a 14 night “Journey to the Midnight Sun”. The cruise will stop at five or six ports going up the western coast of Norway before heading east across the North Sea for stops in the Lerwick Islands, the Orkney Islands, Edinburgh, and finally dock on the Thames River in Greenwich just outside London. At the northernmost point in Norway we will be well above the Arctic Circle and the sun will never set while we are there.
4) Now May is usually our spring trip to Ireland. Most likely we will be returning to Dingle, but in October rather than May.

So enough about that. Today we shopped in the morning, filling the fridge and cupboards. And we rested. Three days of driving to get here takes more out of you than it used to. Maybe we are getting old. Anyway, today was a recovery day. Lots of sitting on the balcony in the sun. It was only 68 degrees, but it’s HOT on the balcony, out of the wind and with the sun shining on the ocean right into your face. Naps. Reading. Cocktails, of course. Dinner at home cooked by the resident chef, Elaine. Awesome sunset. Oh, yes, the chairs are still here. Thanks for asking.

Here are a couple of awesome sunset pics. Blue sky above as the sun sets in the west. Cheers! See you tomorrow.