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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
We’re off to a busy travel fall in 2023. More on that later. Right now we are off to our annual Pacific Northwest trip.
Friday
Backroads to Bakersfield, CA. Uneventful ride, no interstates. Overnight at Courtyard Marriott. Dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Ceviche to start. Chili Rellano for Elaine. Marisco Poblano for me. Yum!
Saturday
I-5 from Bakersfield to Redding, CA for overnight at Sheraton at Sundial Bridge. Dinner at their restaurant, Mosaic. Charcuterie Plate to start followed by Pizza Margherita. Beer for me; sangria for Elaine. Delish.
Sunday
More I-5 north to Eugene, OR Costco for supplies and then on the coast and our condo. Weather perfect. Basic shopping. Simple dinner in the condo. Bed.
Thanks for all the appreciative comments. The drive from Dungloe to Limerick was easy although all the driving sort of caught up with me. I had to stop a few times to refresh. We had a fast food lunch halfway-ish. Then we checked in to the Absolut Hotel, our go-to hotel in Limerick. We then walked the short walk to the Locke Bar for our last Irish beers.
Views from the Hotel and Our Balcony
Pictures from the Locke Bar
Dinner was at Harry’s On The River in the hotel.
Night scene from the balcony:
Breakfast Sunday morning at the hotel. After breakfast it was off to Shannon Airport for the flight to Boston. We wished Eion, our car, a happy life. He did yeoman work.
First off, thanks to everyone for reading the blog and thanks for all the comments. We don’t always respond to every comment, but we read and enjoy every one. Secondly, this will be the last blog post of any depth for this trip. We leave Dungloe tomorrow morning for a Saturday night in Limerick. I may post something from there or I may not. It’s essentially just a travel day. Sunday morning we fly to Boston where we spend a brief night at the Airport Hilton before a 6 am flight home Monday morning. If I remember, I’ll post a “home safe” message on Monday. But I may forget. Next up on the blog will be our annual September/October trip to Depoe Bay, Oregon and Trinidad, California.
Friday was cloudy in the morning and essentially stayed that way all day. We set off early to do one last leg of the Wild Atlantic Way. This time it consisted mainly of the Fanad Peninsula including Fanad Head. Fanad Head is not the northernmost point in County Donegal. That would be Malin Head. But Fanad Head is close to as far north.
Our first stop was an overlook in Dún Lúiche on the highway heading toward the more westerly coast. Dún Lúiche, known in English as Dunlewey or Dunlewy, is a small Gaeltacht village in the Gweedore area of County Donegal, Ireland. It sits in the Poisoned Glen, at the foot of Errigal and on the shore of Dunlewey Lough. The Cronaniv Burn flows along the southern edge of the village.
Then it was on to the coast. More overlooks provided more spectacular views.
Remember the Silver Strand which I described as possibly the most beautiful beach in the world? Well, next up today was Ballymastocker Strand on Ballymastocker Bay. It may be even more beautiful. We first viewed it from above.
Then, a bit further along on the drive, we parked and walked on Ballymastocker Beach and the dunes and the rocks. I was enthralled with the designs that the tide had left on the sands.
Next we stopped at Saint Colmcille’s Well. Saint Colmcille was born in Gartan, Co. Donegal on 7th December 521 A.D. He was a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland. Tradition has it around 550A.D. he was travelling in the Fanad are when he lost his prayer book. He came across a deer drinking out of this Well and his prayer book was impaled on the deers antlers. Delighted at having found it, he blessed the Well. The Well has been a place of pilgrimage ever since. In 563 A.D. he travelled to the Island of Iona, Scotland, where he established a famous monastery. He died in Iona on 9th June 597 A.D. We visited Iona and his monastery years ago.
Moving on, we stopped at the Great Pollet Sea Arch. It was a long walk through a private farm to get to it from the parking lot. Nice, but probably not worth the walk. Still, we need the exercise. Wait, I’m 80. Maybe I don’t.
Next was Fanad Light at Fanad Head. Click on that link to see fantastic photos in various lighting conditions. We had snacks (pistachio cakes) in the visitor center as a lunch substitute. You can go into the lighthouse (at an extra cost). We didn’t. Here are lots of pics (including one selfie).
After another stop for more pictures at the Harry Blaney Bridge which spans Mulroy Bay between the Roguill and Fanad peninsulas of County Donegal, we headed home.
Back at Sea House dinner was crackers and cheese and fruit and wine. Lots of packing up to do. It’s been a grand five weeks, and we enjoyed sharing it.
I was tired of driving every day. We don’t cover that many miles in a day, but driving in Ireland is tiring mainly because of the narrow curved roads and the need to be constantly alert. So, with two days left before we head back south toward Shannon Airport, we decided that today would be a stay at home rest day. The weather forecast for today looked worse than tomorrow, so it was the better choice for resting.
It turned out to be a good decision because it rained most of the morning and well into the afternoon. The rain stopped and we got sunshine from about 2 pm on. We did drive into Dungloe (five minute drive from the cottage) to pick up some knickknacks and souvenirs of County Donegal. Downtown Dungloe is basically one (rather boring) main street. There are some shops, a betting parlor, McCafferty’s Bar and Restaurant, quite a few pubs (some rather sketchy looking), a barber shop, a second hand shop, and an old hotel (Sweeney’s) that is being regentrified. We walked around and stopped in the one shop that seemed to have what we wanted – genuine County Donegal products.
The shop was called Under the Toadstool, and we had a nice chat with the owner (Sean) who is half American (from Kennebunkport, Maine) and half Irish (from Dungloe). He is living in Dungloe now to help care for his 91 year old mother. We bought a bunch of little souvenirs.
For lunch we wanted something small. We decided to visit Caprani’s Restaurant, a small place that is part of the SuperValu supermarket. It was very busy, usually a good sign. Elaine had a chicken and mushroom pie. The waitress warned her it was huge and suggested a smaller version. Elaine concurred. I ordered, with low expectations, a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. Well, the small version of the pie was actually pretty huge in its own right, and Elaine loved it. The sandwich was delicious. This little place could actually be called a hidden gem. The staff and the manager were wonderful. We would go back here in a second. They serve breakfast all day, and we saw several people get the Full Irish and it looked superb (and huge). I didn’t take any pictures (no camera with me), but I wish I had.
Cocktails at home were inside despite the sun shining because it was pretty chilly out. Anyway, my cocktail of choice at home this trip has been Dingle Vodka with a splash of Elderflower Cordial and Fever-Tree Tonic Water. Elaine has a glass of Pinot Noir. Interestingly enough, when I had to buy a new bottle of Dingle Vodka here in Dungloe, it was €6 cheaper than in Dingle. Weird. Dingle Vodka, besides being very smooth, has a distinctive bottle that can be used as a decoration or a vase. The Dingle Distillery is most noted for their fine whiskey, but I love their vodka and their gin has won major awards. Dingle Gin attended the World Gin Awards 2019, where industry experts shortlisted the best gins from 400 entrants from 20 countries. Dingle Gin received the award for World’s Best London Dry Gin and the overall award for World’s Best Gin 2019. Happily, we can now find Dingle gin and vodka at one liquor store in Scottsdale.
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We decided to venture back to McCaferty’s for dinner. We had had a decent very late lunch there on Tuesday. And they had that luxurious ladies room. Going back would give me a chance to check out the men’s room. Dinner was very good. Pictures follow (including shots of the men’s room). Elaine had: Crispy Breaded Brie with Winter Berry Compote Baked Filet of Cod & Tiger Prawns Gratin with Gratin Potatoes in a Creamy White Wine & Cheese Sauce Belgian Triple Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Ice Cream Joe had: Bruckless Bay Wild Mussels in Garlic Butter Sauce Crispy Honey Roasted Silver Hill Duckling with Bramble Berry, Apricot, & Orange Stuffing Apple & Mixed Berry Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream
Too much food! Home to bed. But first, yet another sunset. These sunset pictures were taken at 9:25 pm.
