Saturday’s post with pictures of the Lincoln City Kite Festival is below.  Scroll down to next post.

We saw a couple of picture worthy things on the road from Depoe Bay to Redding (CA).  They are below.

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The weather wasn’t promising for a Saturday visit to Lincoln City (the self proclaimed Kite Capital of the World) on our last full day in Oregon.  But it didn’t rain and we even got a fair amount of sunshine. No rain was critical to enjoying a few hours at the Lincoln City Kite Festival on the Beach at D River just off Oregon scenic highway 101. Pictures tell the whole story:

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Here’s a video I did at the Kite Festival of two kite pilots doing a synchronized routine to music (click link to load):

Kite Festival Video

On leaving the Kite Festival, we went into Depoe Bay for some last minute souvenir and marionberry preserve shopping. We got three bottles of marionberry preserves to take home. It’s delicious. One unique way to use it is in grilled cheese sandwiches.

Then we stopped at Bonepile BBQ, just a stone’s throw from the condo, for a late-ish lunch that would also suffice as dinner. Elaine had a pulled pork sandwich with a side of cole slaw (vinegar based). I had a ½ rack of St. Louis style ribs, corn bread, and potato salad. It was all delicious. Last stop was to fill up with gas for our morning getaway.

When we got home to the condo, it was high tide, and we saw the roughest and highest waves we have seen during our stay. Cocktails were, naturally, on the balcony. After the huge BBQ lunch at Bonepile, dinner consisted of finishing up our cheese and cracker selection.

Packing pretty much complete, we went to bed for our last night in Depoe Bay happy with our ten night stay. We saw whales from the condo deck every day we were here. The weather was mostly cooperative. Now we’re ready to head out tomorrow morning for home. Next trip: England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland beginning in late August. Come back then for another visit.

Our friends left this morning in the rain for their B&B at Cannon Beach.  The forecast for rain off and on all day was pretty accurate.  So we stayed in and relaxed.  We did have brief glimpses of the sun at cocktail hour and enjoyed drinks on a chilly balcony.  No other news.  No Pictures.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we will visit the Kite Festival in Lincoln City if the weather cooperates.  And Sunday morning we head for home.

Last blog post for this trip will be Saturday night or Sunday morning (unless something spectacular happens on the way home).

Showed our visitors around today.  Cloudy weather, occasional drizzle, occasional sunshine.  Here’s the day in pictures:

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Barb and Kris, our friends from home, arrived Wednesday night just in time for cocktails.  Unfortunately they brought cloudy skies and lots of fog.  Still, we enjoyed appetizers and drinks on the balcony.  Dinner was at home.  We had stopped during the day at Mo’s and picked up three quarts of their famous clam chowder for dinner.  Elaine made her excellent garlic bread and a salad.  And we had a fresh half gallon of Tillamook Marionberry Pie Ice Cream for dessert.  All with wine, of course.

Barb and Kris will spend tonight with us as well, and the four of us will dine at Tidal Raves.  Not sure what we’ll do today, because it is pretty socked in right now.  Scenic overlooks won’t be an option unless the fog breaks.  Maybe it will.

I said there would be no Tuesday blog entry. But here’s one anyone. It was originally supposed to be a rainy day, but it turned out quite nice after some morning drizzle. Elaine did the laundry early, and we decided to do a few things.

First it was off to Toledo, Oregon, just six miles inland from Newport, so a total of about eighteen miles from the condo. Toledo is a little town known for its antique shops. It seems to be slowly dying. One antique shop closed its doors for good just a few weeks ago. And Bear Mountain Sports closed its only store to become an internet only purveyor of sports equipment. But there are lots of shops selling antiques and artsy stuff along Main Street (which is all of three blocks long).   The town is festooned with pretty flowers, and we had a pleasant walk up and down, visiting the local craft shop where we had a delightful chap with the woman who runs the place. Toledo is also the home of Georgia Pacific’s logging operations in Oregon. Watch the (less than exciting) video of the GP freight train going by filled with nothing but wood chips.

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Then we headed back to Newport for another lunch at Local Ocean. I had a cup of spicy shrimp stew followed by pan friend local oysters on a bed of spinach. Elaine had the grilled rockfish sandwich with poblano peppers.

We then went to the Newport Visual Arts Center where they had three different exhibitions of works by local artists. Frankly the artists should seek other work as their exhibited works were not at all inspiring.

We then visited the Lookout at Cape Foulweather to check the gift shop and get  a picture of its beautiful view.

Then it was back to the condo for naps, reading, and cocktails on the balcony as we watched a heavy fog roll in. Looking to the south we can normally see three capes, but slowly, one by one, they disappeared in the fog.  Dinner was at home: burgers, potatoes, and spinach.

It may rain some tomorrow (Wednesday) as we await the late afternoon arrival our friends from home, Barb and Kris, who fly into Portland on Southwest. They will spend two nights with us before moving on to Cannon Beach to the north for their original weekend escape.

We awoke on Monday to clear skies but the fog soon rolled in. We could barely see the ocean. But as the morning progressed, the sun began to fight the fog. The sun eventually won, but the fog put up a good battle. Frequent showers are forecast for Tuesday (which will be laundry day at the condo).

Pretty casual day. We drove north into Lincoln City, detouring by Devil’s Lake which we didn’t see last year because the entry roads were all flooded. It’s a big lake, but it is mostly surrounded by nice homes and there isn’t a lot to see. We didn’t stop for pictures.

We did stop at Taft Beach in the Taft Historic District of Lincoln City.  We did take pictures there.

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In Lincoln City we picked up supplies at Safeway before picnicking at Boiler Bay once again.

Boiler Bay is named after what remains of one of the most spectacular shipwrecks in American history. On May 18, 1910, the wooden steam schooner J.Marhoffer was still practically brand-new and was coming back to her home port in Portland from a run to San Francisco when an assistant engineer, working on a gasoline-burning blowtorch, accidentally overpressurized it and blew the thing up. Today, the ship’s boiler can still be seen from the highway at low tide.  Depoe Bay residents had come flocking to the top of the bluff to watch. Still under full power and trailing a column of smoke and fire like a volcano, the freighter piled into the rocks with an enormous crash. The stranded vessel keeled over and burned fiercely for a time; then she was ripped apart by a massive steam explosion that threw chunks of wood and iron in all directions. Fortunately, none of the spectators were hit, although today there’s still a piece of iron pipe sticking out of the bluff above that probably came from the wreck. The whole history is here, and some of this paragraph is plagiarized from that site.

At 4:30 PM (low tide) we walked back to Boiler Bay to see if we could see the boiler in the water. We couldn’t, but a local told us where it was and that it would probably be visible at low tides later in the week when negative low tides will be happening.

Cocktails on the deck were without sunshine for the first time, and it actually started to drizzle as we imbibed. Dinner was at Tidal Raves once again. We split crab cakes for an appetizer. Then Elaine had the scallop special while I had the Dungeness crab casserole. All was yummy. I brought my camera to take pictures of the food. I got a picture of the views out the window at our table and then forgot to photograph the delectable dishes. Oh, well.

I’ll probably take a day off from blogging tomorrow, so I’ll be back on Wednesday morning. Cheers!

Forgot to mention, when the skies are clear as they have been, the stars outside the bedroom window at night are spectacular. Of course, you have to be awake to see them.

Anyway, Sunday weather was a replay of yesterday: cloudy morning giving way to cloudless sunshine by about 10 AM. Elaine had her walk. I demurred because of trip crisis #3: blister on toe from yesterday’s walking. Alas, no band aids or tape in kits, so I ventured to the convenience store nearby, and luckily they had what I needed. By adventure time at 9:30 AM, I was ready to go.

We decided to start off with a walk on a beach, and we chose close by Fogarty Creek State Park. The beach isn’t huge like some, and it has interesting rock formations, cliffs, and driftwood. Pictures show how picturesque it is.

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We walked about for an hour or so, and we met some people searching for agate rocks. Agate hunting is an avid pastime for many along the Oregon shore. We didn’t find any, but one woman found a piece and showed us. We shall be on the lookout in the future

Nearby Fogarty Park is the Depoe Baykery (sic) which gets good reviews. We had never been, so we stopped by and purchased some double chocolate cookies and some coconut macaroons.  Their cinnamon bread looks delicious.  Maybe next time.

Next we drove in Depoe Bay center and visited the Depoe Bay Tourist Center to get the latest copies of all the relevant tourist brochures to replace the aging ones in the condo. It is run by a delightful old couple (yes, older than us even), and we had a nice chat. Well, Elaine did and I even mumbled a few sentences.

Then it was lunch time. Elaine had made sandwiches and we had them in the car in the cooler bag. Accompanied by Frito’s and Cokes/Water, it was a perfect lunch, especially since we had the dessert haul from the bakery in the car too.

We picked Rocky Creek Overlook for the picnic. Oddly, we had never stopped here before, and not having done so was clearly a mistake.  There are wonderful views of Whale Cove and picnic tables with marvelous views right at cliff side. There was some whale activity as we enjoyed lunch.

After lunch it was back to the condo where the whales were very active. We had five whale watching boats right in front of us. Last year we had one or two fleeting glimpses of whales in the distance. This year we seem to be living right next store to the resident greys.

Dinner tonight was at Thai Bay, a restaurant in town that gets very good reviews. We had planned on going last year but never made it. It has a great view of Depoe Bay Harbor, and the food is authentic Thai and very good.

See you tomorrow.

We woke on Saturday to mostly cloudy skies, but the Weather Channel was optimistic for at least some sunshine. Lo and behold, they were right because by late morning the clouds were gone. Another beautiful sunny day. Elaine and I took separate walks before showering and getting ready.

Crisis #2 of the trip raised its head last night when I realized that I didn’t have the Virgin Atlantic confirmation number for our late August flight to London. I need it because seat assignments open up on June 25^th, and we like certain seats. So I called our friends Janet and Michael (they have our house key for emergency purposes) who promised to go to the house and call me at 8 AM Saturday morning. They called right on schedule and I walked them to the file for my Europe trip. Voila! I had the confirmation number.  Thanks, Janet & Michael.

It was a low key day. In the morning we drove to Newport where we planned to walk around the Bayfront region and then have lunch. Newport is our preferred “big” city, about ten miles south on Oregon’s scenic Highway 101. It has a Walmart and most of the other stores you might need. And there is lots to do here (Aquarium, Rogue Brewery, historic beach districts, Yaquina scenic area, etc.).  Newport is also the home of the Yaquina Bay Bridge which dominates the skyline.

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The Bayfront is about a one mile strip of Bay Boulevard that unsurprisingly is right on Newport Harbor. Fishing is still a major injury here, and you can watch the boats going out and coming in. Right in the middle of the Bayfront is a huge fish processing center where fish are prepared for shipment far and wide. But the majority of the strip is populated by touristy shops of all descriptions and lots of restaurants with great views. There are also three “attractions” grouped together: Ripley’s Believe or Not Museum, the Undersea Gardens, and the Wax Museum. We have always given them a miss as they almost universally reviewed as expensive rip-offs.

We arrived at the top of Bay Boulevard at about 9:40, beating the crowds and getting a prime parking space. The restaurant we had chosen for lunch was at the other end of the boulevard, so we would spend a couple of hours checking out the shops. There is also a section of the harbor that has sea lion docks where wild sea lions come to perform (and beg). Last year there were three sea lions in attendance, but today the docks were empty.  We visited several shops along the walk.

We reached the restaurant, Local Ocean, a bit too early, so we went out on the fishing boat marina for a close up look at crews preparing the boats for fishing. The restaurant, a very popular one, started filling up before 11:30, so we secured a table early. I had a cup of sweet and sour shrimp soup to start followed by a grilled rockfish sandwich (with slaw, spicy tartar sauce, and mozzarella on a hoagie roll with french fries). Elaine had a Crab Po’Boy (Dungeness crab with green chili avocado puree and grilled Parmesan on a crusted hoagie with fries). Elaine enjoyed a glass of Pinot Noir. I opted for a pint (well, two pints in the end) of Na ZdravÍ Pils brewed by the Southern Oregon Brewing Company in Medford, OR.

Then we sauntered back toward the car for the return trip to Depoe Bay and an afternoon at leisure. We stopped to buy wild salmon for tonight’s at home dinner. We stopped at a bead store where artistic Elaine picked up some beads for a little project. Then I had time for my nap. Elaine spotted more whales and spent some time out on the rocks trying to get close ups. No dice on the pictures.  The whales are mostly under water and surface their backs at random spots just briefly to spout, so it’s difficult to have the camera ready to take a picture.

By cocktail time it was still beautifully cloudless, so drinks on the balcony were very pleasant. It feels 20 degrees warmer on the sunny balcony than going out the front door into the shade.  We`also ate dinner on the balcony (broiled salmon, potatoes, and a salad with ice cream for dessert.  And one of our bottles of wine, naturally.  Later on there was a beautiful sunset to end a beautiful day.

It rained during the night, but it was a bright blue sky this morning. First order of business (after a brief stop at Yaquina Head Outstanding Nature Area) was stocking the fridge and pantry. Not excessively, only the essentials. First stop: Walmart for the basics (Sobe water for Joe, Arrowhead for Elaine, salad stuff, paper products, bread, butter, etc). Second stop: Flying Dutchman Winery right on the coast at (six bottles of Devil’s Delight, an Oregon wine blend, and two bottles of the more expensive 2008 Cabernet Franc) – that should hold us through the weekend. Third Stop: the little market right down the street for some cold cuts (picnics), chips, and marionberry pie ice cream from Tillamook Farms (YUM!).

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Then we were done with chores for the day. We lugged all the food into the condo and drove back to Devil’s Punchbowl State Park for a walkabout with the ubiquitous resident squirrels. It’s a beautiful spot as the pictures below will attest.

Then it was lunch time. We picked up sandwiches and chips from Subway and ventured to Boiler Bay Overlook and Picnic Area, right next to our condo. We enjoyed the food at a picnic table overlooking the raging Pacific – surf is up today

Mid afternoon now and worn out from shopping and eating. Back home for a nap. And the first crisis of the trip! No running water in the condo. There was plenty last night and this morning. I called the management company, and they walked me through the fix. “Open the hot water closet door and push the green button.” Pretty simple. It seems the units here have a leak detection system that automatically cuts the water supply. Apparently the system is not perfect and occasional false positives shut off the water. Problem solved for now (unless it keeps shutting off and there really is a leak somewhere).

Then it was the obligatory cocktails on the balcony with bright sunshine warming us up beautifully. Dinner tonight was at Tidal Raves, our go-to Depoe Bay restaurant. We walked there since it was such a beautiful night.

It was a wonderful dinner. Elaine started with a glass of their sangria while I had a Moscow Mule (House-infused ginger vodka, house brewed ginger beer, and fresh lime juice), a great summer drink. We each had glasses of Cherry Hill Pinot Noir with the mains after sharing an order of Seahawk Bread (baguette toasted with smoked salmon, cream cheese, havarti, shrimp and onion).  Elaine: cup of smoked salmon chowder followed by seared sea scallops on potato hash studded with sun dried tomato, bacon. and smoked tomato glaze. Joe: cup of clam chowder followed by cioppino, Italian-American fish stew brimming with clams, wild shrimp, crab and fish in a tomato-herb broth. Everything was wonderful. We skipped dessert in favor of ice cream on the balcony at home.

Aside to Fred: please note it was Italian-American stew, not American-Italian