Day five began in the rain. But while the clouds never went away and it stayed pretty darn cold all day, I don’t think we actually had the wipers on for more than a few moments first thing. And besides, who says you need sunshine to have a good day.
Our first stop of the day was just across the bridge at Yaquina Bay lighthouse. Unfortunately it didn’t open until noon (ah, the trials of being an off-season tourist), so we didn’t hang around for the tour. Here it is – all shuttered up, waiting for the keeper to come and bring it to life -

But of course I had to take a couple of shots while I was in the parking lot -


And the bridge from another angle….

From Newport we headed north (since we are, after all heading to Washington) – next destination –
Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area
And it was outstanding! Great visitor center-

(that’s the 12 minute video going there! )
Beautiful lighthouse (tallest in Oregon at 93 feet)

Interesting tour

and a wonderful natural tidal pool area. It was really cold, but I figured I might not pass this way again, so I bundled up and headed down to the ocean. (Gary opted to stay in the RV – chicken!)

It was cold, but it was so worth it!

By now it was early afternoon, so we continued along to coast until we came to a nice spot to have our peanut butter sandwiches (we spare no expense while we’re on the road!). We came to a nice public parking area on the beach that just so happens to also be where the worlds shortest river (120 ft.) empties into the Pacific. This river is so short it only got a letter for a name. This, my friends, is the D river flowing into the ocean -

And this is the other end of it….

At 120 ft, I’m thinking this is most of it – but there may be just a little out of camera range. Sorry, I did the best I could. (It was really cold, remember?)
We had some friends in the parking lot while we ate.

All lined up expectantly (facing the wind) – “do you think he’ll throw out another corn chip?”

Yes – there it is, ….mine, mine, mine, mine.
But I digress -
We turned inland in Lincoln City and headed toward Salem, Oregon home of friends that were co-laborers with us at Teen Challenge.

We’ve definitely lost that “coastal” feeling, but it was still a pretty drive.

Salem isn’t a very big city and we pretty much drove through the middle of it. This is a picture of either part of the Willamette University campus, or has something to do with the fact that Salem is the state capital. But it definitely is a picture of something that looks like spring! And we certainly needed that reminder today. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Tonight we’re parked outside of Buster and Leola’s and tomorrow after we join them for breakfast we’ll be on our way. Tentative agenda for tomorrow? Vancouver, Washington and Mount St. Helens. Should be an adventure!

Map update tomorrow, OK? It’s really late, and that Gary makes me get up EARLY!

It was another lovely day on the road in Oregon. We left our sweet little campground bright and early, and had an easy day, only covering about 130 miles. Today seemed to be a day of bridges, lakes, lighthouses, and sand dunes. We tried our hand at whale watching and while we did see a couple of “spouts”, I can’t say that I actually saw a whale. But the spouts were pretty exciting (for us novice whale watchers!).
Without too much commentary (right), here is a selection of photos from our day-
This was one of the whale watching sites -

The only thing we could see here were some ATV riders. Vrrrrmmmmmmmmmm

Behind us is the Umpqua Lighthouse, which is still in use and manned by the Coast Guard. No tours for us.

As we crossed over a lake, this little house intrigued me. I think it was totally floating in the lake.

More sand dunes – and we kept an eye out for those whales (no luck again!)

Crossing another bridge -

and another bridge

We’re headed for the lighthouse there on the bluff, but first we have to cross another bridge!


Quite a bridge, eh?

The lighthouse area and the lighthouse itself was lovely. After taking some beach shots

we took the nice (uphill) walk to the lighthouse.

Can you see our RV down in the parking lot? And that beautiful bridge? It was a great little excursion.(Even though we did have to un-hook the truck to get out of the parking lot. Ah, the beauty of not being able to back-up!)

Back on the road – more bridges!


More beautiful coastline (this was at Cape Perpetua).

Crossed another bridge

and arrived at our campgound – South Beach Campground. It was a short 1/4 mile walk to the beach, so we checked it out right after we got parked. (Yes, even before a nap!)

Then, of course, we had to go back for the sunset -

Ah, was a lovely day!
Here was our day on the map -

And with a little perspective -

Now – it is WAY past my bedtime, and I know that Gary wants to get an early start tomorrow. I gotta tell you, this having fun is hard work!
Sweet Dreams!

After a very rainy and windy night (and boy do you notice that when you’re parked all by yourself in a big ol’ parking lot!), we got a nice early start – heading to Oregon! We had heard great things about the Oregon Coast, so we were anxious to get started on the trek. We weren’t disappointed!
Our first stop was at a lovely state park just across the border outside of Brookings (known for it’s native azaleas so we’re told. I think we were a little early for that.) I hiked down to the beach while Gary checked out the visitor’s center – no 12 minute video today, but we did get a book that marked all points of interest along the coast which was a huge help to us.



(I didn’t realize at the time how calm the ocean is in these shots. Just wait until later in the day!)

I also spotted this Stellar’s Jay, and managed to get a pretty decent picture of him – so I need to share that too!

Since we were going to cross over the highest bridge in Oregon (345 ft), we decided to take the “short trail to appreciate the structure’s magnitude”. It was a little more hike than we had expected -

and I’m not sure you can even see the bridge from this shot, but it’s the best that I could get.

Yeah, it was pretty high. I love (not) those kinds of bridges. But I do love this shot of Gary finding the shortcut back to the rig…..

“I’m sure the path is in here somewhere…..”
So, Gary sent me out alone on our next stop – Arch Rock.

(Check out the trees – do you think the wind blows here much? I was FREEZING!!!!)

See what he missed by staying in the house?
More Road….

More Bridges (ok, so you can’t see the bridge, but this is what I saw from ON the bridge.)

More Road….

Oh – here’s a cranberry field!

Apparently Bandon, OR is the Cranberry Capitol of Oregon – there were lots and lots of bogs to see. We also started noticing lots and lots of these yellow flowering bushes along the road.

I got a closer look at them when we stopped at the Coquille Lighthouse -

It’s a pretty little flower, but check out the thorns. Something tells me they might not be the most popular plant around.
But the lighthouse, though closed, was still scenic.

And the beach next to it was full of driftwood. I’m not sure what that was all about, but I imagine it has something to do with all of the logging in the area and the fact that this beach was right where a river emptied into the ocean.

We decided to call it an early day and settled in at a nice campground outside of Coos Bay – Sunset Bay State Park. From there we were able to take the truck around to some other sights in the area -
Shore Acres State Park -


Shore Acres State Park – Botanical Gardens (This park had at one time been the estate of Louis Simpson an early timber baron. The mansion is gone, but his gardens remain.)

It was kind of like walking into different state! From crashing waves to calming ponds. It was beautiful!
One final stop of the day was to Simpson Reef and Shell Island Overlook.

See that debri on the little beach over on the left? Those are a variety of seals – harbor seals, elephant seals, sea lions….

Just a couple more, I promise.
This is from the tip of our little stretch of coastline -

And this is the Arago Lighthouse. We checked out a couple of different roads, but this seemed to be as close as we could get!

Here’s a map of our journey today-

And here’s a little detail of the where we are right now.

Post Script~
We didn’t get to church this morning, but I was struck again and again as we wove in and out between the mountains and the crashing surf how majestic is our Lord. How He is above ALL that we can imagine, and yet he calls to us, seeks after us, and loves us.

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
1 Chronicles 29:11

There is something about that third child. Especially when he’s your last. Your baby. You laugh harder at his cute little baby sayings and seem to remember them more often when you’re in a crowd of his friends. You cry harder when he turns five and goes off the kindergarten because he’s growing up so fast. And apparently you never seem to have time to actually put him down for a nap-

So today, on his 28th birthday – I can honestly say that YES, he did grow up too fast! But he has grown into a loving husband, true friend and lover of God. So I say Happy Birthday, Josiah Wood Conrad – may you have many a nap with your new friend, Gia!

Before I get back on the road, I wanted to share just a little about our campground last night. We were just a little “over dressed” for this lovely state park. Believe me, it was absolutely beautiful. But when the first several campsites were reserved for “hikers and bikers”, it just stands to reason that a 40 ft. motorhome might have trouble maneuvering between those big redwoods. The camp host assured Gary that we would fit – but believe me, it was a “just barely”. Here is a shot as we were making our departure -

It was beautifully quiet, and we slept well and the good news is we took no bark with us!
We also stopped at the visitors’ center right next door before we continued down the “Avenue of the Giants”. We love visitor centers with their 12 minute videos and interesting facts about the area. Inside this center was Charles Kellogg’s “Travel log” -
.
Made from the trunk of a giant redwood, it was his mode of transportation as he traveled the country promoting conservation (and giving concerts of bird songs. Really. He even made records of bird songs. Who knew?). We decided we like our “mode of transportation” a whole lot better.
But, back to the Avenue -

The rest of that drive was lovely. We looped around those big old trees, crossed the Eel River a time or two

and eventually made it back to good ol’ 101 North.

We drove through downtown Eureka

and eventually caught a glimpse of the ocean!

(Even though I know we’re heading to the ocean, it’s always – “look, there’s the ocean!” when it comes into view.)
Except this wasn’t quite the ocean, it was Humboldt Bay. Hmmmm.
Here it is out my side of the rig -

Still kinda pretty I think!
But, eventually, the ocean did come into view -

And this time I was pretty sure of my identification!
But it was just a tease, ’cause before I knew it, we were back in the trees.

Look – more Elk -

And they were right by an “Elk Crossing” sign again. I think they’re on to something out here!
I’m going to throw this picture in here -

so you’ll know that Gary does occasionally get to look at the view. I should say GLANCE at the view, since he’s usually pretty darn busy keeping us on the straight curvy and narrow.
We did finally come to a pull off where I could walk to the beach and then later we stopped at another visitor center (with a great 12 minute video) and had a little more beach time. Here is a selection of those shots

Back onto another scenic drive -

(kinda looks like that other one, eh?)
We crossed the Klamath River,

waved at Paul Bunyon who was out for a walk with Blue,

saw a little more rugged coastline,

and climbed back into the mist in the trees.
.

We called it a day when we made it to Crescent City, and found a friendly Home Depot who gave us permission to spend the night in their parking lot.

Not quite as nice of a view as last night, but still, the price is right.

If you’re reading, (and thank you if you are!), someone has suggested that I try to post some maps of our journey. So, by special request (you know who you are….), this is where we traveled today -

And our entire “Drive to Washington” looks like this -

I’m not sure how far we’ll get tomorrow. Right now we are looking to get as far as Beachside State Recreation Site and spend the night there. It looks like they have campsites right on the beach. And we think that would be pretty cool!

One final “out the window” picture. Today I took 221 pictures of our travels. This one truly demonstrates the risk of taking pictures from a moving vehicle:

Gotta love digital cameras (and that delete button!).

Sleep well – it’s off to bed for me!

PS – I might have missed a photo or two of the set that I uploaded from today’s journey, so if you’d like to see the whole set (in order no less) – they are here!