A Day at the Oregon Coast

We decided to stay one more day at Mallard Creek.  Dave didn’t play golf today, so we headed for the coast.  It took a couple of hours each way to get there and back, but the sun was out and the weather was warm, so it was a perfect day to go to the coast.

Our first view of the Pacific Ocean as we headed west on US Highway 20 into Newport, Oregon

We drove to Depoe Bay so that we could eat lunch at the Chowder Bowl restaurant, one of our favorite places.  Then we walked across Highway 101 to admire the rocky coast at Depoe Bay, known for being the world’s smallest harbor.

The Pacific Ocean at Depoe Bay, Oregon

As we headed back south on Highway 101, we stopped at Devil’s Punchbowl, an Oregon State Park.  It was low tide, so this wasn’t as impressive as it could have been, but was still interesting.

Devil’s Punchbowl State Park     Surfers at Devil’s Punchbowl

Then we headed to Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, our destination for the day.  This is a federal park, so we were able to use our Interagency America the Beautiful Pass and save the $7 entry fee.  This area has much to see, with the highlight being Yaquina Head Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon Coast.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

We walked up all 114 steps!  The view at the top of the lighthouse  

Cobble Beach and tidepools

To read more about our day at the beach and to see more pictures, see Dave's blog.

Tomorrow morning we head for home.  Our son, Jonathan, will be driving down to Vancouver from Bellingham, WA.  We look forward to seeing him!

Ferry Boat

Today's journey was to visit Jonathan in Bellingham.  We took the ferry across San Juan de Fuca strait from Port Townsend to Keystone on Whidbey Island.  From there we drove to Bellingham.  It was very windy again today and we pulled in our bedroom slide while we were gone.  When we returned eight hours later, we put the slide back out and the satellite dish back up, but now, a couple of hours later, the wind is fierce again and the slide and satellite are both put away again.  We can function okay with the bedroom slide in, it just blocks off some of our drawers and we have to climb over the bed to get to the shower.  The funny thing is that that the ferry boat didn't rock much at all.  I guess it's big enough to handle the wind.  I forgot to take my camera, so here's a picture of the ferry boat that I took from the RV park a year ago.