DEPOE, OREGON..SMALLEST HARBOR IN THE WORLD

Tuesday, June 5 – We drove North on Oregon-101 to the Elks Lodge Wapita Campground in Lincoln City, Oregon. The Elks own a 40-site campground (Wapita CG). A very nice rural setting located on the Southside of town. We are in Site 31, having moved from site 34 after being unable to get satellite reception in the previous site. We have 30 amp electric service and water. There is a dump station we will use to dump our holding tanks upon departure. The sites and streets are gravel.

Love all the space!

Looking left.

Looking right.

Our BIG backyard.

Sun is out; life is good.

After getting settled-in, we headed into Lincoln City, to the Elks Lodge, to pick-up our mail, which we had forwarded there. We use the Escapee mail forwarding service and are very pleased with their service. We are only a phone call and a day or two away from having our mail forwarded to us. Our mail was there and ready for us to pick-up.

We then headed South toward DePoe, Oregon. Our first stop was the Chowder Bowl for another chowder taste test. We have a new front runner! This was the best we've had so far, and we believe the least expensive.

DePoe Bay is known as the smallest harbor in the world. It is pretty small and the channel getting there from the Pacific Ocean would be pretty troublesome in foul weather. This is one of the locations to look for whales that hang-out and feed in this area.

More on DePoe in our next post.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

FLORENCE DURING THE DAY…LIGHTHOUSE AT NIGHT

Sunday, June 3 – We finally took time to visit Florence. It is just a small town, but a nice, clean one.

We started our walk by visiting the Sweet Magnolia Bakery. Yummy! We had coffee and a couple of delicious pastries. We try to do our part in contributing to the local economy.

It was (as Marsha puts it) a cute little place.

They have a really nice gazebo and an area where visitors can sit and enjoy the water.

Art Deco 1936 Siuslaw River Bridge

A walk around Florence and talking with the locals confirms our thoughts that the residents are very proud of their town.

We returned to the Umpqua Lighthouse this evening to see it at night. A suited night for it to be shining its guiding light to sea.....cold, rainy, and the waves wiping against the Umpqua River jetty. We arrived before dark and enjoyed watching the beacon's transformation from day to night.

During daylight, the beacon appears as a reflector at the top of the lighthouse, but as darkness approaches it comes to life. First you see the light inside the glass dome, then the beams of light, shining laser-like out to sea, become visible as it becomes darker. Eventually, you can see the beams shining in all directions, bouncing off the near-by trees and shining their guiding lights out to sea. I bet it's something amazing to be out on the ocean and see the lighthouse welcoming you home.

Look at the trees with the reflection of the Lighthouse lights. Like being on a carousel.

This is the first time we've ever seen a lighthouse at night and is was a pretty neat experience. We could have used some of that “guiding-light” on our drive home up the twisting rain-soaked coastal highway. It took us a little longer, but we arrived home safe and sound!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

REEDSPORT AND WINCHESTER BAY

Sunday, June 3 – This is a flashback to the day we visited the Umpqua Lighthouse.

After our lighthouse tour, we drove about a mile down the coast to the Oregon Sand Dunes National Recreation Area. This area runs from the shores of North Bend, OR, through Winchester Bay and ends in Florence, OR. We visited the Dunes in Winchester Bay.

It consists of over 40 miles of undisturbed beaches and the tallest dunes in the nation. These piles of sand towering to 500 feet above sea level provide numerous recreational opportunities including off-road vehicles, hiking, sand sledding, horseback riding and camping.

Formed by the natural forces of wind, water and time, these dunes are like no other in the world. The desert-like landscape blends with lakes, rivers, ocean and forest, creating a diverse ecosystem filled with plants and animals.

Thousands of off-road vehicle riders come to enjoy the thrill of riding across these tracks of sand. Whether by sand rail, motorcycle, 4X4 , quad, or guided trip, riders are in for a treat. Being a weekday, there were only a few off-road vehicles out today and we did not see any in the dunes.

Many areas are designated for quiet activity. You can walk over 40 miles of undisturbed beach. Many trails wind through Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce. Some go up and over through sand dunes. We hiked a short way up a couple of the dunes, and we'll tell you, hiking in these dunes would be a heck of a workout.

We then ventured to the Umpqua Aquaculture Oyster farm.

These oysters are raised in nets suspended above the ocean floor in a triangular area formed by the two southern jetties at Winchester Bay, Oregon .

Those black barrels have the nets attached to them.

The nets are above the sand, resulting in no gritty taste. We found them sweeter than the oysters we've tasted in the past.

You can see the workers shucking the oysters from a viewing area off the sales floor. There were only 3 workers removing the oysters from the netting, forcing open the shells, sorting and bagging them for sale or shipping.

Using an air hammer to break the oysters free from the net.

We purchased a cup of about a dozen oysters in cocktail sauce for tasting ($5).

They were huge.

Paul is not into eating raw seafood, so after tasting about three oysters, he allowed Marsha to enjoy the remaining oyster cocktail.  All in fun…they really aren't that bad – but they don't taste like chicken!  It's just the "raw thing" he doesn't like.

We stopped at Reedsport, at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area, and were delighted to see a herd of Roosevelt Elk grazing in the lush green grass. It appears they were all male elk, if having horns is any indication. What a neat experience to see these creatures in the wild.

On our way back to the campground, we stopped at the famous Mo's Restaurant, in downtown Florence, to compare the Clam Chowder to our previous tastes at Brookings Harris Beach, and at ICM (International C-Food Market) here in Florence. There is not a clear winner in the Weaver Taste Contest after three tasting experiences. More to come in the future!

Mo's

ICM

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!