CANNON BEACH

Saturday, June 9 – After we got our site set up at Nehalem State Park, we headed for Cannon Beach.

Lots of people flying kites.

Cannon Beach is having their annual Sand Castle Festival today. Signs directed us off Coastal-101 for parking. What we didn't realize was the Festival was over two miles down the beach from our parking spot. Oh well, the exercise will do us good.

Families enjoying the beach.

The festival wasn't quite as large as we imagined, but it was nice. We didn't get to see any on the construction (We were late arriving.), but we did get to enjoy the finished products before the kids and the waves flattened them.

Here are some examples of the entries.

This was our favorite. Catch the name.

Reining Cats and Dogs. This one had lots of detail on the dogs and cats.

This one was a strange one. We didn't get it.

The winner is…

Have no idea why this one was the winner, but what do we know about judging sand castles.

We also got to photograph the famous Haystack Rock from every possible angle.

This is a 235-monolith, one of the largest of  its kind in the world. the Rock is home to nesting seabirds in the summer and marine invertebrates all year long.

There are several needles on the left side of the Rock.

Some of the homes along the beach.

We watched a paraglider float along the beach on our walk back to the car.

After driving down highway 101 for quite a ways, we saw the same fellow floating along on the air currents coming off the cliffs.

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

 

CAMPGROUND WITH A SQUAWKER

Saturday, June 9 – We drove through rain this morning.

This is what the sky looked like the entire drive.

We are sure glad we bought new wiper blades. Paul tried the new type that are made by Bosch – The Evolution. They don't really have the metal part that holds in the blade. They are just a ridged arched rubber. They work VERY nice. Really quiet too!

A much improved wiper system. Tiffin is putting these on the new model motor homes. We did not buy the 34” blades that are sold for RV's but instead purchased the cheaper 28” more common size for about a third of the price.  There is no reason to sweep rain off the entire windshield! The shorter ones worked great.

We are at Nehalem Bay State Park in Nehalem Bay. We had a little trouble upon arriving. Our original reserved site was F-01. It was impossible for Paul to get into site F-01, or for that matter get down the road to the site. He scraped the roof on almost every tree in that part of the park.

Very narrow roads.

Look how low the trees are over the road. This is where we scrapped the top.

Many of the sites are totally surrounded by low trees.

Once we got safely around the very large loop, we returned to the front entrance. We told the Ranger our problem with the trees and the motor home. He was very sympathetic, and said that they were aware of the issue and needed to get those trees trimmed. He listed all the sites available for our four day stay that he felt we could get into without tree problems. We were successful in finding a pretty good site – B03. We even get satellite service on our automatic Direct TV dish. All the sites are paved, with paved streets, 30 amp electric service and water. There is a dump station near the front gate. We have a picnic table and fire ring.

Site B3

Big backyard.

Looking left.

Looking right.

Once we got settled, Paul had to take a look at the roof. Thank goodness, no damage.

There are tons of KIDS here with their families. Gotta love it!!! Quite a difference compared to yesterday. Last night, we were the ONLY RV in the Elks Campground....ha ha!!

Besides the paved sites, the Park has Yurts for rent. They are really nice with a porch, picnic table, and fire ring. When we arrived, most of them were occupied.

There is a beautiful beach here at the park. A nice path leads right to the long sandy beach.

Looking left down the beach.

Looking right down the beach.

There is lots of wildlife here in the park. Almost immediately after Marsha took Bella out, one of the camp hosts ran over and said, "Be very careful. Don't leave your cat out alone. We have coyotes in the park. Very aggressive coyotes."  We haven't seen any coyotes yet, but we did have a visitor walk right through our site.

We also have a crow that just hates Bella. The minute we pulled in that crow has done nothing but squawk! We take Bella out, guess who is watching and squawking.

We took her for a walk down one of the many paths here in the park.

Guess who found us and followed us…squawking all the way.

This is a very nice, clean Park. Everyone is very friendly. And even with all the kids, it is extremely quiet.

Our sign pick for the day was found on a t-shirt.

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

SMALL BUT FULL OF HIDDEN TREASURES!

Friday, June 8 –  We drove over to see Drift Creek Covered Bridge this morning.

The bridge was dedicated to the pioneer of Lincoln County. The span once served traffic on a main north-south route along the Oregon coast. The bridge was considered the oldest remaining covered bridge in Oregon.

This is a duplicate of the original bridge that was demolished in 1977.

The original bridge had become unsafe and was condemned by county engineers. The new bridge was built by private funds and the work of Laura & Kerry Sweitz and completed on July 14, 2001.

We then drove up Oregon Costal Highway 101 to Neskowin. We were actually looking for Cascade Head National Seashore (which we were unable to locate) and found this quaint little town totally by accident. What a nice find!

Very interesting downspouts on some of the homes.

Many of the houses have a damper on the chimney to lessen the effects of high winds in this area.

We drove slowly through the neighborhood enjoying the lovely homes. SLOWLY, because there must have been 50 homemade signs asking drivers to move at a snail's pace. Cute!

This is a unique outdoor decoration.

Our next find was the Abe Lincoln memorial in Lincoln City. This is one of those finds that Paul would fly right by, but Marsha insists on stopping. Pau jokes that he wouldn't see a thing if it wasn't for Marsha! Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1965 created "On the Circuit" but is locally known as "Abraham Lincoln on Horseback". The statue depicts a younger Lincoln in about 1850 studying from his "saddlebag college".

Why would there be a statue dedicated to Abe Lincoln in this area. Read below. (Remember, you can click on any photo and bring up a larger version.)

Our last find, on this RAINY Oregon day, was the Glass Art Studio.

This place was really jumping! You can blow your own glass float here. The place was packed with people doing just that! Prices start at $65 and quickly climb well over a hundred dollars for the session.

Somebody came up with a good idea here. It was one customer after another.

The gentleman was the professional. He was very patient with the customer.

While we were watching, the gal in yellow was doing a great job.

This is her finished project.

Many more were lining up to blow a float. Marsha would have loved doing this, but it will have to wait until another time.

NOTE: So sorry to our friends, Sheryl and Jeff. In yesterday's blog we neglected to put a link to their blog, but here it is now…Bright's Wheel Life. Enjoy!

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