Sunning Seals and Dungeness Crabs

On the way out of Bend we stopped at Sisters, a small western town with sweet shops and a Hops Festival.  That is a Beer Festival, with 10 kinds of local beers, food and music, but because we were on the road to a destination we just looked and didn't partake.

Well that had to be the longest, windiest, hilliest road we've ever been on and guess whose turn it was to drive!  And so we have no pictures! The road was so windie that it limited the length of trucks and RVs as they couldn't make the sharp turns.   Well our old girl handled very well.   The passes through the Cascade Mountain Range were very deep into the forest so not as much the distant views as the beauty of being enveloped by the tall, deep green trees.

It was about 7 PM when we went over the last mountain pass and there was the Pacific Ocean.  We made it from the East Coast to the West Coast in exactly one month.  We left Pennsylania during Hurrican Kate and arrived in Newport, Oregon torrential rain and 60 mile/hr gale winds.  We stayed right under the Yaquina Bay Bridge between the ocean and the bay and swayed with the wind all night long. This fabulous art deco jewel was the last bridge built in 1936 and final connection for the coastal highway 101.
This was the first real rain we had since the east coast except for a little rain in Wisconsin and Montana.  Not bad. 

Over the mtn and there was the Pacific just in time for sunset!

Caught up on some paper (computer) work in the morning and heard a knock at the door.  We don't know anyone in Newport and just got here so we really haven't met anyone???? It was Clay (Our RV campground Host) who wanted to take us for a tour of the area. So 10 minutes later we hopped in his car and off we went.  He is a retired gentleman and he and his wife live and work here for 5 months out of the year and travel the other months. We wandered up the coast line of the lake and he pointed out oyster beds and Alaskan fishing boats and gave us some history of the land as well as some of his personal history.  He served in the Navy during the Korean War for 2 years when he was only 16 yrs old.   He showed us how the dungeness crabs were caught and how to tell a male from female.  You can only keep the males.  And the big fat male sea lions were sunning themselves right by the pier.  They are kind of ugly cute and very noisy. They go down to California in the summer to mate with the ladies and bring any male offspring back up to colder waters of Oregon with them in early September. Guess this allows them to spend a hassle-free winter just with the guys.  Another of the Lord's special wonders.

Hurry before they escape!

Just lounging around.

Great seafood lunch and famous Newport Rogue beer

Just a few fishing boats!!!!

Clay dropped us off in town.  We were going to go on a whale watch boat but there was a storm out in the ocean so the boat wasn't going out for a few days. We had a great day wandering through the shops and had  a late lunch overlooking the fishing boats in a restaurant run by the fishermans' wives.   Local fish and chips and dungeness crabcakes, along with Rouge Dead Man Beer and Tangerine Wheat Beer.   Yumm!

Campsite was right under this bridge!

Thousands of crab traps waiting for Dec. 1 crab season

One side of street fish- Other side shops

Marcia Draper's twin at our lunch place

Uh Oh!!!!

Oh and the sun came out around noon and it was a beautiful day once again.