Since there is no cruising going on, I added a story of our Oregon trip. It's like a cruise with the sea right there, only no ship.
Depoe Bay
Day One
My sister-in-law, Ann, called. She and my brother had rented a condo on the Oregon coast, but their plans had changed so they couldn't go. It was too late for them to cancel, so they were giving the condo to us for the week. I had never heard of Depoe Bay, but that’s where we were headed.
Deb and I had been looking for a getaway and had even looked at an Airbnb on the coast. We found one we liked which was a good price, but when you added a cleaning fee of one fifty and a reservation fee of another one fifty, the price went from good to ridiculous pretty fast.
We thanked Ann profusely.
The reservations were only a few days away, so we had to shop and pack quickly. Then on Monday morning, we hit the road. Deciding we were old people; we stopped a lot. It made the trip a little longer, but also easier. We stopped for breakfast right at ten-twenty. We went to McDonald's. All those fancy machines you could order your own food without talking to a real live human being are all shut down. You can't risk touching them, I guess. You have to go talk to a real live person now. In this case it was an older lady with a slight limp who had to buzz you in and out of the bathroom, but only if you said please.
One of our other stops was at a covered bridge in Oregon, Drift Creek, built in 1914. We took pictures. It was the weirdest thing. The bridge led to someone's driveway. That's all, a driveway. Kind of a fancy bridge for a driveway. Oregon has dozens of historic covered bridges, but we only saw one.
We reached the coast at Lincoln City. We stopped at the Chamber of Commerce Tourist Information building. To clarify, I added the tourist information part. When we went in the lady behind the desk stood up and greeted us.
“What great and wonderful things should we not miss while we are in the area?” Deb asked. She was debating between the world-class glass blowing or the fine pottery, maybe even what beaches were an absolute must. Maybe even what restaurants she would recommend.
The lady scratched her chin. “Well, I guess you could go to the casino.”
You remember when I pointed out that the sign said tourist information, not casino advertisement. Epic fail.
We arrived in Depoe Bay a little early. We walked up and down the main street. Except for a few houses up the hills. I think it’s the only street. Three of the businesses sold saltwater taffy, so we had to get some of that. Deb's been having a craving. Then we walked over the bridge. There’s a sign that says “World's Smallest Port.” All I could see was a lot of water and no port until we walked over the bridge. The boats have to sail under the bridge to get in and out of the tiny port. Good thing we walked over the bridge or we might have missed it.
We went into a Mexican restaurant. Our thought was to order take out, but there were only three tables which weren't blocked off in the whole place and there was a table by the front door, so we figured we were safe enough and sat down instead. I had a view of the ocean and kept saying, “Wow,” when a huge wave smashed against the rocks of the shoreline and sent up a plume of water. Deb would look around, but at that point, it was too late and she'd missed it. She stood up and told me to move over. When the food came, she moved back over to the other side of the table and I kept my, “Wows,” to a minimum.
Yum. The food was really good, even Deb said so, and she doesn't like Mexican food. The serving sizes were huge. Deb managed to finish her meal though. Which I didn't think would happen. Okay, she might have had a little help with the refried beans and the guacamole. Oh, and the mushrooms. She doesn't like mushrooms.
When we finished our meal, it was past five and time to check-in. The thing with time-shares is when they realize you are not a member; they lick their lips and think Fresh Meat. We checked in and then they had us go over to the concierge. That's what they called her anyway. Really, she was a salesperson. She wanted to invite us to their hour and a half long, no pressure, ya right, presentation. At first, we agreed. They would give us a seven-night stay at one of their resorts. She said that would be hard to book though. Then there was a gift certificate. Anyway, in the end, we decided not to. She seemed unhappy but said it was okay.
The funny part of the conversation was when they asked if we had ever been there before. I said I hadn't but Deb had been there with another man. I thought the lady was going to swallow her face mask for a second. Deb had to explain she had been there with her brother and her mother was with them also.
They kept telling us we had a really good unit. I figured they said that to everyone, but when we walked in, we did have a really good unit with an excellent view of the water below.
They even gave us a voucher for free eggs at the local grocer. We didn't need eggs, of course we brought three dozen with us but Deb took the vouchers anyway. I shrugged and thought, whatever. I had put the coolers on top of the suitcases. This made it quite an entertaining ride as they are both made of hard plastic. At every sharp corner, they would slide back and forth. There really wasn't anywhere for them to go though as there wasn't a lot of room left over in the back. That was until I opened the liftgate. The cooler was leaning against the door and when the door wasn't there anymore it flew out and spilled its guts all over the parking lot. It was a good thing we had vouchers for some free eggs at the local market as most of ours were now broken.
We lugged everything upstairs. It took three trips because we don't pack light. We noticed some people using luggage carts the next morning. Where were those last night? Then I had to get all the egg guts out of the cooler when I got to the kitchen.
That night we watched the waves crash against the cliffs for the longest time. One of the downstairs neighbors was cooking up some steaks. Even with a stomach full of Mexican food, man, did that smell good.
Day Two
There is a nice trail that goes from one end of the large condominium complex to the other. It followed the cliff line so you can look down on the water from different angles. There seemed to be no one out and about as we took our walk. Deb spotted some seals swimming in the waves. They ducked down and swam under as the waves crest and then swam around until the next one came up on them.
It's a beautiful trail, but a little muddy in places. There were two Canadian geese on the trail later on. These two didn't seem upset at our being there and let us walk on by without a problem. I let Deb go first as they would see her as less of a threat to them. If they had attacked Deb, well, I would have known not to get near them.
Deb spotted people walking along the cliffs on the other side of the little inlet next to the condos. It’s called Pirate’s Cove. When we headed out, we were able to find where they were at. We had to drive around a lot before finding it, but we did. There was a seagull on the edge of the cliff, just standing there and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by our near approach.
We were about forty feet off the ocean at that point and looking down at an angry sea. There was a large wave headed straight for us. “Should we move back?” I asked.
“We're fine,” she assured me. The wave smashed into the cliff
then went up and over it, stopping only a few feet from us.
“Lucky guess,” I responded. From there we could see the entire condominium complex.
As we made our way down the coast, we stopped at all the points of interest. We stopped at the Yaquina lighthouse. It’s the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon coast and the only wooden one. The lighthouse and the interpretive center were both closed, but that didn't stop them from charging the same price as if they were open. I figured for just a few dollars each, it was still worth it. From there it was a long staircase down to Cobble Beach. The beach consisted of a lot of small black stones which had been rounded by the waves. We held hands because the rocks were loose and we alternately began to make small stone avalanches with each step. There were lots of tide pools near the rocks, but most of those were marked off-limits. On one of the rocky islands just off the coast lay about forty seals. We wandered around a while, then headed back. We walked close to the cliff face on the way back because we had traction there. Further down the coast, we drove through Newport. It has a beach there too. All the beaches seem to be down long ramps or long staircases. Newport's beach was a ramp. Luckily going down was easy. Going back wasn't hard either because they had a cement bench every five feet on the steep part of the ramp. We enjoyed walking on the sand even though we were both walked out by that point.
The condo had a grill, so I cooked dinner on it. Chicken and hamburgers. It’s fun watching the waves crash into the rocks while grilling food.
Day Three
We did the condo trail again this morning. Deb even spotted some whales way off in the distance. There are only two directions you can go in this area. There are mountains to the east, water to the west, so north and south are the only regions to explore. We drove halfway to Newport, catching all of the points of interest we had missed the day before and even catching a couple we had already visited. We found Devil's Punch Bowl this time. Its archways have been eroded out by the ocean waves out of the rock. Then we drove north. The most interesting thing we ran into was Fogarty Creek State Park. The park is different. There is North Fogarty Creek Park and South Fogarty Creek Park. You can't drive from the north side of the park to the south side of the park without getting back on the main road, which is the Pacific Coast Highway, because Fogarty Creek cuts the park in half. You can walk across it on one of the two walking bridges though. The thing we didn't notice the first time was that their highway bridge has two trails under it that go to the beach. One footpath to the north side of the park and one to the south. When we figured it out, we went back to the park and out onto the beach. Then deciding we didn't like the north part of the beach as much as we like the south, we went back across the walking bridge and onto the south side of the beach. Despite the indecision, it was great fun.
We decided to eat at Pig and Pancake for lunch as we had eaten at one before, but further up the coast. The food was good, but the service was lousy. I had to ask three times for some sugar-free syrup. I ordered over medium eggs and was given scrambled eggs, when I complained the waitress brought back over-easy eggs. Won't be going back there.
We hit the beach in Lincoln City too, although a different one than we did the first day. I enjoyed watching the waves crash against the shore. On the way back to Depoe Bay we stopped at all the points of interest we could find. I still remember that lady at the Chamber of Commerce saying, “You could go to the casino.” With all this beauty around, it makes me think she needs a different job.
That night I stepped out on the balcony to fry up dinner on the grill. To my surprise, I was facing my next-door neighbor. He was cooking on his grill too. The grills are back-to-back so I was uncomfortably close. I wish these units had privacy screens on them like cruise ships do between the balconies. He's from California and comes up here quite often, he just retired from Hewlett-Packard. See what I mean.
Day 4
We took our morning walk in the afternoon because I had a
Zoom meeting with the Skagit Valley Writer’s League in the morning. One of the
benefits of the pandemic is everyone knows how to use Zoom and even if you’re
out of town, you can still attend that meeting you’re supposed to be in charge
of.
It’s raining, but that’s not the worst of it. We’re supposed to go back on Saturday, but there is a big storm coming in. We decided to go back to the cliffs south of the condo complex on the other side of Pirate’s Cove. It’s just a wide spot in the road that has enough room for two cars and then there’s a trail between two houses, but when you get out there you have a spectacular view. We used the day to play games and relax around the fire. We tried doing our LTUE writer’s conference online but gave up as it's just too hard with the way they had it arranged. It’s so much better in person. The concierge from the condo called us up and offered us a one-hundred-and-fifty-dollar gift card if we would go to the sales meeting. This time we said yes. With rain forecast, our beach-exploring days are over.
Day 5
We woke up and packed. There’s a huge snowstorm coming in and if we don’t leave a day early, then we probably won’t make it home for a few days. We did the condo ownership presentation but hesitated to do anything at this point in our lives. We were considering it until I talked to my sister-in-law. We decided not to pursue it. But the $150 gift card is nice.
As soon as the meeting was over, we loaded the car and hit the road. We made it through the Oregon coastal range pretty easily. There was snow on the higher elevations, but it had been sanded so we had traction. The closer we came to Portland, the more problems we had. A unique thing I have never had happen before is our wipers iced up. We had to pull over four times to knock the ice off so we could see where we were going.
The roads were all snowed over with ice where the snow had been compacted. Our Subaru did an amazing job in the snow and we never lost traction for more than a second. Google maps on Deb’s phone kept telling us to use the side streets and we passed onramp after onramp to I-5. She almost said to ignore it, but by then we were on an overpass to I-5 and saw the jack-knifed semi that blocked three lanes. Hmm, may it knows what it’s talking about.
When we did get on the interstate, the going was slow. We did 35 mph on I-5 for miles. All the lanes had snow on them and were slick in spots. When we did get lanes where the cars had blown off the snow, I couldn’t tell if it was black ice or pavement. My usual method of stomping on the brakes to see if I slide or stop didn’t seem like a good idea at the time. I figured, as long as we maintained traction, it didn’t matter if it was black ice or not.
We hit snow through all of southern Washington. We pulled over at a rest area to break the ice off the wipers once again. I also took time to knock off the ice chunks forming around the tires. I looked up and down the row of cars and saw a lot of people having to do the same thing. I thought it was just my wipers that had the problem. I looked up and there were dozens of semi-trucks in the upper parking lot. A lot of them were breaking ice chunks from around their tires, too.
It took us an extra two hours to get home, but we did stop for food once also. When I opened the blinds the next morning to six inches of snow on the deck, I was so grateful for Deb’s suggestion that we leave a day early. We wouldn’t have made it home for a few days otherwise. When we arrived home the ice-covered the sides of the car and the ice on the front license plate is so thick, we couldn’t see the numbers or even what color it is.
It was good to be home. Even though we would have loved to stay one more day. It wouldn’t have been one though, it would have been several days hold up in a hotel. Portland closed down parts of I-5 we the next day we heard, because of the storm.
