Tag: Newport

Tillamook Monday through Friday

The trip from Sisters to Tillamook was about the worse driving I have ever had todo on the motorhome! Lots of very narrow lanes winding through the forest at a speed of 35-40 mph for over 100 miles. Ugh. We are definitely going back that general direction a different way! By the time we got to the Elks campground , I was exhausted. It took quite a bit for me to recover, so we decided to only do a bit of sightseeing. We went north a bit to Garbaldi to take the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach. It was only 10 miles up and back with a short break in Rockaway Beach, but it was enjoyable and relaxing.

Inside the closed coach we chose

A brief video out the window.

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The train was crowded since this was prime tourist season. The open car was completely full, but we wanted a more comfortable seat, so this is the car.

Not the engine that moves, but a pretty one for pictures.

And of course there was definitely some more sightseeing from the road.

The three rocks from the road
A bit of a zoomed in view

On Wednesday we went to the Tillamook Air Museum. What a fabulous place, a pretty unexpected diamond. The museum is in an old blimp hanger from WWII, and it is amazingly huge. Eight full sized blimps could fit inside. Astonishingly it was built almost completely of wood since metal was precious during the war. It was full of all kinds of stuff besides just airplanes. They had a big collection of cockpit training mockups.

Fun training cockpits
A closer view of one of the training modules

They had some old WWII items of course.

Loved this old truck
Just something to set the scale

Did I tell you think is BIG??

The museum was HUGE

On of the other surprises was a huge selection of military models . I have never seen such a fabulous collection. There were models of specific battles, examples of all kinds of bases and posts, and included lots of other forces in addition to just US forces, both enemy and ally.

A small section of the models

Turns out I got a complication from the breast surgery after the trip to the museum, and we ended up going to the Tillamook ER. Nice people, but it was interesting that pretty much everything was done with paper instead of computers. Luckily they used Epic, the medical record program the rest of my medical folks use so it was easy for them to get my data. I just needed a minor procedure, and we were out in less than 3 hours. I called my surgeon on Thursday morning, and he said just follow the ER instructions. It was irritating, but not serious.

Thursday we decided to take a drive since I didn’t want to do much. You just can’t beat the Oregon coast. We drove south from Tillamook to Newport taking our time. We stopped by a number of state beaches and took about four hours to drive the short 60 miles. We had dinner at Georgie’s Bayside Restaurant, a lovely upscale place. It was well worth the money.

One of the many rocks along the coast
State park beach with tiny people
Slightly zoomed in for scale

Today we decided to just hang around the motorhome since I wasn’t feeling well. Kevin suggested we go to Rockaway Beach to get a Pronto Pup, a famous corn dog place. Yup, it was good! I don’t think I have had a corn dog for 2-3 years at least, but I really should have them more often.

Pronto Pup

I actually have been sewing some. I finished the June block of the month from Kona, and I am almost finished with the July one. I will post both when I get the second done.

Highway 101

We left the Marina RV Park on Sunday just before noon and moved an entire 2 miles down the road to South Beach State Park. We did do a few things around the Marina area. Here is a picture of he bridge I managed to drive over. It might not seem to big to many, but I am terrified of heights! I psyched myself up before hand, stared only at the roadway, and did my calming breathing.

Newport, OR bridge

There are a number of lighthouses around. This one is a state park just the south side of the bridge. It is no longer operational, but pretty cool to see.

There is a newer light on the north side of the bay. I couldn’t get a decent picture because of the rain and my lack of mobility, but you can at least get an idea about it.

We enjoyed just sitting by the beach in Newport and watching the people. I was hobbled to much to join them, but it looked like they were having fun.

South Beach is a lovely place with big sites, most with quite a bit of shade. It is very quiet at night, though it has been too cold and rainy to do much sitting outside. We planned to ride our bikes a lot here, but I got another back spasm! I was completely hobbled most of Monday and still some today. The beach is only a 1/4 mile from the campground on a combination bike/pedestrian path, so hopefully I will get better soon.

We have found some interesting plants. This is a Western Strawberry Tree. Even the red (ripe?) berries were hairy and hard.

Another one I had never seen before was this one with tiny pink/white flowers. I have no idea what it is, so if anyone know, please tell me!

Yesterday we took a trip to Junction City to see about some furniture options for the motorhome. We currently have a huge sofa with a queen sized bed plus a single recliner. We would really like a smaller sofa and two recliners or theater seating. They did have some options, but it sure needs a lot of thought. On the way back we drove 101 from Florence back to Newport. There are some famous sights along here, especially Thor’s Well and he Spouting Horn. We were lucky to catch both when the tides was right to show off.

Thor’s Well fills some from the surf on top,  it mostly from holes in the rocks below the surface. The video link needs to be clicked to view.

Waves filling Thor’s Well
Not quite centered, but after the water runs away
Spouting Horn looks like a geyser

This mist from Spouting Horn comes from surf forced into a tiny crack that explodes upwards like a geyser.

Today we drove north from Newport. A few sights.

Yet another lighthouse.
Devil’s Pinchbowl fills through the caves below it.
There were lots of people on the beaches. Note the two trees on a barren rock island.

We basically just pulled into every wayside we found, and there were lots of them. We were happily surprised to see four gray whales too – two singles and another pair. We kind of followed them south down the coast for a good while. You can always tell where the whales are when you see 4-6 whale watching tour boats in the same area. 😀 Both Washington and Oregon have gone to great lengths to provide access to their beaches. One spot we stopped at even had some Tillamook Ice Cream! I had chocolate with more chocolate. Yum.