Loving the Oregon Coast

In my last post, we had spent a week in our first stop on the Oregon coast and this update will cover two more beautiful locations along this magnificent coastline. But first I have to comment on the terrible destruction caused by hurricane Helene, which has affected many people we know.  Our hearts are heavy contemplating the losses so many people  have suffered and we wish we were there to offer help. Our home was not affected, but our son and his family are staying in it temporarily waiting for their air conditioning to be fixed (necessary in Florida!). I just happened to catch this quote on the wall of a coffee shop in Astoria, Oregon and it seems so appropriate for these times. I hope it's legible:

Leaving Pacific City, we traveled all the way up to the far northwestern corner of Oregon, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific. A place of rich history, immense natural forces, brutal weather at times and a vast number of shipwrecks.  We stayed at Fort Stevens State Park, which was a fort protecting the area since the time of the Civil War. It was the only place in the U.S. which was fired upon by Japanese submarines in WWII. Many of the large gun batteries are preserved there.'

We got our first taste of riding our bikes on the beach and this has become one of our favorite things to do here. There are many other biking opportunities, including a great paved trail along the waterfront in Astoria, complete with coffee ;-)

We ventured across the Columbia River to Cape Disappointment on the Washington side where the scenery is just as spectacular.

It is nearly always very windy here!

Appropriately, there is a resident shipwreck at Fort Stevens, the wreck of the Peter Iredale, which is very accessible on the beach and has probably had more than a few pictures taken of it. I couldn't resist!

Our next stop on the coast was the area around Newport, which is still an active fishing town with beautiful beaches, a couple lighthouses and many beautiful state parks. Just a footnote here: the Oregon coast is protected to a very large extent. There are 40 state parks on the coast as well as some national protected areas and national forests. Anyway, Newport was fun. More beach walks and bike riding, exploring Oregon's tallest lighthouse and buying fresh halibut off a barge in the harbor (we became pescatarians for this trip ;-\)

The beaches were littered with jellyfish

We stayed in Newport for another week and continued to explore the area. We had some days of rain or drizzle which let us do laundry, visit the fabulous Oregon Coast Aquarium and get some things done indoors, but for the most part, we had fabulous weather. Glad to be away from the Florida heat!

...and a minor mishap:

The next edition of this blog will be the last for this trip. We'll be heading back to Bend in mid-October to stay with our son and daughter-in-law and put the trailer to bed for the winter. We don't plan on driving the cross-country marathon any more, but in future years will fly back and forth to Oregon for the summer/fall

travels. But we're not done exploring yet, so stay tuned!