This and That

I'm feeling disjointed today, so here are just a couple of miscellaneous pictures.

Walking down the sidewalk, we came across this Passion Flower vine (Passiflora). Look how gorgeous!


And there was this weird vegetable in the natural food store. Geez, I'll take a picture of anything.


But I did want to mention that our high point while in Eureka, CA, was touring the Blue Ox Millworks - a very interesting place that uses old 'human-powered' tools. Nancy did a fantastic job documenting our visit on her blog, so rather than repeating, click here to see hers.

Pretty Ferndale

As is depicted on this mural, Ferndale is known for three things - cows, the Fernbridge, and Victorian houses.


Although I don't have any cow pictures, I always say if I was a cow, I'd want to live in Ferndale. The grass is lush and the contented cows are everywhere.

I slid down a muddy hill to get this picture of the bridge which just celebrated its 100th birthday. Speaking from experience, it is a bit narrow for today's trucks and RVs.


And the Victorian architecture is splendid. Although you can see with the stores on Main Street, it's kind of a skin deep beauty with fancy fronts.


But elsewhere, there are plenty of beautiful old buildings that were built in the town's heyday. Known as 'butterfat palaces', these houses were built with money from the prosperous dairy industry.


I guess these people just kept adding on as they had more children.


But wait! Every Memorial Day weekend, Ferndale, along with neighboring Eureka and Arcata, host the Kinetic Grand Championship, the Triathlon of the Art World. I attended this event twice and if you have never seen it, you have to go! Contestants come from all over with their kinetic creations, which must be people powered and able to move on land, through sand or mud, and float on water. These creations can be as simple as a decorated bicycle with one driver to a huge machine with multiple drivers. It's probably the most fun I ever witnessed.

Ferndale has a small Kinetic Museum with a few of the sculptures on display.


But you really have to witness the craziness involved to appreciate this 3-day event.

California, Here We Come

But first a couple more shots of the Oregon coast.

This is only one of the many 'arch rocks' along the coast.


And another shot of the cloudy coastline, but we were just glad when it wasn't raining.


The day we packed up and headed south, it was back to the usual low clouds and mist.


Entering California didn't cause the sun to shine and with the lack of solar to charge the batteries, we did something shocking. We looked in our Escapees book for a half price campground and plugged in. We pulled out all our rechargeable items - phones, toothbrush (mine), shaver (Ron's), camera batteries - and charged up a storm. I could feel the surge of power.

The campground was right on the Klamath River. If you look closely, you can see we didn't escape the rain.


The next morning, we went to see this unique 'farmhouse'. During World War II, the U.S. Army built this building to house an early warning radar station. With shingled roof and fake windows and dormers, it appeared to be a simple farmhouse from the air. The personnel stationed here reported any suspicious boats and planes to a communications center in San Francisco who could dispatch fighter planes if the crafts were identified as hostile.


Continuing south, we entered the range of the Coast Redwoods which are taller, but not as big around as the Giant Sequoias. These trees can grow to 380 feet and 22 feet in diameter. I just picked an average tree to video. Be sure to look for Ron standing at the base for size.

As you can see, there are actually three trees.

And we stopped to see the Corkscrew Tree, which seems to be four trees that grew in a very unusual way.

Gold Beach, OR

On the way south to our next stop in Gold Beach we stopped at a few of the many viewpoints. As usual, we didn't have to worry about the sun blinding us.

In Bandon, we took the alternate ocean drive to see Face Rock. Take a good look at this. I thought it was a little creepy.


I was surprised they hadn't named this one seal rock. All that's missing is the ball balanced on his nose.


This was the view where we pulled over for lunch.


Just outside of Gold Beach, Donna found us a great spot to park, on a gravel bar along the Rogue River. We were thrilled to see harbor seals and river otters fishing right in front of us.

Ron, Nancy, and I went to see the largest Myrtlewood tree in Oregon. Wow! It's 88 feet tall and 42 feet in circumference. You could make a whole bedroom set out of that.


The base had been hollowed out by fire and we wondered if anything was living in it. How about it, Nancy?


Water, water everywhere. We've been having so much rain that we even thought about heading inland, but it's raining there too.


But we found something to do that wasn't 'dampened' by the weather. About 10 miles north of Gold Beach is Honey Bear campground which, oddly enough, has a German restaurant. In addition to German sausage, sauerkraut, potato pancakes, and red cabbage, they also serve up some fine entertainment. It began innocently enough with dancing. Here are Janet and Doug demonstrating their polka skills.


And the audience participated in the finest Oktoberfest tradition.


But where the heck does the Chicken Dance fit in?

By the end, I think everyone in the place was doing this silly dance. I would have taken a movie then, but I was too busy acting like a chicken.

Needless to say, we had a great time. I only got a picture of about half of the crazy WINs.

Coos Bay

Continuing our journey south, we moved to the Coos Bay area and another casino, The Mill Casino. They have a nice big gravel lot and the WINs arrived for a three day stay.

The southern part of the Oregon coast is known for myrtlewood trees which can be made into the most beautiful things. We toured the factory at The Oregon Connection and watched the artisans at work. Thanks to Nancy for the pictures and for turning off her flash so this guy didn't lose a finger.


This place has been around for awhile. They still have the original main power shaft that runs the length of the room and use belts off it to run various equipment.


The beauty of myrtlewood is the variety of color and grain, even in the same piece.


Although I'm not into gift shops, I really liked the myrtlewood creations. I even bought an unfinished dish and plan on finishing it myself.


Look at all the different colors and shades.


We also toured the Cranberry Sweets candy factory and showroom where you can watch the candy being made through the glass and try the 30 or so samples. Wow! My kind of place.


While at the myrtlewood factory we heard all about how hard it is to find wood and all the regulations involved. But when we visited Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area, we certainly saw huge myrtlewood trees. Although, to be fair, I guess they couldn't cut down the trees there.


Even though the end of September isn't exactly prime waterfall season, Silver Falls was very pretty.


And this is neighboring Golden Falls. Just imagine what they would look like in the spring!


I even got a group shot in front of Golden Falls - Ron, Nancy, and Diane.

Sights along 101

Sometimes I'm asked how I find all the interesting (at least to me) things to do in an area. Well we stop at state visitor centers, use the AAA book, and take the advice of people who live in or have been to the area. But on the drive down US101 known as the Coastal Highway, it's even easier. Oregon has put together a mile by mile listing of what to see and do along this road. Genius! The following are some of the things we saw between Tillamook (mm 65) and Florence (mm 190) along this very scenic road.

Oregon was very generous when they built viewpoints along the coastal road. It appears they even pay this gull to pose for visitors at one of them.


We saw the world's shortest river, the 'D' river. A whole 120 feet long, it connects Devils Lake to the Bay in Lincoln City.
(Hey, I don't just make these things up - it's in the Guinness Book of Records.)

And Depoe Bay claims to have the world's smallest navigable harbor. It is pretty small, but what amazed me was the entrance to the harbor. How would you like to navigate a boat through this?


This is the view through the gift shop window at Cape Foulweather. The gift shop is the only way to see it.


We didn't stay long at Yaquina Head lighthouse because the flies were sooo annoying. We understand there had just been a hatch.


I quickly snapped another picture from a little farther away. You can see why they needed a lighthouse there.


The same structual engineer, Conde McCullough, designed most (maybe all?) of the bridges on the Oregon coastal road. This is the one in Newport over Yaquina Bay.


Newport was one of our stops and we stayed at the Port of Newport Marina and RV Park. It was expensive at $17.68 a night to boondock in their parking lot, but this was the view out the front window of our rig.


One day we stopped for lunch at a wayside where we read that a short walk would take us to a beach where beachcombers find agates. So Ron and I trotted right on down to see if we could find any. When we arrived at the beach we realized that we don't know what agates look like. Oh well, we just picked up a couple of pretty rocks and were happy.
Since then I googled agates and even saw some in a gift shop although I'm still not sure what they look like unpolished.

We stopped at the Heceta Head lighthouse viewpoint because the book said it was where all the calendar pictures are taken from. See the lighthouse?


Let me crop that for you. As you can see, we have had some fog/clouds along our way.


And at Darlingtonia State Natural Site, you can see these terrific giant carnivorous plants. I wanted Ron to put his hand next to one for size, but he was afraid he could lose a finger.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

I decided the Oregon Coast Aquarium is a misnomer. When the aquarium was mentioned as something to see, I was not enthusiastic. Watching fish swim around in a tank is not at the top of my list of favorite things. But this aquarium is so much more and I'm so glad I went.

First we watched the sea otters being fed. Gosh, do they gulp down the food. And who doesn't love otters.


Then we moved on to the seals and sea lions. These are harbor seals.


And the sea lions seem to know that food is coming.
We learned the most obvious difference between the two is that the sea lions can 'walk' on land while the seals have to just bounce along on their bellies.

Next was the seabird exhibit. These are common murres which, as their name suggests, are very common along the Oregon coast.


But let me skip to my personal favorite, the tufted puffin. Ron and I have a major disagreement on these birds. I think they're the cutest things ever and he thinks they're ugly. What do you think?


I love to watch them 'fly' through the water, but this guy looks like he's standing on top.


I took a short movie of his odd behavior.


There were aquariums, but they had some unique occupants. These are moon jellyfish. Cool, huh?


And I knew I should have written down what this was. I just know it wasn't a jellyfish.


And we were told these are not starfish since they are not fish. They have been renamed sea stars. I swear they weren't this colorful at the Jersey shore.

They also had some big aquariums with lots of fish, but the only ones I recognized were the sharks. The sturgeons were interesting since they're endangered and can grow so big. It was way too dark for my camera, so no pictures. You'll have to go yourself.

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is in Newport, Oregon.