Central Oregon Coast Last trip for this trip

From the weather reports, this would have been a good weekend to stay in the "crib" and "veg".. But it was our last weekend here, so we went to the coast as planned. Interestingly, the weather reports were correct, but the degree and duration of the effects were such that it was another great weekend. It did snow in the costal range and on the coast, but between the snow and the hail, there was beautiful sunshine. But it was COLD. We had wondered why we packed our big red coats this time because they had spent 5 weeks in the back of the car. We were so glad they were with us because when it's cold, that wind coming off the Pacific is biting. Once we got to our coastal "entry point" at Newport, we ambled the 10 or 12 miles north to Depoe Bay. We hugged the coast and rediscovered the lookout at Cape Foulweather... Aptly named. We found that it was built years ago as a gift shop and was "taken over" as a WWII lookout station for enemy submarines, etc. It certainly is located in the right place for that. The next stop was at a park surrounding the "devil's punch bowl", where these little squirrels scampered all around the lava. Not sure why the people who named the stuff here were so into the devil. If you look up and down the coast, many things are "the devil's ______". If you look closely at the second picture taken from the grounds of the Cape Foulweather Gift ship, you can see seals (or sea lions) hauled out onto the rocks below(top center) Apparently resting, because I can guarentee you they weren't sunning. This trip, I kept trying to place myself in history. We had seen most of the movie "Pearl Harbor" this week which related us to the time the Coast Guard had occupied the gift shop. What a horrific time to live. I hear folks moaning about the economic mess we have be duped into right now and see that we are enduring nothing in comparison. Makes you really want to do your best to get along with people because rancor is nasty whether it be between neighbors, co-workers, brothers or countries. The results of wearing that chip on our shoulder or trying to take advantage of one another is devastating..... always. Along that line, I don't believe I have related our chance to develop those feelings when we found out last week that someone in Janesville, Wisconsin had bought 2-$500 items at Walmart using our bank debit card... Which of course are in our pockets in Oregon. Ready to rip off someone's head.. but who? where? Supposedly our bank is on it. Obviously,this was deliberate and probably deserves some ill-will, but so much of it comes from angst and wearing our feelings on "our sleeves", not giving each other the benefit of doubt. We have found that there are so many things we would like to have done to show love, etc., but that slipped through the cracks of time because of the "tyranny of the urgent" that propels us into the next issue. OK, nuf of that; needless to say, war is hell, betwen countries or friends and relatives. The other time capsule I find myself in is history of development. I see the Native Americans getting along so well (at least in my mind), enjoying a fresh caught or smoked fish or elk as needed, wandering up and down the mountains or taking a 3 day (10 mile) trip to the ocean. Then I see the improvements we have made by blasting away mountainsides, rerouting rivers, etc. Obviously if those improvements hadn't been done, I would never have seen this beauty, so I should stop complaining, I guess. Realizing the hardships the first "euros" came through just to get here and sink roots, blows my mind. After all this musing, I am so glad to live now.. Life is really "easy" for us, no matter how difficult we feel it is. Back to the travelogue. The devil's punchbowl, I think named because it looks like a bowl and fills with water at times. We went a few miles up 101 to find the Whale Cove Inn nestled along the road. Brad was there to meet us with his usual smily, helpful demeanor. Since we stayed here last year shortly after they opened, the new thing this year was breakfast... again, really good. They now also have a restaurant, but it is closed for the winter. Apparently this is the "new" Whale Cove Inn. The other was more of an old fashioned diner and lodge, while this new one is essentially opulence. Not cheap, but definitely an experience. The suite had 2 hi-def TV's recieving DirecTV which made us really feel at home since it also carried the Big 10 channel. I would have been content to relax in front of the modernistic fireplace watching TV and listening to the surf.... maybe glancing out once in a while to the beautiful view. But we would have missed so much. That evening we had reservations at Tidal Raves, a great seafood place on the ocean that we had experienced last year. Good again. I settled on the cioppini (italian seafood stew) with lots of local seafood. I'll have that again sometime, somewhere. Georgia had pacific red snapper; also very good. Getting some of the little guys out of their shells in the cioppini is a bit messy, but they are prepared. The next day the weather was such that we spent a lot of time in the car, hopping out here and there to get a better view of something. We started at Oceana which is the first street on the other side of Whale Cove. Got to see some of the houses up close and personal. An interesting story here. When I told Becky (at work) where we were going, she said she had stayed a bit with her parents who lived in one of those houses on the north side of Whale Cove... another quinkidink (coincidence???) We noticed as we drove in and out of seaside residential communities that there was usually a mixture of "kept and unkept" houses. We went on up to Lincoln City, just to see what was there. There were houses out on this huge sand bar and some nice shoreline, but nothing specatular, unless you find some of these pictures spectacular. We came back and had lunch at Tidal Raves again (when you find a good thing, sometimes it's not worth it to experiment further). There we were told our 3rd version of the whale(s) that reside in the cove by the restaurant during the summer. Last year, while I was on my quest to see whales, we were told that during the summer, one female gray stops and lives there rather than going on north. Often she has her calf with her. Last week at work I was told of a male (with a distinctive name that I have forgotten) spent summers there. While eating lunch, we were visiting with people who asked where we were from... yadda yadda, and the lady behind us said, "now that I know you aren't local, I'll tell you that we have several teenage whales that spend the summers here in the cove.".... who am I to believe? The bottom line is, apparently a or some whale(S) spend summers there and you can see them up close. With my imagination, I had spotted several otters playing in the water below... to find out that it was seaweed. It was exciting for a while. Somewhere in the afternoon, we stopped at several places, walked on the cold wet beach and saw some great sites. Just before heading back inland to rest for another evening, we stopped at the Yaquina head lighthouse just north of Newport. That was another joy to find. Although they don't come til April, I found that probably my favorite bird the puffin comes to nest there. As you can see from the one picture, California isn't the only place that is falling into the pacific. The road really does end there, before a 20 foot drop to the beach.

Now where was I?

Before I was so rudely interrupted by creating exams and finishing up a course, I was about to discuss our trip up the McKenzie River to Sisters. The lectures are "in the can" and the exams are finished and printed, ready to "administer". So back to things at hand. We decided to break up the trip by venturing out Friday nite. We finally got to the Eagle Rock Lodge http://eaglerocklodge.com/ on the McKenzie River, east of Eugene about 9:30 pm. Although I remember seeing the sign on our trip down the McKenzie Highway last year, our only images of this place were from the web. We pulled up in the dark after winding a bit in the dark, finding the sign and making our way through the entrance to the lodge. We looked at each other with that "oh, oh!" look. What had we gotten into? I hasten to tell you that curb appeal isn't everything. Debbie pulled in behind us and Randy was in the office. Not sure if we have met 2 nicer people. We really felt comfortable immediately. The inside of the lodge was as promised by the internet info and we were promised that we would wake in the morning to a beautiful view of the river.. Wow... it was true. Georgia was overjoyed with the Fireplace suite and had a hard time coming to bed because she didn't want to leave the fire. I caught her a couple of times during the night raising up to look over me, gazing at the fire. Me, being the early riser of the group, was up at the crack of dawn. (Now what would Mrs. Boley have said about that sentence.... "Me was"????? Help me here Greg, I'm at a loss. Guess I'll just go on. In the cool morning light the McKenzie glistened as it chattered to me, beckoning me to come closer. This is the life. So if it looked like I needed a fishing pole at Suttle Lake, here is a place where the trout really run (according to locals). "Hawk" the Brittany Spaniel" took me on a riverside jaunt. I didn't realize that he was "somebody" til I saw his plaque in the office. In the yard were all kinds of tall trees. There was a branch of inscense cedar on the ground. I told Debbie that we paid dearly for little bundles of this stuff to decorate with at Christmas in Illinois. She said, "and we throw it on the burn pile. (See the pic below Hawk's plaque. Let me know and I'll send you all you want." (See the pic below Hawk's plaque.) I took my laptop to this great "lounge" in the lodge looking out on the river and sipped coffie til breakfast. (writing exam questions). Breakfast was super, as we have come to expect. The "new" taste to us was "brown sugar bacon"... my, my, my... mm good! Although it was difficult to leave, we got on the road toward Sisters. A few miles up the road, we found Harbick's Country Store, a place we had stopped at last year. Out in the middle of nowhere, a store with "everything". Although Georgia didn't appreciate it, I was taken by the bathroom with the CocaCola polar bears painted on the walls. (see below) We passed by Sahalie Falls where we had trekked through waste deep snow last year. (see post from last year). We got to Five Pine Lodge in Sisters early enough for Georgia to rest a bit while I explored. They actually call this a campus, with a movie house, a brewery, a convention center, eating, exercize.. pretty much everything you would want if you weren't sitting in the middle of all this natural beauty. The room was great, the restaurant was fantastic and lunch the next day at the brewery was also great. Now that I have mentioned 2 eating places in one sentence, it's probably time to show you the license plate of the Subaru we rented. Don't remember if I mentioned it before... But it does seem appropriate. Coming down the mountain, we kept driving through "clouds" pretty cool. Here are a few samples of that. Oh, Hopefully, you will also find a video of the "back" yard of Eagle Rock Lodge. Eagle Rock is a huge rock sticking out of the forest along the river.