Newport, OR - Playing on the Coast

We’re in Newport, OR for a week. Now, we like to eat breakfast out at least once a week and, since we postponed this treat in Crescent City last week, have 2 (count them: 2) breakfasts on tap for this week. We ate at Fishtails last time we were here and thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

But, in Newport, we’re in breakfast heaven: I checked Yelp and found several breakfast restaurants with at least 4 stars. Too many choices here. What are we going to do? Well, today we began with breakfast at the Coffee House right on the waterfront. Great views and good menu. We had read several reviews and knew that we had to split the omelet. Boy, were they right. (Maybe we need a third person with us.) We had the feta, spinach, red pepper and carmelized onion omelet. It covered half the plate, the potatoes covered the rest and the biscuit came on its own plate. Lots of food here - might as well bring us the take-home container now. We saw several pancakes go out - on 1’ square plates. We heard several ‘Ooh’s’ as they were delivered to the tables. Whoo-eee. they were at least 1’ in diameter with bananas and blueberries and whipped cream on the top. One guy, not having read the reviews, ordered it to go with his omelet, potatoes and toast. He won’t need to eat for a week.

Needless to say, we had a filling breakfast and another place to add to our favorites in Newport. A real attraction for this town. We ask ourselves a lot - is this the place we’d like to land when we’re through with RV’ing? Where’s our final spot? Where will be buy a house? (Though with nearly 3 years of full-timing in back of us, we’re in no hurry to make this decision so any thoughts are purely hypothetical at this point.) Newport has lots to speak for it: a cool bay, a marvelous coast line with lots of places to walk along it, 2 museums, a huge marina, several good breakfast restaurants - I mean, what more could you want? Let’s call a realtor. Ooh - there is the rain and the fog here. How come I’m wearing a hoodie, a hiking shirt, a t-shirt and a quilted jacket? Must be a reason.

Time to smell the roses. We walked across the street and sat down on a bench to look out on the waterfront. Lots of activity, commercial fishing boats heading out, people with knee-high boots carrying equipment out to their boats, guys in orange rubber pants moving fish from one container to another, not many tourists today - it’s Monday. OK, now thats done, cross smelling the roses off my list, let’s go. We’ve got things to do.

We headed north along the coast up to DePoe Bay, about 10 miles north. Worlds smallest harbor and the tortuous route boats need to take in and out is rocky, narrow and the waves never let up. We saw no boats waiting to come into the harbor today. but here’s a picture from 2 years ago showing how tortuous it is to get in. The boat came up to the harbor, realized it wasn’t the right moment, circled a few times and then made its run. You’ve got to get the right wave to come in, then aim to the middle away from the rocks, turn a hard left to go under the bridge we’re standing on and you’re home free.
OK, he’s found his wave and his spot and knows he can get between those rocks

He guns the engine

Whoosh

Now a sharp left to get under the bridge and we’re home free.

It was a maelstrom out there. Since there are long fingers of rocks going out into the ocean, waves break way out. We looked out and Gary called it a Vitamix of waves.

No wonder we didn’t see any ships coming in today. We walked through the town and along the road next to the bay. Hey, look at this cute little trail.

Must be a small park with a bench looking out to the Pacific. Quiet, comtemplative, we can sit here. That's Gary in the picture above waiting for me to sit still for just a minute.

Later we walked along the wall they had on the Pacific and watched the waves coming at us. We were in front of one just like the one below. My glasses: wet, my hair, wet: my jacket: covered with ocean spray. Oops, didn’t see that one coming. Kissed by the Pacific. Cool.

Since we didn’t see any action through the harbor, we then headed south back towards Newport and drove out to Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

The last time we were in the area, this was all covered since they were painting it. Now, look at it, pretty spiffy.

Beautiful views all around, we could hear the squawking of the common murres and the cormorants out on the rocks,

we turned and saw the trail up the hill, beckoning us. Pretty short, let’s take it.



When we got down we headed towards Cobble Beach where the black rocks are all so rounded that, when the waves pull out, they make a cool rattling sound. The bigger the wave, the longer the ebb, the louder the sound. Very cool.

Then back to the RV. A day on the Oregon coast. Marvelous.

Newport, OR - Walkin' Round Town

Newport’s a pretty cool town: it’s got beaches, lighthouses, harbors, marinas, museums, commercial fishermen and good breakfast restaurants. What more is there? Well, it also has cool places to walk, even just around the harbor, where we walked today. On the main street through the Bayfront area is this huge chunk of cement, with signs and pictures on it.

Why would any town put this huge ugly chunk in the middle of the tourist area of town? Tourists want shoppes, restaurants, ice cream, not big cement blocks. Well, actually, as you have guessed, this is a chunk of a Japanese dock which floated over here to Newport’s beaches after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Here is what the whole dock looked like when it washed up on shore in Newport.

It was huge and it was covered with what we would call ‘invasive species.’ It had to be examined stripped and the piece above is what was put on the boardwalk for everyone to look at.

And, speaking of tsunamis - we are in the tsunami zone for Newport - being right on the harbor as we are. Great views, great place to be BUT - we have to be aware of where we need to go if we feel an earthquake. This sign is on the sidewalk outside our campground.

We followed the directions to our Safe Haven.

And, could read why we had to get away from the water. this hill is 84’ high and is thought to be high ‘enough.’

Tsunamis are hard to see at sea but, on land, they build and build up their energy to crash on shore. We like to camp on the shorelines and have in Crescent City, CA and here in Newport. We enjoy the views, the beaches to walk on, the rocks but we are aware of what we have to do should we feel an earthquake. Luckily, we’ve never felt one.

We continued our walk around the bay and found lots of diamonds on the walkway, memorializing those who had died at sea. Sometimes there were a lot in one row signifying that these 4 died on the same Fishing Vessel.

Sometimes there is just one: someone who just never returned from the sea.

And, then we came to the commercial fleet docks. Biggest commercial fleet on the Oregon coast and the two processing plants along the Bayfront area testify to this. One is expanding which is good news for Newport. Below is only a portion of the fleet.

NOAA has a fleet of 4 ships here, though only one is in harbor right now. Seems that they were looking to expand their fleet and presence on the Northwest Coast but where they were didn’t express much interest. Newport went after them in a big way: they expanded their docking, dredged a deeper channel and build some buildings, realizing that NOAA would bring in high-paying jobs, tourists and a certain cache to the town. One of the young women on the first ship that came into port was thrilled to see the whole town out on the docks to welcome them. They had never seen this kind of welcome before.

There’s also an aquarium and a Marine Science department of an Oregon university in the area.

There’s also a museum in the area showcasing Newport’s aquatic past. Loved this picture of the fishing nuns. I thought they just fished for souls.

And, these surfers - even a woman. And, check out those boards. Pretty rudimentary - I’d think they might get splinters in their feet on these.

There is always this bridge over it all.

And, in the museum is this toothpick model.

It’s fun to walk around Newport with so many things to see - and so many ice cream shops to choose from.