Yay! We have high speed internet again so I hope to upload some photos again.
We really dragged our feet today and didn't leave Manzanita until 11am. We wanted to leave at 9am. Oh well, we were able to talk to Harvey and Sandy some more and take some more pics of their restaurant, the Terra Cotta Cafe. We then bought some more milk, juice and bananas at the grocery store across the street and headed to Bandon, OR. When we left Manzanita, the sky was clear and sunny with a slight breeze. As we headed south, the weather became more foggy and the wind really kicked up. We were pretty chilly by the time we reached Florence. I got some pretty cool pics of the fog, but couldn't get much of the ocean.
The drive was much better than we though it would be. It was busy as we reached some of the towns along the way, but in between was pretty nice and no big trucks! There was a group of about 10 vintage convertible Corvettes that passed us when we stopped at one of the viewpoints. We were hoping to see them again along the way, but we lost them.
For lunch, we stopped in Newport and had clam chowder at Mo's on a tip from my sister and a coworker of Mike's. The chowder was ok, we've had better. It was a little bland. Newport is a funky town too. The street that Mo's is on is like a little street fair or something, all kinds of weird people and places. We found a great view of the bridge in Newport and took some pics of the noisy sea lions lounging about. The harbor had several seafood companies along it including Trident Seafoods.
We didn't have time to do a whole lot like tour cheese factories or climb lighthouses, so we just dove along and took in the views. One spot had a water spout (the spouting horn at Cook's Chasm) and another had a long crevice created by the waves (Devil's Churn). Pretty cool! At one viewpoint we thought we were going to be blown away! That wind was just whipping right over the cliff and blowing us toward the ocean! Crazy!
One thing that would seem obvious though I have never seen it before is that rivers and creeks drain into the ocean. You don't see this in southern California where they have built canals everywhere to channel the water. So it was pretty weird to see all of these rivers and creeks flowing out to the ocean.
Another interesting item that we come across a lot along the coast is all of the tsunami warning signs. They let you know when you are entering a tsunami hazard zone then when you are leaving it and then they also tell you where the tsunami evacuation area is. Even our hotel has a sticker on the door telling us what to do in case of a tsunami. We've never seen this stuff before. It's bad enought to worry about earthquakes, now we have to worry about hauling our butts up to higher ground if a tsunami comes too!
It was about 7:30 when we reached our hotel in Bandon. Our room is enormous! When they said suite online I though they meant just a half wall between the bed and the couch and tv, but nope. It's an actual suite with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two tvs and a little kitchen. Oh, well. At least we have plenty of room and can get ready in the morning at the same time without getting in each other's way. We also have an ocean view, but there was too much fog by the time we reached the hotel to see anything. Maybe we'll see it in the morning.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, Bandon Bill's Seafood Grill. The service was so slow that by the time we got our dinners, I wasn't even hungry anymore. The food wasn't that great and pretty greasy too. We want to have breakfast there in the morning. Hopefully the service will be better.
Oh, yah. I almost forgot. Bandon is supposed to be a huge area for growing and harvesting cranberries. They are even having a Cranberry Festival next weekend. I'm not sure if it's a good thing that we missed it or not. :) But I can't find any information about the cranberry farms. I wanted to go look at one. Maybe we'll see one tomorrow if we have time. We'll be driving down through redwood country to Fort Bragg, CA tomorrow.
We really dragged our feet today and didn't leave Manzanita until 11am. We wanted to leave at 9am. Oh well, we were able to talk to Harvey and Sandy some more and take some more pics of their restaurant, the Terra Cotta Cafe. We then bought some more milk, juice and bananas at the grocery store across the street and headed to Bandon, OR. When we left Manzanita, the sky was clear and sunny with a slight breeze. As we headed south, the weather became more foggy and the wind really kicked up. We were pretty chilly by the time we reached Florence. I got some pretty cool pics of the fog, but couldn't get much of the ocean.
The drive was much better than we though it would be. It was busy as we reached some of the towns along the way, but in between was pretty nice and no big trucks! There was a group of about 10 vintage convertible Corvettes that passed us when we stopped at one of the viewpoints. We were hoping to see them again along the way, but we lost them.
For lunch, we stopped in Newport and had clam chowder at Mo's on a tip from my sister and a coworker of Mike's. The chowder was ok, we've had better. It was a little bland. Newport is a funky town too. The street that Mo's is on is like a little street fair or something, all kinds of weird people and places. We found a great view of the bridge in Newport and took some pics of the noisy sea lions lounging about. The harbor had several seafood companies along it including Trident Seafoods.
We didn't have time to do a whole lot like tour cheese factories or climb lighthouses, so we just dove along and took in the views. One spot had a water spout (the spouting horn at Cook's Chasm) and another had a long crevice created by the waves (Devil's Churn). Pretty cool! At one viewpoint we thought we were going to be blown away! That wind was just whipping right over the cliff and blowing us toward the ocean! Crazy!
One thing that would seem obvious though I have never seen it before is that rivers and creeks drain into the ocean. You don't see this in southern California where they have built canals everywhere to channel the water. So it was pretty weird to see all of these rivers and creeks flowing out to the ocean.
Another interesting item that we come across a lot along the coast is all of the tsunami warning signs. They let you know when you are entering a tsunami hazard zone then when you are leaving it and then they also tell you where the tsunami evacuation area is. Even our hotel has a sticker on the door telling us what to do in case of a tsunami. We've never seen this stuff before. It's bad enought to worry about earthquakes, now we have to worry about hauling our butts up to higher ground if a tsunami comes too!
It was about 7:30 when we reached our hotel in Bandon. Our room is enormous! When they said suite online I though they meant just a half wall between the bed and the couch and tv, but nope. It's an actual suite with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two tvs and a little kitchen. Oh, well. At least we have plenty of room and can get ready in the morning at the same time without getting in each other's way. We also have an ocean view, but there was too much fog by the time we reached the hotel to see anything. Maybe we'll see it in the morning.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, Bandon Bill's Seafood Grill. The service was so slow that by the time we got our dinners, I wasn't even hungry anymore. The food wasn't that great and pretty greasy too. We want to have breakfast there in the morning. Hopefully the service will be better.
Oh, yah. I almost forgot. Bandon is supposed to be a huge area for growing and harvesting cranberries. They are even having a Cranberry Festival next weekend. I'm not sure if it's a good thing that we missed it or not. :) But I can't find any information about the cranberry farms. I wanted to go look at one. Maybe we'll see one tomorrow if we have time. We'll be driving down through redwood country to Fort Bragg, CA tomorrow.
1 comment:
I'm at a conference in Copper Mountain, Colorado and I just had time to catch up again. They've provided wireless to the participatnts.
It's really been beautiful up here, hard to think about going back to Phoenix. But I need to get billable again. I just took the chairlift to the top which was fun and last night I took a short hike.
Sounds like you guys are having a very nice vacay. And so far no baby news for Allison. Just 3 days left to go. See you soon. -barb
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