Sunday March 29, 2009
Wrote this some time ago and didn’t get around to posting it.
Tonight I’m actually in Long Beach, Washington at a small campground just north of Downtown Long Beach. They claim to have the world’s longest beach but given that ocean currents make much of it unsafe for swimming the argument seems moot. What they do have is an 8-mile-long biking trail along the shoreline which makes for wonderful recreation along with a lengthy boardwalk. To make the place even more appealing the sun finally made an appearance today.
Let’s back up since I’ve been too busy lately to write blog entries. A week ago Saturday on the 21st of March I drove up the Oregon Coast to Coos Bay. Having set my GPS to take me on a bike route it selected some rather interesting back roads to take me on. The main highway snaked through heavily forested tracks so I didn’t miss much though the clear cut sections I drove past were not pretty. My campground just south of town was busy with Winter Break Campers and a touring group but the main attraction was the Ocean View which gives the place its Oceanside Name.
The booming surf is always within hearing. Took a ride 2 miles south in the rain to see Shoreacres, a state park encompassing the gardens that once surrounded a lumber baron’s estate. The gardens are rather formally laid out and with the season delayed by cold weather not much was in bloom. In the end surf watching here is the chief attraction.
Tuesday morning I drove up to town and shopped at Albertsons; then checked out a local bookstore before heading north on Hwy 101. Stopped in Florence at the visitor’s centre and walked down to the harbour to have a bowl of oyster chowder and crab sandwiches at Mo’s an eatery specializing in fish built on posts over the water. The views of the harbour and the bridge from my window were special. Plenty of gift shoppes to browse.
Another 20 miles on reached Newport, Oregon. Spent most of my two days in Newport squinting through rain and fog. Stayed in the Port Authority RV Park next to the 350 boat Marina Basin. Found a kindred spirit in the blonde-haired green-eyed campground attendant and was immediately initiated by the campground host who filled me in on all the sights. After settling in promptly sat down and fell asleep for 4 hours.
Across the road is one of Oregon’s major attractions, the Coastal Aquarium. Their motto is Oddwater: where it’s OKAY to be Weird. The place is well worth the $14.95 admission fee though I could have done without getting almost as soaked as the seals outside. The majority of the exhibits were smaller aquaria backlit and at child’s eye level. The various rooms featured inter-tidal, shore, coastal and reef zones every attempt being made to include the plant life and rocks the creatures would inhabit in the wild. One of the more popular attractions was the petting aquarium with sea urchins, abalone, skate and stingrays. Outside was a netted exhibit of sea birds, an octopus, seal lions, and sea otters. The sea otters are the clown princes of the aquarium.
Rogue Brewery is across the street and stacked beside their warehouse are pallets of beer kegs and barrels. Their Restaurant and Pub are accessed by walking among the vats in the brewery. Nearby at Rogue Distilling one can sit at the bar and watch the libations being distilled behind one through a glass partition. One of their specialties is a green coloured gin made in part with spruce buds. Near the harbour is the Marina Store which stocks everything a marine angler could possibly need. The marine weather plays non-stop outside and the walls inside are decorated with trophy fish and pictures of prize catches the successful fishermen.
Up the road is the University of Oregon’s Marine Research Centre where a visitor’s centre has displays that highlight their research and findings. An excellent bookstore and another petting area complete the picture. One chilling exhibit documents the Newport Disaster in which an earthquake caused a large section of the ocean front to drop into the sea and the following tsunami devastated the low-lying sections of town that remained. Since I could barely see the bridge that towers over the harbour for fog and rain whale watching seemed a fruitless venture so I got in and began the process of drying off. Having had my shower and done laundry before daybreak my RV was rather steamy at this point.
Thursday I drove up to Tillamook after braving the ten mile commercial strip that is Lincoln City. In Tillamook cows outnumber people two to one and the Tillamook Farmer’s Dairy is home to Tillamook Cheese. A huge set of factory buildings are fronted by a visitors centre complete with coffee shop, cheese store, gift shop and ice cream stand with 85 varieties of ice cream. I had huckleberry. Glassed in walkways and exhibits allow one to take a self-guided tour of the plant and watch 50 lb blocks of cheese being wrapped by an automated conveyer along with other sections where bars of cheese are packed. A long line-up leads to a cheese sampling area.
After rejecting one cramped and noisy looking campground just north of town I drove back and took Hwy 6 inland along the Wilson River to camp feet from the swift-flowing water. As I sat and read E-mail fishermen in rowboats drifted by my windows. The next morning I continued inland to the Tillamook Forest Centre. This child-friendly centre operated by the Oregon Department of Forests is book-ended by a 40-foot replica of a fire tower and a 250-ft suspension bridge over the Wilson River. Inside a theatre presents the story of the ‘Tillamook Burn’ which devastated 500 square Km of big timber in a fire storm that only the fall rains could extinguish. Fires in 1933, 1939 and 1945 were finally brought to an end by forest roads and the well-planned resource deployment. After the harvesting of millions of standing snags the story came to a happy ending with a successful reforestation program that saw volunteers plant thousands of trees and millions of seeds scattered by helicopter. Among the highlights inside are a lumberman’s cabin and a canvas camp style tent. A steam donkey sits outside. Children have the opportunity to suit up as a forest fire fighter or dress in period costumes.
After crossing the coastal range I continued on to Portland, Oregon in Washington County to visit some big box stores and drive past the home of Widmer Beer—I couldn’t find parking. A massive bridge crosses the Columbia River and takes one to Vancouver, Washington. There I found an affordable campground in the middle of the city. After sitting out a deluge that pelted my RV I headed back west to the coastline crossing the coastal range again and taking yet another long bridge across the Columbia back into Oregon. When I reached the coast a curving piece of highway led to a yet bigger bridge and causeway that led across the river estuary back into Washington State. There I headed north on the narrow coastal peninsula to Long Beach.
Long Beach seems to have more Real Estate Agents than anything else. On Sunday Afternoon half the businesses were closed and most of the other half rolled up the sidewalk between two and three. There are two major kite stores and several yearly kite flying festivals. The kids riding their skateboards in athletic tops seemed to be showing rather extreme bravado given the 48 degree temperature. Since the majority of kids I saw were short and over-weight they had nothing to show off. The shoppes that were open sold ice cream and displayed the kind of tourist trap merchandise one would expect but truly over the top is Marsh’s Free Museum with its odd-ball collection of truly bysantine merchandise. Would you believe a crocodile man?
No comments:
Post a Comment