Newport 29 May 2024

A lot happened today (but so far no one has yelled at us: an important distinction!

First up, just north of Brookings is the apartment development I have always thought of as the way we Casparados kept our Headlands from going.

Next, magnificent Oregon Coast just goes on and on . . .

Here's one of our favorite Oregon coastal towns, Port Orford, across the bay.

Just after Port Orford, a huge menacing truck started tailgaiting us. After he pulled a dangerous pass on an up-grade and pulling in inches ahead of us, we blasted past him, gave him the benefit of a middle finger (“But what if he has a gun?” says Rochelle) and made a point to stay ahead of him. When an even bigger white semi took his place, we decided it was time for a rest stop, and pulled into the quiet beauty of the Tahkenitch Creek trail.

We ate an apple in the car to foil the mosquitoes. The firs are having a great year, and the roadside is festooned with Rhodies.

With the traffic thinned out, we proceeded on northward through miles and miles of clearcuts thinly hidden from touron eyes by a shaggy modesty screen of trees. Through the screen we could see the ecological disaster of same age monocrops. In Coos Bay – where formerly we would have seen ships loading logs for Japanese mills, we saw giant piles of sawdust and wood chips. 

The Coos Bay Bridge looks like a sort of skeletal cathedral.

The Oregon Dunes are a sacrifice zone for ATVs.

ATV tracks in the dunes

But the highway runs along the coast and every once in a while another magnificent view appears. Here we're coming down from Hecata Head on our way to Cape Perpetua.

Without our usual South Slough walk (pretty downy and uppy for old joints) we arrived in Newport with a couple of extra hours. I had heard that the Oregon Aquarium is awesome, so we checked it out.

It's International Otter Day, and we saw Otters, Seals, wonderful sea birds . . . Sorry about the quality: these guys were really fast.

A volunteer explained that these Puffins are an old married couple. They were tolerating people amazingly well, but only because the feeding lady was over where they're looking and coming soon. “The birds are acting strangely because it's mating season.”

Later she introduced us to a solitary Oyster Catcher after he let out a prolonged commentary on some nearby construction sounds: “They mate for life. We lost his partner to ovarian cancer last year and can't decide whether to release him to the wild, or let him live out his widowerhood here.”

We saw lots of fish.

Across the Yaquina Bay Bridge – picture tomorrow from our deck – checked in, and then walked back to Local Ocean for our Chef's Table Tasting Menu dinner. Two hours later, I'm beginning to stop feeling stuffed.

Aside from serving us several wonderful meals over the years, we love the ongoing story. The restaurant is now owned by a stewardship trust consisting of its employees. It's a great story.

Chef's Tasting Menu