Our Latest Adventures

Hi Everyone, we have continued to work and enjoy this area.  Since kids are off from school and families are on vacation, the Gift shop and tours have been busy.  On our last 3 days of work, ending this past Friday, Wendy had six tours to my five.  At the end of the day, we were hardly able to climb the 4 steps into the RV.  Instead of resting Saturday, we did something stupid but more on that later.

Since we have been trying to take advantage of the "no sales tax" of Oregon, we ordered and have received the much wanted scope and tripod for our nature trips.  We are very happy with its performance and abilities.  We took it for a test drive to the previously visited Elk Ranch just a few miles out of Reedsport.  What do you think?

As you can see, all of these were taken with an iPhone attached to the scope.  We still need additional testing and work to get used to the magnification of the scope as well as those of the phone, but so far we're pleased with the outcome.

As you may recall, we had mentioned our fears of the upcoming Dune Fest.  Well, it is almost over.  Today is the last day and we're looking forward to having things return to "normal".  It has not been as bad as we thought and not as bad as we had been warned.  However, it has been entertaining.  Watching these people, who elected to "Sand Camp",  try to drive their heavy rigs on deep sand is comical if nothing else.  Some make it deeper than others into their assigned spots, while others don't get passed the entry point.

Most of these made it on their own, but a huge number of them had to be towed to their locations by the bulldozers like seen on the second picture.

We are planning on watching the show today, as the trailers leave in the afternoon, and need to be yanked out of the sand AKA the tractor pull!  It has been inconceivable to us how these people jeopardize hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment to bury themselves up to their axles in sand and then be towed by a bulldozer and cause more damages.   Since we have yet to get on the sand with one of those ATVs, perhaps is the reason we don't understand, who knows?

Lastly, yesterday we drove just shy of 2 hours north of here, to just outside of Newport, OR.  We wanted to see Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Yaquina Head Point, about 7 miles north of Newport.  We drove with our friends and coworkers Marty and Pat.  We made a full day of it and had a blast.  We stopped once again in Yachats to do a little birding.  Got to see Surf Scoters, Pacific Loons, Brandt's Cormorants, Glaucous-winged Gulls, Common Murres and many other species.  Stopped in the old section of Newport for lunch before proceeding to our final destination. 

This lighthouse is so popular and busy, that reservations are required and made through recreation.gov ahead of time.  Entrance into the park has a fee but thanks  to our senior national park card, we were just waved in.  The park visitor center and lighthouse is run/managed by the US Forest Service.  It is a gorgeous park with unreal vistas of the Pacific Ocean from a high cliff.  Right in the parking lot to the visitor center, we watched a young Peregrine Falcon that was perched high on a wall of the cliff.  From here, you walk down to the lighthouse, since parking lot close to the lighthouse was full.  Glad we walked.  We managed to see Grey whales feeding in the bay at some distance, but later much closer to us while waiting for our tour to start.

Bridge into Newport

This is the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon Coast at 93 ft tall and 104 steps to the lens.  Yes, as sore as we both were after 3 days on duty and many tours on our last day, Friday; yesterday we climbed all the way to the top.  A beautiful lighthouse with an interesting history like ours, but the lens does not come close to ours.

Until next time…..