It's Wet, Yet We Continue

Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

When we go to the Oregon Coast, it seems like we always stay a couple nights at Beverly Beach State Park. The park's location is very central to many of the areas we like to look at and it gives us good access to either Lincoln City or Newport.  That’s where we stayed on night 5 and 6 of the Can-Am Rendezvous.

On out trek down from Nehalem Bay State Park to our nights at Beverly Beach, we stopped at Lincoln City for a little Outlet Mall shopping. Linda says it was a most successful trip. I failed to find anything I had to buy.

Then we went on to Depoe Bay where we did some whale watching and ate a scrumptious lunch at a place called The Horn. Which, by the way, got 4 out of 5 pluses on their clam chowder!

Well, well, thinking back I have discovered that I did not tell you about the world famous Can-Am Chowder Challenge.  It all started at lunch when we ate at Mo’s. We had their chowder and in conversation, made a comparison to the chowder the Linda had at the Wet Dog. We set up judging standards which included five areas: creaminess, taste, seafood, a balance of flavor and temperature. Each criteria gets 3 possible points.  At this posting have judged six establishments chowder and will post the results in the final post for the Cam-Am.

Linda and I made pizza for dinner and once we had eaten our fill we played cards, crashing into a cheese and pizza coma at about 9:30 PM.

The morning we loaded into the official Cam-Am touring rig and drove to Yaquina Head where we visited the lighthouse, or we at least walked around it. We were delighted to see eagles, harbor seals, and whales as we dogged the rain and the wind.

Anchovies.

The marine aquarium at Newport never fails to be one of our favorite sightseeing stops. The day's weather predictions were bleak for beach hiking but were just right for exploring the indoor reaches of the aquarium facility.  We had a great time exploring all the exhibits.

We drove to the heart of old Newport and had lunch at Ocean Bleu Seafood. I added another bowl of chowder to our list of competitors. As we left the restaurant we could hear sea lions barks bouncing off the walls of the local canneries. We got in the rig and drove in search of the sounds. At the far end of the shopping area, we parked and looked out into the harbor. The barks of the sea lions were louder than ever so we walked to a nearby pier. Below us on six docks was a mass of sea lions. The sounds they were making were amazing.

We looked out across the bay to the breakwater and our jaws dropped. “Those aren’t rocks over there, they are sea lions!” Linda said. The breakwater was a mass of moving animals. Once again we were astounded. None of us had ever seen so many sea lions in one area. We all agreed that we could write the Sea Lion Caves off our tourist list on this trip.

We drove back to Beverley Beach where we climbed into our homes and let the rain pour down.

It was a quick drive from Beverley Beach to our new camp at Carl G. Washburne Memorial State Park. As we drove we checked out several campgrounds and took a side hike at Cape Perpetua, where we saw the Spouting Horn and Thor's Well.

At Carl G. Washburne Memorial State Park we got two great camp sites and then went to a walk to the beach. 

Crab and Squid.