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Published: October 11th 2013
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Crab Fishing
Alsea Bay, Waldport, OR October 9, 2013
It’s a beautiful day again today. I think it would be fair to say you count on one hand the days of real rain we’ve had in these past 77 days and on two hands the days of overcast, occasional shower days. The rest have been blue, sunny and warm to hot days. I’d say we’ve done pretty well for the Pacific Northwest.
We enjoy the sun, sand and surf on our beach again, enjoying the pleasure of being able to walk through the waves and powdery, fine, clean sand barefoot in October, and enjoy the fact that we can see all this through our glass fronted house when we’re not on the beach itself.
Grateful that we didn’t come armed with a list of must-see’s while here in Waldport we again enjoy the relaxed feeling of just chilling out until finally the temptation to try crab fishing again together with the need for more groceries is enough to entice us out for an hour or two.
Apparently you need a license to crab fish – unless you’re under 14 – so Sam is the one doing the fishing. He’s more than
Got one!
Alsea Bay, Waldport, OR happy to take responsibility and besides, he’s the most enthusiastic one anyway! We unload our nets down at the small public docks at the Port of Alsea in Waldport. A few locals are doing likewise but otherwise it’s a quiet area to try our luck.
Sam hangs around while the three of us do a quick shop at Ray’s Place, the local supermarket. When we return we discover not only has he been successful but he’s also delighted a few camera happy tourists with his catch. It doesn’t surprise me!
However the crabs are not big enough for us to keep. (So whether they’re male or female is, thankfully, irrelevant – see yesterday’s entry). In fact no one here today is having much luck in that department. Plenty of crabs but they’re all smaller than the required 5 ¾ inches wide. (Again, thankfully much smaller ‘cause, once again, we’ve not got a ruler to hand). But anyway, what we’d do with one that met the requirements I really don’t know. Trying to convince Sam that we weren’t going to bring it home and try out the crab cooker may have been tricky. A good time was had by
Kite Flying
Waldport, OR all though and the fact that we caught these little snapping creatures at all was excellent!
That evening the sunset is spectacular and we enjoy it down on the beach with kites and Frisbees and then back in the warmth of the house as the temperature of the sand drops sufficiently to make it uncomfortable under our bare feet.
October 10, 2013
The sun shines on us again today and we decide we must get out and see a bit more of the area. As I touched on before, staying on a beach as good as the one we have right outside our back door makes it difficult to stir up the enthusiasm to go and explore elsewhere. But on the other hand we don’t want to risk missing out on something good so we drive down to Florence about 40 minutes south on the coast.
En route we pull over on the side of the road just before Sea Lion Caves, primarily to take a picture of the coast complete with the attractive Heceta Head lighthouse, but as soon as we open the car door we hear, yet again, the unmistakable
Mo's in Florence, OR
Excellent Clam Chowder! sound of sea lions. Sure enough, far down below us on the rocks and in groups bobbing up and down on the waves were loads of them, barking madly. Not a lot of point paying the rather expensive fee to be transported down in an elevator to quite possibly empty caves ‘cause the seal lions are all out sunning themselves on the rocks!
A lot more than we bargained for when we initially pulled over, and a lot more photos on the camera, we continue on down to Florence. The part of the town we saw on our way through last Saturday was the typical American highway meets small town, i.e. fast food outlets, slightly dodgy looking motels (some of which are just fine – others are most definitely not) gas stations & food shops etc. But many of these towns usually have something else going for them if you have the time to look and sure enough Florence has its “old town” further down the inlet in the harbour area.
It’s a lovely place for a stroll with some older, traditional buildings, a few gift shops, an attractive waterfront and a restaurant called Mo’s, which proves to
be an excellent place for lunch. The clam chowder is delicious!
Across the road is BJ’s selling homemade ice cream and 155 flavours of Salt Water taffy! Salt Water taffy might contain salt and water but certainly not saltwater as in seawater. There is a cute story behind the name, which might or mightn’t be true but it’s rather nice anyway. Are you sitting comfortably? It goes like this….
In 1883 a major storm caused David Bradley’s Candy Shop in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to flood. As a result his entire stock of taffy was soaked with salty Atlantic Ocean water. A young girl came into the shop and asked if he had any taffy for sale and it is said Mr Bradley jokingly offered her some “salt water taffy”. The girl was delighted by the idea. She bought the taffy and showed all her friends. And so it goes the name was born!
Whatever the story, Salt Water taffy is tasty and flavours such as Margarita, banana & pecan, Hawaiian punch are enough to entice me!
Seals play close to the tiny marina and compete with the enormous seagulls for fish entrails that fishermen are
Seal
Florence, OR chucking back into the sea. The seals come very close to us, their cute, puppy-dog faces gazing up at us curiously.
Of all the wildlife we’ve seen on this trip the seals are certainly up there on the list of most appealing. Their little shiny black or mottled grey heads with the huge puppy dog eyes combined with their wonderful inquisitiveness makes them very endearing little creatures.
On the return trip we stop off briefly so Matthew can try out the plastic “flying saucer” on the big dunes just outside Florence and then we stop again at the Spouting Horn just outside Yachats. It’s high tide so we expect to see more of a performance and we’re not disappointed. The water rushes under the rocks and the result is an explosion up through the holes. The sound of the spurt is as effective as the visual display. It’s worth timing the tide right and pulling off the road for 5 minutes.
Later that evening, as the sun drops into the ocean, Sam and I take a stroll along the beach. A family of seals, their little black heads bobbing up like little periscopes surveying the area, swim
Blue Heron
Florence, OR close to the shore alongside us. It’s quite obvious they know we’re here and I wonder what they’re thinking. Perhaps they’re ticking off “humans” on their “list of wildlife seen today”.
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BlancaCBraun
Blanca C. Braun
Liked reading your blog!
Hi I too am in the great Pacific Northwest, closer to the border of Canada though. I really enjoy your photos and blog. Thanks for sharing.