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The bridge at Newport
Newport Oregon was a lovely, well-protected bay that extends many miles inland. Though Newport and Charleston (previous blog) are two nearby ports on Oregon's central coast, they are quite different. Charleston is an earthy fishing town, but there was great fear that the salmon fishery was to be closed this year. We got the impression that quite a few people were unemployed. One of our neighbors was a veteran of the Kuwait and the Iraq wars and was living full time in his trailer (an older Airstream). He sounded like it wasn’t the post-service experience that he had planned for.
In both towns, we were camping at RV facilities adjacent to the town marinas. Newport was very upscale in comparison to Charleston. But Newport's fishing fleet was large, and we were aware of quite a few worried fishermen there as well. In Newport Bay there is a large aquarium and an education center of Oregon State University. These are great rainy day activities. We lucked out when we were there because most days were nice for the most part and we spent our time in the great outdoors.
Our son Rob and our girlfriend-in-law, Leila and their dog Leo joined us on the last
Newport Harbor Mouth
This view looks through the breakwaters out into the Pacific. A bar at the entrance can make harbour access and egress difficult. day that we were there. Moxie was overjoyed to be with Leo, her first love. We met at the Yaquina Point lighthouse and natural area. There were tidal pools, seabird nesting sites, and rocks with seals in addition to the historic lighthouse.
The next day, we drove north to Manzanita's Nehalem State Park. Rob and Leila took us for a walk on their favorite beach, Cape Lookout, just south of Cannon Beach. We had to walk down a steep trail to ocean level then walked along miles of deserted beach.
We had planned on spending three nights at Nehalem but woke up on the second morning with snow on the ground and in the air. Consequently, we headed back to Portland by traveling up the coast to the mouth of the Columbia River, then proceeding to the city along the river. We took this route partly to avoid snow predicted in some higher passes, and partly to see as much of the Pacific and coastal communities as possible. We did experience snow and at one time the road was completely covered but no harm came of it. Our previous experiences with the Pacific
Hatfield Marine Science Center
Hatfield Marine Sciences Center is operated by Oregon State University. We spent an interesting, rainy afternoon looking at their displays. Northwest have been in August. The weather is quite predictable then. During April, the weather is crazy. They would predict rain, and the sun would be out most of the day. They would predict sun and the day would be mostly grey and rainy.
We were in Portland about a week and had the Airstream in Rob and Leila’s driveway. We loved birding with Rob and Leila’s friend, Brian (originally from Ithaca), taking tours of the city, riding the tram, taking trolleys. We went bicycling on bike trails along the Willamette River. We intended to go kayaking but it always seemed too cold or was raining. We also took the aerial tram to the top to the Oregon Health Sciences Institute, a large hospital complex built on a site with inadequate space for parking of medical personnel and patients. The solution was to build this aerial tram with parking lots below for doctors and nurses. However, because the view of the city and surrounding area can be so stunning from the tram, many tourists also enjoy it as did we. We also took a trolley around the city, went to Powell’s Book Store, a must, and ate
Research Vessels in the Bay
The large ship is operated by NOAA, the smaller grey boat belongs to Oregon State University. some delicious food at Jake’s, a Portland tradition, and a few other places.
We will post our final blog entry for this trip after we arrive back in Ithaca. It will include our experiences crossing the country again (Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc) and some reflections on the whole trip.
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