A Lighthouse And Some Sea Lions…

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

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The motorhome is  parked at Thousand Trails South Jetty RV Resort in Florence, Oregon. I’ll depart here May 23rd.

I’ve been here several times over the years and have thoroughly explored the area. So while here this time, I’ll publish some earlier blog entries. Today’s entry was first published May 8, 2011…

 

Yesterday Mary and I took the Bronco about 12 miles north of our current camping location in Florence, Oregon to go sightseeing. On a cloudy and cool day we visited a lighthouse and some sea lions.

First stop was at the Haceta Head Lighthouse. This is a view of the lighthouse as seen on the approach from U.S.Highway 101…

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little closer view…

 

 

 

At the parking area was the obligatory duty seagull…

 

 

 

Along one-half mile path to the lighthouse Mary found this old tree she really liked…

 

 

 

A look back towards the parking area…

 

 

 

A tour guide gave us a very detailed history of this lighthouse. To read all about the history and to see other photos of it, click this link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heceta_Head_Light

 

About one mile south of the lighthouse is the Sea Lion Cave. In past years I’ve always driven past this attraction because it impressed me as being a “tourist trap”. But Mary wanted to go and see it…so…yup, that’s what we did.

 

 

 

Here’s a view of the rookery where the sea lions give birth to their young…

 

 

 

Here’s a look down at the entrance to the cave as seen from above…

 

 

 

And finally…the sea lion cave…

 

 

 

I’ve got to tell you that watching sea lions is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Even Mary was complaining about our $11 senior entrance admission as “what a rip-off!” Maybe $2 would have been okay, but it definitely wasn’t worth $11. It seems my perceived opinion that it was a “tourist trap” proved to be true. If you are ever in this area…skip the  Sea Lion Cave.

Other than the “$11 rip-off”, it was another most enjoyable day in the daily life of a full-time RVer!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

 Yesterday was partly cloudy and 61 degrees. Forecast for today is partly sunny and 65 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Oregon. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet 2016

YAQUINA BAY LIGHTHOUSE-OLD TOWN NEWPORT

Old town Newport is called Bayfront. Remnants remain of  old rotting docks if you look hard.  A few old buildings remain to remind you of its much busier and more colorful past.  A working dock, still,  but gussied up for tourists such as we to enjoy dockside restaurants,  art galleries, quaint shops and souvenir places.  Multiple murals or bright paint cover up the old warehouse look of the place and its kitschy and fun.

We watched this very modern shrimper come in with the tasty morsels packed in ice and mechanically moved dockside.

Workers then loaded them into a refrigerated truck.

Crab rings stacked around town gave evidence that crab is still big business here. Dungeness. We spotted a crabber advertising live crabs for sale.

We walked down the ramp to buy one,  but no crabs.  Only a phone number for their other boat. Crabbing is slow right now. They were available in the store, but we forgot to stop and pick one up before we returned to the motor home.

A story board about Mo’s restaurants is on the street. Mo was a hard-working, big-hearted, chain-smoking woman,  who opened a seafood restaurant of some renown. There are now six of them up and down the coast.  We stopped in for delicious  bowl of chowder. A woman once crashed into her restaurant with her car. Mo simply covered it up with a working garage door and turned it into a sidewalk cafe in summer.

I swear this batch of seals was trained to amuse us, they posed, barked, kissed, cuddled and basked for everyone on their own little dock; methinks, waiting to be thrown a morsel of some type. A walk around this part of town is a must if you visit. The place is full of murals. It was hard to pick a favorite.

We moved on to the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse which is the smallest lighthouse on the coast. It was one of only four built of wood with the house and the lighthouse the same structure.

Poised on a bluff on Yaquina Bay overlooking  the Yaquina River as it dumps into the ocean, the small light- 8 to 10 mile range- was invisible to ships approaching from the north. It was commissioned, built and put into service for only three years, from 1871 to 1873. It was replaced by the Yaquina Head Lighthouse we visited yesterday which has a bigger light with a 21 mile range.

The inside of this two-story “house” is charming . The Charles Pierce family of nine that lived here had to be in tight quarters even so. Cooking on a wood stove, pumping water up from rainwater in a cistern. It has four bedrooms and no indoor plumbing.

The furnishings are not original, but indicative of the times.  The chamber pot, the rope bedstead. Trunks held clothing and linens. People spent more time outside than they do now. I’ve seen a lot of lighthouses, many on the East Coast last year, but this is my favorite. I’m so thankful that the citizens of Newport rose up and protested its demolition and formed a historical and preservation society. It had several uses before it fell into disrepair. Saved in 1946, it didn’t get restored until 1976. It’s now on the National Register of Historic Places. What a treasure.

SAN FRANCISCO HERE WE COME

Some may figure I have an unhealthy fascination for toilets since I’ve blogged about toilets and toilet paper and toilets… again. In my defense, our erstwhile visitors were fascinated by the French street toilets as well. I figured I may as well take a picture of it. Canadians from a cruise ship asked many questions about it and turned down the ordinary toilet in the Coit Tower, where this one is located, to use it. Who would have thought a toilet is a tourist attraction?

Bernice, Marie, Pat, Dawn, my sister, and Richard posed in the parking lot. It was a cool day and the Golden Gate Bridge was fog covered. Only the Bay Bridge was visible from the tower.
For me, it was a treat to see the now famous Coit murals once more.
We drove up the heart stopping hills to the crookedest part of Lombard Street. Michigan was scraped flat by a glacier and my guests were holding onto anything they could as we cruised the famous hills of San Francisco. It tickled me that simple things can still thrill since we take our own terrain for granted.
The segues, the street dancers, mimes and musicians are a phenomena new to them. I was reminded of Peru as I listened to the hauntingly beautiful tones of the mouth harp and guitar.
Sea lions gave us a show.
Pat raises birds and of course, she found one that sat on her shoulder. The owner than stuck his hand out for money after the picture was taken.

The REAL cable cars are personally important to me since my father-in-law was once a cable car conductor. We took it to China Town and bought leechee nuts and candied ginger. We gaped at curious looking dried fishes, shark fins, unknown fruits and greens.
On the wharf, the sights and smells of churros and crab salad, shrimp and crabs steaming in the sidewalk stalls; the begging pigeons, the liberty ship, Alcatraz, huckster joints and souvenir stands. Then lobster dinner on fisherman’s wharf. We fit in as much as possible in one day. With our souvenirs and memories we headed back to our hotel in Sonoma.