Parkinsons And Touring The Oregon Coast; Part Four

Toby

 Maria's last minute wish before she arrived was to ride horses.

A little panic as we don't ride, we don't hang out with horse people and it's the end of the season for dry sunny days, But I found a place that provides trail rides on the beach. A two for one deal: The glorious Oregon coast and a trail ride.

Except the weather was due to change. I have never spent as much time looking at weather as when my guests were here. Surprisingly, but typical of our September weather here in Oregon, it was sunny their entire time. But a storm was forecast and the horse ride could only be done on Thursday or Friday. I wasn't sure I could deliver.

 Recently, my family visited Pacific City and the trail ride was here as well, so we parked Asko, at the local Pelican Brewery - right on the beach!
Asko could care less about riding, but Maria had taken lessons for 12 years. English saddle riding lessons. We are not that sophisticated (lol), so Western would have to do.

On the trail rides I've gone on before with my kids, it's nose to the tail in front of you. And you plod along the trail, safely. This was quite different for me. My horse, Charlie, likes being on the ocean side of things. And he plods, but not right up against the butt of the horse in front. Maria was not so lucky -- her horse, Toby, was apparently behaving for once and tucked himself right behind the leader horse. Nothing she could do would separate that bond.

Good for me, as I am a  "I don't want to fall off" rider. Not so good for Maria.

Pelican Brewery

 This is what we parked Asko in front of. A $7 sampler of ales and some fish and chips.

After our ride, Maria and I had a late lunch. I had just a house salad as my tummy was saying no to the other lovely things on the Pelican Pub menu. They added craisins marinated in one of their cream ales. I'm in heaven. So I bought a bottle to experiment with. It's sitting in the fridge right now with a "Don't drink my ale" note for when I get to the store next to buy the craisins.

Lincoln City

 Driving south from Pacific City, we stopped in various waysides to take in spectacular views.  Yes, the weather was changing but not until we were finished sightseeing.

This viewpoint is just south of Lincoln City. That long spit of land in the background is a lovely long, flat beach (No tidepools), and Mo's restaurant sits at the end with a lovely view back towards us in this photo. The inner area, when the tide is out is awesome for clam digging.

Mo's is a tradition, serving good clam chowder among other seafood.

 Depoe Bay.

All my life, we've gone here. The kids have gone here with their bands for Memorial Day remembrance ceremonies. This is the smallest deep water harbor. No sandy beaches here. Just a tiny town also know for their salt water taffy.

And I've never seen whales here until this day. The whales came just for my guests.
They were playing quite close to shore (rocks). And looking right, you could see big, fat, seals sunning themselves on rock islands.  This is when I realize I need a better camera. My iphone just shows rocks and ocean waters.

Good thing a nice volunteer had big binoculars he didn't mind passing around. Seriously awesome.

 We continued on to the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse.

$7 gets an Oregonian frustrated. It used to be free to go up and walk around. The lighthouse is closed these many years. But it's out on a spit of land that has tidepools to play in. Instead, you pay your day use fee and then they placed cones in the road to make you turn right, before even seeing the lighthouse, to their brand new interpretive center.

I felt slightly illegal, going around those cones and dissing their brand new interpretive tourist stuff. I'm sure it's all wonderful inside, but we were here for the lighthouse.
(I'm striking this beautiful spot off my visitor showcase list.)

One thing to note in Oregon -- all beaches are public access forever.  We enjoy beautiful scenery and feel strongly it should not be closed off for a select few. I will say - it's not the $7 day use fee - it was the cones placed in the middle of road forcing me to go somewhere I didn't want to go.

 Some stairs (two flight length) to a nice viewing platform, also a wheel chair ramp.
 It's a bit of a walk down to the tidepools.

About as close as I could zoom with my phone. You can make out the specs of humans playing in the tide pools to see what they could see and touch. Sea Anemones and Starfish are the usual.

 Over towards the right, we saw more seals basking in the sun.

 We had planned to drive from Newport back to Corvallis and meet up with my son for dinner but after waiting on Hwy 20 for over 20 minutes of not moving, we turned around and came home via Lincoln City. We ate dinner at Mo's which is one of those iconic, traditional things we Oregonians do when coming to the beach.

A very long day of driving, but I managed to deliver on the horseback ride.

They also had the next morning free prior to  leaving, so I took them out to another favorite restaurant, the Donald Cafe. On the way, I thought to show them where we flew in the balloon and landed. As we came through Hubbard, the car lurched to the right. We had stumbled on the St. Agnes church rummage sale.

Their annual rummage sale.

I always find stuff here. So, we derailed, much to Maria's delight and mine. I found her a nylon USA flag and she found two small pinback pins of the US flag. Perfect ending to their trip that started nearly a month before in Chicago, driving Route 66 on motorcycles to Los Angeles, and finishing up in Oregon.