Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Lincoln City and Tillamook, Oregon June 19-20, 2013

Our next stop is Lincoln City. It's a delightful town and I'd say we saw the most photographed driftwood in Oregon, possibly anywhere. As unusual as the driftwood is, even more unusual is the glass factory that is open for all to see on Highway 101 and you can make your own vase with their help!!!! In front of our motel is a four sided fountain and beautiful flowers. I've included that, too. Our lunch stop before Astoria, Oregon was at Tillamook Creamery, a large cheese factory!
Marion's view with people.
My view with wildflowers.
I've been wanting to introduce you to Clyde Butcher, a professional photographer in black and white from Venice, Florida who was traveling to some of the same places I was. We never were quite close enough for me to contact him to perhaps meet. The closest was when he was in San Francisco and we were in Berkeley. He was in Lincoln City before San Francisco . His Big Cypress Gallery is in Ochopee, the Everglades. I guess $1,000 is reasonable for "Each photograph is hand printed by Clyde in his darkroom on fi ber-base paper and selenium-toned for archival purposes, then mounted and matted to current archival standards. The photograph is then signed and issued a limited edition number by Clyde."
HOME: http://www.clydebutcher.com/ 
Clyde's photo of the driftwood:  http://www.clydebutcher.com/image/359

The driftwood is on a bay between
where I am standing and the edge.
In the Historic TAFT District.
Lunch at Mo's.
The driftwood is just to the left
of the restaurant.


A hedge with these flowers in TAFT.
We can rest comfortably now since
we're not in the tsunami zone!
The fountain from the 2nd floor.
Isn't this beautiful!
Love this idea of a basket
mounted on an iron pole.
This is back side of the fountain.
The other two sides also had
fountains.


http://www.jennifersearsglassart.com/ to make your reservation!
Choices to make your own.
This is taken from the street sidewalk! You
chose your own colors and where to put them.

Some he helps.
Most of the time is do it yourself
Glass artist Andrew Kogel works with molten glass at The Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio, Lincoln City.


Visitors come from cities all along the Pacific coast, from Canada to Mexico, but also from Japan, Brazil, Australia, Sweden, England and Italy -- home of glass blowing, David Millen, co-owner, says.

“We’re in a glass renaissance,” he declares.  “Since the ‘90s, we’ve been in our biggest boom.”

There’s an international flavor to the studio too:  base glass comes from Seattle; colored glass is imported from Germany and New Zealand; tools were bought in Italy.

Millen has been a professional glass artist for more than a decade, yet insists, “you don’t say you blow glass until you’ve been doing it for 20 years. “There’s always something new to learn,” he adds. “And there’s so much to learn, you’re never done learning. “It’s an exciting art form,” Millen says.  “Every day is like Christmas here, when you open up the kiln.”

Tillamook, Oregon. You can't miss this stop along the way.

The boat is the one in the logo.
Tour of the cheese factory.
I bought cheese curds, they squeak
while chewing them.
Great advertising. I'm not quite sure
what a Baby Loaf is?


LOVE these bird houses in the gift
shop. Wish I had kept the prices.
Too large to mail home... Oh, Well.
$26.00 plus tax for this birdhouse.
It was a fun day and I'm getting the hang driving of these narrow, windy, up and down roads.

Gold Beach, Coos Bay, Sea Lion Caves, Newport, Oregon June 17-19, 2013

We stopped for lunch at Gold Coast, Oregon at a funny little Bistro that had really good food.

Marion and I had a lot of fun shopping in Coos Bay, Oregon. I guess we got so excited shopping I didn't take any photos! I'll include the websites, so you can see.
Then we ate early at a nice Italian Restaurant and  we were the first ones there. As guests continued to drift in, one said he likes to come here and he is a chef in another town! Not only was the food good, it had a gold seal approval by the visiting chef.

On our way north of Coos Bay are the Sea Lion Caves, a real tourist stop. To get to the caves it was down a steep cliff, so we just shopped. I got my pink jacket here and Marion a sea lion.

The final stop on this blog is Newport, OR for lunch. I really had to talk Marion into stopping here and I must say, her instincts were right. But I'll eat about anything and I enjoyed watching the people.
Barnacle Bistro with a round ceiling!
Bears, How Cute!
Looking from our seat.
We sat in the corner! LOL
On the other side of the bar.


Over the check out cashier.
Old man in drift wood. "Like"
I found a Convention Center Hotel that is on a river leading to the ocean. They had REAL donuts, the Krispie Kreme kind with all the frosting and goo for breakfast. YUM! Someone told us that sometimes whales come upstream as far as the hotel, but I sorta doubt that, too far from the ocean and too many people along the way. We watched anyway, just in case. No, no whales that we could see. LOL
Looking east.The building is the
other end of our hotel.
Looking west. I don't think the
whales would come under this bridge.
The back of our room where
we watched for whales anyway!
They had the coffee pot on
a plastic "shelf". I took it
off and put our flower on it.
Our first shopping was to look for Myrtlewood. The tree only grows on the Northern California and Southern Oregon coast. We had seen signs along the highway that the factory was in Coos Bay. We found their outlet shop and watched a film documentary about the tree and how they carved it. It's especially hard wood and grows straight and tall. The tree rings make beautiful bowls.
My Daddy's mother is named Myrtle Brown James, she died in 1912 when Daddy was only 5 years old on Christmas Day. All the kids got for Christmas that year was an apple. The youngest, Uncle Phil was only 6 months old and he went to stay with grandparents. The older kids raised the younger ones on the farm and they have many stories of making biscuits so hard they could be used for bullets. My grandfather was also a Baptist preacher and he wouldn't let the kids use slang or misspoken language. He also encouraged them to read and Daddy and Uncle Phil were the first ones in the family to go to college. Daddy went to the University of Arkansas for a degree in agriculture, which Granddaddy just couldn't understand why he went to the hills to learn how to farm. LOL. Anyway, I probably bought more than I should have thinking about Myrtle, my grandmother.

Then we went to the Cranberry Candy Shop! Oh, my, we had so much fun as for every kind of candy, we could have a sample. EVERY KIND!!!!! And they had lots of kinds. I even bought some cranberry tea and cranberry soap! This time the "name connection" is my friend Marion who is traveling with me! She knew about the Marionberry and had tasted them, so we HAD to have some to take with us. 
http://www.cranberrysweets.com/index.html
"The Marionberry (or Marion blackberry) is a blackberry cultivar that was developed in Oregon's Marion County in the 1950's. Now the most widely cultivated blackberry, it is renowned for its robust and complex flavor. Oregon's lush Willamette Valley produces both fabulous Marionberries and Red Raspberries."

Even though we had snacked our way through the Cranberry Shop, we made our way to "Little Italy" restaurant for dinner.
This happy chef met
us at the door!
Beautiful decorations
and table settings.
Yummy salad.

I shared my salmon, Marion shared her fish.
The next day we ate at Burger King which is most unusual but I slip and have a burger every once in awhile. The reason I mention it here, is that it was the first time I have used the "100 Kinds of Soda" machine. Marion had to lead me through all the button pushing! LOL

So we headed north on June 19th and stopped just north of Florence, Oregon at the Sea Lion Caves. The website shows the real seals. It was just too far down to walk to see them.
http://www.sealioncaves.com/
Marion's sea lion!!!! So soft and cuddly.
Looking south along the coast.
Looking north. See the walkway
and stairs down to the water edge?
We did NOT go down.
On the photo to the left, the little
area that juts out into the sea?
This is close up of the lighthouse.
At one of the stops along the way was this house with the unusual chimneys.
They may not look unusual to you.
I think it's a good design
to keep the rain out.
Opening on the side, not the top.
Our stop for lunch in Newport, Oregon.
Newport Cafe.
Not many people when we first got
there, but when we left, it was full.

Trinidad, along the Northern California Coast, June 15, 2013

After leaving Eureka, we stopped for lunch along the coast. Carl-Gunner called me from Sweden and we talked like he was next door. Proves the phone will reach us anywhere!
We found the Seascapes Restaurant on the coast so we could see the ocean.
I don't know how trees and wildflowers can grow on this rock?
Between the rock and a hard place. LOL
One of the rare docks we saw.
Beach runs into a rock!
It's mid-June and we wore our coats.
Look at the boat coming in.
We watched it lifted up to the
road, placed on a trailer,
and then sped on it's way.
A lift like we saw in Monterey.

 Now we're in the Redwood National and State Parks.
So misty feels like we're in a cloud.
Klamath River. Golden bears guard it.
Yellowish berries. I don't know if
this is their color or just not ripe?
Checked out the berries and wildflowers
while we wait for the green light.
Stop light on generators for road construction.
I think this is the second one we've seen.