Travelogue 8

Thursday, while Jordan continued to work on building the fence for Jeannette's mother, the rest of us decided to take off after lunch for a quick trip to the Oregon coast. Leaving from Albany, it made sense to head for Newport. I have to confess that I've never really liked Newport but as soon as we entered town, we headed for the first beach we saw, "Historic Nye Beach."

In typical Oregon fashion, the beach was chilly. More than chilly, it was WINDY. Jeannette thought it was the strongest wind she'd ever experienced.

We got there near low tide, which meant there were tidal pools to explore, teeming with sea creatures.

I didn't get a picture of it, but we saw rocks where starfish were literally stacked on top of each other and we saw another starfish in the midst of consuming (or regurgitating) some sort of hardshelled creature.




After some clam chowder and before we went back to Albany, we drove up to the Yaquina Lighthouse (I hope I spelled that right). I believe this is Oregon's second tallest and third oldest lighthouse. We got there right at 4:00 and they stop allowing people into the lighthouse at 4:00, which on the one hand was a bummer but, on the other hand, probably kept me from having a heart attack walking up all those steep stairs.
The rocks nearby were completely covered with all sorts of sea birds and the view was awesome. Unfortunately, the wind was so strong that we couldn't stand to stay out there for too long.

Coming home, though, our friendly law enforcement officers in Philomath managed to ruin my day with a speed trap. After driving right at the speed limit for over an hour (think "$4.05 gas"), I missed seeing the 25 MPH speed sign as we entered the town. And the cop showed us no mercy, writing a $175 ticket. It's been years since I got pulled over but I've never had a policeman write a ticket for the speed they say they clocked you at, but this guy did. Welcome to Oregon, Tourist.