Holy Toledo!

Toledo, Oregon that is!

We decided to go back to Depoe Bay and Boiler Bay with a picnic lunch to see if we could see some more blue whales. On the way we decided to go inland about 8 miles to Toledo, Oregon. It turns out the town is actually called Port of Toledo. The Yaquina river flows from Toledo all the way into the Yaquina Bay in Newport and ships can travel up the river to Toledo.

It turned out that Thursday is 'Market' day in Toledo. That's kind of like a farmers market or artisan market which they did have in a parking lot, but a lot of the stores on their main street also had tables set up in front with baked goods or clothes or different knick knacks. We might have even found a couple things for baby Gracie! Somehow we didn't think to take pictures of the street, but Toledo seems to have a big lumber mill in it and we did get a picture of that. In this picture you can see wood chips flying off a conveyor belt.

Lumber mill

We saw all these small sail boats. They looked like toys but they were infact small manned sail boats. We figured it must be a sailing class.

Sailing class?

After leaving Toledo we headed back to Boiler Bay. There were no whales anywhere to be seen but we still had a great lunch!

That's it for today.

Love you guys!
Brian and Patty

Newport Shopping

August 2, 2012
Last night my dad called. He asked me if we were still on vacation mode or were we now on retirement mode. It was a great question!

I guess as long as we are traveling in the RV we are going to be both! Now we are probably about 50/50. Why travel if we are not going to check out the local sites. We can sit on the couch at home back in Ventura. On the other hand, the Olympics are on now and it's OK to do a few things in a day and come back and watch the Olympics. After all we are RETIRED! :)

Some day's now we don't have any plans. We just get up and decide if we want to go anywhere. Wednesday we realized that we really hadn't gone to the two main touristy shopping areas of Newport.

1. The Bay Front. 

We had gone here the first night so Patty could eat some Clam Chowder at Mo's but all the shops were already closed.

2. The Nye Beach area. 

We decided to go to those places after first watching some Olympics. We first went to the Bay Front District

Bay Front District Bridge View

Shopping has changes now that we are fulltiming! We have to be careful as to what we purchase. First can we carry it in the fifth wheel. After cleaning out the house, I think we both realize how much stuff we had that we didn't need and didn't even remember having. In some way's shopping now is really just window shopping. Seeing what knick knacks are in the shops. Patty likes doing that.

We heard some barking when we were walking next to the docks. We realized there were some sea lions sunning themselves. We have now had four sunny days in a row. WOW!

Sea Lions

We found a store that we had to take a picture of. Patty has always called Crystal "Doodlebug". Crystal will be 30 in a month and is pregnant with our first grandchild, but she is still "doodlebug:" to Patty.

Crystal's Store!

I texted the above picture to Crystal standing right in front of the store.

We drove over to the South Jetty which is on the other side of the bridge. We got another good shot of the bridge over there. There are some hiking trails over there so we probably will go back before we leave on Monday.

South Jetty

We then headed over to the Nye Beach area. Rather then park there we found a parking area several blocks away and walked. Gotta get our walks in somewhere!

Here is a picture of the NorthHead Lighthouse from where we parked.

NorthHead Lighthouse

We found a cool cobblestone one way road that we could walk to the Nye Beach District. 

The way to Nye Beach District

Just past this sign you take some stairs down to the Nye Beach District.

Nye Beach District

Here is another sign from the main street that goes through Nye Beach. It get's pretty narrow through here if trucks are parked here. We drove through the other day when a full size Dodge was parked here. Pretty tight with tow mirrors! 

There is another chowder place called The Chowder Bowl that is supposed to be the best place in town, even better then Mo's. Patty had a bowl of chowder and I had a bowl of chili for lunch. The chili was better then Mo's, but the chowder was not as good.

One way Nye Beach Road

That's it for today. We miss you all!

Brian and Patty