Day 47-July 11, 2016-Depoe Bay, OR, blueberries, casino
Sunny and 65 again today, the sun makes a big difference.
The ocean takes center stage here but the lakes and rivers are beautiful too. Our campground is near Devils Lake, a big clear lake surrounded by summer cottages. And the Siletz River is near here also, lots of boaters and fishermen on that. We drove south on 101 today and stopped at a scenic pull-out which happened to have a lot of wild blueberry bushes. So far on this trip I’ve picked grapefruit which was wonderful, peaches, which have just ripened in the last day or two, blackberries which we had on ice cream, in yogurt and in pancakes this morning. We’ll be having blueberries tomorrow. We drove down to Depoe Bay which was much too crowded yesterday. Today it was great. It’s a little town with a lot in it. We started walking a bit north of the town, where the ocean has carved out big holes in the seawall. More toward town we saw about four whales in the cove. They said they stay here all year. Don’t know what kind they were but they were fascinating to watch-we waited for the spout, then the whale, then the tail disappearing. Walked down a bit more to where the “spouting horns” are, rock formations that make the sea spray come up, sometimes over the road, but that mostly happens in the winter. On the other side of the street we found the usual gift shops and some unusual gift shops too. You can buy any kind of weed here but it’s not in your face as much as it is in Amsterdam. Got some chowder and ice cream for lunch, then stopped in the wine store but they didn’t have anything we liked. It was a tiny store with dollar bills hanging from every inch of the ceiling and walls and the back wall behind the bar was covered with foreign bills. The Lincoln City Outlets are right down the street from the campground and we stopped in and Harry got a waterproof jacket for the times he has to set up in the rain. We stopped at Lincoln City Beach, seven miles of nice sandy beach and calm waters. People were flying kites and sunning, some even were in the water, the brave ones. Each year from Oct. to May the town hides glass floats on the beach, blown glass orbs by local artisans. They put out 2015 of them in 2015 and 2016 in 2016, etc. They’re signed and numbered and the idea is to promote tourism to come and to find them. Then on to the Chinook Winds Casino where we had a couple of hours of fun and came out $10 ahead. We didn’t realize they had two floors ‘til we were ready to leave. But we didn’t dare go back in, we left as winners. Saw a sign just about where our campground is saying we’re at the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Back to the campground, read for a while, had dinner and got ready to leave tomorrow.