Whaler’s Rest, Newport, OR

 

This is the view out of our windshield at
Whaler's Rest RV Resort in Newport, Oregon.  [In order to be correct, you need to pronounce it "OR-UH-GUN" and never, ever "OR-EE-GONE"!!]

Some interesting facts about Oregon I've just now gleaned from one of the free coastal newspaper periodicals:  There is no sales tax.  Yeah, most people know that and also that Oregon fuel stations are not self-service; they're required by law to have attendants pump their fuel for you.  But did you know that the highest elevation point is Mt. Hood at 11,239 feet?  Crater Lake, in Southern Oregon is the deepest lake in the United States.  There are nine lighthouses and one lightship along the coast.  There are 16 known hot springs and 17 ghost towns.  Hells Canyon, the the NE corner is the deepest river-carved gorge in North America.  At 7900 feet it is deeper than the Grand Canyon.  The hazelnut is the state's official nut and Oregon grows 99% of the US commercial crop.  It's the 10th largest state in size, with a population of 3.4 million. 

We have had a great time in the state:  geocaching, line dance, walks on the beach.  We've had pretty okay weather.  Of course it can be foggy all morning, and rainy sometimes.  But overall we've been able to do pretty much what we've wanted.  And sometimes we didn't want to do anything anyway!  It hasn't always been okay with us, but we did learn fairly early in our travels, that it's okay not to be a tourist.  After all, at your house you don't always have an agenda, sometimes you just kick back.  Us too!

Those who have been to Newport's Ocean Aquarium have driven right by this gal.  She's called Nessie, and looks like somebody's basement creation.  But the plaque on her says "Caught by a Newport Industrial Park night watchman off the South Jetty during a terrible storm at midnight June 2, 1992"  It's a Crown Lizard, latin name Kronosaurius Queenslandicus.  It has the largest skull of any reptile ever found at over 12 feet.  Its teeth also the largest ever discovered at over 9 inches.  Its relatives were certainly found off the Oregon coast 80 million years ago. 

We attended the manager's meeting one Saturday morning, and we 'won' one ticket admission to the Ocean Aquarium.  For Seniors, that was just over $15 clams!  We picked a day when we thought the attendance would be minimal (a Wednesday) and headed out on a pretty nice day weather-wise.  School was still out, so it was pretty busy, but not like a weekend.  One of the truly remarkable attractions is the 360 degree aquarium.  You can see all the way around and under.

Not actually too clear under foot due to scratching of the surface by the gazillions of feet, but still very impressive.

Here's something we learned reading one of the many excellent displays.  During high tides, clams extend a two tube siphon - one tube sucks in water-carrying food particles and oxygen, the second tube spits out waste.  You can learn a lot of useless information sometimes, but I sort of thought that was cool.

This is a spider shrimp.  This guy was in a really colorful tank.  Spectacular if you click on the photo you will see a larger version.  As luck would have it, my camera battery gave out two shots into the aquarium, but happily Eloise's was fully charged.  The thing is, mine has a view finder option, and you can compose a shot better, and know when the light is wrong.  Her's just has the screen, and it's not always a good shot.

Can you see the kid with the CocaCola shirt?  He wouldn't leave, so I finally took the shot...can't blame him for being entranced, this was a cool display..

I'm including this terrible picture of a Japanese Spider Crab because I found it so interesting.  (And, I didn't know it didn't turn out).  This is the world's largest crab, with a leg span of 13 feet.  They live on the Pacific Ocean floor near Japan where they feed on dead animals and shellfish.  They may live to be 100 years old.

  

 

  Are you familiar with the Beatles song about the octopus's garden?  Well, here's another absolutely terrible picture of the octopus, but it's got an interesting life...for an octopus.  Eloise had to shoot this one over the heads of the people in front of her.  He was right up next to the window and everyone wanted to see him.

Eight arms, two eyes and a baggy red body add up to a giant Pacific octopus.  Despite its fearsome reputation, the octopus is quite shy, sleeping by day in a rocky den or crevice to hide from predators.  By night the octopus prowls the ocean floor seeking crabs, shellfish and shrimp.  After collecting an armload he returns to the privacy of his den, eats its fill and piles the empty shells outside in what's called an OCTOPUS'S GARDEN.  Now that I have that song firmly embedded in my mind, I probably won't sleep tonight not being able to get it out of my head!

One of our favorite birds is the crested puffin.  We saw these guys in Alaska when we traveled there in 2008.  He's taking that twig down to a nest in a hole in the rock (actually concrete).

No picture of a halibut turned out.  Taking pictures thru glass just doesn't work often.  But those of you not familiar with halibut -- they are delicious and we like them lots better than salmon or any other kind of fish.  The are kind of weird though.  A newly hatched halibut looks like any other fish, swimming upright, and eye on each side of its head and color on both sides of its body.  Soon, one eye begins to migrate toward the other, and the little fish begins to lean sideways as it swims.  By the time the halibut settles on the bottom, its transformation is complete.  BOTH eyes are on one side of its head and it swims horizontally.  The eyed side is colored to match the surroundings and the blind side is usually fish-belly white or ivory.

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Okay, guys, let your imagination loose.  This is what I saw every day from my chair at the table.  If you're having trouble seeing what I'm talking about, you're very old.

The park had a frisbee golf 9-hole course.  Here's Eloise winding up for a homer.   Eloise's comment: Homer, that sounds more like baseball, don't you know it was frisbee GOLF?

And...here's Eloise looking for her frisbee!  [Whoops, he didn't tell you he looked for his just as much as I did, he just had the camera.] 

 

And now...here's Eloise sinking a putt, with her putter of course.  Lots of disk golfers use several different disks.  We just use a driver (somewhat heavier and thinner) and a putter. The chains on the goal tend to knock the disk down into the bin below for the 'hole'.

 

These guys called themselves Cowboy Gospel.  They were great 3 part harmony.  The Graber, Souter, Rupp Band.  They travel in a pick-up and do gigs all over the west and mid-west.  Happy that Whaler's Rest hired them in.  Nope, no cost to the campers.

 

The beach was just a short walk from the park, but you had to cross Hwy 101 which can be busy.  One day we came across this little guy who just plain loved to dig.  I've never seen a dog dig ceaselessly.  Other dogs like to run after frisbees, jump in the surf...he just wanted to dig!!

 

A short distance away at Seal Beach.  What a lovely place.

 

 

 This is the view from the doorway of the lighthouse.  The interior is furnished in the way it was used in the 1870's.  The lighthouse was manned by a family of nine, and it's really not a very large house in spite of appearances from the outside.

We're leaving you with this shot of a different kind of muscle on the beach...

I've been messing around with WordPress for an alternate to Blogspot.  It doesn't seem much better, at least with the free templates.  Apparently you need to work with html code to get things straight.  Maybe someday, just not right now.  Thanks Ginger, for trying to give me a hand!  For now, I have to stick with not trying to get sort of fancy with mixing pictures alongside text.

Finally, since we post pretty sporadically, if anybody wants to get a 'group' kind of email letting you know when we've posted a new entry, just EMAIL ME.  That'll help some of you who get tired of checking...but still want to keep up with where we are!