Depoe Bay and other points........

Had a big day today. We road back up north a bit to Depoe bay. The bay was given to an Indian many, many moons ago. His name was Charles Depot. Somewhere down the road, they changed the spelling and the bay is named after him. It is known as the world's smallest harbor and the Coast Guard unit there is know as the "Hole in the Wall Gang". Fitting as the entrance to the harbor is effectively a hole in the cliff. They are also know for their resident population of Gray whales that live there year round. We were able to see a few of them today although none of them close enough to get a good picture of here. Here's the best we could do.....

It don't look like much in the pic, but was amazing to see them crusing and blowing in the harbor. We saw a couple more a little but futher down the coast at Otter Crest. Didn't see any today, but Orca's tend to come this way too, because they like to eat Gray whale calves....

Some of Oregon's beaches have a LARGE amount of drift wood on them. This wood comes from parts way away from here brought by the currents. Some of this wood is huge and spent many years in the sea before washing up here. Here's a taste.....

There's also some of these here. Karate kid comes to mind.... :-)


After we got done knocking around up here, we headed back down to Newport to hit the Oregon Coast Aquarium before we leave the area. It's right outside the park where are staying so we bedded down FTWD in his crib and walked over. Probably one of the cooler Aquarium's i've been to. It's theme is called Oddwater. That's an interesting theme based on why they call it that. Oregon is really big on glass and glass blowers. There are glass artisans in every town here. Some of them are very good at what they do too. In most of the small and medium sized aquarium's here there is glass from some of these artisans.... Stuff like this...

They all had some pretty amazing pieces in them......

Can't take pictures of much in an aquarium, but K did hit a couple....

These lil buggers were hams and funny to watch. They breed like rabbits on the rocks offshore here.

Great place to come see if you find yourself in the area.

After we got done there, we headed back over to the bayfront to find some supper. Have some nice murals painted on some of the buildings there. This one catches your eye....

Yeah, it ain't much as far as egg beaters go, but it's got a cool paint job... :-)

And then there was this...


The bayfront has a bunch of tacky tourist shops and bars and eating places. We had dinner in a place the Whale Tale. We got pretty nervous when we walked in and we were the only two there. Turned out pretty good though.

Tomorrow we move on down the coast another hundred or so miles.....