After glassblowing on Thursday, we stopped by the lighthouse nearest our resort; Lighthouse #4 - the Yaquina Bay lighthouse. This is a literal light - house, as the light sits on top of the home of the lighthouse keeper. It is quite a charming place.
Luke wanted to be the one to sign us up on the guest register.
He was so cute. He explained to me that when he wrote it he misspelled "family" by forgetting the "m", but told me not to worry because he used a little carrot to add the "m" and that the use of a carrot works just fine. This kid is so dear to my former English teacher's heart!
Dylan is rather bothered by this human hair sculpture.
The lighthouse keep lived here with his wife and seven children.
Interestingly, this lighthouse was only in commission for 3 years. After opening it was quickly determined that the light was too small, and also that the house was not in a good location as the light was hidden on much of the coast. So 3 years later when the Yaquina Head lighthouse was completed just north of there, the Yaquina Bay lighthouse was decommissioned.
A close-up of the Yaquina Bay Bridge that we can see from our room.
Later we went to check out "Historic" Nye Beach - the beach destination in central Oregon. I guess we are too used to our SoCal beaches because we were kind of disappointed by what we found. It was windy and nippy - not exactly your summer playground.
It had potential. Wide sandy beaches, crashing waves, a lighthouse in the distance. Only problem is, it had no sun.
That didn't stop my boys from exploring.
But there is an upside to it being a touristy beach - it has a few fun shops, and I ducked out of the biting wind to visit them.
It also helped that no one was around so I could take some peopleless photos.
Oh well. I guess we will save our beach going for back home in Southern California.
That evening Dennis and I left the boys back in the room with a few pizzas and walked down to the bay front together for a date.
We dined at a place called Local Ocean which made all their dishes from seafood and other items that are all caught/grown locally. It was hopping, so we knew it would be good.
Shrimp crostini. Yummy and fresh!
Dennis' choice - a tuna mignon: bacon wrapped tuna streak over veggies and fried onions. It is tuna season, and the tuna was so tender and tasty.
I had something called the Brazilian seafood stew, though it seemed more Thai than Brazilian to me. It was fish, shrimp, scallops, crab, and local mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes in a coconut curry broth. It was pretty darn incredible!
When we returned to the Embarcadero, we found Alex, Luke, and Caleb still out crabbing on the dock. They couldn't wait to show us that night's catch.
Hello tasty little fellas!
Luke is always playing with his food.
The next morning Nate and the twins got up really really early because those are fishermen's hours.
They had reservations to go out deep sea fishing that morning.
They seem really excited! That is the same look I get waking them up for seminary every morning.
Buck up, boys. You are going to have fun! Bring us home some dinner.
And they headed out to sea on the Gracie K.
The rest of us just had a relaxing morning. I went for another bike ride. This time I tried to ride along the coast, but it was rough because there was construction on the Oregon Coast bike route, and all the detours I tried either led to dead ends or became unpaved. It was a frustrating, and ultimately rather start ride, but I did get some pretty views of the coast and (though you can't really see it in the picture) the Yaquina Head lighthouse.
Meanwhile Dennis and the other boys just hung out on the dock trying their best to deplete the local crab population.
Dennis's home-away-from-home office.
Little jelly...
Big jelly.
Meanwhile, out at sea...
Cheer up kid.
That's better.
While we were on the docks we saw the Gracie K returning to the docks. We hoped it was heavy with today's catch.
The boys were just inside the cabin pretending not to notice the crazy people waving from the crabbing dock, but the captain waved!
They boys' catch - rockfish and bass. Unfortunately that scrumptious-looking salmon that they caught had to be released for legal reasons that had something to do with the hook. Oh well.
My handsome fishermen. It was worth getting up early for this!
We had them cleaned and were were ready to feast!
But before dinner we had one more place to see and one very simple thing to do.
Lighthouse #5 - Yaquina Head lighthouse.
It was not open for tours. Note: This lighthouse was run by the BLM instead of Oregon State parks or privately. You could tell that it was run by the federal government, because it was run down and looked terrible, where all the other lighthouses that we had see had been all restored and were well taken care of.
And this was the very simple thing we had to do:
Seven years ago we came to this very same beach and took a few family pictures like the one above. I just love the smooth black rocks and the driftwood log bleached white in the sun. I didn't know much about photography then, so their faces were in the dark, but it was still a picture that I have always loves - my little guys all lines up in a row. Now that we were back in Oregon together, I really wanted to just snap another one like it.
Just jeans and white shirts. You already packed the white shirts for church and they don't even have to be ironed. Heck, we are at the beach, so you don't even have to comb your hair. All you have to do, for me, your dear mother, is to sit on a log with your brothers so that we can get a few pictures. That's it. Easy, right?
Easier said than done.
Just the mention of the idea brought all kinds of whining and complaints from my family. There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Mother had a clearly horrendous request. Some children balked, some couldn't find the requisite white shirt or jeans, and when the time came one child was taking too long in the bathroom trying to get his hair just right and another child simply disappeared altogether.
When we got to the beach, things didn't get any better. We happened to get there at low tide, and this happens to be a great spot for exploring tide pools, so the normally secluded beach was crawling with people. And of course, the boys wanted to go poke sea anemones rather than take pics, and I had to round them all up. Happily, the driftwood log was still there, but sitting the wrong way so their faces were in the sun and the water was not in the background. Good enough. I finally got everyone on the log, and had one final request: take off your shoes. More murmuring ensued. This is dumb. Who cares about shoes? Mom is being such a mom. So I made them sit there on that log until they removed their shoes and threw them - but not far enough to get out of the picture, so then I had to run around (not easily done on rocks) and collect them all before I could the the shot. Finally I had to convince everyone, even though they were already done in their minds, to sit up straight, look right into the sun, and smile.
Easy right?
Nope. But totally worth it to get another cute pic or two of my guys lined up on a driftwood log on a black stone beach.
This is where my being immune to whining pays off.
I brought my tripod so we could get a few pics of the whole fam, but that too proved to be trickier that I thought. The rocks and the steep incline didn't make a very stable surface for a tripod, and they also don't work to well for running on, so I could never get back to my spot before the timer went off.
Finally we got a few, just these two actually, before my family had really had enough. Those two would have to do. The kids were off that log and in the tide pools.
Fine then. How about one with just me and my honey? After all, this is what started it all.
I love this handsome man!
Yes, we always wear white dress shirts to explore tide pools. So what?
Look at the seals!
Dylan and Luke watch dozens of seals sunning themselves on a rocky outcropping.
Such a beautiful coastline.
The tide started rolling in, and we all got hungry, so everyone headed back up to the car.
I stuck around a few more minutes up on top of the cliffs to get a few photos of the magnificent landscape.
When I finally got to the car, i was informed that Caleb wasn't there and nobody knew where he was. I took off to go find him.
There he was, way down below on the now deserted black rock beach, throwing rocks into the ocean, oblivious the his entire family, and everybody else for that matter, had disappeared. The ocean was loud so he couldn't hear me and I had to climb all the way back down to get his attention.
Funny kid.
On the way back to the room, we decided to stop one more time at the docks to see what the fishermen had brought in that day.
Today it was Tuna, just plucked from the sea.
We couldn't help but buy ourselves a couple of fine specimens right off the boat.
While they were being cleaned, Caleb, Luke, and I explored fishing boats that were docked there.
This fisherman got in the boat and called to his dog "You coming or not?" Sire enough, that pup jumped right on for the ride.
Loading up some huge albacore found way out in the deep waters just that morning.
Luke makes a new friend.
We have our fish all cleaned and ready to eat. Lets get back to the room for our seafood feast!
Our bounteous catch of crabs from the last few days.
Oh yeah!
Now, who get to crack them all open and get the bits of tasty meat?
Crab meat sure is labor intensive! You probably burn more calories getting to it that you take in actually eating it. No wonder it is so expensive. But so delicious it is worth all the effort.
We also had the mussels we had collected.
We also feasted on some of the fish the boys had bought that morning, so tasty with a little butter and lemon, and Dennis seared up some of the tuna steaks we had just bought in honey mustard sauce.
What a feast from the sea!
It was the perfect way to spend our last evening in Oregon, as we watched the last fishing boats come in as the sun set over Yaquina Bay from our balcony.
Morning came. It was departure day. But I had one more thing I wanted to do before I left and I was determined to do it today.
I was going to ride my bike over the Yaquina Bay bridge. I was going to do it on an earlier ride in the week, but chickened out because traffic was heavy and there is absolutely no bike lane on the bridge. So I had determined, that early Saturday morning was my best bet. But as I look out the window that morning, the fog and rolled in and I couldn't even see the bridge! Bummer. So I waited while my family slept.
Finally the clouds rolled away, and so did I. This was my only chance.
Bikes are allowed on the bridge. In fact, the bridge and others like it along the coast are all part of the official Oregon coast bike trail. We had seen many bikers in our week here who were taking days and even weeks to pedal their way up or down the coast. It looks so fun! Maybe someday.
At the end of the bridge, there is a button (like a crosswalk button) that riders push before getting on the bridge that turns on a flashing light warning drivers that a bike is on the bridge. So I pushed it and off I went. It was awesome! There was still very little traffic at that hour, and the cars that did come by were considerate enough to slow down as they passed. All but one truck, who felt it necessary at that early hour to get right behind me and lay on the horn. There is always one. Share the road, buddy!
When I got across the bridge, I just turned around and went back over the other way. No honkers this time, but it was mostly uphill on the way back. Back over the bridge, I was not ready to call it a day, even though we really needed to get packed, get checked out, and get on the road. No, the morning was just too beautiful, so I decided to take that route I took on my first ride here, the one that runs along the bay following the marathon route. I ended up doing the whole thing, and just hoped that somehow the gang would get themselves up and ready without me. It was a lovely ride!
We did get up and out on time, but didn't hit the road until we hit the local landmark that Dennis had been promising the boys all week - breakfast at the Pig 'N Pancake.
The pigs were good, and the pancakes even better. My sourdough pancakes were tops!
It was a long and uneventful ride home. We took the 5 freeway and made no stops of note. We spent the night in Stockton (in a hotel this time - we took no chances) and went to church there in a beautiful building. They have several deaf members in the ward, and signing sister missionaries. One old man gave a talk that was translated by a sister. He said he had been deaf his whole life. And he bore a very short, but powerful and moving testimony of our Savior and his relationship with Him and with the scriptures. I will never forget it.
