Newport, OR - Lighthouses & Monsters

Newport is a neat place. There is a couple of lighthouses here, The Rogue Brewery, Oregon Coast Aquarium, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Undersea Gardens and more. Also lots of shops and cafes in the Deco District, Nye Beach area, and Old Town.

And of course the neat bridges they have all over the coast.

Donna checking out a large compass by the Yaquina Lighthouse State Park.

We had to go in the lighthouse again.

A museum with a view! Gorgeous ocean views all along the coast here.

In the distance, the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

They have an area of touristy shops, all with the pirate theme. Our Grandson Erik, would love it here.

They also have old 'Nessie' here.

Cool, Cool.

Whalers Rest, South Beach, OR - March 22, 2014

Another short drive north on Hwy 101. Only 47 miles to Whalers Rest, a Thousand Trails campground just south of Newport, OR. We even had a nice sunny day for the move.

We chose a site (#6) close to the Activity Center. There are many activities going on this week. Something everyday.

The park has a little store called The Sea Chest with food items and souvenirs and such. They even rent DVDs for only $1.00 a night. We may partake some since I am having trouble getting our Dish Network to connect.

This place has 149 FHU sites and is pretty close to the ocean. That's the beaches at the end of the street, just across Hwy 101. There are trails to take to the beaches too.

Most of the sites are along a big loop.

It is pretty wooded and I figured we would have a better chance at TV and internet  closer to the lodge. TV no, but using my Cradlepoint and Bullet antenna, we do have their WiFi.

There is an upper section.

With an Adult Lodge and mini golf.

And here is something that really bugs me. A disaster in the making.

What if a rock or something gets stuck in one of the slots?

I cringe when driving over these.
What can you do?  NaDa.

This is one of the bigger rental units in the park. We stayed here back in Sept of 2008.

We were here with 2 of Donna's brothers (Gene & Larry) and some of Gene's RV friends. We all went crab fishing and had a ball. This trip was the beginning of our dreams to be full time RVers.

We are planning to do about 5 days here. Plenty of time to see the area and let it warm up a bit before continuing northward.
Later...

Florence, OR - March 20, 2014

Donna has finally completed all the Good Sam vests she had volunteered to make. Fifty in all. We will hand them over to the club at a campout in Ellensburg, WA in April. She (we) are so glad that they are completed.

Exploring Florence. OR

There are some nice beaches here. Oregon coast is pretty rugged and there are cool, giant rock formations protruding all along the beaches. Here around Florence are many sand dunes. Lots of ATV and ORV activity here, and some pretty, sandy beaches too.

Florence is small, but has a nice Fred Meyer and Safeway here. Which covers about all we needed to pick up. We visited 'Old Town' Florence. The town is just a couple of miles down Hwy 101 and across the Siuslaw River. Across a really cool bridge.

There are these old type bridges all along Hwy 101. There are also 53 covered bridges in the state. We do want to visit some while we are in Oregon.

In Old Town, we walked around and checked out all the touristy shops.

And of course, had to take advantage of a few 'photo ops'.

This part of town has some nice old style renovated buildings along with all the shops.

And right along the docks is one of our favorite seafood places to eat... Mo's.

We had to have lunch here. Great clam chowder.

It was a good day to get out and walk around.

Tomorrow we travel north some more.

Stay tuned...

South Jetty Resort Park, Florence, OR - March 16, 2014

We left North Bend right at 11:30 AM for our 47 mile trip up Hwy 101 to Florence. I just love these type of move days. Short, bright and sunny, not much traffic, and beautiful scenery.

Less than an hour on the road, and we arrived at South Jetty Resort Park. This is a Thousand Trails park and we expect to stay here for 6 nights.

From what I researched about this park, is that it is very wooded and has few sewer hookups. Very difficult to get satellite reception.

It is early in the season and so we had our pick of full hookup sites  .  cool! One section was closed because they were doing some logging to open up the tight sites allowing for bigger rigs and more daylight for satellite tv.

We chose a great site. Very wooded and private.

Donna guided me in perfectly. Tight and cozy. Besides having full hookups, I saw a bit of sun out back.

Good thing I carry two 100 foot runs of RG 6 coax cable. I ran it through the woods and aimed into the southern sky.

Yea! We are good to go!

Here is the view of my dish from the road.

Donna got her sewing machine set up and running, and is hoping to finish all the Good Sam vests while we are here.

While I did a walk about the park.

A nice activity center with good WiFi.

The deck overlooks the pool and hot tub area.

The weather has been great here so far. And tons of stars out at night. I think there is a nice hot tub soak in our immediate future.