Oregon Coast Trip

Sunday, An early morning “traditional” breakfast before packing up our overnight bags and heading south to the First Assembly of God church in Albany. Joe and Teteh followed us in Josh’s car. A very patriotic and dramatic service to say the least, with a small orchestra and choir, and a relatively short sermon built around the theme of Christian honor and service. We all ate at “The Original Breakfast” within sight of the church (big portions and quiet tasty). On south we went through Eugene before heading west on route 126 over the Chehalem mountains(?) to Florence. We checked into the Driftwood Shores Resort and changed into warmer beachwear. Yes, it was very windy, cloudy and chilly – not the naively anticipated beach day, but quite normal for the Oregon coast. After a short, windy walk on the sandy beach just off our back deck (many kites!), I had a hard time holding everyone back from begging to go look for agates! Well actually, I talked everyone into accompanying me on north about 15 miles to attempt to find some Oregon beach agates. We tried the Carl Washburne State Park beach but found it far to sandy. On north past the Sealion caves to what would be a successful experience, a small pull-off at the Tokatee Klootchman beach. Here we found many interesting tidal pools, and some gravely patches that yielded a half dozen white to golden colored agates (the crabs and anemones were interesting as well!). After checking in with the Brehms, we headed back to Florance and ate at Moes, a family seafood place right on the waterfront. We had plenty of fish, shrimp, chips, and a grilled cheese sandwich (guess who??!). We found (with their son’s guidance) the Brehms cottage just back off the beach in a protected maze-like housing area, and thoroughly enjoyed a few hours of visiting before returning to the shore and some sleep.
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Monday morning came early for Em and I. The only available low tide was at 6:45am, and I woke at 5:09am!! We dressed quickly/quietly and headed back to the T.K beach, hoping for similar success to Sunday afternoon. The tide seemed quite a bit lower than yesterday, with a much broader patch of tidal pools full of starfish, green anemones and countless hermit crabs, larger crabs and various fish and clams. On down the beach maybe a ½ mile or so I found some larger, more secluded pebbly areas and many more agates (as well as red jasper, and other interesting sea-polished/colored stones). It would have been fun to poke around longer, but our day and stomachs were calling us away. Back to the Driftwood we joined Josh and Laura at the continental breakfast. We soon showered, packed and stopped briefly just north of Florence at Mystic Woods Chainsaw Sculptures. The Sealion caves were next, a very interesting couple hours of viewing the hundreds of sea lions barking, wrestling and sleeping in the cave and nearby rocks. The Pelagic Cormorants, and Pigeon Guillemots were also very interesting, and Em bought a Oregon made hand warmer mug.. The coastal drive was beautiful. We next stopped just south of Newport for a couple orders of fresh fish and chips at the South Beach Fish market (crowded inside so we ate on picnic tables just outside). We then were the last ones out of the Oregon Coast Aquarium after 3 hours of very enjoyable strolling and calling to one-another to see the next active sea creature. We all agreed - one of the most entertaining and unique aquariums we have seen. Our return trip from Newport back over to Albany on route 20 was again scenic but somewhat quiet due to frequent and widespread napping. We stopped in Corvallis for Subway subs and then on up route 5 to the Brehms for welcoming beds.
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