More Oregon...

We spent two weeks in the Bay Area, which is made up of Coos Bay, North Bend and Charleston. It is a beautiful area plus it is not as isolated as Port O. Lots of restaurants and places to shop (there's even a WalMart! Civilization! Yeah!!). Coos Bay and North Bend are so close the city limit signs are back to back. Coos Bay has quite a few historic buildings filled with antique stores, coffee shops, tea rooms and cafes. It reminds you of the downtown areas of the 1950s before shopping malls became the norm.



Here is Donnie on the boardwalk near downtown Coos Bay.


After Coos Bay we stayed a couple of nights at Cottage Grove, Oregon in a little private RV park. The town is really quaint with old buildings and a covered bridge walkway right in the center of town. While there we drove a 20 mile loop southeast of town to check out five more bridges.



This is the Dorena bridge built in 1949, one of only two you could actually drive through.



Currin bridge built in 1925. This one is my favorite, I guess because of the color.

Coos Bay, Oregon

We are now in Coos Bay, OR spending a couple of weeks at a small RV park. Coos Bay is an interesting town near the ocean, on a body of water that I would call a river but the folks up here call a slough. Below are just a few photos, with more to follow soon...



I couldn't resist posting this shot of the sun setting over the water.



We took a drive south of town and ended up near this overlook.



While watching for whales, we heard a lot of noise which turned out to be hundreds of seals and sea lions perched on the rocks below us.

Port Orford

While still camping near Port Orford, we received an e-mail from our friends, Mike and Marty Mills from Cloudcroft. They were in northern California and headed north to join us for a few days. We had a great visit and also toured the Port O. Lifeboat Station Museum and Cape Blanco Lighthouse.


The original Coastguard Crew Quarters is now the Lifeboat Station Museum. The station operated from 1934 to 1970, with the Coast Guard “surfmen” launching lifeboats on rescue missions from their boathouse 280 feet below the cliff.



One of the original 36 foot motor lifeboats.



Ocean view from the original site of the 37-foot-high lookout tower. The tower afforded a view of a 40 mile stretch of coastline.




Donnie, Mike and Marty



Mike, Marty and me after the tour of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. It was too foggy to see much, which might have been a good thing (ya’ll know how I am about heights!). The lighthouse, perched on a cliff 245 feet above the ocean, is the oldest standing lighthouse on the Oregon coast.

Jet Boat Ride on the Rogue River

The following photos are of the jet boat trip we took a couple of weeks ago. We left the Gold Beach dock early one morning for a seven hour ride up the Rogue River. We took the longest tour, 104 miles round trip, but the company offers two other choices 80 mile and 64 mile.


I couldn’t resist posting this one. No, Shelby didn’t go with us. I had taken this photo of the “children” a few days earlier.



The first few hours of the trip were really cold and cloudy, but as we got farther away from the coast the sun came out. Yeah!



Another view of the Rogue. Smooth water, huh? All the better for 360 degree spins, and we did quite a few of those! Turns out our jet boat captain, Hugh, races boats during his time off in the winter.



Here’s a photo of our boat, The Osprey, and Hugh during our lunch break. He was very good at spotting all the birds and wildlife. We saw eagles (bald and golden), osprey, several different herons and cranes, otters, a mink and three black bears.



One of several bald eagles that nest on the Rogue.



The only mink that we saw was playing along the river’s edge.



The rapids were beautiful but talk about a wet and bumpy ride!



Can you tell by the goofy grins on our faces that we were having a blast?? We would definitely recommend this tour and plan to repeat the experience on our next trip to the Oregon coast.



Another of Jerry’s Rogue jet boats.