Nehalem Bay State Park – Riveted

Sun! We’ve got sun!!

Laura Domela — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 01:22:27 +0000

Woke up this morning to a clear blue sky and this hot bright thing poking through the blinds! Such a nice surprise. Similar to yesterday, we did a bunch of work in the morning, and then headed out for a late breakfast and a little exploring.

Today’s destination was the town of Seaside.

It’s been ages since we’ve been to Seaside. We grabbed some food at the Firehouse Grill (where “late breakfast” didn’t turn into lunch because they serve breakfast until 3!) and then walked down to the beach.

We decided to check out the Seaside Aquarium today. The Seaside Aquarium has been open (in this same spot) since 1937.

The building was constructed in 1924, and was originally a saltwater bath house and swimming pool called the “Seaside Baths Natatorium”. The natatorium closed in the early 1930s, underwent major renovations, and in 1937 opened as the Seaside Aquarium. Here’s an early pic of the building:

The aquarium experience was better than we’d expected. As you enter the building, there’s a pool off to your left where maybe a dozen harbor seals hang out waiting to splash water onto the guests be fed by the guests from small trays of herring pieces. For two bucks you can get your own tray of herring (comes in a red/white checked take-out dish, very similar to what you get fish & chips in, for example, so pay attention). Anyway, I thought the whole “seal feeding” gimmick was going to be obnoxious, and it was…a little bit. But it was also kinda fun. The seals work hard to get your attention and are pretty good at clapping, barking, splashing, and looking cute so that you’ll throw some fish their way.

One seal got an eensy bit impatient, however, and could pull some pretty big water with those flippers…throwing it directly at the guests, right through the fence (no glass). Kinda makes you NOT want to give that particular seal a treat, but hey, it apparently works for him.

Anyway, there are a bunch of tanks with cool fish and anemones and eels and other neat things in ’em. Here’s a closeup of grumpy wolf eel:

This octopus was my favorite though:

Its eyes were closed and you could watch (close up in this open, no-touch tank) its breathing. We could look straight down into its gills as they opened and closed, and as water pushed out of the funnel/siphon (the tube on the left, near the “neck” of the octopus in the photo). It was super cool. (Would have been cooler had the octopus been awake and climbing around the tank, but we’ll take what we can get!)

Still sunny outside!

Walking back through town:

From the bridge that crosses over the river at Broadway Street, we could see a bunch of pedal boats shaped like giant swans…which was quite a fantastic image (just google it, you’ll see what I mean). They were all clumped together at the dock, but I had only my wide wide lens with me, we were too far away, and I apparently didn’t want the photo badly enough (but now I wish I’d made the effort).

On our drive back down to Nehalem, we pulled over and got a couple of nice shots back toward town.

Our campground is down there somewhere, hidden behind the dunes:

We got back to camp and took off on our bikes for a nice ride out to the boat launch and beach…a little over 5 miles. And guess what? It’s still sunny!!!

Showers, Rain, Drizzle, Cloudy with a Shower

Laura Domela — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 18:29:30 +0000

This is what our week sounds like, per Accuweather.

It rained most of the day yesterday, but we got a short break and braved our way to the beach for a walk. This is what our campsite area looked like when we left:

The beach was quiet and beautiful and we had a good walk.

There were all these weird finger-shaped (and sized) things that had washed up on the shore:

I got close and they were definitely organic (but no bones, so…not fingers).

My first thought was starfish legs, but upon closer inspection we decided they were probably small sea cucumbers.

However, once back at the Airstream (and internet) we discovered they were not in fact sea cucumbers, by pyrosomes. They are bioluminescent (when alive) and can get as large as 60 feet long. Each one is actually a colony of cloned creatures called “salps” about 1 cm long each, connected together by tissue to form what looks like a rubbery, plastic tube. Winter storms have caused many of them to wash ashore and they’re apparently all over the Oregon Coast right now. [Source]

Bird-shaped driftwood:

Same driftwood, different angle:

Not many people on the beach today:

Heading over the dunes and back to camp:

When we got back to camp, our moat had mostly disappeared, but I’m thinking we need some Xtratufs for the Airstream as well as the boat!

We went to dinner last night in Manzanita…a restaurant called Blackbird.

For starters we shared a radicchio caesar salad and some bacon-wrapped apricots (stuffed with goat cheese and marcona almond). Both starters were fantastic. For our main course we shared some Ricotta Gnocchi (with lamb bacon, shaved fennel, basil and tarragon pesto, maitake mushroom, parmesan), and a delicious prawn dish , but I don’t have all the ingredients for that one because it wasn’t on the online menu. I’m not sure which entree we liked the best. The portions were perfect, too…perfect enough that we got to share a chocolate pot du creme with sea salt on top for dessert.

It rained like crazy all night last night, and early this morning the wind really kicked up. We slept in a bit, made some late breakfast, and are having a lovely anniversary day at the coast.

Gray Day on the Oregon Coast

Laura Domela — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:46:42 +0000

We worked solid at the dinette today from early this morning until about 2pm and finally realized we really needed to get out for a walk so we headed for the beach. Pretty mellow out there today. A few people, a few dogs, a few horses, and one little crazy kid swimming. What is UP with those little kids?

Oregon Coast: Bandon to Nehalem Bay State Park

Laura Domela — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:27:43 +0000

Today we decided we'd head north and see how far we got before we felt like stopping for the night. We got as far as Nehalem Bay State Park and we're going to stay two nights here. (We're meeting my mom at Skamokawa Vista Park in WA on Saturday and staying the weekend for some mother's day cooking and camping).

This means during this little coastal trip we'll have done the whole Oregon Coast from the furthest point North all the way to Bandon, OR. Cool!

Here's our new spot:

It's wooded and pretty and there are actually very few people here right now. We thought we'd unhook and head to the store (there's a surprisingly good grocery store in Manzanita) and get some stuff for dinner, but then as we were heading into town we read about a cool little foodie restaurant in Wheeler (just a few miles from here) that sounded really good. We figured we could cook tomorrow and go out tonight instead.

We unhooked and headed into Wheeler to the Rising Star Cafe. (They take cash or checks only, if you go. But you can get cash at the ATM just a block or so away at the Tsunami Bar & Grill down on the waterfont.)

This place is tiny (maybe 6 tables inside, and few more outside), and has fabulous reviews on Yelp.

We got a cute little table by the window and got our menus and it was…um…pasta night. We don't normally eat pasta (carbs, Paleo) but we decided to just stay and be forced to eat pasta. We ordered the penne with bolognese sauce and the fettuccine with lamb stroganoff sauce (both came with salad, and were ten bucks each) and a Paso Robles cabernet sauvignon. Everything was delicious! We took a look at the regular menu and decided to make a reservation (recommended, since it's Friday) for tomorrow night.

Here are a few snaps I took this evening while we were walking around Wheeler to get cash. (Had we known it was ten dollar pasta night, we wouldn't have needed to go get cash, actually. But then had we known it was pasta night, we probably would also have just headed to the market in Manzanita. Glad we didn't.)