Touring America 2023

We decided to go into Newport today for some eats, shopping and just hanging out..... For those not familiar, Newport is mostly a fishing village on one side and Nye Beach on the other. Newport has wharfs where the fishermen bring in their catches. Here, they are off loaded and processed. In amongst all the fishing piers and wharfs are a mixture of eclectic shops, aquariums, museums, art deco, trade shops and, of course, seafood restaurants. Outside Mo's we watched as a guy pulled up a crab pot with crabs and threw them into a crab cooker while he cleaned other crabs that had just been cooked. It really doesn't get much fresher than that! Debi found some sweatshirts she liked, on sale! Since we are going to be in Oregon for awhile longer, I guess we will need them. Josh wanted to know if someone says to "Put it where the sun don't shine" means sending it to Oregon.....

This is the Yaquina Bay Bridge. It is one of the most recognizable and most often published bridge that is found on U.S. Hwy 101. It was featured in the 2008 movie, Prom Night.








 After crossing the Yaquina Bay Bridge, a sharp right turn takes you to main street, Newport. It is a narrow two lane road with some parking on both sides. Many of the spaces on the right (wharf) side are marked off as the trucks and equipment needed to run the fishing processing plants need the room for their work. 







This is another picture taken facing the bridge. Notice the painting of the building across the street. Many of the buildings in town are decorated with nautical themes giving the area a more festive feel.

I've included a couple examples of the artists' paintings on many of the fish processing plants along the Newport Wharf.

Here, we see another picture of the beautiful Yaquina Bay Bridge. Notice the fishing vessels lined up in front of the bridge. They are waiting their turn to off load their catch at one of the canneries on the wharf. The tuna have been running and these folks set out at 4AM each day returning to port as late as 5PM.

A familiar site at many of the harbors on the Central Oregon Coast is the Coast Guard. Notice the two large vessels in the back ground. Those are Coast Guard vessels alongside the USCG dock. In the foreground a leisure sailor is heading out to sea for some early evening sailing.







Of course, if you're going to hang out all day at the shops and restaurants in town, what better way to unwind but to head to the beach and explore. Josh found a tree root that doubled as a fort. Notice the bridge and the Yaquina Lighthouse in the background. The lighthouse was closed (after 5PM) so we will go back tomorrow or the next day.

After seeing Josh in the tree root, what, you ask yourself, would you do if you couldn't find a tree root for your fort? Why gather up whatever driftwood you could find and build your own, of course. That was the best we could do with that last plank. It was a 2X12 about 16' long and weighed a ton. Waterlogged wood is not light!

Looks like another night to soak in the hot tub !