Another day on the Oregon coast..
This morning, probably like most mornings on the coast, it was fogged in. It seems that up until noon it is foggy near the water. Cool air, saturated air from the ocean, etc. I assume.
The campground was quiet this morning. Since the bathroom was “hideous”, according to the park ranger, we decided to skip the free shower to avoid any creepy crawly things (just kidding, it wasn’t that bad). We made coffee and tea and egg sandwiches in the van then drove the rest of the way down the park road to visit the Shore Acres State Park. A rich guy named Louis Simpson, a lumber baron, built his oceanfront mansion in 1908 and it burned down in the early 1920’s. He then built another bigger mansion that fell into disrepair. Then he lost his shirt in the stock market and his wife died. So he sold the property and the charred remains to the state in the 1940’s and the state ended up razing the mansion in the 1950’s. Bad luck always follows rich people it seems.
The park service has turned the grounds into amazing gardens, similar to the English style gardens that would have been in place during Simpson’s time. It takes 5 park people to maintain it and they rent it out for weddings and other events but let the public in to look around. Beautiful place.
We then stopped at the Simpson Wildlife Reserve, where we heard lots of seals barking through the fog. We spotted two huge elephant seals down below on the rocks.
Last stop was Cape Argo which is a beautiful overlook out to the ocean. Just when we think we have the most amazing picture, another even better picture comes along.
Then it was south on Rt 101 with multiple stops to get the next most beautiful picture. We stopped for lunch at Cafe 2.0 in Port Orford. Then south on 101 again to try our luck at a campsite at Harris Beach State Park near Brookings. We stopped at one but they were full and they said the others in the area were full as well. It’s been a while since we got a hotel so Deb snagged a pretty nice hotel in Brookings. We went into town to the Fat Irish Kitchen and Pub and had pints of beer/cider. Then down to the town park nearby. We found the memorial to the Japanese submarine that anchored off shore, assembled a small airplane, and dropped a couple of bombs on Oregon.They flew the pontoon plane back to the sub and disassembled it and disappeared. The only time the US has been bombed by a foreign country, other than the drunk pilot who mistakenly dropped a suitcase bomb on Naco, Arizona during the Mexican Revolution.
We found a nice city trail that took us way out on the rocks on the shore and another trail that took us down to the beach. After that we went back to the Pub and had dinner. Hot showers and bed. No idea where we are going tomorrow..
No comments:
Post a Comment