Sunday, June 06, 2010
Depoe Bay, Oregon area
We spent four nights at a WorldMark Trendwest condominium in Depoe Bay, Oregon on our Oregon Coast trip last month. This was a gift from one of Pat's daughters and her husband for our third wedding anniversary. Here are a few photos from the Depoe Bay area.
I hope this one will work on your computer screens. It is a very large panoramic photo that I stitched together from about five separate photos that were taken from the deck of our second floor room in one of the ten buildings that make up this condo resort. In the stitching it somehow lost the continuation of the railing- there was no missing section of the actual railing on our deck. This shows a glimpse of our deck and more of our neighbors deck, as well as much of the building beside ours. There are ten of these three story buildings plus a few other buildings for different purposes. There is a nice lawn and a sport court on the water side of our building. The resort has three swimming pools- two outdoors and one inside, that are kept open and at 82 degrees all year There are also hot tubs, exercise rooms, and other activities. I was a bit surprised that in order to get an Internet connection I had to pay $16 for a ten day connection to their system. We were there only four days but the daily rate for four was more than the ten day rate.
This view shows a closer look at the small bay in front of our building. The big rock area on the right side was a real hangout place for seagulls and there are a lot of signs around asking that we not feed them as they are pretty messy. During our first couple of days there the weather over the Pacific Ocean was kind of stormy, although there were also sun breaks. In talking with our kids at home at that time, it sounded like our weather down there was better than it was at home during the same period. This is about 300 miles south of our northern Washington State home. There are some great sandy beaches along this coastline but not here- this one is pretty rocky.
Just on the north side of our condo complex was a place known as Boiler Bay. There is a nice pullout along the road there and that is where I took this photo from. Notice the shade from a cloud in the foreground with bright sunlight beyond that shaded area. That surf is from the swells coming in off the ocean.
This view is still of Boiler Bay, just a bit farther south or to the right of the last photo. At least during the spring when the snow in the mountains is melting, there are a lot of waterfalls where small streams flow into the ocean. There is one at the far right of this photo.
Of course you know that I am going to find a place to go for a mocha wherever I travel and there were more than one to choose from at Depoe Bay. This was taken inside Pirate Coffee which was the closest one to our condo and we liked their product. In talking with the Barista, I learned that Pirate Coffee is a major supplier to the US Military and likely provided the coffee that my son drank when in Afghanistan last year while he was there with the Navy. I haven't checked but do believe that they also have a pretty active mail order business. You can access them on the Web here. They also have quite a few things for sale, as you can see in this photo.
Depoe Bay is listed as the smallest harbor on the Pacific Coast. Here is the entrance to the channel from the open water of the Pacific Ocean. By the time this photo was taken the weather was pretty calm but I think it would be a real challenge to leave or enter this small opening during a storm. We took this photo just after eating dinner at Mazatlan Restaurant on May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, which is right beside this channel. These photos are taken from the lawn outside the restaurant, looking down onto the water.
The bridge is going over the entrance channel to the harbor at Depoe Bay and it carries US-101, the beautiful coastal highway that actually runs from the north end of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, all the way through Oregon and California to the Mexican border at the southern end of California. The channel entrance is behind the camera to the left of this view. You can see some of the downtown buildings that cover the east side of the highway through town in the background beyond the bridge.
Before we left home some friends who also live in our park told us of a good restaurant to try and they said it has a fantastic view of the shoreline. The name of the place is Tidal Raves. It was just south of our condo, not far from Pirate Coffee, and we went there for lunch one day. Jerry was right, the view from there is fantastic-
This photo was taken through the glass of the window beside our table. Luckily, they keep that glass pretty clean and that is no easy chore with all the salt that had been blowing ashore during the storms early in the week. The point seen in the background is the one with a few houses on it at the left side of the water views from our condo.
Depoe Bay is a small town, less than 2000 population, but it does have a "downtown" or commercial area. The main tourist part is along the east side of US-101 for about 4 blocks north of the bridge over the harbor channel. There are other businesses all along that highway for a distance of a couple of miles in both directions from this main area and I guess those would be considered to be in Depoe Bay.
The camera here is looking to the north.
And this one is looking south. The single traffic light in the town shows up. How about that, a town with only one traffic light?
Most of the businesses are restaurants or sell souvenirs and knickknacks. Pat is a collector of toads and things toady and one shop had a pretty good collection of those available. Here Pat is giving close scrutiny to that collection, trying to decide if any of them needed to move their residence to our house. Some did.
From Depoe Bay we did quite a bit of traveling around the coastal area. Using this as a base, we roamed from Lincoln City to the north to Newport to the south, 12 to 15 miles in each direction. I'll post some things about what we found in those areas later, but it will take a few posts. By the way, one of the guys I used to work with at Metro Transit in Seattle moved to Depoe Bay with his wife, also an ex-Metro employee, after they retired and he is serving now in his seventh year as a City Councilman. Pete likes it and it sounds like he is doing a good job. We got together for a great lunch at a place just a bit north of our condo called Jacks and again one afternoon at their house just off that little harbor.
I hope this one will work on your computer screens. It is a very large panoramic photo that I stitched together from about five separate photos that were taken from the deck of our second floor room in one of the ten buildings that make up this condo resort. In the stitching it somehow lost the continuation of the railing- there was no missing section of the actual railing on our deck. This shows a glimpse of our deck and more of our neighbors deck, as well as much of the building beside ours. There are ten of these three story buildings plus a few other buildings for different purposes. There is a nice lawn and a sport court on the water side of our building. The resort has three swimming pools- two outdoors and one inside, that are kept open and at 82 degrees all year There are also hot tubs, exercise rooms, and other activities. I was a bit surprised that in order to get an Internet connection I had to pay $16 for a ten day connection to their system. We were there only four days but the daily rate for four was more than the ten day rate.
This view shows a closer look at the small bay in front of our building. The big rock area on the right side was a real hangout place for seagulls and there are a lot of signs around asking that we not feed them as they are pretty messy. During our first couple of days there the weather over the Pacific Ocean was kind of stormy, although there were also sun breaks. In talking with our kids at home at that time, it sounded like our weather down there was better than it was at home during the same period. This is about 300 miles south of our northern Washington State home. There are some great sandy beaches along this coastline but not here- this one is pretty rocky.
Just on the north side of our condo complex was a place known as Boiler Bay. There is a nice pullout along the road there and that is where I took this photo from. Notice the shade from a cloud in the foreground with bright sunlight beyond that shaded area. That surf is from the swells coming in off the ocean.
This view is still of Boiler Bay, just a bit farther south or to the right of the last photo. At least during the spring when the snow in the mountains is melting, there are a lot of waterfalls where small streams flow into the ocean. There is one at the far right of this photo.
Of course you know that I am going to find a place to go for a mocha wherever I travel and there were more than one to choose from at Depoe Bay. This was taken inside Pirate Coffee which was the closest one to our condo and we liked their product. In talking with the Barista, I learned that Pirate Coffee is a major supplier to the US Military and likely provided the coffee that my son drank when in Afghanistan last year while he was there with the Navy. I haven't checked but do believe that they also have a pretty active mail order business. You can access them on the Web here. They also have quite a few things for sale, as you can see in this photo.
Depoe Bay is listed as the smallest harbor on the Pacific Coast. Here is the entrance to the channel from the open water of the Pacific Ocean. By the time this photo was taken the weather was pretty calm but I think it would be a real challenge to leave or enter this small opening during a storm. We took this photo just after eating dinner at Mazatlan Restaurant on May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, which is right beside this channel. These photos are taken from the lawn outside the restaurant, looking down onto the water.
The bridge is going over the entrance channel to the harbor at Depoe Bay and it carries US-101, the beautiful coastal highway that actually runs from the north end of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, all the way through Oregon and California to the Mexican border at the southern end of California. The channel entrance is behind the camera to the left of this view. You can see some of the downtown buildings that cover the east side of the highway through town in the background beyond the bridge.
Before we left home some friends who also live in our park told us of a good restaurant to try and they said it has a fantastic view of the shoreline. The name of the place is Tidal Raves. It was just south of our condo, not far from Pirate Coffee, and we went there for lunch one day. Jerry was right, the view from there is fantastic-
This photo was taken through the glass of the window beside our table. Luckily, they keep that glass pretty clean and that is no easy chore with all the salt that had been blowing ashore during the storms early in the week. The point seen in the background is the one with a few houses on it at the left side of the water views from our condo.
Depoe Bay is a small town, less than 2000 population, but it does have a "downtown" or commercial area. The main tourist part is along the east side of US-101 for about 4 blocks north of the bridge over the harbor channel. There are other businesses all along that highway for a distance of a couple of miles in both directions from this main area and I guess those would be considered to be in Depoe Bay.
The camera here is looking to the north.
And this one is looking south. The single traffic light in the town shows up. How about that, a town with only one traffic light?
Most of the businesses are restaurants or sell souvenirs and knickknacks. Pat is a collector of toads and things toady and one shop had a pretty good collection of those available. Here Pat is giving close scrutiny to that collection, trying to decide if any of them needed to move their residence to our house. Some did.
From Depoe Bay we did quite a bit of traveling around the coastal area. Using this as a base, we roamed from Lincoln City to the north to Newport to the south, 12 to 15 miles in each direction. I'll post some things about what we found in those areas later, but it will take a few posts. By the way, one of the guys I used to work with at Metro Transit in Seattle moved to Depoe Bay with his wife, also an ex-Metro employee, after they retired and he is serving now in his seventh year as a City Councilman. Pete likes it and it sounds like he is doing a good job. We got together for a great lunch at a place just a bit north of our condo called Jacks and again one afternoon at their house just off that little harbor.
Labels: Friends, Landscapes, Pat and I, Photos, Small towns, Toads, Trips to see things
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Dinner at the Garden Cafe
One of our favorite area restaurants is the Garden Cafe that is located inside the greenhouse at Skagit Gardens. Skagit Gardens grows many plants of their own and operates this location as a retail outlet for their plants along with those from other growers, and a very large gift shop. They go all out for Christmas, starting to set up the displays back in September. Then they have a one night open house to kick off the holiday season, inviting their patrons.
The Garden Cafe usually serves lunch daily. You are seated inside the greenhouse and get to enjoy all of the exhibits. During this once-a-year open house night, owners Ray and Katie stay open late to serve a by reservation only dinner. Their food is the best around (I LOVE his tomato bisque soup!) and we are usually there for lunch at least once a week. Last night was the Christmas Open House and their dinner which we attended. Of course I took some photos and will start today with a few of the folks from the Garden Cafe.
Owner Ray is at the left with a couple of the others who were there helping with a very busy night.
Here is a sneak peak behind the scenes into the kitchen area. Nearest the camera is Ray with his wife Katie next. They are the owners and Ray does most of the cooking. This photo has an odd mix of lighting. I used the flash but it primarily lighted the foreground (bluish daylight type light) while the background is lighted with the ambient lighting (warm, yellowish colored light) in the greenhouse. It was after dark so no daylight was coming through the glass from outside.
Here is my bride paying for our dinners (wasn't that nice of her!) and chatting with Ray's Mom who was brought in to help.
Todd is Ray's cousin and you couldn't find a better person to greet patrons than Todd. His smile shows how he enjoys meeting people.
I have a lot of photos of various things about the Open House and will post them next although I may split it into two posts as there are about 14 photos that I've prepared and I could easily have included more. This place is beautiful and if you have the chance to come to Skagit Valley Gardens between now and Christmas to see it, do so. And plan to eat lunch at the Garden Cafe. You will not regret it.
The Garden Cafe usually serves lunch daily. You are seated inside the greenhouse and get to enjoy all of the exhibits. During this once-a-year open house night, owners Ray and Katie stay open late to serve a by reservation only dinner. Their food is the best around (I LOVE his tomato bisque soup!) and we are usually there for lunch at least once a week. Last night was the Christmas Open House and their dinner which we attended. Of course I took some photos and will start today with a few of the folks from the Garden Cafe.
Owner Ray is at the left with a couple of the others who were there helping with a very busy night.
Here is a sneak peak behind the scenes into the kitchen area. Nearest the camera is Ray with his wife Katie next. They are the owners and Ray does most of the cooking. This photo has an odd mix of lighting. I used the flash but it primarily lighted the foreground (bluish daylight type light) while the background is lighted with the ambient lighting (warm, yellowish colored light) in the greenhouse. It was after dark so no daylight was coming through the glass from outside.
Here is my bride paying for our dinners (wasn't that nice of her!) and chatting with Ray's Mom who was brought in to help.
Todd is Ray's cousin and you couldn't find a better person to greet patrons than Todd. His smile shows how he enjoys meeting people.
I have a lot of photos of various things about the Open House and will post them next although I may split it into two posts as there are about 14 photos that I've prepared and I could easily have included more. This place is beautiful and if you have the chance to come to Skagit Valley Gardens between now and Christmas to see it, do so. And plan to eat lunch at the Garden Cafe. You will not regret it.
Labels: Events, Flowers, Friends, Pat and I, Photos, Toads, Trips to see things
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Toads around the house
Pat collects toads. We have quite a few inside the house and of course there are yard toads, too. Here are a few of the yard toads.
This is the Educated Toad, with his diploma, books and moarter board. He is hiding a bit back in the plant that is supposed to be behind him, but I think you can see him.
This is Pat's helper, the Gardener Toad. This lady toad is equipped to do all of the spading, etc. that is necessary but we still seem to end up doing most of that.
This guy is the Greeter Toad who greets our visitors. His station is just outside the front door on the porch. He is kind of brown which is good as he is not out in the rain where he gets washed off.
We will be leaving in about half an hour to go catch a shuttle bus and ride to Seattle's Safeco Field to watch the Seattle Mariner's baseball team loose (probably) to the Baltimore Orioles. I won four tickets to today's game along with four round trips on the shuttle bus in a radio contest! They are for the game today and, even though our team is not having a very good season, we are looking forward to the trip. The weather is supposed to be in the upper 70s this afternoon so it is just about perfect for sitting and watching a game. And I don't have to drive down, try to find parking, and pay for it! I will take the small camera but don't think I'll be able to get much in the way of photos as we will be sitting behind home plate but in the upper nose bleed section. More later.....
PS - Diane, the cats are all fine, still engaging in their Cat Wars.
This is the Educated Toad, with his diploma, books and moarter board. He is hiding a bit back in the plant that is supposed to be behind him, but I think you can see him.
This is Pat's helper, the Gardener Toad. This lady toad is equipped to do all of the spading, etc. that is necessary but we still seem to end up doing most of that.
This guy is the Greeter Toad who greets our visitors. His station is just outside the front door on the porch. He is kind of brown which is good as he is not out in the rain where he gets washed off.
We will be leaving in about half an hour to go catch a shuttle bus and ride to Seattle's Safeco Field to watch the Seattle Mariner's baseball team loose (probably) to the Baltimore Orioles. I won four tickets to today's game along with four round trips on the shuttle bus in a radio contest! They are for the game today and, even though our team is not having a very good season, we are looking forward to the trip. The weather is supposed to be in the upper 70s this afternoon so it is just about perfect for sitting and watching a game. And I don't have to drive down, try to find parking, and pay for it! I will take the small camera but don't think I'll be able to get much in the way of photos as we will be sitting behind home plate but in the upper nose bleed section. More later.....
PS - Diane, the cats are all fine, still engaging in their Cat Wars.
Labels: Flowers, Photos, Toads, Trips to see things
