Unfortunately, we didn’t see any Northern Lights last night. But, according to posts online, it sounds like no-one else in Oregon saw anything either. We took a picture with long exposure just to check and this is what we got.
We were less than half a mile into our journey today when we encountered the Christmas Cottage — a bright pink house-like structure that sold every conceivable ornament. You could find any dog, bird, occupation, musical instrument, or even dinosaur. The shop owner was a spunky lady. At 9:30 am she saw Alissa looking disappointed at the 10 am opening time. She opened the door and said, “Come on in!” Alissa asked, “Are you sure? You don’t open for awhile.” She replied, “It’s my store. I can let anyone in whenever I want!” So, we went in and found the perfect addition for this year’s tree.
In another 50 feet, we saw Perk 101 so we popped in and Glen ordered a caramel cuddle and a marionberry banana bread muffin. Having made these two important stops, we were ready for the next few miles.
Today’s trip rivaled our days in Big Sur from the Southern Half ™: one gorgeous vista after another.
We spent the majority of today right along the coast. Alissa needs to break her habit of stopping at every viewpoint or else we’ll never make it home. Here is just a tiny sample of our favorites.
We made a brief stop in Depoe Bay to browse the touristy shops and found another ornament, this one for our lawn.
While we were there, a local offered a pro tip: take the turn onto Old Hwy 101 to stay closer to the coast than the new 101. It turned out to be one-way with a bike lane and only 2 vehicles passed us.
We arrived in Newport very quickly because of the strong winds behind us (yay for switching directions a couple weeks ago!). So, we decided to visit the lighthouse.
We lunched at the Chowder Bowl, which turned out to be about 50 feet from where we were staying for the night. It was too windy for a walk on the beach, so we headed over to the historic waterfront area for dinner and some window shopping.
