Catching up

I don't know where the week has gone! I can't believe it's already Saturday night and we are leaving in the morning for our next destination. It's been as usual, a busy time.
Tuesday or maybe Wednesday(I've lost track) we rode our bikes on the trail into Newport. It's a nice bike path, paved, and only about a mile or so long. Once in town, however, it kind of peters out. We rode an additional half mile or so along the estuary by the Hatfield Marine Science Center and the aquarium, but that was about all we could do, unless we wanted to get on Hwy 101 and go over the bridge into the main part of Newport, which we didn't. Big bridge, no bike lanes. You'd have to walk the bikes on the pedestrian lane. Instead, we pulled in at the Rogue Brewery and had lunch. We had a table next to the window this time, and got to look out at the boats coming and going in the marina, which was fun. Steve had a glass of Shakespeare Stout with his meal, which wasn't nearly as good as the Dead Guy Ale. Wednesday (or possibly Thursday) we hung around camp most of the day. Steve amused himself luring the local wildlife with granola and whole grain tortilla chips and trying to photograph them. This is a spotted squirrel, very fat, and obviously very accustomed to people. He let Steve get within about five feet of him. The crows, which may be the unoffical bird of the Oregon coast, were not as brave, but they were fun to watch from the dinette window. They would fly in with their beaks full of stale bread, raided from unsecured garbage, drop the bread into Ellie's water dish to soften up, then pick out the little squishy globs and eat them. Thursday (I think) we went geocaching. Geocaching is a treasure hunt; shortly after handheld GPS units became available to the general public, someone walked into the woods, hid something there, noted the GPS coordinates, and challenged some friends to find it, using the coordinates. It's become an international game, with literally thousands of caches hidden all over the world. Cache containers can vary in size from very small (a film canister, e.g.) to "regular"--an ammo can. At a minimum, the cache contains a log to sign, and can contain little goodies to trade--coins, small toys, etc. It's especially fun to do with kids. Steve and I have actually hidden three caches in Utah. If you want to give it a try, go to www.geocaching.com to get locations of caches near you. This particular cache was right here in the state park. An easy walk to the beach, but a bit tricky to find. We knew from the hints that it was under the boardwalk, but couldn't find it at first. Turns out it was very cleverly hidden inside a hollowed out chunk of weathered wood that exactly matched the wooden beam it was velcroed to!

Friday (yesterday) was the 4th of July. Kids and a few grownups decorated their bicycles and scooters with balloons, crepe paper, spangles, and bunting provided by the state park at the Activity Yurt, and, at 11 a.m. paraded through all the camping loops, led by the Junior Ranger mascot, J.R. Beaver. Lots of fun--must have been 50-75 bikes. The parade was followed by a barbeque, hosted by the rangers and camp hosts, with free hot dogs, chips, and drinks. When it started to get dark, we walked down to the jetty to view fireworks. Very fun. Today we drove over the bridge to "historic bayfront," the old area of town right on Yaquinna Bay, where the official port of Newport is located and the marina where the working boats dock. It's a fun, touristy area that's a mixture of upscale and tacky--Ripley's Believe It or Not and The Living Wax Museum right next door to expresso bars and upscale galleries. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the pier, with a great view of people crabbing--very entertaining. Afterwards, we walked out on the pier for a closer look. We watched folks tie chunks of fish onto the crab rings, toss them over the railing into the water, wait a while and haul them up to see if they'd caught anything. A crab ring is a collapse-able wire mesh basket with a long rope tied to the top. When you throw it into the water, it opens out flat when it hits the bottom. Crabs crawl onto it to eat the fish. When you haul it up with the rope, hand over hand, the sides come up, forming a basket, so the crab can't escape. If he's big enough, you keep him. Otherwise, you throw him back and try again. Easy and fun, and very popular. There were actually deep grooves worn into the rails on the pier from years of ropes.