A Cloudy But Nice Day

We decided this morning to take a drive north on Hwy 101, the coastal road. We had several reasons for doing this, one - sightseeing, two - stop to talk to the people at the RV Service Center that is going to do the repair on our Dometic refrig., and third - we wanted to see Whalers Rest, the 1000 Trails park that we have scheduled for two weeks, over Memorial Day Weekend.

I'll start with # 3 first. We're so glad that we decided to check out Whalers Rest. It's not a really bad place if you don't want to set up your Datastorm or DirectTV dish. Also, in most all of the park we had no cell service. We did find about 4 sites that maybe and that's a BIG maybe, we could get signal for the internet/TV through the trees. There were several sites that also were very close together and I don't like that. After we left the park we began talking and now I believe, if it works out, that we will stay in Florence at S. Jetty until after Memorial Day. Our site here is perfect with a clear shot at the southern sky for the dish and great cell service. I'll let you know how it works out.

Next is reason # 2. We wanted to check this service center out before taking our 5'er there. The reason - we wanted to be assured that this was indeed a reputable center and also we needed an idea of how long it would take for the "fix" to be done. Everything here looked good and we do have an appointment. Of course, we will have to change it if we end up staying at South Jetty!

Now on to the priority reason - sightseeing. As you saw a few posts back, we did find a beach area just north of Florence. Up to that point, Hwy 101 was in the mountains/hills and we saw no Pacific Ocean. Well, I'll tell you that after leaving Florence and driving north just a few miles and around a couple more hills, bam, there was the ocean. From that point on up to Newport, Hwy 101 was a beautiful drive. Ocean, cliffs, towns and even two tsunami warning areas - yes, you read right, tsunami. I'd never seen a highway sign warning like that before. I was going to stop and take a picture of the sign on our way back, but the rain had set in and it was just to cold to get out in it.

On our way north we came to the Sea Lion Cave attraction. Of course, since I was driving, we stopped. Well, it was worth it to see the Sea Lions in their natural habitat. There must have been about 200 of these creatures lying on the rocks, below the lookout and several in the cave. To access the cave they have an elevator that takes you down 400 feet to the cave. I'm posting a couple of pictures of the Sea Lions - click on them to enlarge them. Unfortunately, the one in the cave is just a bit blurry but you can still make them out. In the cave picture the Sea Lion on the right was a male and that was his rock and no one got on unless he wanted them there, and oh yes, no other males were allowed, only females. There is a nominal charge for this attraction, but well worth the price.

This sign has some interesting information about the sea lions..

All the brown, tan, white spots are sea lions....

The big guy on the right - he the man! The little lady on top of the rock was hollering for attention.

Looking south down the coast from the Sea Lion Cave...

Heceta Head Lighthouse, just north of Florence....

Yaqina Head Lighthouse, just north of Newport....

Check back often as I don't know what else we will be doing while in this area. The weather report for the next 10 days isn't really great - cool temps in the low 60's, so that may determine what we do. Till next time.....