Relaxing Day

Even though the day started out a little cloudy and cool, we decided to have a nice breakfast and then go somewhere to soothe the tension we have felt during the week. Josie made a pancake breakfast with bacon and juice and it did the trick to start out. There is a campground down the road, just before Depoe Bay, called Sea and Sand, that is right on the ocean and we wanted to check it out to see how it compared to ours. The sites aren't as large or quite as nice as our park, but they have sites that are, literally, right on the beach. We have the following shots of the beach sites:

The sites weren't cheap - $52 per night - but the beach was nice and it would be a great place to spend a week if you had some money. Most of the sites (about 130) are for smaller RV's of maybe 22' to 30', and were in the trees behind the ocean sites, but there were a few along the ocean that would accommodate rigs larger than 30'. The ocean was probably 15' below the top of the wall at the end of the park.

We went on down a little further into Depoe Bay and stopped at the Whale Center, which is a viewing station that is staffed by volunteers and allows visitors to view the Gray Whales migration from Baja California to the Bering Sea of Alaska every year. The peak time for this migration north is March - April at this location, so we just missed the best viewing times, although they said in the Center that there are stragglers and mother whales with pups that are stragglers and still can be seen. We didn't see any while we were there but talked at length with one of the volunteers and learned a lot about the whole process. The reverse migration in the winter begins around October. Depoe Bay is one of the prime locations to view them along the entire migration route, and there is actually a small group of these whales that stays in this area during the whole summer. Below are shots of the Center and the view from the Center:

The migration route is mainly through the area above that is between the barely visible buoy to the left of the Coast Guard ship and the ship which is sitting at the second buoy location. The idea is to spot a fountain of water that the whales release from their blow-holes when they surface for air. There are excursions that you can take that will go to the area itself and people can get very close to the whales.

Since we were in Depoe Bay, we stopped and picked up some salt water taffy and caramel corn that we haven't had for awhile. Tasty snacks! All in all, it was an enjoyable day and we came home and watched a couple movies on TV and had a nice roast for dinner that Josie put in crock pot before we left.

There are no plans yet for today and we can see that the park is filled completely. Later...