Coasting Along

As we explored the town of Waldport, we came across a "Cruizin for Crab" event held there.  We had all day, so we decided to stop a while and cruise through the lot near the bay.

 Most of you are too young too young to remember when car doors opened like this.  The car below is a 1947 Mercury Sedan, beautifully restored. 

 What also caught our eye was the 1957 Chevy convertible with matching trailer.  Can you imagine the looks you would get when you drove this down the highway?

After the car show, we got back on Hwy 101 and traveled south, stopping at Smelt Sand Beach.  In the parking lot was a warning sign for the locals and visitors.

 We headed for the ocean, just steps away, and found this memorial to Jack and Conner, two young, strong men who had drowned here in Feb. 2011.   A nearly waist high sneaker wave caught them by surprise, giving them no chance to climb to safety.  Their friends would also have drowned if they had tried to help.  After reading this, the sign in the parking lot took on a whole different light.

As the four of us looked out on the ocean and the jagged rocks, it was easy to understand how something like that could have happened.  This stretch of the coast is a great place for taking pictures.  The black rocks along the shore and their interaction with the waves make for some really awesome pictures. 

 As usual, I came back with hundreds of pictures, and managed to discard over 200 of them.  The Nikon allows me to capture shots like the one below, with the wave seeming to explode upon impact.

Around lunch time we stopped in the small town of Yachats (pronounced Yah-hots).  At least that is what the lady at the visitor center told us.  We all were pronouncing it many different ways.  The town has gone through 11 name changes, most of them variations of the current one.

Of course, we window shopped, then went down a side street to go through The Little Log House by the Sea.  The small church was built in 1930 and served by Evangelical pastors and Presbyterian ministers for many years.  In 1970 it became a museum and is still used for weddings and local events.

As we headed back to the campground, we stopped at the Port of Alsea, which is located in Waldport.  There were a lot of fisherman out in their boats and along the shoreline that day.  The weather was beautiful, and it must have been good fishing. 

As we walked on the dock, we talked to one family that had caught a crab right off the dock.  Sure enough, there he was, not too happy being in the cooler.  I asked the little boy if he had named him, and he replied that his name was Bob.  The father piped in and said his name was going to be "Snack"!