Wednesday, August 9, 2017

8/8/2017 - South Shore Grays Harbor

Monday - The morning mist made for a pretty campground.  I walked around a little, and down to the river.  It was a chilly 56 degrees (had the furnace on last night).



We had breakfast in Hoquiam (or Aberdeen, which is only 4 miles apart) at Duffy's, a little pricey but good.  On the wall, they had a clam digger, which we hadn't seen before.  It's kind of like a post-hole digger except you squeeze it together, quickly, instead of pulling it apart (we think). 
From there, we began today's adventure by driving to Grays Harbor's South Beach.  Our first stop was at the harbor town of Westport.  There was a Maritime Museum here, which was housed in a historic coast guard station, but it was closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays so we didn't get to tour it.
So we drove on to the harbor, which had lots of boats, all different kinds, and a few were moving out into the water.


We walked up to the observation platform and watched the activity for quite a while, lots of birds, fishing boats going out, a fisherman on the rocks, and finally we spotted a couple harbor seals and 3-4 dolphins.



There was a memorial of some kind at the end of the parking lot.  Very nicely landscaped, it had plaques all around it but we didn't stop to read them.
We drove over to another observation tower on Westport's Lighthouse Trail System, walking past some "art work" on the rocks.

 We could see North Beach, where we drove last night, through the sea mist, barely.

 We named this outcropping of rocks "bird city."
We headed out from here, seeing lots of fishing gear in the yards, including these crab pots.  Across the road from these was a whole backyard full of nets but they were behind a wooden fence.
Our next stop was the Cranberry Road Winery that I had read about in one of my many, many brochures.  South Beach is also known as the Cranberry Coast, boasting more than 1,000 acres of cranberry bogs. They had nice landscaping, including this hollowed-out log that Joe really liked.



 The Cranberry Road Winery, also a restaurant, sports a hand-finished native redwood bar and a granite slab counter, in addition to tables that are huge slabs of Douglas fir from nearby Tokeland.  Joe was impressed with the "legs" on the tables -- jack stands.  He forgot to see how they attached them.



They had a small case with their signature fruit wines -- cranberry, cranberry-cinnamon and sparkling cranberry -- which we passed on ($25/bottle) and weren't ready for lunch so we left, but were quite impressed with the beautiful wood furnishings. 

We drove down to the beach a couple of times, but with the sea mist hiding the sun, we weren't brave enough to get wet.
 The Buick on the Beach
Our next mission was to find some of the cranberry bogs, so we turned down "cranberry road" and sure enough, there they were.  Very interesting, one field was terraced but the one across the road was not.  We found out later that the terraced one is one of the few bogs that they flood with water.







We passed a wagon with very wide tires that we assume is used in the cranberry fields.
 Don't know what this piece of equipment is.
 We've seen variations of this old lumberjack or fisherman several times, finally got a photo.
As we continued along, we came upon a cranberry museum and we definitely wanted to learn more about this so we stopped.  Ocean Spray is a coop made up of the farmers (growers) who grow for them.  We saw some sheds stating "Ocean Spray grower."  At the museum, our "hostess" explained that to us, she took us through the process with very old equipment, and just old equipment.  In December, the growers get a check from Ocean Spray for their share of the profits.

 The building is an old Ocean Spray processing plant.



Along the far wall of the museum, they had items from other parts of the history here -- the logging industry (lots of photos), the fishing industry, WWI and WWII.  She identified 3 things from fisherman that we weren't sure about:

Crab pot
Oyster farm
 Gill net
Then we watched a homemade film, and were served Craisins (instead of popcorn).  From Ocean Spray, of course.

We finally continued on, driving the rest of South Beach and finishing the 49-mile loop drive.  We drove through Cosmopolis, a small town with a large Cosmo plant (don't know what they make) and a huge lumber company.



There were lots of metal sculptures around this town, deer, etc.  I got a photo of the bison as we left town, the one I took of the deer sculptures didn't show up very well.

Back through Aberdeen and Hoquiam, we grabbed lunch/dinner at McDonalds and headed back to the campground.  I spent some time watching the river go by, but didn't see any wildlife.  The sun had finally come through and it was lovely down here.
We rounded up the Brundiges and finished our card game from the other night, then they went home for dinner and I went back to the river.  I decided to walk down to the other deck, and as I passed the last row of campers I came upon a small herd of deer!!!  I started to go back and get Joe (I forgot my phone), then turned around to take a picture in case they disappeared before I got back.  Collins and Marilyn were coming back over to play cards again, so Marilyn, Joe and I all walked back down and the deer were still here, in fact there were 8 of them!  3 or 4 fawns, 1 buck, and 3 or 4 does.  We got to watch them for several minutes before they wandered back into the woods.



This was a very pleasant surprise, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them. 

Tomorrow we move on, a little further south, alongside the Columbia River.  We hope to be able to watch ships coming in from the Pacific and heading upriver.



Monday, August 7, 2017

8/7/2017 - Driving to Hoquiam

Monday - On the road again, we made our short jaunt down to Hoquiam, 101 miles.  Joe and I ran into Forks before we left, and I showed him where we picked the blackberries yesterday.  We were on the road about 9:45, and arrived at our very nice campground about 12:30.  Our drive through the Olympic National Forest was pretty -- sure are lots of trees up here. And the forests are very thick with vegetation.

The marine mist was with us off and on, making some pretty sights.

We stopped at one pull-off for a beach view, but it was a pretty steep cliff to get down to the water so we didn't even attempt that.  There was some neat driftwood down there, though.



Marilyn was back at her obsession with blackberries, there happened to be some right here where we parked.  Joe joined in this time.


Back on the road, we left the coastline shortly thereafter and headed on to Hoquaim.  Our campground is right on the Hoquiam River in Grays Harbor, very well maintained with nice access to the river and a deck to sit on and watch the river go by.  They have even hung hanging flowers on the trees by the deck and there are flowers on all the picnic tables.  The park hostess said they see river otter, seals and deer, so I'm on the lookout!



We decided on pizza for dinner so we drove over to Ocean Shores on North Beach (I saw an ad for pizza here in a brochure).  The pizza wasn't great but the drive was nice. As we turned the corner, there was a parking lot with lots of wooden sculptures on it.  We didn't stop so I just got part of a photo.

Across the street from the pizza place was Sharky's, a souvenir shop I should have gone in (I thought it was a seafood restaurant at the time).


 After we ate, we drove on down to the point.  We probably saw 20-25 deer, in the median and in front yards.  We saw several does with fawns, including one fawn nursing -- none of us had seen that before.
We drove to the end, and down to the beach but it was too cold to get out and enjoy, especially with the sea mist covering up any sunshine.  There was only one person on the beach, so we weren't the only one thinking it was a little chilly.

Before we left town and because we missed a turn, we found the icon of Ocean Shores, a driftwood seahorse sculpture.  We saw a smaller version and a driftwood horse in the front yard on our drive to the point, but this is the official one, in front of the Convention Center.

We got back to the campground about 7:30, no cards tonight, so I walked down to the river, no wildlife except a bird, so then I walked over to a very inviting campfire.  It felt mighty good! 

I spotted a strange-looking boat over in one of the rows of campers, so I walked around there to get a better look.  I'm still not sure how it works, or if there were multiple ones on this trailer, but apparently it is something you pedal in the water.  It was called a "seacycle."


 






This is what I found about it on-line.

Image result for sea cycle

"Yes, you really can Bike on Water! It doesn't matter if you call it H20, water or hydro, you too can enjoy an aquatic bicycle ride on any water body in comfort!  Is it a bicycle on water? affordable fishing boat? a comfortable pedal kayak? fun family exercise or a unique water toy?  You decide because we think it is all of the above! 100% human powered biking on water is a way to enjoy boating without gas motors. Our products are designed & built in the USA!"  

Guess I need to see it in action, maybe they will put it out here on the river tomorrow. 

Collins did get some good news today.  After he contacted Winnebago in Iowa and was told he couldn't get an appointment there until November, they told him they had a service center in Eugene, Oregon.  So he contacted them and has an appointment for Aug. 21 (no one wanted appointments on that day because of the eclipse).  So in addition to fixing his plumbing problem, he gave them a laundry list of items he wants them to fix or check, so that was a big relief to himHe will have to shorten his visit in Portland, but Eugene is on his way so that should all work.

We are probably going to have to turn the furnace on tonight.

   

Sunday, August 6, 2017

8/6/2017 - Last Day in Forks

Sunday - Forks, Washington, while a very small town just outside the Olympic National Forest, is famous for the Twilight book series.  "Forks, Washington is the location Stephenie Meyer chose as the primary setting for her Twilight series. It is a small town with a small population, located in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington and is one of the rainiest locations in the United States."  Not being a fan of that genre, I was not aware of that but there are signs in town, as well as a gift store specializing in Twilight stuff.

Joe and Collins went back to working on Collins' plumbing problem, several trips to the hardware store, so Marilyn and I had some free time.  We drove into town but didn't find much open (True Value Hardware and the Twilight store).  We browsed both of them, and as we drove behind them, Marilyn spotted blackberries!


She has been itching to get her hands on some fresh blackberries, and she and Joe have had a hard time driving past any ripe berries.  She even dragged me into it.
It was cool again this morning, with the marine mist.  Marilyn had dressed appropriately in jeans, but since I just had shorts on, I got by with just picking the fringes.  But then, we came home and she made PIES!!!  And we got to eat some for diner.
The guys worked until about 4:00 on Collins' sink, finally admitting defeat after their new parts kept breaking.  They ended up capping off the sink drain and Marilyn will have to use plastic tubs in her sink to wash dishes.  Collins is ready to head to Iowa (Winnebago) as soon as they leave the Portland area.  After they quit working, he had tons of tools and stuff to put away, but FINALLY, we all got to settle down and rest, and enjoy the weather. 
Then Joe decided to go in and get cleaned up, take a shower, so I decided to get the laundry caught up again since he had gone through several t-shirts while working over at the Brundiges.  I finished the laundry just in time for dinner at the Brundiges (and the pie!).  Then we called it a night, everyone was tired. 

We didn't get to do everything here that was available -- we didn't really explore the Olympic National Forest, and we didn't go over to La Push, which is along the coast just southwest of Forks, or the Hoh Rain Forest, or Hurricane Ridge or Marymere Falls, but it's time to move on.  Our next stop is Grays Harbor, we are staying in Hoquiam, so we will see what that area has to offer.