Crabbing for Dungeness

 Went crabbin with my friend and rv resort general manager off this pier close to Florence, Or

 Here is the crab trap being prepared.  There is a chicken leg-n-thigh AND the "secret" bait (a can of cheap tuna cat food) all speared through with a stiff piece of metal wire and woven through the traps webbing.
This trap is lowered into the bay and because it lays flat the crabs just crawl over to the bait.  As you pull up the trap the larger outer ring comes up first so the crabs stay towards the lower center.

 Then in about 15 minutes you haul up on your tether to retrieve your catch.  As you can see from the railing top this is a favorite place for crabbers to go.  Now I've got to tell you that if you don't attach your bait through the traps webbing it will float away when you are lowering your trap into the water.  Oops.

 Here is another type of crab trap.  Our next door neighbor had to throw all these back as they were too small.

 Here is one of my hauls.  You can see the chicken leg-n-thigh in the center with some crab surrounding it.

 At the end of the day you come home to a crab boil.  Good Eatin!

Terrific sunset.  The perfect end to a perfect day.  Good Livin!

Tide Pools on the Oregon coast

 I went tide pooling the other day.  Walked around for quite awhile wondering where the starfish were.

 Found them

 Then they were everywhere. 

 Because of the big tsunami that hit Japan they want people who find suspected Japanese debris to contact authorities.  I like the sign warning about not trying to pet the wild sea lions.

I found this cool float.  So I brought it home.  It's about 10-1/2" across.  It has barnacles growing on one side so it must have been in the water for some time.

I call this an Oregon flower garden  

Devils Churn

 At the top of a switch-back walkway that takes you down the cliff side is this informative sign.  The Devils Churn is approx 3 miles North of us off of Hwy 101    The ocean is very loud, very big and very powerful.

 A few minutes after I took this picture a huge surge came in, shot all kinds of water straight up in the air and almost took the guy in the brown coat.  He thought it would be ok if he looked over the edge at the time too.  He got a big surprise!  Oh man, he was lucky.

 This lady is waiting for the "perfect" wave that will hit the rock ledge in front of her.  I'm thinking that I like the place where I was standing much better.

 Standing there you could feel the rock getting pounded by the ocean.

Towards the top of the walkway from the Devils Churn I saw this.  Do you think there is a lot of wind at times?  Why, yes there is.  Sometimes 70-80 mph.

Working today.  Welcome to the Sea Perch RV Resort
95480 Hwy 101, Yachats, Or 97498  This place has $1,000,000 views  If you don't have an RV, 5th wheel or trailer you can stay at one of their fabulous villas.

 We visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium located in Newport, Oregon.  One of the exibits features these walk through tubes called Passages of the Deep where the fish swim all around you.  They have a web cam too.  http://aquarium.org/visit/aquari-cam

 These are Pacific Sea Nettle.  They "say" they do not present a danger to humans.  Hypnotizing.

 Here are Moon Jellyfish.  This species may be 500 million years old.  At 10 to 16" in diameter humans can get a mild rash if stung.  Very very pretty to watch.

 Sea Otters are very cute and cuddly.  About as big as a large dog.  The day we were there we saw warning signs not to tap on the glass as their hormones were at an elevated level.  Apparently they could become aggressive to other otters and handlers.  This one spent the whole time being super cute.  We wanted to pet him real bad.  But then we remembered the warning signs.  *Sigh*

 Just Southern edge of Newport, Oregon is this fish store and restaurant.  We stopped for lunch after the aquarium.  Not in the picture there is a sort of hut with these huge steaming cauldrons and a big sign reading Eat Crab Here.

They also ship out their sea food if you want.  Little cans of Albacore (kinda like a tuna can) 

sold for $12.50 each or $300 for a case.  

 Here we are at the entrance of The Sea Lion Caves.  Formation of the cavern started around 25 million years ago.  It's the largest sea cave in the America's.  It's only about 8 miles from us.  

 There were over 100 sea lions the day we were here.  It was extremely loud as it seemed that every sea lion had something to say.  The cavern is 12 stories big and stretches the length of a football field.

After a 120ft elevator ride down to the cavern I climbed some stairs to this opening in the Northern part of the cavern.  This is a look Northwards.  Heceta Head lighthouse can be seen in the distance

Cathy is standing by a lifesize sculpture of the Steller Sea Lions we saw in the cave.  If you are in this area come and visit here.  It was better that I thought it was going to be.

 We bought these super spy binoculars to look far out in the ocean.  But then had to get a tripod adapter as your hands wiggle too much.  It is said that you can see whales spouting.  Still looking.

 Very powerful waves coming ashore today.  Very fun to watch.

As Charlie Brown would say.... Good Grief!     See the little guy on the sign?  Lookit, Lookit, Lookit... he's trying to outrun a Tsunami.  Did you know the government has a tsunami warning web site?  Check out:  http://ptwc.weather.gov/?region=1

 Fishing for Salmon off the rocks at the mouth of the Yachats River as it empties into the Pacific Ocean.  The fishing was good.  The catching not so.

 We go through this tunnel on the way South on Hwy 101 on our way to Florence, Oregon.

 These arched bridges are common where we are.  This one is about a half-mile from Sea Perch RV Resort.

Another nice one!  

 Absolutely spectacular sundowns on the Oregon coast.  Every Night!  This was taken out of the window on our coach.

 JELLYFISH!  This one measures around 4 inches across.  They seem to wash up on shore every day.

 I drove down a side road off of Hwy 101 North of Coos Bay on a Harley ride to take this picture.  It's a draw bridge and are fun to drive across.  I've noticed there are several draw bridges up and down the Oregon coast.

 We drove about 20 miles South on Hwy 101 to Florence to eat at ICM Restaurant that features "All you can eat Crab".   Check out:   http://www.icmrestaurant.com/     We enjoyed a sunny day on their outside deck and pigged out on clams, muscles, a giant crab cocktail and this crab filled bread thingy.  They get $65 each for all you can eat crab.

 Views from the ICM restaurant's rear deck.

Another view from the deck but this Seagull has only one leg, was very healthy and could care less that I was within 5 feet of him.

The Amazing Oregon Coast

 This is where we will be living for a few months now.  This view is right off of the back of the pad where the coach is parked.  The nice grassy area also has a horseshoe pit, big fire ring and a plastic hydrant (for dogs).

 Not too far south from us is this magnificent view of the coastline.

 We pulled off of hwy 101 and took this little road down to the beach.  We thought our doxie Chloe was getting car sick (not!).  But instead we got treated to this awesome view.  Wow.

We daily take a walk on the beach.  Today we ran across a couple of sections of beach with these roundy formations.  There is nothing inside but sand as well.

 The size of this fungus is approx the diameter of a baseball.  It's the first time I saw this type and they were just emerging from the soil.

 Sandy Ridge trail is a nationally known mountain bike trail.  The weekend of August 9th was the site of a race with as much as 250 to 300 riders.  It attracted professional riders.  You can see some of the vendor tents here.  Some of the bikes here are worth $5000 to $6000.

 Here's the finish line.  Although out of the frame the time keepers were just behind the tree on the left hand side.

Although we are leaving Wildwood Recreation for the Oregon coast we must not forget that it IS a Black Bear and Mountain Lion Habitat!  Cool!