Letter 15: Newport to Cape Lookout, OR

Letter 15: Newport, OR to Cape Lookout, OR
From the Traveling Harrington’s.
Please email Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com with comments.

Saturday, June 14 we moved to South Beach State Park, just south of Newport. On the way we viewed

Heceta Head Lighthouse

and at Cape Perpetua we saw beautiful views of water spouts and

the Devil's Churn

and the coast.





Sunday June 15, Father’s Day, we went to Toledo Oregon to the Trinity United Methodist Church. This historic church (current multi-purpose building built in 1929) is the only Methodist Church in Lincoln County. Oregon Counties are generally larger than Texas counties. Their membership is small and no children were at this service. The pastor is Rev. Dr. Sharon Cram Tuck formerly from the Central Texas Conference (same as Waxahachie) until 3 years ago when she moved to Oregon where her grandparents once lived. And yes, she knew Jerry Galloway, our pastor at FUMC Waxahachie. Small world! In this church, as in several others, they sing happy birthday to appropriate members and this one didn’t say their name, but sang “Happy Birthday, God Bless you,” which fit in very well. When the Covenant class has several with birthdays this would be good to do.

Newport’s old town and harbor area was the afternoon lure. We browsed, Fred at the fish markets and fishing trips, Olivia all the tourist traps. The shops were interesting and well displayed. Of course they all had a nautical flare. The fishing trips were also inviting – the prices were in line with Texas coastal party boats. These boats are smaller and the catch variety much more rewarding. We just don’t have the freezer capacity to accommodate a nice catch, so charter fishing isn’t a good option for Fred.
After a short rest we walked to the beach, reading the informative signs along the nature trail. We ended up walking about 3 miles. It was all on hot topped walkways and we did get to see the beach. Several people were wind sailing and sail boarding in the surf. It was fun to watch and Olivia wished she was younger; it would have been right down her alley. Fred thinks the water is too cold (!), but would have loved to try it too. Father’s Day supper was in Newport at MO’s restaurant, which is famous (up and down the Oregon coast) for its clam chowder. Fred had halibut and Olivia shrimp which both came with chowder. It was fantastic. We brought home leftovers because the portions were so large. In 1979 Mo posted her 1950s era menu on the wall. It’s still there. We remember a few interesting meal prices … 90 cents for a spaghetti dinner, $1.50 for a rib eye steak dinner and $2.00 for the T-bone steak! Today dinner entrees are in the $10 to $15 range.
Mo's little joint on the waterfront is a small restaurant on the sidewalk. One morning a woman returne to her car parked outside the restaurant, put it in drive instead of reverse and crashed throught the front of the cafe. Mo, far from disgruntled, put her arm confortingly around the woman and said, "Well, we'll just put in a garage door so you can drive in anytime you want." To this day, the garage door on the front of the restaurant is raised on nice days and turns Mo's into an instant sidewalk cafe.

Monday, June 16, we moved to Beverly Beach State Park only 10 miles north of South Beach. This park is in the tall trees and


behind us is a small stream. The area looks like a jungle – lush with vegetation including huge skunk cabbage. This move was a mixed blessing. We like it here much better, but as has been the case so often, at this park we don’t have either cell service or internet service – no “air card” service or WiFi to borrow. We find availability of cell service to be spotty in these mountainous less populated regions and it is frustrating at times.

Some of the100 foot tall trees in this park are strange. They have lots of trunks leading from the ground up to one trunk. A park ranger says this happens because 70 years ago there was logging in the area. Loggers found it easier to cut the huge trees about eight feet from the ground where the tree was not as dense, thus leaving a forest of tree stumps. The stumps rots on top and a conifer seed (sometimes several) sprouts from the top of the stump. Everything grows here! And everything, at times, grows in strange ways. Over time the new tree prospers and evidently realizes it isn’t anchored to the ground and begins sending down new roots all around the trunk of the dead tree in search of soil. Over time the “host” trunk rots away leaving a large tree with what appears to be multiple trunks. It looks very strange.

We drove back into Newport where we made an appointment to have the oil changed and bought a halibut steak for supper. The lady at the fish counter gave us a recipe which we tried. Cut a pocket in the fish, stuff with a mixture of raspberry chipotle, shrimp, & mozzarella cheese, place in foil, then grill. Cook about 10 minutes. It was very good.

The Oregon coast is wonderful. At times, words or pictures aren’t available to describe the beauty. But the best part of our trip is meeting the people of America. It seems the greatest resource of our county is its people. The USA is a land of interesting people who are doing a variety of very interesting things. Fortunately, we meet some of these interesting people. Their stories are, at times captivating! Our Monday night neighbors (Michael & Annie Green) live about 35 miles from here and call Newport home. Michael is living a life most men would only dream of living. He fishes for a living so he cam have plenty of time to fish and hunt for fun. Mike is a fisherman for 60 days, then off 60 days. He fishes the same Alaskan waters as seen on the show “Deadliest Catch.” One of Fred’s favorite TV shows. Usually they must chip ice from the boat 3 times a day. During a fishing stretch their boat may catch (with nets) about 800,000 pounds of their targeted fish – mostly cod or whiting. Periodically they off-load at sea onto a processing ship. That ship cleans and freezes the fish in 40 pound boxes. From there it is transported around the world. Each of the crewmen on the fishing boat earns about $100,000/year. He related that many of the Alaskan fishing boats are headquartered in Seattle, but the second largest fleet in Alaska comes from Newport, Oregon. Newport is one the largest coastal cities in Oregon, with a population of about 12,000. The town is close to very good coastal fishing waters and its harbor on the Yaquina River is the largest in Oregon. Commercial fishing is a big industry for Newport. Alaskan fishing was the next logical step for some of the larger local boats.
Even though Mike’s ship targets a certain fish, they sometimes catch other fish. Crewmen all have personal Alaskan fishing licenses, so they can individually keep the most desirable “accidental” catches. This is the point where the “fish” story comes. Fred believes this one! Halibut grow to well over 200 pounds. Once Michael caught and filleted a very large halibut. There were no scales to weigh it. The fillets filled two clean and new garbage cams. There was enough meat to feed the 75 man crew of the processing ship two meals! Now it’s your turn to tell a fishing story.
I am reminded of Teenya (our daughter in Rockport, Texas) and her family by one of Michael’s sayings. He says his son practices catch and release when he fishes. Michael said he practices fillet and release. Teenya and her family constructed a lake on their Rockport property about five years ago. It is about 1/2 of an acre and about 20 feet deep in places. They stocked it with brim, catfish and black bass. They feed their fish pellets daily. They are almost like pets. Now they are catching 8 pound catfish and four pound bass. They release them all. Teenya, don’t invite Michael to fish!! I’m just kidding. Seriously, Michael lives off the land as much as he can. He hunts deer and elk, fishes for trout all in his back yard. He doesn’t hunt and fish just for the sport, but keep what he catches or kills for food. The only source of heat in his house is a wood burning stove. He splits his own wood.
He offered Fred the use of his crab traps and all the firewood we wanted. Olivia thinks back to the time when our good friends the Daniels and Clemmer’s crabbed on the Texas coast and after processing their catch, had les than a cup of meat for the nine of them. A note to the Daniels and Clemmers - forgive us if we have exaggerated this story. It was a lot of work for very little meat. She can’t get very enthused about catching and processing her own crab. Fred thinks these crab are meatier and would yield much more meat. But it was too complicated to for us since we have never done any step of the process. Even though it would have been quite an experience, we declined the invitation to go crabbing.

Tuesday, June 17, we walked on Beverly Beach.


Oregon is in the process of replacing fifty major bridges – mostly along the coast. The sea air, coastal storms and highly unstable soil takes its toll on bridges. Oregon DOT is replacing the Highway 101 bridge adjacent to our campground and we walked through the construction to get to the beach. The sun was out, the water blue with white waves breaking. We saw a good many sand crabs and some dead crabs washing up with the tide.
After noon, we had the oil changed and tires rotated, and then went to Georgie’s for a very late lunch of Clam Chowder. Afterward, we went to the harbor to see these Newport based Alaskan fishing ships and also bought some clam chowder base from MO’s. We had eaten there Sunday night. Olivia liked MO’s better, Fred preferred Georgie’s. He says it has more of a clam flavor. MO’s sells to grocery stores all over the USA, so look for it in your local store. They will also ship anywhere. Go To http://www.moschowder.com/ if you are interested. The story of this restaurant is very interesting.

After all that we returned to the Tidal Pools at Yaquina Head. This time we arrived just before low tide and walked the steps and the rocks to see these fascinating pools that do not drain totally.

We saw star fish, anomalies, sea urchins, barnacles, muscles and crabs.

It was so neat to see families looking at the natural aquariums. We were surprised at the beauty in a small amount of water. It was well worth traversing the cobbled beach and the 108 steps up back to the car.
We continue to be blessed with excellent weather. High temperatures remain in the fifties with overnight low in the mid 40s. Today is another cloudless day. No rain in sight for us. The wind is not strong, except at the shore. Even at the shore it is only about 15-20 mph. Life is good!

Wednesday, June 18, shortly after rising Michael knocked on our door with two packages of frozen fish fillets, Red Rock and Tuna and a whole lot of firewood. They went home yesterday to take care of chores and left their trailer here. A friend called and said the trout were biting inland so he was taking off to catch trout. He is a very generous, kind man with lots of good stories. We wish them the best and hope to hear from them again. They are certainly welcome anytime in Texas.

We had been told to drive HWY 101 for the 20 miles north of here and stop at every pull out. So we took off to see what was in store.


We decided to go on to the north end of our drive and come back to stop. The first one was to Fogerty’s Creek North, which gave us access to the beach. We had been told this was a good place to find Agates. By the time we figured out where to find them it was time to go.

Depoe Bay and the Whale Watching Center was our next stop with films about the whales and binoculars to see if we could find any. Too bad there were no sightings today or yesterday. The story behind the name for Depoe is an interesting one. During the 1800s an American Indian worked at a US Army depot. As partial compensation he was given the land around Depoe bay in 1894. He decided to take “Depot” as his American name. Somewhere along the spelling became phonetic.

Boiler Bay, Rocky Creek and the Otter Crest Loop were also on the agenda with all offering magnificent views of the Pacific. It was a clear day, blue skies and blue water. We actually took off our hoods and sweatshirts about 2 o’clock. Beautiful!

At Cape Foulweather we saw people surfing and waiting for just the right wave. We tasted wine at the Flying Dutchman’s’ winery.

Otter Rock and
the Devil’s punchbowl stop brought a nice surprise when a man was being an accidental docent about a boat anchored about a half mile offshore in 30 feet deep water and near the left end of Otter Rock. Look real hard for a white speck to the left of the rock. We were able get in on the conversation so we could ask questions and listen to his story. He dove for urchins for 15 years and is now retired from commercial diving. Two divers, with air hose, were working from this boat. They were harvesting Red Sea Urchins, the funny little animal with no apparent eyes, legs or fins. The man tells that sea urchin have very few natural enemies except the otter. What little sea otter population ever existed in this area was eradicated by Russian fur hunters. So the urchins have prospered in the area. Historically, very little interest on the west coast has been given these balls of sea life. Then, Japan began to prosper after WWII and they love eating sea life. Well the Japanese expressed interest in buying, at a very attractive price, the meat of the Red Sea Urchin. So now a small industry is in operation along the west coast – harvesting urchins mainly for the Japanese. The meat is sold to a Japanese fish broker, who then arranges the raw meat in “trays” for auction at a Japanese fish market. A tray may contain two ounces of meat and sell from $20-$50. I understand urchin sushi is one of the most popular flavors. It kind of makes your mouth water, doesn’t it? Well, maybe not!
Each west coast state has a different way of regulating this harvest. All regulate the size of the urchins harvested and the number of urchin fishing permits. Washington state issues limited licenses to certain boats, which then hire divers and processing hands. Oregon seems to have the better approach. They license a limited number of divers who then sell their services to boat captains. This way the greater amount of money goes to the divers who are at greater risk. Though it isn’t risky, one scary fact he related is that seals are very playful and on a number of occasions they would put his head in their mouth and the gentle clamp down, then release and swim away! They just want to play! Only after feeling the pressure on his head would he realize a seal was even in the area – the ocean is their world. I’m sorry I didn’t learn his name, but if you should have a yen (pun intended) for Red Sea Urchin sushi, call the Graces Sea Hag Restaurant in Depoe Bay, Oregon and ask for the owner. He can tell you where to get it.

Thursday, June 19, Happy Juneteenth and Happy Anniversary to the Daniels. Also Happy Anniversary to The Fenton’s, Hartgraves, Strops and Garrets. All of you have anniversaries in this end of June. Ours of course is the 22nd, and this year it is 45 years. Whoopee! We will celebrate by picking up Blaire (our 16 year old granddaughter) at the airport Sunday night. We are excited to have her joining us.

We started today at the washateria, then hit a few stores before heading back to rearrange the trailer for Blaire to be with us. We met Renee and Jack at Depoe Bay Whale watching center and we all saw a gray WHALE! They gave us a sticker! IT says “Thar She Blows and I saw one.” It was exciting to hear the reactions each time someone first saw the whale.

After that excitement we all walked on the beach at Fogerty Creek and picked up agates. This time we think we found some good ones. Fred thinks Olivia needs a rock tumbler/polisher for Christmas, or Garage Salers keep your eyes out for a good used one. We will need to stop at a rock shop to see what is involved.

We ate at the Spouting Horn and had Marion berry pie with ice cream. YUM!

Friday, June 20 we hooked up and left the beautiful Beverly Beach State Park and drove to Cape Lookout State Park. We tried last week to get reservations, but were told it was full. We were fortunate to “show up” and get a spot for 4 nights, so we now have a place to come back to after picking up Blaire in Portland Sunday night. This park is not as pretty as Beverly, but we are closer, if you can get closer, to the beach. We do have some (weak) internet service. Today is cloudy, so we can’t see the capes and hills. We are in the clearing between the trees and the beach. Our neighbors are from Alberta and have already started showing us where to go in Canada.

Olivia was excited to have contact today with a man in Chester PA about Teen Courts. She was contacted because the Duncanville Teen Court gives teens more of a leadership roll in decision making than a lot of Teen Courts do. She had answered a query from Judy in New York just before she retired. He called today and they talked for about 20 minutes. He has applied for a 3 year grant to fund a court and is a finalist and needed some more info. He has grandiose plans to form a 501c3 organization and eventually have some of the teens who graduate to run the program. He was concerned about how serious teens would take to responsibility. His area has the highest crime rate and 80% African American but he also had some contact with the teens and they were excited and are working toward the formation. It was nice to still feel a contact with TC’s.

The park had a story telling program in the amphitheater and a local story teller told four stories of the local folklore.

Love to all,
Fred & Olivia