Christmas 2019 on the Oregon Coast

Susan dearly loved the Oregon coast and was especially entranced with the Yaquina Head lighthouse at Newport. This Christmas, it seemed appropriate to spend the week on the beaches and at the lighthouse park...sunny with lots of great wave action on the coast. I stayed at Schooner Landing for a week and then moved down to enjoy a couple of days at our favorite motel, The Elizabeth Oceanfront Suites. Schooner Landing was very nice and the weather was predicted to continue with clear and sunny for most of the upcoming week.

I set up the plywood Christmas tree we've traveled with for many years and plugged in the lights...voilá, a festive tree in the living room.

Also ran into Santa and his contingent riding motorcycles around Nye Beach (sunny on the Oregon coast during Christmas week...why not!)






A couple of months ago, while in the Nye Beach tú•tú•tú kitchenware cottage, I overheard another customer talking about naming her sourdough. I couldn’t resist starting a conversation with her and comparing some of our sourdough notes & history. She and her husband invited me to lunch at their new home while I was in Newport. She set out a marvelous appetizer spread and I enjoyed her excellent bread with several tasty treats. Cynthia and Vince were great to talk with and Vince drove me back to the timeshare since we’d chatted past sunset and I agreed with him, walking along Hwy 101 in the dark the ½ mile to the timeshare would not be wise (especially in flip-flops without reflective tape  ).

Here's four typical whale pictures that actually are just
Norman RockWhale ... a rock outcropping just at the
water surface.

The next several days I spent walking the Yaquina Head park grounds, enjoying Bald Eagles, Peregrine falcons, and lovely weather for the coast in late December. Although sunny, the surf was up and the waves crashing against the rocky shoreline were mesmerizing. While I was there, the yearly whale watch/count was taking place. It was interesting talking to the volunteers, a fellow named Thom showed me a rock out in the surf about a quarter of a mile north of the lighthouse. He said it was the most photographed rock on the Oregon coast...apparently, a very high percentage of people thought it was a whale when the surf rolled over it. He told me they called it Norm, short for Norman RockWhale. He followed that story by noting they tend not to use it much anymore while talking to the younger visitors anymore because of the high percentage that didn’t get the joke because they didn't recognize the name Norman Rockwell...very sad. You can see Norm in each of the collage photos...I circled him in one pic for those of us who are not visually detail oriented.

Some clouds started to gather in the evenings and I got to experience some stunning sunsets.

It amazed me how the colors could radically change in just a few minutes during the five to ten minutes of that magic sundown time on the coast.

It finally started to lightly rain as I made my move to the Elizabeth. As always the staff at check-in were great and one actually remembered the plywood Christmas tree as I carried it up to the room. More walks on the beach and a trip into old town Newport. Crab season was just about to start and the sidewalks were crowded with crab pots ready to go to work. Susan really loved boardwalks and the one along the waterfront here is really wonderful. As always, for meals in the area, I liked to have lunch at The Chowder Bowl or The Taphouse at Nye Creek occasionally. This year I thoroughly enjoyed a meatloaf lunch with a black & tan beer at Nana’s Irish Pub. Of course, there’s always salmon chowder and freshly baked cookies at the Elizabeth for those days when you just want to get into comfy pants and enjoy a light dinner in your room while watching for the green flash at the sunset. It was a great nine days in Newport, lots of high surf & sunshine. All the wave action produced bunches of foam on the beach which sparkled with color...almost surreal at times.

Big surf, lots of sunshine, and piles of colorful beach foam.

On New Year’s Eve, I checked out of the Elizabeth and drove South to Coos Bay/North Bend. Checked into the Quality Inn and headed to Shore Acres for the last night of the Holiday Lights. It rained pretty good for the entire time I spent wandering the beautifully lit gardens. The rain didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits and the last evening of the light show seemed pretty well attended. I placed one of Susan’s glass disks in an Azalea bush near the caretaker’s cottage.



The New Year's eve storm ramped up the surf several notches as you can see in the three sequential wave pics on the left.

This garden and Shore Acres to Cape Arago trails in general combined to be Susan's second favorite section of the coast. Since she always wanted to go to Shore Acres at Christmas for the Holiday Lights, so I thought it another perfect spot to leave a little bit of her essence.

Some night and day after pictures of the Shore Acres' Holiday Lights display 2019.

I came back the next day to take some comparison pictures in the daytime (for the collage above), walk one of our favorite trails to Cape Arago, and continue to enjoy the tremendous display of big waves crashing on the huge shoreline rocks. Actually got pretty wet with salt water spray from some of the awesome wave action. So, 2019 ended with a fabulous trip to the coast and 2020 started with a sunny morning at Shore Acres/Cape Arago and an afternoon Rose Bowl victory for the Ducks.

Thanks to the weather gods for providing exceptionally
good days during this last trip of 2019 !