PLUNKED DOWN IN PARADISE

Unlike most Elks Lodges we visit, where the RV sites are in the parking lot (gravel, dirt, or asphalt) behind or beside the lodge, the sites for RV's in Lincoln City are several miles from the lodge. The Elks here own Wapiti Park, a HUGE, GREEN park with river frontage where they gather for various events in the summer - and that is where they have put 40 RV sites with electric and water.

The sites are spacious, right in the middle of the park. We have a great view: a foreground of mown lawn, a wide fringe of tall, tassled grasses, then a high, heavily forested ridge that protects the park from the fog bank that hovered over the beach yesterday and the winds fiercely blowing today. This spot is a jewel.

Lincoln City is about 25 miles north of Newport, which we decided to explore today. It turned out not to the best idea because of the wind, but we weren't detered from our main mission, which was to check out a couple of the public areas that use volunteers - just in case we want to do some volunteer work along this stretch of coastline sometime.

Standing at the entrance to Yaquina Bay in Newport, this is the view to the south. When I turned to the west, we faced the long jetties that protect the entrance to the bay (bottom photo). Looks like a wonderful spot for a walk on the beach, huh?

This is the general area where the first recorded landfall from a ship was made, at noon on March 7th, 1778 by Capt. James Cook. The weather was so harsh he named it Cape Foul Weather, very apt for today as well.

What you can't see in the photo is the stinging sand blasts that scoured the beach and finally drove us back to the higher bluffs (windy, but sand-free). Still, with record-breaking heat gripping just about all of the west, including parts of Oregon, we aren't complaining (much)!