My Passport’s Travels

Yup, the ocean’s still there!!

We grabbed a lovely breakfast at the hotel – biscuits and gravy, sausage, eggs and, for Bekah, Fruit Loops!

And we’re off, heading down the Coastal Highway 101 – no plans, just stopping when the mood hits. First stop, Perk 101, a local coffee house. The coffee was amazing – I had a latte with Huckleberry syrup and we got a banana bread to go after the owner told us it was his grandmother’s recipe. Bekah got to try the fudge, which was his wife’s great-uncle’s recipe. Yummy!!

Next door was a small strip shopping center. We started at the Christmas Store and made our way down to the rock store. We also peeked in at the Mercantile, but it was really just a coffee shop and since we had coffee in hand already we decided not to stop.

A little further down the road, we stopped at a glass blower’s studio. So many beautiful things – it was hard work to resist the chance to blow my own glass bauble!

A little further down the road, we took the first of many scenic turnouts. This one ended up with a view across the bay of Mo’s, where we had dinner last night. It was amazing how far out the tide had gone.

We stopped at an antique store and a used bookstore, where Bekah picked up a couple of books and we both found things that we want to read. A little further down the road, we found an outdoor market in the parking lot of a golf resort’s shopping center. While the options there weren’t much the shopping center was great! We started at DePoe Bakery, where we split an amazing Marionberry bear claw and a meh Eclair. We wandered through the adventure-wear store (camping/hiking clothing) before landing at Beachcrest Brewing Company for “real food”. We shared the Burrata with tomato and the pretzel with beer cheese sauce and honey mustard. We did not share our beer flights!

After our wonderful lunch, we grabbed ice coffees before wandering through another couple of shops. Then it was time to hit the road again! The next turnout had a huge field up on a cliff overlooking crashing waves.

A little further down the road was the town of DePoe Bay. We stopped at a little park in town to enjoy the ocean views, and ended up meeting Smokey Bear – a super friendly and sweet cat out on a walk with his owner.

We decided not to stop at the shopping area in town as it was so busy, but shortly on the other side, we found another turnout.

Coming out of the parking lot, we found ourselves on a small side road – that ended up being one of the best parts of the day. Every turn we’d find another overlook with a lovely view. At one stop, a gentleman was walking his dog, Bear, and stopped to offer to take our picture! (As long as we held Bear’s leash!)

We finally found our way back to the 101, just in time for the turnoff to Devil’s Punchbowl State Park. We found surfers!

And lovely views!

And a safe zone!

Then – The Punchbowl! It was low tide while we were there – I can’t image how full it would get during high tide!

Birds!

The moon! (The top left branches are pointing to it.)

It was time to make our way back to to the hotel – and we stopped at the very first look-out again to see how much of the tide had come in.

We dropped our stuff in the room and headed down to the beach. Unbelievably, we hadn’t made it to any sand yet today!

The backside of our hotel!

The white line is how far up the waves were lapping.

Dinner was at Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant, just down the street from our hotel. The food was nice, but the margaritas were wonderful! Thank you for a second lovely birthday dinner, Bekah!

The plan was to make it back in time for sunset – and we succeeded!

It was absolutely gorgeous! A great way to end a wonderful day.