Smilin' Jack: March 2015

Or: A Light Unto the World...

We needed some things for the house, you know, to make it a bit easier, more livable and so we were off, heading south, to the Walmart in Newport. It's 26 miles but it is an adventure each time we go because those 26 miles we have to travel are all down the Scenic Oregon Coast Highway, US 101.

There are at least 86 Oregon State Parks along the Pacific Coast and on this 26 mile stretch between Lincoln City and Newport, there are over 14 parks. From Wayside Parks to Wildlife Refuges, there's always some place to stop and take a look see.

Fun Fact: (This is a quote from Wikipedia, my source for much of the information found in my blogs, about the Scenic Oregon Coast Highway) US 101 is often the main street through coastal towns in Oregon, which can cause significant traffic delays. This is especially true in Lincoln City, owing to a combination of geography and the fact the city is a popular tourist destination.

Hahahah, testify!! LCO got a special mention!! We rock!!

Well, not so much, really. I have already experienced some high levels of frustration dealing with the traffic along 101. I am sooooo not looking forward to that aspect of living in LCO when June, July and August roll around.

But I digress, let's get back to our little drive. So there we are, heading down the 101 and today, for no real good reason other than I could, I pulled over in Depoe Bay at the Depoe Bay City Park. Hahahaha, they're all over the place. This is one of the popular whale viewing spots along the Scenic Oregon Coast Highway.

And the sea was rough today. Here's the view we got looking south from the Depoe Bay City Park.

Carol's learned and now whenever we head out the door she has her binoculars in hand.

Hahaha, you never know what we'll see. Vultures, hawks or whales, it changes with each mile we travel. Here she's on the lookout for some whales and, sure enough, she spotted a number of them. Whale watching takes place almost year-round on the Oregon coast.

And there's always some Tourists (Hahahaha, remember, we're Locals now) that she can help to spot the whales...like this couple we met who are traveling down the coast from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Normally they take their vacation in Las Vegas but this year they decided to try something different and opted for a drive down the coast instead.

That doesn't mean they're not getting in their share of gambling as they gambol around the country. Oh, no, they told us they spent last night gaming at the Chinook Winds Casino, the one that is just a half mile from our place, last night.

They were heading south and pretty much stopping at each park or wayside by the road.

Carol got them oriented and, yes, they did get to see their whales.

Me? While this serious whale-watching was going on, I was strolling down the park grabbing some pictures. As I mentioned earlier, the seas were rough.

Mind you, there's a great freedom involved in shooting with these modern digital cameras. Never having to worry about how many pictures you have left on your roll or how many rolls you have left, well, that's so liberating.

I mention all that because I shot this wave, one after another, as it first picked up steam all the way to where it crashed itself against the seawall.

Hahaha, no, I am not going to put all of them on here right now, although I am sorely tempted. No, with great freedom comes great responsibility...to edit. And I did. I have over 100 pictures of the waters in the bay and I only used 3 here.

I am so doggone proud of myself right now!! What willpower!!

Or another way to look at it is the overwhelming majority of them were...crap. Hahaha, but I'll keep on working at it. You'll see...you'll see!!

Believe it or not, we did have a plan. The deal was to motor on down to the Yaquina Bay State Park in Newport, noodle around there for a while, have lunch and then hit the Wally before heading home. And we pretty much stayed true to this plan with just the one stop at the Depoe Bay City Park.

So after some whale-watching and picture-taking, we made it on down to the State Park where we visited the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. You might remember, from an earlier blog a couple weeks ago that we visited the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

These two lighthouses are linked and not just by name.

Fun Facts: The Yaquina Bay Light is a lighthouse built in 1871 soon after the founding of the city of Newport. It's located on the north side of Yaquina Bay which was, at that time, the most populated port between the Puget Sound and San Francisco.

The Lighthouse sits on a small hill overlooking the entrance to the bay and the Pacific Ocean.

Here's Carol Anne stylin' for the camera.

Fun Facts: The Yaquina Bay Light was built by Ben Simpson and first lit on November 3, 1871. It was active for only three years. Seems it wasn't all that effective as a lighthouse and so they built another, larger and better situated lighthouse just 3 miles north of Yaquina Bay, the Yaquina Head Light, in 1873.

The Bay Lighthouse was decommissioned on October 1, 1874 and the fifth order Fresnel Lens was moved to the Yerba Buena Light for its opening in 1875.

As you can well imagine, things are a bit different now than they were when the Lighthouse first opened. The hill it sits on is covered with trees now. At the time it was built, the hill was pretty much a lot of sand with some scrub brush on it.

The cupola. While the original light was extinguished in 1874, it was re-lit on December 7, 1996, with a 9.8-inch modern optic on loan from lighthouse historian James A. Gibbs. The light is a privately maintained navigational aid belonging to the U.S. Coast Guard and displays a fixed white light visible for six miles.

Fun Fact: The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is the only existing lighthouse in the state in which the living quarters were housed in the same building as the light. Only a few of this type were built on the entire Pacific Coast. It also is the only wooden lighthouse on the Oregon Coast.

Before we went into the lighthouse, we walked around the grounds and saw a hummingbird. I was quick but not quick enough to get a good shot. You can see the busy blur of the hummingbird there on the right side of this picture. I had one shot and then this guy was gone.

We think it might be a male Anna's Hummingbird. It was named after Anna Massena, Duchess of Rivoli. She was married to Francois Victor Massena, 2d Duke of Rivoli and 3rd Prince of Essling who was an amateur ornithologist. Francois accumulated a large bird collection of 12,500 specimens. He also has a hummingbird (Rivoli's) named for him. In 1823 he married Anna Massena, and she subsequently had Anna's Hummingbird named in her honor by Rene Primevere Lesson.

Hahaha, some great lineage but, still, a lousy picture.

And a view of the jettys protecting the entrance to Yaquina Bay. These jettys were built between 1888 and 1896. The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was used to house the men of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who worked on the construction of the jettys.

Looking north from the corner of the Lighthouse. Just around the corner is a cistern. They had built an ingenious system of gutters around the house so that the rain water was funneled into the cistern for use by the household.

Finally, we got into the house. There's four rooms on the ground floor and four bedrooms on the second floor. Hahaha, it had an outdoor privy for the family to use. That had to be miserable especially at night. Thank goodness for chamberpots.

From the hallway, we entered the dining room. None of the furniture is original but still reflects the style that would have been used in the house then. You can see they have a built-in hutch by the fireplace.

Fun Fact: Only one keeper and his family lived in Yaquina Bay. Lightkeeper Charles H. Peirce, and his wife, Sarah, lived there with seven of their nine children.

Looking out the dining room window.

And the kitchen.

There's a feel of nostalgia whenever I see wainscoting used in older homes. It really defines the era.

Not a lot to the whole operation, but it kept the large family fed. Hahaha, I can't begin to imagine how much work went into preparing the food from making everything from scratch to going out and chopping the wood for the stove.

Had I lived then and had to deal with all that just to eat, well, I'd be a lot thinner than I am now. If I hadn't already died of starvation (read laziness).

Ooooh, a modern convenience...a thermostat.

Plenty of natural light. It looks good and peaceful, a pastoral paradise but it was a lot of hard work just to get by day-to-day. Hahahaha, no Walmarts to run down to for some snacks and treats.

The pantry. The family could walk down to the small city for some of their needs. Plus the service had goods delivered every three months for them. They would store the food here in their pantry.

From the kitchen, we made it back to the entryway. Here you can see the stairs leading to the bedrooms on the second floor and then up to the light itself. But for right now, we headed down into the basement.

That's the original brick floor. The kids were in charge of gathering the firewood and would bring it down into the cellar where they would chop it up. You can still see some of the nicks in the bricks where an errant swing missed the target and struck the floor.

They have a small theater where you can watch a short video on the history of the Lighthouse. Plus they have a pretty good sized gift shop down there, too.

Along the wall they have these photos of the lighthouse in years gone by.

Fun Facts: After it was closed, the house was used to quarter workers on the jettys in the 1880s. The U.S. Coast Guard later used the lighthouse as lookout and living quarters from 1906 to 1915. During this time, the Coasties built the eight-story steel observation tower that continues to stand next to the original lighthouse.

In 1934 the house and the grounds it is on was purchased by the Oregon State Highway Division and housed the men who worked on the Yaquina Bay Bridge. Abandoned yet again after the bridge was built, the lighthouse was scheduled for demolition in 1946. A historical society delayed the demolition but the lighthouse was again scheduled for demolition in 1951. Finally a Lighthouse Historical Association saved the old building.

You can see from this picture that it was suffering from neglect.

The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1970 and fully restored in 1974.

You can see the property around the lighthouse has changed a lot since it was first built.

This is the living room. The room behind this is reserved for the Historical Society and we didn't get to see it.

The rest of the living room.

And now it was time to go up to the second floor.

From the second floor; this is the last flight of stairs up to the cupola and the light itself.

And the Fresnel Lens.

Fun Facts: The Fresnel lens reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections and was originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.

Fresnel produced six sizes of lighthouse lenses, divided into four orders based on their size and focal length. In modern use, these are classified as first through sixth order.

The light used here was a fifth-order light.

Looking up at the base of the cupola from the stairway. There's a small landing with a ladder leading up to the light itself.

And just off the landing is this small office/bedroom for the lightkeeper.

Hahaha, I guess having to make all your food from scratch had a unintended benefit. It meant you would always be able to fit through this small opening to get to the light.

And a shot looking down from the landing.

OK, we're back down on the second floor now so let's take a look at some of the bedrooms. Remember, Captain Peirce and his wife, Sarah, had seven kids living with them here. The youngest, Kate, was born in this house on March 25, 1872.

This was some tight living.

The window looking out towards the ocean from the hallway.

This was the guest bedroom in that the Captain was required to put up any additional keepers or official visitors to the Lighthouse.

The master bedroom.

The other half of the master bedroom.

Hmmmm, what is that strange apparition in the mirror? Could it be a...ghost!?!

Hahaha, no!! It's just ol' Smilin' Jack getting hisself a selfie.

One of the bedrooms for the kids. They probably had a trundle bed under the bed so all the kids could get a good night's sleep without being too crowded.

Have you ever heard someone say, Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!, and wondered what in the heck they were talking about?

Fun Facts: Take a look at the right-hand corner of the bed...see the ropes? Beds in the 18th century were supported by a weave of ropes and if the ropes went slack, the bedding sagged and it was uncomfortable sleeping. Every-so-often, the ropes had to be...tightened...to keep them level and comfortable.

So, to sleep tight meant to have a comfortable night's sleep.

As for the bed bugs, they were a common nuisance in the 18th century. To wish to someone that they would not be bothered by the itching caused by bedbug bites would be a good thing to do.

Plus, and this is the key point here, it rhymes.

The other front bedroom...for the kids.

The view from the bedroom. Not bad, eh?

Remember I mentioned the kids would haul the wood down to the cellar to chop it up? Here's the cellar door they used to bring in the wood. To the right is the buildings used to house the oil and other tools needed for maintaining the light.

While it has changed, you can see from this shot that it is still quite the same. An early view with the Lightkeeper and his family.

Times weren't always good. The Lighthouse in the 1940s.

The Lighthouse today.

There's the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

Fun Facts: The bridge is an arch bridge and one of the most recognizable of the U.S. 101 bridges designed by Conde McCullough. It was one of the eleven major bridges on the Scenic Oregon Coast Highway designed by McCullough. It was the last one built for 101 and superseded the last ferry crossing on the highway.

You can build up an appetite after some serious lighthousing and so we were off to our next stop. I had googled restaurants in Newport and was pleasantly surprised to learn they had an Irish Pub restaurant there.

POW!!

We were off to Nana's Irish Pub in historic Nye Beach.

Hahaha, someone is ready for lunch.

Argh, Thar she blows, Matey!!

Wait, maybe that should be, Ah, tis a fine restaurant, it is.

Hahaha, I'm getting my Irish and Whaling confused. Plus I think I've been channeling a little bit more of my inner Pirate lately.

It's a nice looking place. Interesting layout with the inside of the restaurant pretty much split into two dining areas plus a real nice outdoor area as well. Seems the folks in Oregon are just as ga-ga as the ones in Seattle over eating outside any chance they get.

We were seated by the window with the bar behind us.

Hahahaha, it's a nice picture of Carol but I seriously need to clean off the lens. She's lit by the reflected light from the window behind her and that's bouncing off the dirty lens.

Mea culpa.

And she returned the favor with a shot of Jungle Jackie with her cell.

Looking out at the outdoor dining area...and the sign.

OK, what do you think we ordered in this Irish Pub by the seashore?

Hahahaha, you're right!!

Carol got the fish and chips and I got the...

Rueben!!

We are soooooo predictable.

But this one was made with steamed cabbage instead of sauerkraut.

Interesting.

So far, I think this has been the best Rueben I've had. The condiment they used really complimented the meat without overpowering it. And the cabbage was subtle enough to add some texture but not distract from the corned beef.

Mmmmmmmm, Jackie likes!!

Ah, Spring!!

It was just a wee bit too chilly for us to sit outside.

But we did take a walk. They have several markers and arches defining the beach area.

From the beach, you can see the Yaquina Head Light. To the right you can see the cliffs where we saw the two Peregrine Falcons doing their mating dance.

The entry to the beach.

I suppose this is another artsy area. They had several bookstores...people at the beach must read a lot because I see bookstores everywhere. Plus the Dappled Frog where they had this interesting piece.

Kinda looks European, doesn't it? Down at the end of this road is the beach.

This artsy area was about two blocks long. At least that is all we could see.

Detail of a bench seat along the road. Nicely done.

And it's been a long time coming but I'm getting back into flowers...specifically pictures of flowers. It is Spring and I'm getting back into the swing.

I do have the new camera and haven't gotten too friendly with all the controls yet. I'll get it.