August 31, Coos Bay, OR

We started down the Oregon coast on highway 101. At the start we were right on the ocean then we went in a little. Most of the way was all "resort" build up and like the west coast of Florida except not as many people. 

Tillamook County has 2 quilt trails. One is around the countryside and small towns and the other one is in the city of Tillamook. We saw a few of the blocks are we drove. I also got a list of the Oregon coast quilt shops. There are 13. I'll not be able to make all of them!!!

Another interesting thing is all the signs telling you that you are either entering or leaving tsunami hazard areas. They have signs telling you the evacuation routes.

The number of bicycles along 101 is amazing. Almost all of them have paniers filled so you know they are biking for several days. They road is very hilly with a few small mountains thrown in. They have a berm on both sides of the highway for the bikers to use. Going through tunnels or over bridges they use the vehicular road and cars and trucks give them space to ride. The road is called the Oregon Coastal Bikeway. Just before you enter a tunnel there is a sign telling you that if the light is blinking, there is a bicyclist in the tunnel so you know to watch out for him or her.

The highest price gas that we saw today was $4.14 and the lowest was $4.09.

I laid out 2 pair of jeans to bring with me and somehow they didn't get packed so thank goodness there was an outlet mall in Seaside where we stayed last night so I went to Eddie Bauer and got a couple of new jeans.

We ate lunch at a quintessential greasy spoon restaurant today. It was sooo greasy that I couldn't eat all the food. Ed thought it was great!

This was our first real look at the Pacific Ocean. It was very windy and hazy. We assume the haze is from the sand and salt that is blown up from the beach and ocean. Even though it was only 63 degrees, there were some kids along the way who had on bathing suits and were playing in the water. Adults had on long pants or shorts with sweatshirts.

There are places along the coast where it is all sandy beaches, other places where it is all straight walled cliffs and others where it is a combination.

At one place you can take a ride on a steam locomotive pulled train. Here the engineer is oiling the engine. Kids, we will show you an oil can when we get home. You used to have to put oil in parts of the car, sewing machines, lawn mowers, and almost any other piece of equipment that had moving parts.
I didn't think until now that the kids have probably never seen anything being oiled!

Here is the entire engine with the coal car where they shovel the coal into the burner which boils water and makes steam which runs the engine. The train has a really different sounding horn than the ones that go by our house.

Here is another unique looking bridge that we crossed. This one is just north of Coos Bay where we are staying.

There are several miles of sand dunes just north of Coos Bay. Here you can see the dune buggies and ATVs that you can drive onto the dunes. The dunes go inland for at least about 1/4 mile.