Wed. April 8th

Today we decided to go separate ways, Ken and I went to McMinnville, OR and Bonnie and Dar went Lincoln City. Ken and I went to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. www.sprucegoose.org
This is a must see, if one is interested in Aviation and Space. It is the home of the “Spruce Goose”, the largest float plane in the world; it was built by the Howard Hughes Aviation Corp. in the 1940’s. The Plane is so large that it over takes everything else in the Museum. If one plans to go there and see everything, it takes a full day, just to go through the two Museums. That does not include taking in the IMAX Theater, which takes in a good hour or more. It is defiantly something I would like to go back to see again some day.

Dar and Bonnie also had a good day, I know, because Dar came home with bags full of new clothing . This is something she doesn’t normally do. She said the deals were great, so she bought a number of new tops, jeans and very nice “track suit”. She also got a new pair of running shoes. The two of them didn’t get back to the RV till just before 8 pm.

Dar and I had a quite light dinner and of to bed, by 10 pm.

Tuesday April 7th

Kind of a lazy day today, hung out around the Park this morning. In the afternoon, Ken, Bonnie and I went for a drive up along SR 229 to the small town of Siltez, OR and on to Toledo, OR. We toured through the town, had a coffee and off down Hwy. 20 to Newport OR. We then went back along Hwy. 101 to SR 229 turnoff. Dar didn’t go for the drive; she stayed in the Park, having a nice afternoon to her self. Had a nice dinner and evening with Ken and Bonnie

Monday April 6th

On the move again, this time we all are off up the coast, to Lincoln City, OR. Ken knew of a RV Park on the Siltez River, we turned onto highway SR 229 for about 3 miles to Coyote Rock RV Resort and Marina. www.coyote-rock.com The Park is right in the mountains and has a beautiful setting.
Bonnie used her Passport America passport www.passport-america.com and we both got the 50% off rate. And we are now on the cover of the new brochure for Coyote Rock RV Resort and Marina!

New Brochure on the left,Ken & Bonnie's RV then our RV
Old Brochure on the right

We had an evening out for dinner tonight and went into Lincoln City and the Chinook Winds Casino. www.chinookwindscasino.com I finally got to have fresh crab cakes and Dar had seafood fettuccine. It was very good and we got to see a beautiful sunset form our dinner table. After dinner we all went into the casino and I did what I normally do, lost every penny I put into the one-armed bandit. Ken was only one who made a return on his investment. All in all, it was a nice evening out.

Sunday April 5th

On Sunday morning, Bonnie and I went for a good walk through the Park and down to the beach. The waves were perfect for “Boarders” which was kind of neat to see. After breakfast we all went into the town of Newport OR. www.discovernewport.com, we walked through Old Town and did what all tourist do, look at all the sites a whole bunch of nothing. We quite enjoyed ourselves. After that we had lunch at an area favorite restaurant, called Mo’s www.moschowder.com, the food was pretty good, I had a salad with shrimp and Dar had clam chowder. After we bought a couple of nice sized fresh crab and later we went and bought ½ gallon of fresh oysters. After lunch, we drove north of Newport to Depoe Bay OR, www.depoebaychamber.org which has the “smallest navigable harbour” in the world. It was very neat to see, we watched a “US Coast Guard” come through the small mouth of the harbour. After that we went back to South Beach State Park. Guess what we had for dinner tonight, Dar made a wonderful dinner of fresh crab and pan fried oysters. Wow, were they good, I went to bed that night with a verrrrry full tummy. What a wonderful day

Saturday April 4th

Saturday, we moved up the coast on Hwy 101 to the town of Newport, OR. We (Ken, Bonnie, and Dar & me) thought we would stay at a State Park for couple of days. We pulled into South Beach State Park www.oregonstateparks.org, the rates were to my liking, $18.00 per night, with power and water. The park is beautiful and very well kept. (I wish we had Parks like this in BC) The weather saw pretty fair, with sunny periods throughout both days. We hung out there for the day and Bonnie had us over for a super good dinner.

Winery Touring & Tasting

I went for a walk down to the wide Pacific Ocean first thing in the morning, through the wind and rain, it was quite cold on the beach this morning, but refreshing.

After breakfast, we (Ken & Bonita Ann, Dar & I) all loaded into the truck and took off for our Wine Tour in through the Willamette Valley, which is in the area south of Eugene, OR. We went to few nice Wineries, which are all set in quaint settings.

The first one Secret House Winery was so secret we found it but it didn’t look open or even like a winery so we turned around and left. www.secrethousewinery.com

The second stop was at Silvan Ridge/Hinman Vineyards. Tasted quite a few great wines and bought a bottle of Merlot and a Muskat.














Third stop was at Sweet Cheeks Winery we bought two wine glasses that say Sweet Cheeks on them and a bottle of Pinot Gris.














Fourth stop was at King Estate Winery where we finally had lunch, (and wine tasting). I had a excellent lunch of Mac & Cheese, with Country Ham, Dar had a delicious looking Pizza of Roasted garlic, Prawn & Cream Sauce Bonnie had the Margheritta Pizza and Ken had a burger. Dar and I enjoyed our lunch very much, and had the rest of Dar’s pizza for dinner snack.














After lunch, we decided to go to Cottage Groove, OR up by the Row River and look at one of the many Covered Bridges of Oregon (www.coveredbridgesoforegon.org) I was quite disappointed, I thought it would be a bridge we could drive through but it wasn’t. The covered bridges are part of the history of Oregon and Dar took a couple of nice pictures at one bridge.












We drove back through Eugene OR and along Hwy. 126 to Florence; we got back to the RV about 8:30 pm. It was a long day, but well worth it. Had a couple of games of wii golf and went to bed.

Moving Day

I wonder if anyone got caught in a April Fools joke today!!!!

We made the big move today, moved from Coos Bay, up the coast to Florence OR. (about 50 miles.) We found a very nice RV Park at Heceta Beach, which is just north of downtown Florence. After settling in we had a quite afternoon and evening watching the rain come down. After dinner I made trip plans for our wine tour the next day.

Florence OR, and Sand Dunes

Tuesday, March 31 2009

The Oregon Dunes are very interesting, it is Spring break and there are a number of RV'ers camped with ATV,s and Dune buggies out on the dunes right now. Both adults and kids are having all kind of fun, running up and down the dunes.

As I was driver of the day, Ken and I had to put with the kids in the back seat (Dar & Bonnie). There fooling around and laughing certainly added to the day. We drove up through the Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, again the Park was full of duners and their ATV,s. At Winchester Bay OR, we had a great lunch in A Seafood restaurant and when over to Seafood Cannery, where they can all kinds of sea products and trinkets.

At Florence, OR, we looked around town, down to the docks and a couple RV parks. After that we headed back to Coos Bay and our home.

Had dinner of BBQ Back Ribs at Ken & Bonnie's, Ken sure is a great BBQ'er. Fantastic evening. I was warn out and off to bed at 10:00 pm.

Bandon, OR

Monday, we went to Bandon, OR and walked around town. Looked in shops and had a good lunch Seafood Chowder. Then walked around some more and went to the info center Brad and Ken signed the book and Bonnie and I went in and signed the book Elvis Prestley Memphis, TN and Oprah Winfrey New York, NY had a laugh because the old guy went and looked at the book right after we left but Ken was still inside. All Bonnie could keep saying was "Why would he go look right away" "He didn't have to look right away". You had to be there it was funny. Came back to the RV's and had happy hour and dinner at our RV. Prawn and Pine Nut Pasta with Garlic toast and Bonnie made a Ceaser Salad. Good Food, Good Wine, Good Company!