Our 2016 Coast Tour
Our anticipated stay at Tokeland was saddened a bit by finding out that one of the owners of the hotel had passed only 2 weeks before we arrived. Scott and Katherine White spent years restoring and operating this wonderful site. From what we learned upon arriving Scott had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and went quickly after diagnosis. All his family were present at the end. Katherine is holding up as well as can be expected and our prayers are with her. We had a couple chances to spend some private time with her, reminiscing about our previous visits and filling her in on Rachel's current status. When she first saw the reservation she wasn't sure if it was Cathy and I or Rachel who were going to be there. She was pleasantly surprised it was us and we all enjoyed our time together. Hopefully she can get back to Seattle to see her son before we head out to Sicily. We agreed that we'd love to take her to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here in town.
The hotel and restaurant are doing OK for business. If you want to stay be advised that the restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and closes at 2 PM on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This means you'll have to drive up to the Shoalwater Casino, Grayland or Westport for victuals at those times. We were there on Thursday and her recommendation in Grayland, the Local Cafe, closed the kitchen early to clean the kitchen vent system. We ended up going to Westport to her second recommendation, Blackbeard's Pizza. The pie was better than we expected but I'd recommend building your own. We had one of their specialty pies and it had a LOT, maybe too much, of goodies. I guess we've become too accustomed to Italian style pizza with its three ingredients.
Here are some pictures from the Willapa Bay shore about a block from the hotel. We didn't drive up Rt 105 to the Waterton-Cannery road beach access. It's about 3 - 4 miles north and is at the far southern end of the driveable beach, just north of Wash Away beach where a small residential community has been being reclaimed by the ocean for years. Soon the state will need to relocate the highway, further inland, because it's in real danger of being washed out by a large storm.
We proceeded to head south down the coast via US 101. This time we took the full route, out through Ilwaco to Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia River. We have taken this similar route before but never staying on 101. The last time we did this we took the "shortcut" to Astoria but since we decided to visit the lighthouses on this part of the coast that we hadn't seen before we stayed on 101. At the mouth of the Columbia there are 2 lighthouses within 2 miles of each other. This is the only point in North America where there are 2 that close together. Cape Disappointment and the North Head lighthouses.
Our next nightly stop was Newport, OR. We stayed at the Econolodge. I'm not sure what is going on with these places. We work through Booking.com quite often, even though we do have memberships w/ Quality and Wyndham chains. We request non-smoking rooms but this was the 2nd time we found ourselves in a room w/ a previous smoker. This time there was another room we could get, unlike the time in Findlay, Ohio where the no-smoking signs were obviously removed from many rooms by the motel owner.
We checked Google and Yelp for places to eat and found Local Ocean, down on Bayfront Drive. Great seafood, local, fresh and properly prepared. Be prepared to wait for a table, its a popular place, and you'll see why when you get your food. In the AM we opted out of the skimpy motel offering and headed back down into the bayfront to a small breakfast and lunch place, the Coffee House. Grab a table before you line up to order. It too is popular and for good reason. We tried to catch lunch here on our way back but got in too late for lunch. We ate at Mo's, a small chain of places in a lot of the coastal towns. Great chowder at a reasonable price. Also real popular with locals and tourists.
Our next day started with a trip to the Yaquina LIghthouse just north of Newport. It's easy to get to and has wonderful views of the rocky coastline. We had a beautiful day for this, and the local whale herd helped out. There were 3 of them feeding just off the lighthouse point. I was able to capture a couple shots as they broke the surface. It's not as easy as you would think. They don't breach, only spout a little, get some air and roll back below the water to feed. There is a residential herd of gray whales along this coast. You can catch sight of them just beyond the surf line if you have the time to spend waiting and are lucky enough to have them in the area. While we drove through Depoe Bay later that day there were some just off the town. You knew that from the crowd of people standing alongside the highway. If you've ever been to Yellowstone and seen how the visitors react to large wildlife along the road you can understand what this looks like. Cars parked everywhere and people shoulder to shoulder for the 1/4 mile of beachfront in the center of town.
Before leaving town we did find the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse located at the entry of the bay in Newport. It's more of a true light-house. The light is a cupola on top of the house. You can tour the place and get a real feel for how the keepers lived. Just below the light is a small bedroom, used when the weather was bad and the keeper had to stay close.
That evening we stayed in Crescent City, CA at the Lighthouse Inn down by the marina. It was the most expensive place we stayed but was a nice hotel. The only problem was that there are few good restaurants in that town that we could find. A couple years ago we stayed about 20 mile south in Klamath, CA at a brand new hotel at the Yuroc casino. It had only been open one week and the restaurant and lounge were not ready yet. We ended up back in Crescent City at a small local sourced place that no longer exists. It's now a sports bar at the marina. We ate at the local stand-by, the Chart House. They do a large business, probably due to the lack of good choices. The menu is heavy on fried food, but they do have grilled and sauteed seafoods. Local fish is usually fresh and they don't do a bad job of properly preparing it. My swordfish was frozen, it ain't local, and grilled a bit too long. Cath's shrimp was done perfectly. Salads are pretty standard diner fare.
In the AM we opted to just catch a short snack at the hotel's limited buffet, enough to cover the morning meds and headed south to Klamath for a full breakfast. We targeted the Log Cabin diner. A small family owned and operated place located at the southern exit off Rt 101. I'd heartily recommend this place. Great food and at local prices. Well worth the stop.