mt. marcy

We spent Wednesday night in Newport, OR.  The next morning walked down to the beach for a morning run and too many lunges. Jane is a big fan of the beach.


Before leaving Newport we stopped at the food coop. We drove down HWY 101, which follows the Oregon coastline, to another coop in Florence.  On our way we pulled over at a Devil's Churn, where the waves have cut through the rock, carving a stream. The Oregon coast is wild and beautiful -a must see indeed.

We drove up to the highest point on the Oregon Coast.

We stopped at the Oregon Dunes National Park.

Then we drove to Eugene, which is more in the middle of the state. Our friend, Dan, who we visited in Bellingham had done his internship at OU in Eugene and told us the hotspots to visit. We ate pumpkin gnocchi and a squash and radish salad with jalapeño vinaigrette at the Party Cart . Then we had ice cream at the Red Wagon - pop 'n fresh (sweet corn with chocolate caramel ice cream) and smoked salt caramel ice cream. We topped off the meal with aged pu-erh tea (post fermented tea leaves from the early '90s). Caylan says it was the best $50 he has spent in a parking lot.

We went for a post dinner hike up Spencer's Butte. It was a steep hike through trees that belonged in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We made it up for sunset.





It rains a lot up here, so we stopped at Wal-Mart and wisely purchased Rain-x and new wipers. Our plan was to make it to Coos Bay for the night, but we ended up stopping short in a Reedsport when we saw a potential client (a small natural food store).

It was raining when we woke this morning. We went to the natural market and they are definite potential client, under new ownership, and were looking for a new point of sale system. Bingo!

On our way to Coos Bay we stopped at another park that had sand dunes. It was raining but we went on a nice, but wet, hike to sand dunes that made me think we were in Saudi Arabia. Jane wasn't a fan of the rain, but she runs like a cheetah through the dunes.

We were drenched and muddy by the end of the hike.

Caylan has a client meeting this afternoon in Coos Bay and then we'll head down to the California state line, to the land of redwoods, wine, my brother, and new sister-in-law.