Oregon Coast

Hi, I wanted to finish up with some of our Oregon travels after leaving the Mt Hood area we headed to the beautiful coast. We had another four days of Oregon before heading to Bainbridge Island for my SIL's wedding.

Hubby and I loved the Oregon coastline, it was cool seeing the spray from the whales and I loved the starfish. The birds were awesome but the beautiful scenic coastline stole the show.

Outside our Yachats motel!

I loved all the colorful sea stars.

The sea stars are pretty purples and orange.

Loved the cute sea lions!

Lots of Sea Lions here!

Beautiful scenic views of the gorgeous Oregon coastline.

Some of the biggest trees on the Oregon coast.

Long stretches of  sandy beach.

Oregon has lots of lighthouses.

This is the Devil's punchbowl on the Oregon coast.

Haystack Rock was a popular place with the tourist, lots of great birds seen here too.

 

The Tillamook Bay

 Elk were some of the wild critters we saw on the Oregon coast.

I hope you enjoyed my views of the Oregon Coastline, it is a beautiful place to visit.

Thanks for stopping by and  I appreciate your comments.

Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park

This was our road trip in 2012 to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.   

I did not have much luck birding in the Smokies, some of the common birds I saw were the Dark-eyed Junco and lots of Wild Turkeys. I could hear Blue Jays, American Crows, Turkeys Vultures,  unknown Warblers, Titmouse, Chickadees and Nuthatches but none of them wanted their photo taken. In the creek near our hotel and town  I saw some Mallard Ducks.

 

Above are shots of the Grotto Falls, A Dark-eyed Junco, Fall colors, Cades Cove horses, Wild Turkey, behind Grotto Falls, Smoky Mountain colors, deer, Cades Cove.



On our first full day, hubby and I drove to the Roaring Fork Motor Drive and headed for the parking lot for the Grotto Falls before it got too crowded. At the beginning of the drive we saw a black bear, I did manage a blurry photo before the park ranger clapped it away. We did the 2.6 mile roundtrip hike to the waterfall. I even walked behind the waterfall, a first for me after many different waterfall visits.

 

I was checking out the color along the Grotto Falls trail.

Later in the day we headed to the Cades Cove drive, here we saw horses, wild turkeys and some deer.  It was very crowded and took a while to do the 11 miles of the motor tour.

 

Some of the pretty Smoky Mountain colors.

 

Since, the birds were hiding from me and my camera I decided to take some shots of the horses. They are pretty.

I was happy hearing and seeing the birds moving quickly all along this Grotto Falls trail. It was very birdy trail, just not a good day for taking bird photos.  I hope you enjoyed hiking to the waterfall with me and seeing the Cades Cove Horses.

Thanks for the visit, enjoy your day!

Mount Hood, Oregon

I wanted to do some more of a trip reports on Oregon. This post will be on the Mount Hood area and the hike we took to Mirror Lake.

It was a clear day the first time we saw Mt Hood, so hubby and I were both in awe. Some of these photos you might have seen on my other blog Viewingnaturewitheileen

Above is the Mt Hood Lavender farm.

I was able to zoom in pretty close to see all the snow at the mountaintop.

We had such a beautiful day for traveling around the Mt Hood loop. A gorgeous blue sky and great views of Mt Hood.

We stopped at the lodge for a late lunch. We had a nice table near the window for more views of another mountain either Mt Jefferson or Mt Adams in the distance.

 I do love these big stone fireplaces, this was looking down at the lunch buffet in the lodge's dining room.

I think there were more people there to enjoy the skiing than to enjoy the scenery.

Now we are on our hike to Mirror Lake. It is a 3 three mile round trip hike.

Along the hike, I was enjoying all the tree covered with this hanging moss.

We arrived at Mirror Lake and enjoyed the pretty view of Mt Hood and its reflection. I have so many photos from our trip, it is hard trying to choose which shots to use on my blog. So, I will be doing more of my Oregon travel reports. We had a great time and hubby loved Oregon so much he would like to retire there. I am still hoping to retire in a warmer climate. I hope you enjoyed my travel photos and stop back again to see more soon.

Oregon waterfalls

For my travel blog I thought I would show all the waterfalls we saw while vacationing in Oregon.

These waterfalls were all located at the Columbia River Gorge scenic highway. The gorge area is famous for its waterfalls 77 of them on the Oregon side of the river.  A few of the waterfalls could be seen right from the road.The waterfalls are all located within 15 miles of each other.

Multnomah Falls is 620 feet for both the upper and lower falls. The footbridge allows visitors to cross 105 ft above the lower falls. You can actually see a lot of this waterfall from the scenic road. Multnomah is known as Oregon's prime waterfall attraction and is the most famous.

Oneonta Falls, Oneonta Gorge. This Lower Oneonta Falls can only be seen by walking upstream from the Columbia River scenic hwy.

Bridal Veil Falls is a 2.2 mile roundtrip hike from the trailhead on the Columbia Gorge scenic hwy. The trail climbs to a wooden lookout with a view of the falls.

Horsetail Falls is 192 ft and is located right next to the Columbia Gorge scenic highway.

 Wahkeena Fallsis a 1.1 mile roundtrip hike from the scenic hwy. It is 242 ft and is a tiered falls. Some of this waterfall can be seen from the road but for the best view you take the walk. The name Wahkeena comes from the Yakama tribe and means "most beautiful".

If you are ever in the Columbia River Gorge area you should definitely visit some of these beautiful waterfalls.

Oregon Trip Report July 2012

This is my Trip Advisor report on Oregon...long read

July 20 thru July 30

My photos are here: http://eileeninmd.smugmug.com/Vacation/Oregon-Vacation/24492803_f5nPCj
   
http://eileeninmd.smugmug.com/Vacation/Oregon-Coast/24495668_2kD9Fr

My bird blog:
http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/

Day 1: We arrived at Sea-Tac around 12pm. Easy transfer to the Advantage Car Rental. We were happy with the Advantage Versa 4dr sedan. On the 1-5 toward Portland before 1pm.
I-5 was backed up off and on the whole drive. I missed the exit for the Tippy’s that was recommended for dinner, so we stopped at a quickie place called Burgerville. They had great Chocolate shakes and burgers.

Checked into the Troutdale Best Western. I like the Best Westerns, they are reasonably priced, clean and have a great breakfast. We were happy with the location for our visit to the Columbia Gorge.

After checking in and freshening up, we headed out for a quick visit to Multnomah Falls, Vista House and beautiful sunset views on the Columbia River.

Day 2: We were up early for our Best Western breakfast and out the door. First we stopped at the waterfalls along scenic 84. We saw Bridal Veil, Horsetail and Wahkeena Falls. And hubby checked out the trail for the Oneonta Falls trail. Then we were back on the road to see Mt Hood. We made a quick stop at the Mt Hood Lavender Farm, at the time they were having their Lavender Festival. So we had a bite to eat and bought some lavender items and were back on the road to Mt Hood.

We ate a late lunch or an early dinner at the Cascade Dinning room at the Timberline Lodge. We were very happy with our choice of the buffet and a nice table near the window, great views.
After lunch we did the hike to Mirror Lake, a very pretty lake and reflection of Mt Hood.
On the way back we continued on to the Larch Mountain overlook. We had clear skies we great views of all five mountains and a pretty sunset.  Then it was back to our room for the night.

Day 3: Another great breakfast at the Troutdale Best Western. We were headed back for an early look at Multnomah Falls, early in the morning there were not as many people around the falls and on the bridge. Perfect timing for some photos of the falls. Left there and took hubby to the Oneonta Falls for his hike. I hung around the parking lot looking for birds till he got back. Luckily he took a change of clothes, it is a wet trail upstream to the falls.

From Oneonta we headed back along the river, stopping at the Fish hatchery, the Cascade Locks and continued around the loop for our main destination of the day which was Timothy Lake to look for birds and we stopped at Little Crater Lake. What a lovely place. After a nice day of hiking and birding we heading back towards our hotel stopping at Tippy’s Canoe for dinner. Very good food at Tippy’s we were happy with our choice for dinner.

Day 4: We left Troutdale and headed to the coast. I booked two nights at the Fireside Hotel in Yachats. We were very happy with the Fireside and Room # 18. We had the best view of the ocean and watched a Gray Whale feeding for hours right from our room. It was AWESOME.

We arrived a little early so we let the Fireside know we were there and headed down the coast. We stopped at Strawberry Hill my favorite beach for the Tidal pools. We saw lots of Sea Stars and colorful anemones and sea lions. We drove to the Heceta Head beach and Lighthouse. Very pretty beach, just a shame the lighthouse was being renovated. We also stopped at the Sea Lion Caves, their elevator was broke( they offered a discounted price)  and we could only see the sea lions from the top viewing area. They said we could come back the next day or two to see if their elevator was fixed they would let us in with our ticket from the first visit. We headed back to the Fireside for our key to our fantastic Rm 18 and then went out to dinner at the Driftwood Inn. Again we were pleased with our dinner choice at the Driftwood.  It was nice later to watch the sunset over the ocean from our room.

Day 5: Breakfast was at the Blue Whale in Yachats. Very good food and reasonably priced. After breakfast we headed to the Cape Perpetua lookout, the visitor center and hike to the 500 yr old Spruce tree? From there we headed north stopping at various overlooks like, Seal Rock, Devils Punchbowl and  Boiler Bay ( more whales seen there) and then to the Three Capes Drive, stopping at the Yaquina Lighthouse. Cape Meares was great if you are into birds like I am. The Common Murres on the rock were just amazing. A long day we headed south again stopping in Lincoln City for dinner at Pier 101. Again we were both happy with the food and our choice. After dinner we drove back to Yachats and our room at the Fireside.

Day 6: Breakfast was at the Blue Whale again, it was good and worth going back the second morning. After breakfast we called the Sea Lion caves and they said the elevator was working so we went back to see the cave and the sea lions and for me it was cool to see my first Rhinoceros Auklet. A birder would really appreciate this sighting, there were two chicks being fed by an adult right next to the lookout in the cave. On this day we had to leave our wonderful Ocean front room for our next stay at Cannon Beach. On the way to Cannon Beach we stopped again at the Devils Punchbowl and saw more whales, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and had a delicious ice cream, our lunch. We finally arrived in our last hotel in Oregon the Wayside Inn. It was a nice room but I was a little disappointed I did not choose an oceanfront hotel. We had the street and a parking lot for our view. After watching whales from our Fireside room 18 we were a little let down. I chose Wayside because I wanted to be close to the Haystack Rock , hoping I would see some Puffins on the rock. Dinner was at Mo’s near the hotel. I enjoyed their clam chowder and fish tacos. After dinner we drove to Ecola State Park, saw a herd of elk there an eagle, lots of pelicans on the rocks, Cormorants and Guillemots.

Day 7: Foggy morning and we had breakfast at the PignPancake in Cannon beach. Great breakfast and reasonable priced. After breakfast we hiked at the Oswald State Park to the beach. Found a pretty waterfall at the right end of the beach and another great tidal pool. Mid day we headed back to the Haystack rock for the low tide and I was hoping to see a Puffin. My only view of the puffins was a few flying in and out the backside of the Haystack rock. I actually like the tidal pools better at Strawberry Hill and Oswald then the crowded one at Haystack. Once again we headed back to Ecola State Park, hoping to see the elk again. No luck, maybe we were there too early. Headed back into town and had dinner at the Wayfarer, Cannon Beach. Again the clam chowder was great and I had a burger and hubby had a crab sandwich. It was too cloudy for a sunset. Headed back to the Wayside Inn for our last night.

Day 8: We took a long scenic route back to hubby sister’s place in Bainbridge Island. SIL wedding was on Saturday in Bainbridge Island, WA.

Day 9: We took a nice hike in the Grand Forest near SIL house before heading to the ferry and Seattle.It was Sunday we had to head home to Maryland. It was a great vacation and Oregon is a beautiful state. I believe we put close to 1500 miles on the rental car, which was very easy to return to the Sea-tac car rental.

Cape May, New Jersey

These are from our New Jersey trip 2012 to  Cape May and the Jersey shore trip. It was a beautiful day with a gorgeous sky and weather. One of our favorite spots in Cape May is the Cape May Lighthouse beach.

 

There is a boardwalk that meanders thru the Cape May park.  Cape May is a great place for birding. There are always great birds to see in Cape May. The sky was a beautiful blue and not a cloud in the sky.

 Not sure what this plant is, it looks very similar to the Queen Anne's Lace. I liked this shot with the pretty white flower against the very blue sky.

Looking into the sun, I found a juvie Oriole along the boardwalk trail.

Right next to the juvie Oriole, we saw this Common Yellowthroat Warbler.

At one of the viewing sections of the boardwalk we were able to watch this Green Heron hunting for food.

The Lighthouse Beach Park looked mostly empty but there were some other people there.

 

 One of my favorite views of the Cape May Lighthouse.

Thanks for visiting, have a great day!

More Scenes from Curacao

Linking up with Scenic Sundays

This is just a quick post...I have some more scenes from the lovely island of Curacao. On this day we were on our way to a snorkeling and catamaran boat trip.

I loved the seeing the colorful buildings during our sightseeing of the island. This was a pretty church in Williamstad, Curacao.

I always loved the houses with balconies and french doors.

The sails go up on the catamaran.

One of the spots for snorkeling was a sunken tugboat. The large ferry is no longer being used is tied up and abandoned. Hopefully, someday they will find a good use for this ferry.

A few jet skiers came by as our catamaran was heading out. The resort beach on the left side was the Hyatt resort located kind of far from the city of Williamstad.

 

A different watersport we saw were the windsurfing boards. 

Hubby and some others from our tour snorkeling near the sunken tugboat. Except for feeling a little seasick, it was a great tour with lovely views of the island and water.

To see more beautiful scenes from around the world click on Scenic Sunday.  Thanks to the Holleys's for hosting and thanks for stopping by to see my post. Have a great weekend and a Happy Sunday!