Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Since our campsite offered internet access I decided to make use of it to catch up on a few days of blogging. At the same time the kids and Chantal started into some serious school work. That took up our morning. Then we set off after lunch to do some biking around the quaint town of Lincoln City. After that our plan was to do some whale watching in Depoe Bay. Once we found a parking spot near the ocean we pulled the bikes off the roof and started out along the city streets hugging the endless beach. What a gorgeous location. Of course, we had another cloudless, blue sky for enjoying our view, as we have come to expect. And enjoy the view we did. We ended up stopping many times along the way to check the different beach and ocean views that we came across. It was not what I would call a strenuous ride. It was more like we were coasting from one overlook to another. That is until we headed home and realized we had been going downhill the whole time. We also crossed what was billed as the shortest river in the world called ‘D’ River. It bridged the 100 yard gap between the ocean and a little lake. Technically I guess that is a river. This is where I spotted what I figure is the funkiest MoHo I have seen to date. Take a look at the picture to see what I mean. I talked to the guy who owned it and found out that the inside is set up like a huge bar with some fold down bunkbeds at the back. Excellent! I know my neighbour Mike would like this one! Also at one point we came along a place where there were a number of cars which had driven out onto the beach and parked. This traffic had packed the sand in that area into a solid and slightly moist surface which allowed us to ride our bikes right out onto the beach without sinking in. Cool! Unfortunately so was the water. Actually, it was freezing but the wind was pretty nice if you like sailing or flying kites. After spending a couple of days absorbing the beauty of this area Chantal and I decided that in-spite of the awesome ocean views available along the coast of Oregon, we probably would not choose to be a denizen here simply because it would be too frustrating to have to look at the ocean all year yet never be able to go for a dip without getting hypothermia. Did you notice how I said that like it was a real option available to us? We then returned to the car, packed up the bikes and headed to Depoe Bay for dinner at a seafood restaurant which was recommended to us by a fellow MoHo-er. On the way there we found this awesome "wave" that we just couldn't resist taking for a ride. (see pics at the bottom of this blog entry) The nice thing about Depoe Bay is that they have whales hanging in that area much of the year. And since these whales like to eat close to shore it is a perfect place to spot them. So we simply plopped down on a park bench and watched whales for a while. It is easy to spot these gray whales because you can see their blow spouts when they come up for air. We just followed the blow spouts to see where they were feeding. It is kind of fun to be able to do this from land and I must say it is a great way to pass some time … for instance, when you are waiting for a table at a restaurant. Then we were fortunate enough to catch the sunset in the ocean-side restaurant while we were enjoying dinner. Finally we headed home for some slumber after another wonderful day on the Oregon coast.



Today’s word:

denizen \DEN-uh-zuhn\, noun:
1. A dweller; an inhabitant.
2. One that frequents a particular place.
3. [Chiefly British] An alien granted certain rights of citizenship.4. An animal, plant, etc. that has become naturalized.