Oakridge, OR

Have uke, will travel.

The annual Oakridge ukulele festival was this weekend, and several players

 were staying in our RV park, Casey's Riverside, in nearby Westfir.

The longest covered bridge in OR is here, built in 1945.

It's called the Office Bridge because it led to the office of a logging company.

It certainly looks sturdy enough, lots of heavy timber.

Blackberries, the scourge of the Pacific NW, thrive at either end of the bridge.  I spent 1000s of hours fighting the damned things when  I lived in WA and OR.  Machetes, hedge trimmers and weed whackers were the weapons of choice; if you timed it just right, Roundup was effective.  For awhile.

A local tourism rag touts Salt Creek Falls, just off OR 58, as being the second highest waterfall (286') in OR.  Whoever wrote the article is full of crap; it's not even in the top 10.  Here's a list of OR waterfalls in height-order: http://www.worldwaterfalldatabase.com/region-tallest-waterfalls/United-States/Oregon/

Restaurant Review

Brewers Union Local 180, Tripadvisor ranked # 1 for eateries in Oakridge,  

We had fish and chips, and I had one of their brews.  The fish had enough grease to lube the axles of a medium-length freight train, and had a nasty aftertaste.  The ale was tepid.  Numerous flies added to the fine ambiance, obviously quite fond of the place and, I suspect, instrumental in Tripadvisor's high ranking of this dining disaster.

Newport, OR

Newport is my favorite coast town of the Pacific NW.  It owes its existence and success to Yaquina Bay, a sizable natural harbor at the mouth of the Yaquina River.  The Coast Highway (101) crosses the bay via a grand, scenic bridge, the subject of many paintings and photographs.  The Bay is home to commercial and charter fishing and crabbing ventures, a marina, NOAA’s Pacific Ocean operations center, an aquarium, Oregon State U’s marine science center, Rogue Brewing and several good restaurants.   

We’re at South Beach State Park, just south of the Bay.  It has 287 campsites and 27 yurts, plus hiker/biker and group sites, all occupied.  A virtual and endless parade of RVs, cars, trucks, cyclists and walkers passes our campsite every day, all day, way too busy for our taste.  This is our first and last stay at this Park.

We had lunch at the Rogue Brewery (above), did the taster tray of 4 craft ales: jalapeno, rye, American, IRA Irish red.  I had the clam strip basket; T had Kobi Meatballs.  Huh?  There’s several kinds of fresh seafood to be had and she orders freakin’ meatballs?  Criminal!   

 

A woman in scuba gear cleaning the glass in the aquarium ‘tunnel walk’.

‘We all live in a yellow submarine’ – but not this one, kinda small.  There was no information about the sub but it's definitely not state of the art; 50 years old I'm guessing.  This pix and the one below were taken at the OSU Marine Science Center.

A piece of the dock from the Japanese tsunami of 2011, part of a much larger piece that drifted across the Pacific and ended up on the Oregon coast.

The flip side of the bridge.

It tiptoes across the Bay like the diminishing arches of a well-thrown skipping stone.

Taken from the same overlook as the bridge picture above, 180 degrees opposite, 

you see the long breakwater and the ocean beyond.