We started our Saturday with breakfast at the Humble Bagel, which is quickly becoming my favorite breakfast place in Eugene, mostly due to the enormous quantities of marionberry cream cheese they generously slather on my whole wheat cinnamon raisin honey bagel. Oh, so good. I’m drooling a little bit.
After carbo-loading, we headed west to the ocean to give Eric’s family a taste of the Oregon coastline. Now, living in San Diego, I’m sure they get their fill of the Pacific, but can anyone really get tired of the ocean? I don’t think so. We drove straight west to Florence, Oregon, where we stopped at this overlook with views of Heceta Head Lighthouse. The last time we visited, the lighthouse was covered in scaffolding, so it was much prettier this time around. And I’m so glad we got some sunshine to help show off the Oregon coast!
We drove a few minutes up the road to Devil’s Elbow State Park, where we played on the beach.
From there, we headed north, once again, to Yachats, Oregon. Now, technically this is pronounced “Yah-hahts,” but I prefer to call it “Yak-its,” much to Eric’s disapproval. Whatever you want to call it, this place was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it’s a tsunami danger zone, so that probably takes it off the list of places I want to live, but if I ever get over my fear of natural disasters, I’d like to buy the oceanfront home below.
From Yachats, we headed up to Seal Rock State Park. This place was crazy. If you look out at the ocean, you see these enormous rocks that are apparently popular places for seals and sea lions to gather. But if you look back at the land, it almost looks like a desert. Crazy.
Next up, we headed to our destination city for the day: Newport, Oregon. We’ve heard lots of good things about Newport. In fact, I think this is the city that everyone around here mentions when they talk about the coast. We didn’t get to do a whole lot here because a storm was rolling in, but if the food is any indication of this town’s quality, we’ll definitely have to come back for more.
We stopped at Yaquina Bay Lighthouse for some sight-seeing before heading to dinner at Local Ocean.
Local Ocean was recommended by everyone who has ever been to Newport. And for good reason. The seafood restaurant is right on the bay, and it definitely takes advantage of the views with its wall of windows. Gorgeous. And the food was awesome. I had a crab po-boy with bacon. Oh my goodness. So delicious. Are people combining seafood and bacon all around the world? If not, jump on this train, people. It’s a good one. It was a little spendy (see that Oregonism I just threw in there?), but I guess that’s typical with seafood. And this stuff was fresh. We saw the fisherman come into the restaurant fresh from the boat in his bright orange fishing outfit (is there a special name for those things?). Good stuff, my friends.
We made our way back to Eugene in the rain, thankful for sunshine and the ocean. Not a bad way to be.
-Ally
Betsy says
So grateful for the few hours of sunshine we had for Beach Day! Oh my, Cute-Little-Ally! You DO you love your bacon!! I’ll have to send you the recipe for bacon wrapped turkey I found!!