Life in the Slow Lane (The Pearl): The Oregon Coast (Day 1)

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ―Lao Tzu

We’re home…the bags are unpacked, the laundry is done and now it’s time to work on catching up on the blog. I've realized in the last five days that blogging serves a whole other purpose besides sharing our adventures with others…it helps me remember where we've been and what we've done. I haven't written anything about our trip since we were in the Columbia River Gorge. The Oregon coast seems like a blur, one day has flowed into the next and I can't remember where we've been or what we've done. Good thing I have a lot of pictures to remind me.

I found it much harder to blog on this trip. I guess our travel pace is the reason, when we travel on the boat we’re always home. That makes things feel more relaxed and of course we cover a lot less distance each day…less things to see and do (and remember). It truly is “Life in the Slow Lane”. The last two weeks has been more like life in the fast lane…almost every day we were in a new location and a new hotel room. Which meant we never unpacked.

After hiking in the Columbia Gorge we spent the night in Portland and enjoyed one of their microbreweries. It seemed like a great town, but we decided to leave exploring it for another trip. On Tuesday October 13 we began our adventure down the Oregon coast. We had wonderful weather and enjoyed visiting lots of lighthouses (will post about them at another time), cute little towns and hiking. Each morning began with a little fog, just enough to soften the edges of the rocky coastline. The Oregon coast is a beautiful place.

Our first look at the coast near Depoe Bay

This is the inlet to Depoe Harbor. They say it's the smallest harbor in the world...not sure about that, but it definitely looks like the hardest one to get into. Very tight turns with rocks everywhere. The next three pictures take you from the ocean into the harbor.