Coos Bay & Beach Time - Oregon

Winchester Bay, Oregon
Salmon Harbor Marina


The weather was spectacular for our last days here so on Friday after Steve was finished working we drove to Coos Bay for some dinner.

The white hills are not snow covered, these are the dunes.  They are the tallest dunes in the Oregon Dunes NRA.  We are about 4 miles south of Reedsport.  It's an ATV heaven.  We were thinking of renting ATVs or taking a tour, but it's very expensive and we didn't have time.

 

The bridge over the bay.

First you go through North Bend.  Strange that it's not by Bend?  Before we have dinner we were looking for a particular bar to say Hello to the owner.  She's the niece of the husband of the sister of one of my best friends.  Got that? 

The quirky hole-in-the-wall but very friendly bar is called, Walt's Pourhouse.  We went in to say Hello, but the owner, Natalie, wasn't in.  We left her a note instead and had a cocktail.  The drinks were delicious and the food looked so great we decided to get a Calamari appetizer.  It was all delicious. Then we decided to try a Vodka Oyster Shooter.  Diane opted out.  Me and the Steves didn't care for them and wished we'd passed too.  I'm sure they were good, we just didn't care for the taste.

Steve, Me, Steve & Diane

We drove around Coos Bay a bit and settled on High Tide Café.  It had a beautiful waterfront view from the back deck where we were seated.

The food was fantastic.  The clam chowder, shrimp, swordfish and the rest was outstanding!

 

The weather was still sunny and warm so the next day we headed off to the beach.  The guys wanted to do some reef fishing and Diane and I just wanted to sit on the warm sand and let the dogs run around and play.

The dogs of course had a blast!  They ran up and down the beach and in and out of the water, which was very cold!

Happy dog!

Practically no one out here!

Ruger found a deep spot and of course was in Heaven doing his doggy splashing thing again.  He can do this for hours!  Really.

Ruger is used to cold weather and has a longer coat.  Poor Hurley was freezing with his short hair.  He was shaking so bad I finally wrapped a beach towel around him like a cape.  He just sat in the sun and finally warmed up.

Ruger just rolled around in the sand happy as can be, not taking his eyes off my brother who was out in the surf fishing.

I wandered around taking pictures.

Hurley ran out with Steve and seemed concerned about him being out there.

Oh, it's cold, I think I'll go back and sit in the sun with Gramma!

Once the wind started kicking up and the guys were wet and frozen, we drove up to the lighthouse.

The above is an oyster bed.

  

They had a very nice museum next to it too with a cute gift shop.

It turned out to be a great week.  Even with the colder, windier weather we had some very nice parts of the day that were warm and sunny.  We fished and wandered around the towns and finished our last evening with some beer, wings and oysters at Double Ds.  More great seafood.  It's goodbye to the coast for now as we meander inland and spend the month in and around Bend.