9/25/10 Saturday night in Winchester Bay is a quiet place. This is pleasant because it means the wind isn't blowing. Tonight was the RoVing Rods prime rib dinner at the Eagles Club in Reedsport. The meal was good and there was going to be live music afterwards. But in between there was an auction of a bunch of baked goods in order to raise money for the local scholarship fund. Very few of our RR members stayed around for it, and eventually we left too. Our Boomer friend and computer guru, Padraic brought his wife, Willie, and below is their picture. They have been staying at an RV park in Coos Bay, so they did not stay here with the RR's this week. Padraic has been driving over to crab with us and he also fixed my infected computer, which I greatly appreciated.

The last update I did was when we were getting ready to host Elaine's long-time friend Elaine Lewter. The unfortunate thing was that we had some of our worst weather during her visit. Luckily, she didn't have any great expectations and during the early part of the week, we continued to catch and process crab and have some social times with friends here. Towards the weekend, we pulled our crab traps in so we could do some day trips to show her some other parts of the Oregon coast. On Saturday, Carole, Elaine and I took her to Shore Acres State Park which has an enclosed viewing area overlooking the shoreline, where we wanted to have an indoor picnic since it was a rainy day. This is a picture of us with Elaine in the enclosure:

The view overlooking the shore line was impressive because of the unique rock formations:

Here there are also some beautiful gardens. Once the grand estate of pioneer timber baron Louis Simpson, Shore Acres features lushly planted gardens with plants and flowers from all over the world. Something is in bloom almost every day of the year. There are a few buildings left over from the estate nestled among the varied bedding plants

a greenhouse with some exotic plants,

and an Oriental pond with some metal sculptures and water plants:

We also drove to some of the other state parks and viewpoints further south but we couldn't see nearly as much as when we had done this with Lee & Susie because of the rainy weather.
The next day we caught a break in the weather so we drove Elaine to Bandon, a little town south on the coast near the Coquille River. There are lots of attractions nearby such as a wild animal game park, golf courses, a lighthouse, but we just wanted to have lunch and wander around the Old Town. First we walked along the waterfront, which has been very well done and is such a pleasant place to stroll. Here we are in front of some of the wooden carvings there:


Eventually we had lunch at La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant right along the waterfront and had a delicious and filling lunch for only $5 each. Afterwards we visited the Cranberry candy shop where we ate lots of samples and Elaine bought some gifts to take back to Michigan. There are lots of interesting little gift shops so we visited a few, and then took Elaine around the point to the cliff overlooking the beach where there were lots of rock formations in the water:

While Elaine was here, Dick and Carole were very good about having us all over for dinner and making her feel welcome:

The day we drove her back to Portland, we stopped to take some pictures at the Elk viewing area which is just outside Reedsport, on highway 38. There were lots of Elk lying around on the grass of the federally protected area, so she was able to get some good shots.

Once Elaine left, we started crabbing again and I was fortunate enough to catch another crab with a tag for the Crab Bounty Contest - this time #7. Here is a picture of me with the crab (look for the little green tag hanging from his leg):

Padraic also started to come over for crabbing and here is a picture of us together:

Now that the RoVing Rod event is in full swing, we have been having happy hours, a crab potluck, and other gatherings. The members have been catching and sharing LOTS of crab! The weather was rainy on the day of the crab potluck so we rented the community center and held it inside, a very smart move. The food was delicious and there was even entertainment because Dick played the piano:

He is an excellent pianist and everyone enjoyed his playing, with some people even singing along or dancing. We sat at a table with all of the Boomer friends, and here is the picture, which includes Jenny and Dan Shepherd, Padraic, Dick & Carole, and us:

I will end this posting with this picture which was taken the other day when we had once of the nicest days we have ever had here: