The year was 2004, my son and I ventured out west from Wisconsin to attend a log home building course in Everett Washington, having never been in the Pacifica Northwest, this was a great excuse for a road trip. We ventured through the Dakotas to see Mt. Rushmore, then on to Montana, and the excitement only grew when we hit Idaho and into Eastern Washington. We hit a snow storm coming out if the cascades into Seattle, the roadway was littered with semi’s, parked along the shoulder to avoid sliding down the mountain. Soon, the snow turned to rain and we were close to our destination.
After venturing down the 101, we decided to drive the entire Oregon Coast, it was December and the winds were rocking, my son was only 11 at the time and the wind almost blew his clothes off, we were at a lookout at Mt Hebo, one of the highest points along the coast, it was amazing. We made our way to Lincoln City, where we saw seals for the first time at the three sisters rocks, in the Siletz bay, as we ventured to Depoe Bay we stopped to view the spouting horn, my son go too close and was soaked on the first burst of sea spray. We managed to change in the public restroom and we were off, stopping at places like Seal Rock, Battle Rock Beach, Pistol River. It was the most amazing part of the trip which also included Bryce Canyon on the way back to Wisconsin.
After getting back home and showing the photos of our trip to friend s and family, it was clear that the Oregon Coast was the most scenic and interesting if the whole trip, the next spring I took the trip with my younger son and centered our trip around crabbing. We had stayed in Yachats, in a hotel with a lighthouse room, and it was here my son saw a brochure for crabbing. We went looking for this so called crabbing and ended up talking to a seafood vendor in Lincoln city, he has an unusual bicycle in front that he cycled in South Africa with, he directed us to the best crabbing on the Coast - Waldport, this was our first introduction to this tiny town that site at the mouth of the Alsea Bay. We went to the docks and rented crab rings and bait and started catching crabs, we got some tips from the couple who ran the store at the docks, and soon enough we were having fun crabbin’. My son had fallen into the water off the dock, and that ended our little adventure.
That following summer, the whole family borrowed a camper trailer and camped at Seal Rock campground. We ended up renting a boat to go crabbing and spent many days on the docks, we were getting know the town as well. The next year, I ended up doing two trips that summer, and both times we camped again at seal rock. We saw our first whale and got to explore the areas from Florence to Pacific City, taking lots of pictures and building up a portfolio of epic shots.
One day, there was a parade for beachcombers days in Waldport, my son had gotten a leather jacket in Depot bay and had filled it with trinkets from all parts of our trip out west. We sat at a park and watched the parade, we then went off to view the booths and vendors along the streets behind the park, but then we noticed we left our jackets at the park. What to do? We frantically looked around and nothing in site, so we passed out cards at the local businesses hoping to get a call that someone had found our jackets, to our surprise we went back to the park and a couple was walking around, circling the area with our jackets, they had been walking in circles for two hours hoping to find us. It was then that we fell in love with the people of Waldport. Two years later I took a job in Eugene, and even though the commute was almost 90 miles, my sone insisted that we live in Waldport, and so we did. The rest of the family came out a month later and my oldest son came a year later after finishing high school in Wisconsin. For 3 years we lived the life in Waldport and experienced the beauty first hand and the warmth of the people. We made many friends and this book is dedicated to those people.
