Oh what a wonder lighthouses can be!

On Monday, Garrett and I were keen to get going down the coast! We woke up to a foggy sky and were excited to see the fog on the coast before the sun burned it off. We quickly packed up and headed out, driving only 2 minutes before we saw the broad expanse of sandy beach at Lincoln City.We parked the car and headed out onto the sand, exploring with childlike glee in the misty, magical morning sun. Garrett ran over to touch the ocean:
We walked along the beach for 15 minutes or so, enjoying the peacefulness and the power of the waves.
The seagulls were typical compared to those all over the west coast, but seemed quite wary of humans, suggesting they hadn't really been fed by people (which is good!).
Bird prints:
Finally, we turned back and headed towards the car, admiring the fancy hotels and B&B's on the waterfront along the way.
We climbed back in the car and headed south on Highway 101, the scenic byway along the coast. We didn't make it very far before we stopped to take some more pictures of interesting beaches:


Farther down the coast, we made another stop at a small park to take in the view once more. Here, the cliffs had started to grow taller and we looked down on the coast.
We watched an older couple wander down the beach, enjoying the day as we were.
After this short stop, we continued on to a spectacular viewpoint, called Boiler Bay Viewpoint. The coastline here was fantastically beautiful in the morning sunshine, and we spent a great deal of time taking pictures. This is looking north along the coast:


And this is looking south, towards an ever increasing rocky coast.
In addition to the landscape, Boiler Bay Viewpoint was rife with wildlife. We were so excited to see all the seagulls who had made a home at this location. Look, seagulls!
Just joking - we weren't very excited about seagulls, although I do think they are cute and they are easy to take photos of, since they sit pretty still. Actually, what we were most excited about were the OTHER birds and....the whales!!
Oh wait, this is kelp. Well, the kelp was pretty cool too. Ok, here are the whales!!
Can you see him? He's a grey whale.
Well, at least you can see the spray of water above the grey bump in the water.
Look, there's his tail as he goes under again! Actually, we spent a lot of time watching for whales all along the coast that day, and saw several over the course of the day. However, it's pretty tricky to get a quick shot of them, so those were the best we got (although I WAS impressed that Garrett got some shots at all!).

We also saw cormorants and pelicans. We didn't get any shots of the cormorants, but the pelicans flew around a lot more, so we got some half decent shots of them.



After spending at least 45 minutes there, we finally dragged ourselves onwards. The next viewpoint we stopped at was called Rocky Creek viewpoint. We saw some more whales, but they were farther away from us than at the other viewpoint, so not pictures. We tried to take a picture of us together with the ocean in the background, but this was the best we managed.
Once we set up the camera on a rock and turned on the timer, we did a little better:
After watching the waves for awhile, we headed onwards once more.
We stopped briefly at another viewpoint (unknown name!) that was quite high up, and got some neat shots of the fog over the coast.

There was a neat rock island off the short, too.
The next place we stopped at was called "Devil's Churn". We had to walk down a long ways down a nicely groomed path, but it was worth the walk.
That's where we're going, down there!
And now we've made it! Woosh! Look at those waves! They are big!
Devil's Churn is called such because the waves come rushing into this slit in the rocks and pound the shore, frothing and churning.
We took turns sitting on a rock while the other took a picture with the waves crashing behind. I pulled mine off without a hitch, sitting nice and forward, but when it was Garrett's turn, he turned around to look at the waves. I yelled "Turn around quick!" and he whipped around right as I took the shot. That's why he looks a little funny in the below picture.


After this, we drove more steadily for awhile, gaining some distance. As we drove, however, the fog also got thicker and rolled in closer to shore, so our vision was pretty limited for any further views. We reached Newport just after lunch, grabbing a Starbucks and a few supplies before we continued on our way. Onwards we went, through Florence and just a bit south, where we stopped at the Heceta Head Lighthouse. We had to walk about a mile to get to it. The fog was still every present, but added to the mystery of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was built in 1892, and continues running at night to this day. It's unique signal projects a white beam every 10 seconds.
The lighthouse is a little rundown from the years it has weathered, but still very picturesque.
We went on a tour of the inside, wandering into the brick interior.
The stairs spiral around the inside, as expected. Here, we learned a lot about the old time lighthouse keepers, and how they would have to carry the fuel all the way to the top all the time. We learned that the glass lenses for the lighthouse are super expensive and the lighthouse keepers would have to be very careful not to scratch them. We also learned that before electricity, the big weight hanging down the middle of the stairs (see below) was what would drive the mechanism to rotate the lenses. The lighthouse keeper would wind it up to the top of the lighthouse, and as it slowly moved down towards the earth, it would power the rotation mechanism.
We also learned that the lights are from from an hour before dark until an hour after dark, and that you can see the beams 22 miles away at a height of 15 feet above sea level.
We climbed to the top and saw the rotation mechanism.
And the lenses. The light is now powered by electricity and is mercury based. I think it generates 80,000 candles, but I can't really remember if that's right.
This was the lighthouse keeper's house, back in the day. Now it is a bed and breakfast.

We continued on after Heceta Head, passing through Dune City and all of the dunes without really stopping. We took some pictures from the car:


We finished our day at the Umpqua Lighthouse, and actually stayed at the campsite right near there. We visited the lighthouse during the day, but headed back that night to check it out.
When we returned to see the lighthouse, we were amazed at how awesome it was at night! It was just beautiful!It lit up the night and the forest like a magical story.
Garrett set up his camera tripod and got some great shots.
Here's a video of the live lighthouse. At the end, I turned out to watch the beams going into the fog, and that didn't show up at all, so once that happens, you can stop the video.