Oregon Coast: Tidepools, Sea Lions, and Shellfish

This is our spot for the next few days at Sea Perch RV Resort, and boy is it lovely:

We're here with our fabulous new friend Barry Yeoman. (He's a writer doing a story about living in Airstreams and he's spending a couple days hanging out with us here on the Oregon Coast). We've had such a great time with him so far. Last night we grilled up some fresh salmon and after dinner we all went night tidepooling with flashlights and headlamps just out from our campsite. 

This morning after breakfast we did a little more story-telling and note-taking and then decided to do a bit of sightseeing. But first, Kevin got the quadcopter out and took Barry on a virtual ride out over the beach in front of our spot:

Next, we headed up the coast a bit to Strawberry Hill beach for a little more tidepooling — in the daylight this time. It was low tide (or close) and this place was a total payoff. Sea urchins, starfish, sea anemones, crab, fish…. Here are way too many tidepool photos for you:

After climbing all over the rocks and slipping on kelp for a while we headed into the town of Yachats to grab some lunch (fish tacos, oysters and chips…all very good) at Luna Sea Fish House. We got some Willapa Bay clams for dinner (with a plan to find some fresh oysters we could shuck and smoke) for dinner tonight.

After lunch we headed south toward Florence, picked up some oysters, then checked out the Sea Lion Caves just north of Florence.

This is the Heceta Head Lighthouse:

Scotch broom, yellowing up all the hillsides down here:

Heceta Head Lighthouse from the Sea Lion Caves:

The sea lions at this time of year apparently prefer to chill on the rocks outside the cave:

We're back at camp now and Kevin just shucked the oysters and we've got them smoking on the Traeger for a couple hours with a splash of 10 Barrel Sinistor Black Ale and some garlic olive oil. I'll do the clams with white wine and garlic and make a big salad and we'll have ourselves a nice fresh seafood dinner tonight.

Smokin: