The Ocean, some Punch, and Shells in Stone

On President’s Day, we were invited by Ivan and Terry to spend the night at a timeshare condo in Depoe Bay, OR. We had a great time there. We left early Monday morning, and came home Tuesday afternoon.

We met up with my dad in Lincoln City. While waiting I took the opportunity to look at the the “world’s shortest river.” This is the D River. Depending who you talk to, this river is about 400 ft. long, or 120 ft. at high tide. However you measure it, the picture below is taken from the middle and you can see both ends (the tide was low).

This is the mouth of the D River:

After meeting up, we headed south to Otter Rock and Devil’s Punch Bowl view point. This is a place I really like and remember coming here several times when I was kid. The Punch Bowl is a large hole in the cliffs carved by the elements and erosion. I like it because there are some sea arches where the waves crash through.

The weather lately had been wintery, but this day on the beach was very nice. There was beautiful sun and only one phantom rain cloud (well, something rained on us for several minutes). It was also a wonderful temperature: mid-40’s. The sun made the water all kinds of colors.

We then went to the beach just south of Devil’s Punch Bowl, called Beverly Beach. We like this beach because it is usually empty of people and fossils are easily found there.

Ruth is enjoyed the warm February day and the cliffs by the beach.

Here are some close-ups of the fossils. Recent storms had taken off many layers of earth and lots of fossils were visible (all the white dots). The fossils here mostly consist of clams and mussels, with other shells mixed in. There were even impressions of much larger shells that had crumbled away, like the one in the bottom right.

Here are the four of us on the beach. This picture attempt went better than the one where the wave snuck up on us.

Dinner was a delicious stop at Mo’s:

Ruth and I then took a nice stroll in Depoe Bay and got some taffy. The city sits on some nice cliffs and rocks and has the world’s smallest harbor.

This was the view behind the place we stayed. Though it was cold, it was fun to watch the waves on the rocks.

And this was only the first day…