We drove down to Newport, Oregon on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010. It’s about a seven hour drive, basically straight down the I-5. Newport is right on the famed Oregon Coast. We  are staying in one of our timeshares, called the Embarcadero, right on the waterfront. In fact, you could jump off our balcony, right into the ocean!

The suite is very nice. It’s a two bedroom unit, and the upper bedroom is reached via a spiral staircase. It’s a large loft-style bedroom, with a huge king sized bed. There is a small “office” that opens onto the ocean view, and has a nice little desk, overlooking the living room downstairs as well. The bathrooms are HUGE – and I mean capital HUGE. Double sinks, huge soaker tub… the bathroom alone is bigger than our first apartment!

We can sit on our deck, and watch eagles and seagulls glide over our heads, swooping down on to the water every once in a while! Quite remarkable. We arrived here around 4 in the afternoon so we haven’t really had much time to scope the place out, but there is a huge dock here where people can “do some crabbing” and Pam fully intends to catch her limit!

We’re going to explore the aquarium today; it’s supposed to be one of the ten best in the USA. We’re hoping to get a round or two of golf in while we’re here too.

I have to talk for a second about the driving on the I-5 highway: all through Washington state, the vast majority of the people drove about 5 miles an hour under the limit. The speed limit is 70, but I put the car on cruise right at 70, and always caught up to people. Most people got out of the left lane, when they saw me approaching, but one or two would not. It’s clearly signed all along the road to “Be polite” and only use the left lane for passing, for slower traffic to use the right lane, but the odd person was just stubborn. Most of the way there were three lanes, so there was really no need to block the left lane. But Oregon – now that is a completely different matter! They are the rudest drivers I have ever met! WOW! They all drive about 10 miles under the limit, and drive in the left lane like they own it. Not one person vacated the left lane, even though they were driving so slow.

The view out our condo’s window. Pictured is the Yaquina Bay Bridge, designed by Conde B. McCullough, part of Highway 101.