Scenes from the Oregon Coast Steam Train

FIRST NOTE... You can left click on a picture to enlarge it, and then hit the Esc key to return.  I'm not sure about the first picture which I stole from the OCST website.

Yesterday Becky and I did our budgeted "One Day A Year Touristy Outing" by hopping aboard the Oregon Coast Steam Train that runs between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach some 7 or 8 miles up the coast.  At 15mph it's a 30 minute train ride and to quote a anonymous six year old fellow passenger.."this is the funnest thing ever".

So most of the following pics will go on their own merit.  Enough said..

"Hollywood" has nothing on "G"aribaldi!

That's our RV Park

One of my fishing / crabbing piers

This young lady seemed to enjoy the train as is passed by

 The KIDS really, really enjoyed the ride.  Becky and I really, really enjoyed the ride!

The locals call this "White Rock" - can you figure out why?

Seeing the marker buoys reminded me of being in Maine - but these are Dungeness Crab Pots

Pretty sure this is a fresh water lake - but just beyond the trees is the Pacific

Can you see the "subjects" of this picture?  If not go to the next picture and enlarge it.

How Becky spotted this family is beyond me.. but I was able to get a quick shot of them!

A hint of an upscale housing development caught between the lake and the deep blue sea - nice!

Just pulling into the end of the line - Rockaway Beach - this guy has a twin at the station ahead!

Rockaway Beach Main (Only) Drag

Don't know if Jesus was here ... but those sure are Holy Rocks in the background!

A picture is worth 1,000 words - right?  Well in this case... This picture needs a few words.  The two characters with Becky are Alice and Lee.  We met them back in February 2009 when we pulled into our very first RV Park in Port Aransas, Texas.   Alice and Lee had just bought their first "fulltiming" 5th Wheel RV - the same rig as ours.  There was another new to fulltiming couple there also, Bob and Donna, also with their rig identical to ours.  So the six of us hit it off pretty well and we have kept in touch through the past 3+ years.  Anyway.... Alice and Lee were visiting family here in Oregon, about an hour or so away and decided to surprise us with an unannounced visit.  Of course as I mentioned, Becky and I were off on our once a year touristy thing so they called us, drove up to Rockaway Beach, and we visited there at the train station as we waited for the train back to Garibaldi.  Whew..... that comes close to 1,000 words doesn't it?  Any case, thanks for the visit and we hope to see yas down the road again.

End of the line arrival.  End of the line is appropriately named because there is no "turn around" for the train (for us Railroad Engineers it's called a Round-about).  And so the return trip to Garibaldi is backwards.

And that's all I've got to say about that!

Around Camp

Here's a bunch of pictures taken from around camp and fishing in the immediate area - :  Tillamook Bay headwaters and Jetty.

L-R:  Sherry K, Darold B, Becky, Doug K, Linda B

Ya don't get a whole lots of really pleasant sunny / partly cloudy days so Becky took advantage of this one and announced a Happy Hour gathering.  Cheryl from our immediate camp right also joined by timed her arrival until after the cameras were put away.

Here's Becky ..." I swear my chocolate cheese cake only has 5 calories!".

Doug takin care of business - Jenny Craig's business!

These two pictures are my absolute favorite - I couldn't help but add some text to them!

A pair of Eagles have a nest up on the hill side a few hundred yards from our camp.

The Oregon Coast Scenic Steam Train runs between Garibaldi and Rock-a-Way Beach just up the coast 10 miles or so. The sight and sound are really nostalgic.  It only runs on weekends this time of year.  Becky and I are going to go for a ride Saturday.  We'd better because this one coming will be our last full one here in Garibaldi.

A few Harbor Seals showed up in our little corner of the bay.  Hard to snap a picture as they kept their distance.  This guy is about 200 feet away

The color announces the end of the Happy Hour

Every so often unexpected color appears and catches my eye

And so... to the fishing!  Here is the largest Ling Cod - 40 inches tip to tail.  Well OK... it was only 34 inches - but that's a monster for that species.  And pretty good, good, very good, most excellent in the oven, pan, or breaded and deep fried.  Matter of fact, many restaurants charge extra for Fish'n'Chip using Cod.

I happened to hook this one but let me tell you something about an inexperienced fisherman (me for this type of fishing) tagging along with an experience fisherman (that'd be Doug).  It was Doug's boat, rod, reel, terminal tackle, expertise and boat handling that really caught that fish - all I did was hold the rod, crank the handle on the reel... and MOST importantly... I wore my "Lucky Hat".

Doug's wife, Sherry is AMAZING.  When we return to the harbor from fishing, Doug gives her a call and by the time we arrive at the boat ramp she already has the trailer back into the water to exactly the right depth (in case you don't know - that is super important to proper boat loading).  Once the boat is on the trailer she is standing by to attach the bow strap and before ya know it drives us over to the fish cleaning station.

Here I am handing Doug the fish from the box.  Above - 3 Ling Cod

You always save the biggest for last and here it is - a catch of a lifetime

My arms and hands were so sore Doug had to hold our LIMIT (2 each) of Ling Cod.  In the picture below Becky and I are taking a closer look at the TEETH in their mouth.  I should have taken a close up but didn't.  I also found out that Ling Cod can BITE you even when you're holding then through the gills.

Well,  good friends and great fishing.  Oregon - what a coast!

Fishing with Garibaldi Charters

Well, I've quit trying to use "Snapfish" and "Picasa" because of all the issues with folks trying to open one or the other, or having to sign-up to view pictures so to heck with them.  If you're reading this then you'll now learn that I am going to be posting all future picture to my blog.  The best part of this is that if you don't want to read stuff I write you don't have to... I'll be annotating pictures so they will truly speak those thousand words...

Here's the first....

I went out into the Pacific with Garibaldi Charters (Oregon) on their light tackle bottom fishing trip.  Ya know... I didn't think to take pictures of the limit (7) of Black Sea Bass I caught but a word of this type of fish in passing... the BEST Fish'n'Chips I have ever had are made with Black Sea Bass.

So here's some pictures of the trip

As it turned out we trapped about 60 keeper crabs, enough for 4 crabs for each fisherman.  There was a family of 8 fishing on the boat (4 kids, Mom and Dad, Gram and Grampa).  So they walked away with a ton of fish AND 32 CRABS.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh....

Wishing you all a very merry "Charlie Brown Christmas"