Surprise, surprise......

 8:46 am - Saturday - November 7th - 46° F, 82% humidity, wind - CALM....heavy cloud cover, but no rain so far today, but later on this afternoon with a forecast high of 50° F.  On this date in 2017 we had finished our orientation for our job as cashiers at the Grand Canyon (Desert View), and were getting a view of the Grand Canyon.......↴

After being cooped up for 3 days due to almost continuous rain for that duration it was time for us to get out and see something we haven't seen before.  Over the many times we have driven US-101 in Oregon from the Washington/Oregon border to the Oregon/California border we have never even stopped in Depoe Bay, which is only 9 miles north of Newport.  Each time we have passed through we always commented about how cute the town was, and we should stop next time we were through, but next time never came until Friday.

We were in the Beetle heading northbound on US-101 a little after 11 am.  We could see that the ocean was still angry after 3 stays of storms, and the waves crashing into Seal Rock were enormous.  As we edged northward the highway began to dry out, and we even saw the sun a couple of times for very brief interludes.  We decided to start our tour of the Depoe Bay area at the north end of town at a large parking lot at a vista point for Boiler Bay......

There always seems to be one angry looking 

seagull wherever we go on the Oregon Coast

Boiler Bay

......on our way through town to the Boiler Bay Vista Point we passed an interesting restaurant located on the ocean side of US-101.  I'm not sure about you, but when we are looking for a place to dine on any coast, near a lake, or river we are always looking for a place which offers a direct view of the water.....Tidal Raves Seafood Grill fit that bill precisely, and they had garnered a 4 star rating on 808 reviews from Yelp, so the choice was obvious to us.....

....after our brief interlude at Boiler Bay we headed back to Tidal Raves arriving there just before 1 pm.....we snagged the second to last parking place in their lot, and managed to get the last table with within minutes.......we both ordered a glass of their Savignon Blanc..... 

.....checked out the view from our table......yup.....exactly that for which we were looking......

....we both opted to order salads......a salmon and roasted romaine salad for moi.......the salmon was melt in your mouth delicious.....the roasted romaine was dressed with a touch of Caesar dressing.....kind of like a deconstructed Caesar Salad.....

....and a Greek salad for TLE.......this is really a 'fine dining' restaurant, and me thinks we will return in the future to explore their dinner fare.....

I did not know this....

....and there it is

....the downtown area is about two blocks long and consists of a couple of eateries, but mostly touristy gift stores......

Internet photos

....and on stormy days such as was the case Friday you can get large waves hitting the seawall.....

......as we were walking around downtown, and along the seawall the temperature began to drop quickly, so we retreated to the warm confines of the VW and began our drive back south to Seal Rock.  Just south of Depoe Bay is a loop road called 'Otter Crest Loop', so we decided to take that route back to Newport, and we are so happy we did.....the views were quintessential Coastal Oregon........

Devil's Punch Bowl

Reminds me of some homes near Southwest Harbor, ME

.....we stopped one more time just north of Newport to capture a picture of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse from the north......

If you click on this picture to enlarge it you will see I  managed to catch the flash of the Fresnel lens

......we were home again a little after 3 pm.  I always have some expectation of how a day of exploring will turn out, and Friday was no exception.....I have to say the reality far exceeded the expectation.

It began raining just before we arrived back home, and we had no expectations of any sunset, but as it turned out those low expectations were quite dramatically exceeded.....

......what a magnificently wonderful, and surprising day Thursday turned out to be!

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