Sightseeing in a Gale

It's Sunday and we thought we should get out a see a bit more of the surroundings. Steady wind-driven rain seemed to preclude just about every activity expect a driving tour: we headed north of Newport to check out together the Yaquina Head Lighthouse that I had been by yesterday on the bike ride. It was wild! At the lighthouse itself the wind was steady at 40mph, gusting to 65. Even at the visitors center, back a half mile in the shelter of a hill, the wind was still so fierce that everyone inside the building was preoccupied with the noise of the weather battering the roof. Further north, we stopped for lunch (Nancy had some very good chowder) and then on to Lincoln City, the next town of size (7,000) north of Newport, where we stumbled into a substantial outlet mall. Some light shopping later, we headed home.



I boosted this image off the web. It was nothing like this when we saw it. We would have taken our own photo, but we were afraid that if we opened the car doors the wind would tear them off.