8-31-2016 Barview, OR

We just completed a 4-night stay with Jim and Liz, snowbird pickleball friends, parked at their site in Barview Jetty County Park.  Jim and Liz are “park hosts” and have a huge site sitting at the edge of the jetty looking out on Tillamook Bay, certainly the most strategically perfect one, private and quiet with the perfect view.

View of Tillamook
Bay from B2

 

Rob and B2 

We backed B2 into the adjacent space, hooked up and set the lawn chairs around the fire pit while Jim explained some of the geography here as he performed his favorite activity:  cleaning crabs.

Jim and Liz at work

While Liz and Jim performed their daily park duties, they suggested things to do and see.  We drove out onto the south jetty as far as possible and then walked a  short distance.  The breakers can be a little brutal out beyond but the jetties keep the seas a bit calmer toward the shores.  Next, we hit the DeGarde Brewery and found that they have a bar that serves up 6 oz. tastes of the many tart brews. 

Menu at DeGarde Brewery

We sat on the patio in the warm sun and took a sip.  Tart, indeed.  It made my cheeks pucker, holy buckets! 

We came to realize that we had been this way before in 2013, and had seen the lighthouses, the Tillamook Cheese Factory and some of the restaurants and seafood markets.  Since we knew we couldn’t go wrong, we randomly chose great places for lunches.  On August 28, the day I turned nearly 70 (Oh, I just round up.), the Trollers restaurant provided my lunch of steamer clams.  There were so many I counted them, 63 clams!  What a birthday treat!  In the evening, Jim and Liz joined us at Pirate’s Cove for dinner at a table with a big picture window looking out to the bay.  Slowly, the sun set and the fishing boats sailed in to port for the evening.  A dreamy setting and a great way to spend my 68^th!

We four at Pirate's Cove

At the end of the peninsula across the bay, the dream of T. B. Potter, a real estate investor from KS, came to life for awhile beginning in 1906.  His idea was to build a resort community that would become the “Atlantic City of the West.”  Folks who liked the idea of an isolated vacation retreat bought in and the community began to take shape.  Development was a success with a post office, “natatorium (indoor swimming pool with wave-maker and a stage for live music),” a 3-story hotel, bowling alley, bakery, 4 miles of pavement and a narrow gauge railroad.  By 1914, 600 building lots had been sold and 2,000 rich people spent leisure time at Bay Ocean, OR. 

The main way to get to the resort was via Potter’s steamship,  the SS Bayocean.  It was a 3-day trip from Portland and the approach to the peninsula was scary so the people asked the feds to build a breakwater.  The gov’t engineers advised 2 jetties at a cost of $2.2M, half of which cost would be their responsibility.  They didn’t want to fork over that much so they paid $400K for one jetty (total cost $800K).  It was a calmer, less scary trip to the peninsula for the residents.  However, the ocean’s wave action was altered and the beaches began to erode noticeably.  Well, what’s a little erosion if you can save yourselves $700K, right?  Hold on, stay with me.  By 1932, the natatorium was destroyed. 

Oops... dang!

By 1949, 20 homes had been swept into the sea.  Storms ate away the skinniest connector and Bay Ocean became an island. 

You can't buy "smart."

Several severe storms finished the job and by 1960, the last structure standing, a garage, was swept away.  Eventually, by 1970, a second jetty was constructed and the sea action began rebuilding the shoreline, once again restoring the area to a peninsula a day late and a dollar short.  Today, not a trace of Bay Ocean exists except markers, almost like tombstones. 

We’re back to “dream” status.  Mother Nature made it abundantly clear that she did not want a resort on her peninsula!  As Elizabeth Huelsdonk Fletcher might have exclaimed, “Stay out!  Go away!”

Bay Ocean used to be right here

Jim and Liz light a campfire almost every evening.  In the evening on 8-28 around the fire, it was agreed that tomorrow would be a fishing day.  Jim studied the tides and said we should start getting ready to go at roughly 5:15.  I gasped, “In the morning?!”  Thinking it through later, I realized that there are only two 5:15s in a day and Jim surely did not mean Pee Em!  Couple that with one other problem:  no bathroom on Jim’s boat and I am 70 (rounded up).  Being old means, well, let’s go there.  Often.  One thing became clear:  Rob and Jim were going fishing at 5:30 Ay Em.  Rob arose in the cold dark and dressed in layers, all at the same time.  A shirt, sweatshirt, fleece jacket and weather-proof parka.  I, on the other hand, kissed him good bye, wished him luck and went back to bed.  Or possibly the bathroom and then back to bed.  Jim and Rob were on the ocean until 2PM and the results were dismal.  No fish.  Which is OK, right?  I have to agree with Dave Barry, “Fishing is fun.  Until you catch one, then it’s just gross.”  The fish market is where you get a fish.  With no head or guts attached.  Rob bought a one-day fishing license and Jim said it was probably not necessary because he had never been checked, not once.  Guess what.  On this particular day, the OR State Police came by and said, “Keep fishin,’ but show us two tickets!”  Liz and I could see the boat sailing up and down the bay and at one point, Rob called me from the boat and I stood on the jetty and gave the boys a wave!  (“A wave,” get it?)  It was cold, windy and choppy but even though they came back empty-handed, Rob was grinning and thrilled that he’d been out fishin!’ 

The Ancient Mariners, happy as clams!

Camp

Liz, Jim and Mister Oyster

Marnel and Grubby showed up on Monday the 29^th to have dinner and wish me, “Happy Birthday!”  Inserted in the greeting card was a lottery scratcher.  I scratched it and found that I had won $50!  Hurray!  For dinner the next evening, we stopped at a fishery and obtained a big sack of live oysters.  Jim shucked them and we all ate raw oysters on the half shell until we dropped.  Then we moved on to crab cocktails.  Jim and Liz do it right and it’s all good for Lucky Lindy and Rob!  Thank you to everyone who made my special days so happy!

Shucking oysters, oysters, oysters!  Yay!

This is how a 70 year old properly eats crab cocktail!
(Oh, I round up.)