Up to Newport, we had travelled 409 Miles (659 kms) from Seattle.
In Newport we stayed for two nights at a place called the Sylvia Beach Hotel. Instead of room numbers, here you have room authors. So there is the Agatha Christie room, the Jane Austen room, the Robert Louis Stevenson room, and so on. We were given the chance to poke round before choosing our room, and we settled on the Tolkein room, which featured a huge bed on a four-poster frame made of tree branches and with vines crawling over it.
We settled in and, after a quick meal at the pub across the road, went up to the top floor to sit in front of the fire and read from the huge collection of books there. There were just 4 other guests, so it was lovely, peaceful and quiet, with just some excitable cats around to entertainment.
The following morning, we headed back to Depoe Bay, a small town just north of Newport. We strolled through the tourist shops and along the waterfront before spending a little too much time finding out just what salt water taffy really was. We still don't really know, but it is pretty delicious! The marionberry (a local berry like a blackberry/raspberry cross), which we had just tried the night before, remained our favourite.
The afternoon was spent taking care of small jobs like laundry, checking our next stops (no internet at Sylvia Beach), etc, and then a walk along the bayfront with some local seafood at the cafe there.
That night, we were the only ones in the hotel, so we watched the sunset, made a roaring fire and curled up with our books for several hours. Fabulous!!!
