Yachats Oregon Writer Rick Schultze

Nope I’m not cruising the neighborhood looking for trouble but rather cruising the neighborhood looking for neat places and interesting things. When I was a kid in Portland my neighborhood in North East Portland was pretty much limited to how far I could get by riding my bike or catching the bus. Needless to say my area of cruising wasn’t all that large but I had some favorite spots like the park near my house, the store down the street that had a big TV in the window and a speaker hooked up so you could stand on the sidewalk and watch and listen to the shows. Remember when I was a kid TV was still new!! I also had a little soda and ice cream shop not to far from home that when I’d managed to rustle up some change would provide me with a treat that always made me feel like a kid on top of the world. Since those days I’ve lived in many neighborhoods and my range has increased but I don’t think anything can compare to what I consider to be my neighborhood these days. A lot of that comes from the fact that as a writer for newspapers I go to a lot of places and meet a lot of people. So bouncing from one place to another here on the Central Oregon coast is something I do on a regular basis and after awhile I consider these little jaunts away from my home in Yachats to just be cruising the neighborhood which is what I did a few days ago. Since Yachats is small it’s a very fast cruise with a couple of stops here and there and then with my girlfriend Crystal Hayes, who also is a newspaper writer, it was off for the rest of the cruise. We went north to Newport then east out Yaquina Bay Road for a stop at the Oregon Oyster Farm. This is a very unique farm which was founded back in 1907 and is thriving today. From there it was eastbound to Toledo. A neat little town with a couple landmark spots like The Timbers and artist Michael Gibbons Signature Gallery. Still in a cruising mood it was back south to Seal Rock and the Nautical Store and Brian McEneny’s Marine and Wildlife Wood Carving Gallery. Then on to Waldport and a visit to the port and dock area before hitting the Hill Top Market at the top of the seawall for a treat. Back through Yachats and a quick stop at the lookout at the top of Cape Perpetua then on to Florence and a visit to old town and a walk around checking out the shops and doing a bit of people watching. Finally we took off east again out to Mapleton to view the beautiful changing of the leaves and a visit to Franks Place for their hamburger special. By then we’d worked up a fierce hunger and the burgers hit the spot providing fuel to propel us back to Yachats! As Mr. Rodgers used to say, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” and it was that day. Hopefully you too will get to enjoy whatever you consider to be your neighborhood and have a chance to cruise around it a bit; it can be a lot of fun and educational!! To reach Rick Schultze email: yarick@pioneer.net