Day Four

Hello all, day four is here!  First off, we went to a Starbucks and I was told that I looked tan. The exact comment was, " You must not be from around here, you have a tan."  I guess I don't look like I am from the north-west anymore!  

Todd published his online class, and (cross your fingers folks or pray) hopefully everything goes smoothly on that front.  So far, so good.  From now on, we will be online everyday, 'cept Saturdays.

Sunday was spent driving down the coastline, stopping by multiple beach parks along the way.  Beach tasting I will call it.  Every beach's slightly different flavor honed by the powerful ocean was awe inspiring!  

Agate Beach: we went because of the name!  Todd really wanted to find an agate there.  here is his disappointed face.

It was purely covered with sand, not a rock to be found.  Nevertheless, the water had formed sweet, little, long dunes everywhere about three feet high.

Seal Rock State Recreation Site had no seals, of course!  Despite that, it was delightful.  If I were a seal, I wouldn't hang there either,  unless I was feeling particularly people friendly.  I suspect they were on the ocean side of the outcrop. 

There were many birds.  

Does anybody know the name of this bird?

Smelt Sands: we renamed it sub woofer rock.  A little story was posted about sneaker waves and a couple of guys who died in 2011.  Farther on a memorial for three more fellows caught by a sneaker wave.  To complicate mental anguish a lady who looked to be in her late sixties kept walking really close to the edge, she let the wave splash up to her knees, but wasn't knocked in- fortunately.  She was freaking me out.  

We stopped by Cape Perpetua.  It has beautiful trails that overlook the water from a zillion feet up.  Supposedly, a good place for whale watching etc… The view is probably staggering unclouded, but the weather decided to go all misty on us!  My plastic bag rain jacket (yes, a forgot to pack a coat-can you believe it) didn't cut the rain and after a one hundred foot jaunt with no visibility we headed down to Perpetua's the tide pools instead of hiking.  I would love to revisit this area.

I love tide pools!  I don't know why I haven't gone to more in my lifetime.  We searched for sea slugs but found none, however we did find sea urchins.

Green anemones

California mussels as well as blue mussels

Blue mussels surrounding green anemones

ochre star

jellyfish

a chiton

There were interesting lines in the rock formations.  I wonder what these are from?

The last park we went to was Dunes National Recreation Area.  A great place for four-wheelin'!  We went on a quiet walk (beyond the point of motorized vehicles) up a eighty foot dune and discovered miles and miles of deserted white beach on the other side.  It felt like we were walking into eternity , or the white light of afterlife. 

 The sun began to peak out and the beach looked other worldly.

Funny story: as we were walking I noticed that there were rocks scattered here and there on the sand.  Most of the beaches are just pure sand, so I said, "Todd maybe we will find agate here." and picked up a rock.  Guess what it was?  Agate, a giant agate!  Then we searched for the next half hour and didn't find anything else.  It was such a crazy experience…Todd still thinks I bought it and placed it there.  I swear I didn't.  I really didn't!  Anyways, take that Agate Beach.

Later that night we poisoned ourselves by eating McDonalds and slept in camp grocery outlet.  A beautiful place, just beautiful!