More ocean

Today was a driving day.  Like the bear, we trav3eled over mts and saw ocean, Traveled over mt and saw ocean, And with each region, the ocean changed.  It  never became my ocean, although it’s a little closer, but still,..

So today started with a nice conversation with a stranger at breakfast.,  (He started it,.)  He was visiting for a reunion of his old navy ship,  Knew exactly where Middletown was b/c he’d been stationed in New London.,   M. thinks he liked us b/c I said it was a very different ocean here,  I recognize this is a theme, but really, words when I’m tired and posting this do not do justice to just how different it feels.,  Anyway, perhaps because of my ocean comment, he told us of having his appendix out on ship, in a storm off Cape Hattis,  Sounded terrifying but he was quite calm about it.  Of course, it was also probably 40 years or more ago,  Still, always interesting to have random conversations with strangers.

Our first stop this morning was the OR Coastal Aquarium.  It is a very nice aquarium,.  I got to name the sea creatures we saw in the tidal pool yesterday, and more exciting touch them.  They’re sticky and surprisingly very, very soft,  All the underwater creatures that live in the tide pool  - one looked like an orange spiky cucumber - they were all soft,  And yes, I did touch them all.  We also saw the largest octopus,  He was .., not pretty still, I renewed my vow not to eat them.  (Other things, not being known to be as smart do not get the same courtesy).  There were also otters - my personal favorite.

Out side the aquarium was the pirate mall.  We did not go into the stores, as I’m pretty sure they were filled with a 101 plastic sharks, but the façade of the two short streets were awesome.  Dragons, and castles, pirate ships and underwater scenes, lots of color and gnomes and pirates.  The only thing missing was animatronics.

|After this we headed south.,  I’m really not sure how to describe the landscape here,   The road  goes over hill and dale  through valley farmland,  Then you’re climbing a mountain,  A serious mountain with some occasional need for guardrails that no one seems too concerned are not present,  Then you round a corner and you’re looking out over the tops of trees for miles of beach and ocean,  Miles - out and miles down. 

Then the road travels this switch back along the side of the mountain and it goes straight up on one side and down to water on the other,   Northern OR, there was long stretches of beach, all clean and sandy.  The water rushing in and the waves breaking way far out.  The distance between say parking and surf was like forever,  The sand went on and on,  Then the 3 inches of water that runs back to the sea went on and on and on, so that to actually get to where the waves broke was forever and flat.  As a result, the  backwash was almost non existent,  There were occasional “haystacks” of rock sticking up, mostly by the shore.,

But central  OR, was a little less distance between regular land and beach, but a lot more rocky and a lot more straight down cliffs.  The rocks though - are not like Maine’s rocky coast,   Some of these rocks sticking out of the ocean are mountains in and of themselves.,

But then, Southern OR is more like what I think of as CA - which makes sense, we’re only  40 miles from the border.  But here the water is closer to things, the beach narrower, the sand more rocks.,  While Central OR had clear  with occasional sand dollar or rock, Southern OR has no shell, the sand is courser and dark, and the beach is filled, FILLED with rocks and driftwood,  I’ve seen  more driftwood in a yard of beach than in my entire life up north,  The water - is still COLD.

In fact, all of today was COLD and windy.  I was wishing I had a coat!

We did stop on the side of a mountain at the Sea Lion Caves.  This spot was a place you could for a fee - of course,  trav3el down an elevator to see the sea lion caves and a look out point,  We did,  (The cave was warmer than the outside.)  There wasn’t really anyone home in the cave, but the look out we saw dozens of sea lions and seals,  We saw some others too at a regular old look out point.  Very cool.

We drove through lots of little towns - that had artsy gift shops, a couple hotels and a diner or two. A fair amount of chain saw art.  Tonight we  are stopped at Gold’s Beach.  We hit it lucky and had another good meal.  (I didn’t know that cod could be cooked to be light and airy.  \M. suggested maybe it’s not the same kind of cod,  Maybe.  It beat lunch at any rate - we stopped at an A&W that still did car hop service.  How can you resist a beach town A&W with car service?  Reminded us of our youth.

Though, I had forgotten to mention - for the past few days we have been traveling in and out of Tsunami Zones.  The signage shows a giant wave chasing a person.  It is disconcerting - especially the signs that tell you what to look for and if the ground shakes move to high land immediately.  But more so, when we checked into the hotel tonight, the nice young man at the desk told us that the town’s vol fire co has an old 1930’s war alarm.  So if we here 3 sirens, not to worry about it,  But if it goes on more than 3 times, then it’s a tsunami warning and take it seriously.  M, asked when the last time they had one was - I’m sure b/c I’ve been fussy about this for days,  (Since Japan, tsunamis are one of my stress dreams.)  The kid said 2011 - Japan.  It didn’t make me feel better.,

Tomorrow we’ll e in CA and are planning to see really big tress.