Ah, the days of our lives. And lately, our lives have been filled with small things that taken one at a time seem rather small and, possibly, insignificant. But when you wrap them up and try to put them all together into one blog, well, they get a lot bigger and they sound like a lot more fun and adventure than before. And, on reflection, they were bigger than they were and they were a lot more fun.
So here we go. Let's wrap up this week. We'll begin on Monday and get this out of the way right now: May the Fourth be with you. There. I got it out. I've been dying to say that in some form or another for some time now. Hahaha, I feel better.
Last Monday, the Fourth of May, we went for a walk ... on the beach and I got some pictures of the shorebirds.
We were pretty excited, we had seen a new gull. I got the pictures and we came back and Carol found him in one of her books ... he's a Bonaparte's Gull. Hahaha, that's a first for us.
That's him, the big guy with the white chest and black head. The smaller birds are plovers and the guys with the long beaks ... well, the jury is still out on those guys, but we'll find out soon.
And, I got lucky and caught him as he was moving on along the beach.
Then we saw this immature Glaucous-Winged Gull. Now when I say immature I'm not referring to the way he was acting, y'know, like talking back, making rude gestures or writing graffiti on a rock. No, he's immature in that he's still pale gray. They begin to lighten up in color when they're around two years old. He may be a young'un, but he's plenty smart. He was holding onto a mussel so it wouldn't get washed out with the waves.
Once the wave had gone out, he picked up the mussel in his beak, flew up about twenty or so feet in the air, and ...
... dropped it onto the ground. He was trying to break it open. Kinda hard, though, cause the sand just wasn't that solid.
Hmmmm, he did this three times before we left with no success; maybe he isn't as smart as I originally thought.
Still, it must work eventually. He didn't look like he'd missed too many meals.
Love the beach walks and the photo opportunities they present. Someday I might even get good at taking pictures. Someday.
In the meantime, you'll just have to bear with me.
OK, let's move on to another day. Tuesday, Cinco de Mayo, was shopping day. And that means a trip down to the Wally in Newport.
I haven't yet gotten tired of that drive from LCO down to Newport. It runs along the coast and the view hasn't gotten old. Plus, there's about 15 or so parks along this 25-mile stretch of The 101. And we still haven't visited them all!
But today we were going to add two more to the done list.
First up, was the park at Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area
Fun Facts: The park was established in the 1950s, assembled through purchase and donation of land acquired between 1954 and 1978. The park and the creek were named after John Fogarty, lead singer for the Creedance Clearwater Revival.
Hahaha, no, I'm kidding. It was named after John Fogarty, a former judge in Lincoln County.
To get to the park you can either go to the North Side or the South Side. The Creek splits the park in two. We came into the park from the south.
Once you've parked, you have to walk along the creek to get to the beach.
It looks pretty calm here, but these waters were running swiftly enough.
And then the creek makes it to the beach but you've got to go under the The 101 bridge.
The sand was very large, grainy. And sandy ... it was tough walking in it.
But that didn't stop this trooper. She was off and treasure hunting.
It never fails to amaze me when I see goliaths like this tossed up onto the beach like a matchstick. It also gives me a healthy respect for sneaker waves that carry these behemoths and can drop them onto you in the blink of an eye. The rule for these beaches is real simple, don't turn your back to the waves because you could be in for a very rude surprise.
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Yeah, it's a grainy beach with some very coarse sand.
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It has been a beautiful week for getting out.
But we walked around for a while and then we were off for the next stop. We've been by this beach plenty of times and today we were going to stop. Oh a side note, we were window shopping at a small gun store in LCO the other day and met a young man who works as a Ranger at this park. Ah, that small world thingie again.
Fun Facts: Beverly Beach was named in the early 30s by Curtis and Florence May Christy, who owned the property in this location. They wanted to establish a seaside community there and asked their young daughter, Florence Daneene, what it should be named. Her favorite doll was named 'Beverly', so that was the name she chose.
Good thing this was before Barbie's were popular. Or Mrs. Beasly.
This is here just because I like flowers. Even weedy little ones like these.
Looking south down Beverly Beach. You can see the Yaquina Head Lighthouse out there in the distance.
Here, maybe this will help you see it. This was a much better spot for the lighthouse than over at Yaquina Bay. Course, there was a lot of spray and mist in the air between here and there.
There was a line of rocks out in the ocean and we thought, at first, that they had a lighthouse out on those, too. But then I used the mighty zoom and ... we found out it was a fishing boat. I don't know why they have the powerful light on during the day, but, they do.
It was bobbing up and down like a cork.
Carol found this Skull Rock while she was out exploring.
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Me? I found one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Sea Turtles. Seriously, you can see it, right!?!
Looking north up the beach. Oregon has some dramatic seascapes. The only two times I went to the beach in Washington, it was just to one spot. I never really drove along the coast there. Point being, I've really been hitting this coastline between LCO and Newport a lot!! And it never gets old.
Never.
A fun day, we got our shopping done and got to see two new, to us, parks, we set our sights towards home.
Later, that same day, we were treated to this sight. We've had a lot of songbirds at our feeders. The groups are becoming more diverse lately. Like these three. The guy on the right is new and we haven't figured him out yet. But we will.
Hahaha, yes, we will. Cuz we're retired and we have nothing else to do.
Speaking of bird feeders we woke up the other morning and had several other visitors at our feeders. Who'da thunk!?! Our bird feeders also work as ... deer feeders.
Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are. These are the two deer we saw a couple weeks ago in the open area down the street from us. There they were, gently enjoying themselves some breakfast at the bird feeders.
They don't look like they're hurting for food so I'm just guessing that they're enjoying a different kind snack. Regardless, we enjoyed their company for five or so minutes.
Then we had this couple stop by. A pair of American Goldfinches, Mom and Pop.
The fuzzy tint to the picture was because I was shooting out the windows in the front room. You can see through them but they're not the clearest windows in the world. And we all know the owners won't be replacing them soon.
We had a good day and that evening Carol went out with her handy-dandy cell phone camera and got this powerful shot. Nicely done, Schubert!!
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So we put Tuesday to bed and then woke up to another great day on Wednesday, May 6, 2015.
And a great day for a road trip!! Woo, woo!! Let's go to IKEA!!
When we first got here I did an internet check and learned the nearest IKEA to us is in Portland and, naturally, it is in the farthest corner of Portland from us. Way out there in the northeast corner near the airport.
Course, I'm not complaining because the other nearest ones are either in Renton, Washington or down in Sacramento, California. So, OK, it's not convenient but it's still under a 100 miles so it's acceptable. But I do hate driving in Portland. It's a huge traffic jam. Always.
But we did enjoy the first part of the drive ...
... until we got to the suburbs of Portland and then into the city.
Ugh.
But we made it to the semi-holy land ... IKEA!!
Always bright and always easy to see from the road.
And a wee bit confusing. For us old people, at least.
Let me explain. This IKEA is on two levels and this was our first experience with this phenomena. Oh, stop rolling your eyes. We're old and easily confused so shut up.
Oh, and also, being old, I have an increasing need to use the necessary ... often. And so as we came into the IKEA, I needed to use the facilities. We looked around the entrance and couldn't find anything we went upstairs, moving a little quicker now, searching for the elusive loo.
Now, mind you, I was smart enough to get a picture of the very informative and helpful map of the store but I wasn't smart enough to take a moment to check it for the location of the nearest WC.
Duh.
We got upstairs and finally asked for directions and achieved peace. Ahhhhhhhh.
Next up was lunch and that was on the second floor. Oh, these crazy Swedes.
Then, after I had taken care of business, we looked for a way to get back to the starting point. You know, the ground floor. We'd come in quick and hot and now we were figuring we'd go back to the starting point and ... start.
Hahahaha, silly us. After a long trek and some carefully chosen adjectives describing the brilliant minds that designed this rat's maze, we got downstairs and started shopping. Later on we realized that the store is designed so that you enter, go upstairs and start your shopping experience UP THERE and then come down to the ground floor to finish the whole thing and check out.
We did it ass-backwards.
Oh, yeah. We learned our lesson well. Next time we'll be ready. Next time.
The expansive and scenic dining area.
And finally we were able to get down to the business at hand ... some serious shopping.
I like the IKEAs because they set out some interesting displays. If you're looking, you can find some photo opportunities there.
I'm thinking this is what they're doing to the Renton IKEA. The one Tom works at. They're making it into a two-story store from the current one-story facility. Well, we'll be prepared for whatever they throw at us next time whether it's on one or two floors.
And we got the rugs we were looking for and some more. Hahahaha, you know we got more than we intended. Hahaha, you do it, too, so don't judge.
I do like the shopping experience at IKEA. It's always busy but there's usually enough room to move around easily. Quite unlike shopping at Wally's or K-Mart and squeezing through some of those aisles with some Super-Sized Americans.
And I love this. An All-Beef Hot Dog for just .50 cents. What a deal. Course, I was just a bit disappointed when I read the small type.
What!! You mean it isn't really 10 feet long just like in the picture!?!?!
Hahahaha, are we that stupid that they have to put this disclaimer up on the GIANT POSTER of the hot dog!?!?!
OK, OK, I know it's just a picture taken from a newspaper ad, but it's still very funny.
Having bought much more than I intended and having walked a heckufva lot farther than I wanted we eventually made it out of the store and back on the road. We just hit the beginning of the afternoon rush and so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
But soon enough we were back in the scenic country.
OK, I just made a command decision.
As I am writing this, it is Friday. Yesterday, Thursday, we went out on an adventure to find a suspension bridge and I was going to include this adventure into this week's wrap-up but I've decided to present it as a separate blog. This whole thing would be too long if I included it here.
So, you'll have to wait a bit for that adventure.
As far as what is in this blog, the point was that all these small adventures add up to a fun week. I didn't fully realize how busy we've been and how occupied we've been. It's fun and it isn't boring.
It's life.
And life is good.
Hooah!!
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