Say It's Only a Paper Moon - 7/30/15

Or: How Hot Was It?...

These are the lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer. Looking for some exercise and something to do, Carol asked me if I wanted to go with her for a walk. Turns out, she was a-hankerin' for some Corn Dogs and so she thought she'd walk on over to the Safeway and grab a couple out of the freezer section. But, honestly, those are good but (and this, like my derriere, is one great, big, humongous but) they are not great.

To get great Corn Dogs, you have to travel on over to Otis and get some Pronto Pups™. Now, that's some good eating. So with a little gentle persuasion, I got her to go with me to Pronto Pups™ for some of that aforementioned good eating.

This outfit is a laid back, low maintenance kind of operation. No uniforms, no credit cards, no frills. Just good food since 1946.

Fun Facts: The Pronto Pup Company is based in Portland.

The Pronto Pup was invented by the husband and wife team of George and Versa Boynton in the late '30s in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. 

The Boyingtons ran a small hot dog stand on the beach, selling the dogs to tourists and locals alike. When the rain came and ruined the buns, making them soggy and inedible, George came up with the idea of cooking' a 'bun' as needed. He created a pancake batter based mix and the duo came up with the formula used today.

One More Fun Fact: Pronto Pups are made with a pancake batter based mix. Don't confuse them with corn dogs, which are coated in a batter made with corn flour.

Hahahaha, I love this!! I found this picture on the Net. It's a sign posted at the Pronto Pup in Portland.

You can get an idea of just how laid back this operation is by looking at their kitchen. Modern air conditioning provided by the floor fan. Some great flowered vinyl covering the shelves and a couple of refrigerators. There's the cook, hard at work, in the back. You can just see his head if you follow the vent downward. The girl working the counter was carrying food to a table.

Low key and tasty.

Here's the Happy Girl. We decided to eat al fresco today. It were hot today and I wanted to catch a breeze!! You'll hear more about that later. Hahaha, I just realized, one clue you can always use to tell if it's hot where we're at is if Carol is in a picture without her jacket on. That sucker only comes off when it is way hot.

Hmmmm, always with the rules!! 

Why can't The Man just leave us alone, Brah!!

I like that they have to tell us that 'employees not allowed to pet.' Like we're suppose to keep them from petting the dogs. Or, could it refer to something else? Just what are these employees up to during their breaks, Hmmmmm??

Who's a bad employee!! No!! No petting!!

Remember, this all started with a certain someone's desire for some Pronto Pups. Then, when the rubber met the road, what did that certain someone go for?

Hahahaha, you're right!!!

Fish 'N Chips.

So. Pre. Dic. Ta. Bull.

She's predictable, but she does some nice shots. Like this cell phone picture of a daisy. Nice composition.

CB

So we enjoyed the lunch...and the sights. This is the bait shop across the street from the Pronto Pup. It's an eye-catcher.

Tres bleu, n'est-ce pas!!

Afterwards, we went for a drive up Hwy 18 looking for some photo opportunities. Did I mention it was H.O.T. today? It was. 

Hahaha, it is the hottest I've been in....months? Years? It's been a long, long time. And, y'know, I still don't like  it. 

So I wasn't all too hot (hahahaha, get it!?!) about being out walking around today. Still, Brave Trooper that I am, we did stop at a small park, H.B. Van Duzer State Park, along Hwy 18. Hahaha, we had a reason.

As we drove by the park, Carol spotted a wasp's nest so we turned around and parked the Mini. Then we walked up the highway to get a better look at the nest. Just not too close. 

Thank goodness for zoom lenses. 

And, there it is. A nest of Yellow Jackets. 

Fun Fact: These nests are made from chewed wood and that gives them their distinctive papery walls.

You can truly begin to appreciate how fast a car is traveling when you're standing alongside the road. Especially those big trucks.

So we left the highway and walked about the park for just a short while. Long enough for us to see some of the sights and for me to get this picture of a tree mushroom

While Carol got this picture of these two, different species of trees, grown together.

CB

And, while Carol was shooting large and tall, I was shooting short and small.

And then I took a back road across the mountain just to have a different way to get home.

And when we got back to LCO, I had the bright idea to stop at the DQ and get a cone.

OK, so it's 1450 on a Thursday afternoon. No reason for the DQ to be swamped, is there? Yet there are cars stacked up in the drive-thru line.

You wouldn't think it would be uber busy right now, would you. 

Wrong!! The whole thing was a zoo. I stayed in the car while Carol went in for her cone. This is what it looked like inside. What should have been a five-minute operation, at most, became a 20+ minute cluster. And the traffic into the restaurant never let up!!

CB

Hahaha, that was an eye-opener. Note to self, no more DQ near a weekend during the Summer, never again. 

Ri-donk-cu-lous!!

Disregarding the DQ Dilemma, it'd been a pleasant day, albeit, a tad too warm for me. We had a chance to relax and then we had a  nice whole wheat spaghetti and turkey meatball dinner. 

The afternoon rolled on into the evening and, then, after The Big Bang Theory, we thought we'd go for a walk along the beach and say good-bye to this day. The winds were up and the beach was cool. So cool, I had a sweatshirt and a jacket on.

And I'm always on the look-out for another shot. Especially back-lit shots of flowers

And we weren't the only ones. My gosh!! Our beach has way too many other people on it. 

And look at the work the kids are doing there where the stream/creek/rill/rivulet (I never know what to call that small flow of water) runs down onto the beach. See the difference even a small bit of rain makes in the size of the standing water on the beach?

Meanwhile some enterprising and hard-working youngsters have been busy constructing dams.

But we were there for a different reason. Besides, my dam building days are loooong past. 

Nope, we were there to say adios to the sun and.

And he was going out in style.

See what I mean about all these people on our beach? Craziness!!

And then, at 2042, I turned around to the east and saw this guy...

Sun down over to the west and...

...right at the same time, bad moon rising in the east.

And still people were all over our beach. 

Grrrrrr....

Just one day away from a Blue Moon.

Good-bye, Thursday, July 30, 2015...

And hello, Mr. Moon.

It won't happen until tomorrow, but let's talk about it tonight, 'Kay? 

Fun Facts: What is a Blue Moon? The phrase 'blue moon' usually refers to a rare second full moon in a month. This kind of moon appears only once every three years.

A Blue Moon isn't actually blue. The moon observed high in the sky is almost always white. This is because the path of white light goes through the fewest amounts of atmospheric particles that could color it.

Have you ever heard of the term, "Once in a blue moon'? Well, 'Blue moon' appears to have been a colloquial expression long before it developed its calendrical senses. Today, the expression refers to an unlikely or rare occurrence. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first reference to a blue moon comes from a proverb recorded in the year, 1528: If they say the moon is blue, We must believe that it is true.

Haha, those crazy guys back then!!

It's a nice preview to what we'll get to see tomorrow. And, if I don't miss my guess, I'll be out and about taking pictures of the Blue Moon tomorrow.

Cuz that's the way I roll.

So it was a good day. I ate healthy and we got out for some mini-adventures and then we got to say adios to the day while walking on the beach.

The easy, simple things color a life. I guess it's all in the way you approach things.

I'm gonna try to take life more like Pronto Pup does....laid back, simple, easy and tasty.

And, with all of that, I know that life is good.

     Hooah!!     

Sand Dab in the Middle- 7/27/15

Or: Children of Dune

I've never read any of the Dune series, my apologies to Mr. Herbert. Science Fiction has never been my particular cup of tea. In fact, the only one I can remember reading that I really enjoyed was Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Please, don't judge it by the movie, because, as I'm sure you've heard many, many times before, "The book is much better than the movie!!" 

But, y'know, it's tough coming up with kitschy and amusing titles. Very, very tough. But now that's out of the way so let's begin today's adventure.

It's fun looking at each new day as another adventure waiting to happen. That's one of the neat parts of retirement. I can get up each day and wonder at what new adventure I will find. And mostly, like today, I didn't know what was going to happen until it happened. 

For example, the only thing we did this morning, it being Monday, was go to the Friends of the Driftwood Library Book Sale. Every Monday. We've gotten a lot of good books there for a great price....$1. 

Hahahaha, my kind of store!!

Then the rest of the day was open. After spending some time with my new recliner, I opened up the computer and put it on Google Map and looked around the area and noticed Bob Straub State Park. Hmmmm, I wondered, have we been there? The answer, best as I could tell, was Nyet.

Since it was only 16.7 miles away and we weren't doing much of anything else, we were off.

Hahaha, I know it's an old story, but I never get tired of driving along The 101. It's simple and the pace is just right. At least for me it is. But, judging by the unpleasant looks, foul words and rude gestures given to me by the folks that eventually pass me, it's probably not as high for them as it is for me.

Life is a highway

I wanna ride it all night long...

(Thanks and a tip of the hat to Rascal Flatts)

And we got to The Bob Straub State Park in apple pie order.

Fun Facts: Ol' Bobbo was a one-term Governor of Oregon from 1975 to 1979. The park was originally known as the Nestucca Spit State Park until 1987, when it was renamed after the former Governor.

Known for his conservation efforts, he was key element in the start of mass transit systems in Portland and, in fact, was a strong force behind the start of the light rail system in Portland. 

He was also a strong proponent for public domain on Oregon's coast keeping many beach areas accessible to the public.

Thanks, Bobby.

And, to get to the beach, you have to cross over a sand dune. Hahaha, I've never had much affection for walking in the sand....I have even less for walking up a hill covered in sand.

Thank you, Mrs. Maynard.

My continual paean of thanks to Doc Maynard's wife who introduced the dandelion to the Great American Pacific Northwest in order to make some meds for her hubby.

We finally made it to the top of the dune and got our first glimpse of the ocean...from this park.

I gotta tell ya, I do like the photo opportunities sand dunes and beach grass offer. Especially when they're coupled with a blue sky.

And great views, too.

Bob Straub State Park is just south of Pacific City. In fact, the northern end of the park butts up to the southern end of Pacific City.

There is Chief Kiawanda Rock, out in the ocean. And on the right is a glimpse of Cape Kiwanda itself. Pacific City lies just this side of the Cape.

The beach here wasn't crowded. I think there were, maybe, 15 people on the beach while we were there. And by the time we left, there were probably less than 10.

But the surf here is rougher than along our beach. And parts of this beach have a sharp drop from the waters edge into the ocean and that causes the waves to crash real close to the shore.

The dunes gave me plenty of shooting opportunities.

And this one was looking good, too.

See the huge mound of brown there in the distance? That's part of Cape Kiwanda and it is also where all the cool kids go to slide down the hill on their sand sleds, pieces of cardboard or whatever else they can find that will let them whizz down the hill like crazy people.

Someday, if we have the energy to climb to the top or some other cool kid gives us a ride to the crest in their 4-wheel drive Jeep, we're gonna slide down that mound ourselves.

Someday. You betcha!!

Someday, someday!! Someday I will get a shot of the waves that I really like. Hahahaha, like all my other 'someday' shots, I keep working at it .... and hoping.

I'm being followed by a Moon Jelly....

Fun Facts: At first glance, a Moon Jellyfish doesn't look much like anything so it is hard for us to think of them as animals. Jellyfish, or 'jellies', are an exceptionally old species. Fossils discovered in Utah in 2007 indicate that jellyfish may have undulated their way across ancient seas over 500 million years ago. Surprisingly, they have changed relatively little in all that time. 

Like other jellyfish, the Moon Jelly has the ability to deliver a sting through their tentacles, a feature which allows it to immobilize its prey such as plankton and mollusks. The sting causes little discomfort to humans, however. I've had the misfortune to have, accidentally, stepped on a number of these washed up Jellies and I can attest to the fact that the Jellies do not sting....at all.

We've had a lot of Moon Jellies washed up on the shore for the past month or so. First it was the By-the-Wind Sailors washing up and dying and now it is the Moon Jellies.

Yeah, that's a Moon Jellyfish there, in the picture. 

Hahahaha, still working on the waves shot. I have never thought of myself as an overly persistent kind of fellow but, maybe, I was wrong. I'm sure stuck on a couple of themes in my picture-taking.

We took a walk along the beach. Me just walking and wading and Carol looking for her treasures. Oh, that's not Carol there on the left. That was another young girl, also searching for treasures along the beach.

Don't ask. I don't know.

I've tried to come up with some purpose; some reason for these strange blue globular things and I can't. I think there is a hollow center and so I'm gonna guess and say that maybe you can squeeze inside the middle of one of them and roll along. Other than that, I ain't got nothing.

They were light enough that the two men picked them up with one hand each and carried them away.

Strange.

Hahaha, sand dunes, beach grass and clouds. Got it!!

I call this..."Footprints In the Sand"

You can see, after you get done laughing at the stupid name, that the beach is particularly rough here. The shelf drops off quickly along this stretch of beach.

Whoa, Dude!! 

Dunes, Grass AND Clouds!! Epic, Man!! Totally epic!!

It's tough for me to get shots of birds in flight. It's even tougher when you're just framing the shot with just the LCD panel, then it gets to be a matter of how lucky you are. 

And, for this shot, I had a little bit of luck. I caught two of them in flight and one of them in shadow.

Score!!

Hahaha, I are persistent!! Oh, yes, I are!!

Carol was, as I mentioned, on the hunt for treasures and not above playing a little game of Catch-Me-If-You-Can with the waves while dashing in and out for them. Hahaha, I can safely say that she lost as many as she won and her trouser legs were as wet as mine. 

But she definitely has game!!

I was walking along, disregarding all the lessons I learned from Army Jody...

Ain't no use in looking down

Ain't no discharge on the ground!!

Sage words, Army Jody. Sage words.

However, I was looking down and, what to my wondering eyes should appear!?!

But a fast little Sand Dab, trying hard to disappear!!

But he wasn't fast enough for my flying feet and I nuzzled him out of the sand with my toes to where Carol could quickly get her hands on him. 

Then, of course, we had to make him pose for some pictures.

Of course.

Smile, Sand Dab Dude!!

Hahahaha, no Sand Dabs were hurt in the making of this blog. After our photo session, we released him back into the wild and he was under the sand and out of sight within two seconds of touching down.

And we went on our merry way, looking for treasure.

Much like these Three Stooges.

Hahaha, I just realized, I gotta thing for taking pictures of gulls, too. An obsession, maybe.

Uh, oh!! Not again!!

Yeah, but we're almost done with them. Honest.

Sand + Grass + Clouds = Keen Fun

Right!?!

Almost there!!

Hahahaha!! You made it!!

And, so did I.

I, resentfully, hauled my rather ponderous and ample rear end up and over the sand dunes. Finally. 

And, since my feet were coated with sand, I thought I'd go over to the grass and wipe them off, sort of, on the lawn. I kicked off one of my sandals and stepped onto the dried out grass and, OUCH!!!

There were stickers there just like in El Paso!!

WTH!?!?!

I did not expect that!! I haven't run into any goathead stickers up here!

(Not so) Fun Facts: These pesky little suckers are named Tribulus Terrestris. It's an annual (naturally) plant that grows around the world. But I didn't think it was in the Great American Pacific Northwest!!

It's an invasive species. This thing is so hated that it has more than one name by which you can curse it. Here's a short list of them: bindii, bullhead, burra gokharu, caltrop, cat's head, devil's eyelashes, devil's thorn, devil's weed, goathead, puncture vine and tackweed.

I think my favorite is Devil's Thorn. Very dramatic and descriptive. But the other ones with Devil in them are good, too.

Hahaha, so there I am with one foot raised up in the air and full of stickers. I couldn't bend over to get to them (couldn't get past Bruno, Number one. And not agile enough for those kind of antics anymore for Number Two).

Carol to the rescue. She came over and, like the mouse pulling a thorn out of the Mighty Lion's paw in Aesop's fable, she pulled the thorns from my pore little paw.

And then it was time to put it back on the road and point that wagon towards home.

Through Pacific City.

We did drive on over to the beach area in the center of the city but it was so crowded that we decided to put that trip off to another day. Neither of us care for crowds.

We drove on over to a small market, got a couple of sodas, marveled at the kayaks for sale across the street and then headed on back to LCO.

It was a good trip and and we had a good time. Except for walking up and down the dunes. And the stickers. That wasn't a good time.

But we got out, had a mini-adventure and saw some new things. All in all, a definite good day.

That's the thing with making your own fun...once you get the idea that you have all the control, it's easy. You can make anything into a fun event. Anything can become an adventure. It helps that you don't have any other concerns like a job. That helps.....a lot!!

Hahahahaha, love this retirement thingie!! What a great idea!!

And so, it was a good day. 

It just reminded me that, like always....

....life is good!!

     Hooah!!