It's been almost a month now and we're still getting used to living in Lincoln City. It's an adjustment in so many ways.
First, is the small town atmosphere, attitude and culture of the place. Oh, and it's in Oregon, too. There's definitely different vibe here...a hum under the surface that is intrinsically different from where we were living in Seattle.
People wave to you as they drive by in their cars. Folks stop and talk with you as you're meandering down the road. And they're courteous...sometimes to the point of ridiculousness. It's odd and I admit I've been taken aback several times when things happened that I did not expect.
Also, it's been a big change for me to have to pay bills. I didn't have any utility bills to pay before. What heaven that was. Now, however, reality is kicking me in the face!! Hahaha, Jackie's got bills.
So, I'm figuring this out...if it is a trash bill or an electric bill, you can pay it by dropping it in a special slot at the local IGA. BUT, if it is a water and sewer bill or a cable bill, you can't. And I found this out the hard way. With the water bill in hand, we walked up to the local IGA to drop it off.
It was a cool day with a chance of rain. My gosh!! It really, really, really does rain a lot, lot, lot more here than it does in Seattle. And it's not that misty crap like in Seattle. It's real rain; the kind you can feel when it smacks you in the face. In fact, today, we even had a smattering of hail. Second time this week. Fortunately it wasn't the big, put a dent in your car, kind. Still, it is significant. Twice in the past week.
Looking east on NW 30th St. I think I've mentioned it before but they have a very simple system here. Everything radiates from the axis made by the intersection of the D River, the World's Shortest River, and Hwy 101.
So the city is divided into four quadrants: NW - NE - SW - SE. Simple, huh?
Then they made all the avenues run north to south and all the streets run east to west.
Very simple.
Then they began numbering the streets from D River. So right next to D River to the north you have NW 1st St and NE 1st St. To the south is SW 1st St and SE 1st St.
Man, this is way too easy.
OK, let's make it easier. The avenues, they run north to south, right? Well, starting at the ocean, they did that alphabetically. It starts at 'A' and then goes through the alphabet moving from west to east. So you've got Anchor going on down the alphabet to Zephyr. We live on NW Jetty and the next street below us is NW Inlet. The next above us is NW Keel.
Oh, did I mention they named them all with a nautical sounding name. Hahaha, simple, like me.
As I said, we came down NW Jetty Ave and then turned left onto NW 30th St. And all the streets cross Highway 101.
Can you see the mature trees and the heavy vegetation? Love it.
Looking back at the Surftides, a motel on the beach. Small world thing is that a friend of mine from Seattle, Bad Mood Barbie, tells me she comes down nearly every year during the Labor Day weekend and stays there, at the Surftide.
There is still so much to discover in this city. I do miss the big city. I miss the Link and having Seattle laid out, literally, at my feet. But I'm assuaging that melancholy with the idea that this city has so much to offer. We've really only taken our walks on the beach so far but walking today kinda gave me the itch to learn more about our neighborhood.
Plus, Carol came up with a good idea for a couple of photo projects...like a series on the nautical art used to decorate the beach homes. Maybe one of the doors to all these old cottages. Windows. Architecture. Hahaha, so many possibilities.
Like this; A whale carved out of some driftwood. Nice, eh?
Plus, take a look at the small cottage next to it with the blue shutters.
And this. A great nautical theme.
I didn't realize that was a pelican carved into the top of that piece of driftwood until Carol remarked on it asking me why I didn't get a better picture of the pelican.
Doh!!
I will get another shot. Guaranteed!!
Hahaha, so much to see...like this European Starling.
Hahaha, walking through the 'Hood can be fun. Always a surprise. Like this Big-Mouth Bass Mailbox.
Classic!!
The city isn't flat. This puts a serious crimp in our plans to get a couple of touring bikes to ride around the city on. Ratz. Well, we just might buy some bikes with fat tires so we can ride on the beach. I just don't see myself riding up these hills. Yeah, I know they ain't much but I don't see it. Not at all.
Looking west on NW 28th St.
Looking west on NW 25th St. Love the trees along all the city streets. Just a bit before this, we started to get a little bit of a drizzle, Seattle style. That large building to the left is one of the many motels along the Lincoln City beach.
And we made it to the local IGA. You can see, in this parking lot, two examples of one of the major industries in Lincoln City. To the right, the sporty little car and then, to the left, the RV trailer. They represent the tourism that feeds this city.
Oh, the other major industry? Retirement. All the old folks.
Hahaha, we do still serve a purpose.
 |
| I'm singing in the rain... |
It's kinda cool, living in a tourist town. Everywhere you turn, there's these reminders. Life revolves around the beach here and so, then, does business.
Hahahaha, it is the Kite-Flying Capital of the World, right!?!
And they know how to do sweet here, too.
A big, tall coke cooler and inside they had big, tall, retro bottles of coke and fanta.
It's a cool little store. A bit on the pricey side but because they will take the Trash and Electric Bills (but not the Water Bill), then they'll get our once-a-month business.
Mission accomplished, we headed back to Das Haus am Meer.
I spotted the ship in the window. Coolio.
I want me a ship like that. It'll look good on the mantel.
We'll figure out exactly what these trees are but for right now it will suffice to say that they are lookin' good. I like the wind-swept look.
Ahh, back to NW Jetty Avenue. Looking north on our walk which will take us past the Surftides.
And along the way we passed this tree which is growing sideways only. No branches to the road side nor any toward the house. All the branches run parallel to the road.
Then, to top it off, the folks that live there have 'decorated' the tree with this and that to include a chrome hubcap. Craziness.
Surftides. That's the motel pool behind the sign. I bet that was built sometime during the 50s with that sorta space age architecture. A big resort, they have tennis courts across the street plus a restaurant, The Mists, that Bad Mood Barbie says has the best chowder ever.
We'll see.
I could even do a project on the clouds. I mean there's always some drama going on with the clouds. I don't think there's been a cloudless day here since we arrived.
Haha, living on the beach is tough, eh? Go sit out at the picnic table and enjoy your lunch before you head down to the water for a swim.
Beach view.
It was a pleasant walk and eventually, we came to the casa. There's the faithful Mini marking our house.
A longer view. See the yellowish house on the left? We've learned that is a rental. New people in it every weekend. The house next to us is a local. Like us. We're locals now.
Hahahaha, we're locals.
And, just for the heck of it, there's our bird feeders. We can accommodate most every style of bird feeding. We just added the suet hanger on the right and so far all it has attracted is some ugly ol' crows.
And because I'm sorta defining our space here I got caught up taking some pictures around our front yard.
This was taken on the small hill where our backyard neighbor lives. A different look at the yard in front of our place which is, in this picture, just to the right around the garage there.
And then I walked down near the street and shot back, towards the beach. There's the bird feeders on the right.
A beach scene.
The Birds!!
So we were sitting on the couch and see that there is a boatload (Hahaha, nautical term, get it?) of seagulls outside and so, naturally, we just had to go and get some pictures.
Seriously, there was a large colony of seagulls out there.
And they were all just sitting there on the beach.
So Carol helped me out by running towards the lazy buggers.
Hahaha, that got them up!!
OK, we were out there maybe 5 minutes and the birds were in the air for maybe 2 of those 5 minutes. I say this so you can understand that I had over 80 pictures of these seagulls.
And it was tough, but I whittled them down to...
...just ten.
You're welcome.
Then, because they were getting lazy again, Carol made another run and...
...that got'em up!!
And this tranquil good-bye scene for the gulls.
But there were 3 additional minutes that I used productively.
Taking pictures...
...of the beach and of...
...the clouds.
That little dot out there? That's Carol making her slow way back up the beach. She's a bit winded from all the running.
We spotted a large piece of driftwood and on it all these little clams? It was weird, I've never seen this before, but the little shell thing is at the end of a long ribbon-like thing.
And it moved!!!
Ugh. But they were wiggling around...looking for something.
OK, I didn't specifically say there wouldn't be anymore pictures of seagulls. There are.
But these guys were already in the air and so this is a totally different bunch of gulls.
Flying...
...and flying...
...and flying.
OK, that's it with the gulls.
For now.
Because we were back on the couch when we saw this visitor to our feeders.
Hahaha, this was so cool.
Here's the varmint that has replaced the squirrel as our #1 pest at the bird feeders.
Yeah, this feathered rat swings down and has been nibbling away the top of the suet.
I'm gonna have to break out the slingshot.
What an exciting life. No, seriously, this was a good day. I got a walk, learned something new (I'm still wondering why trash and electric have that easy, no-stamp, system and water doesn't. Frustrating), finally took the Big-Guns Camera out on the beach and got a new visitor to the bird feeders.
It doesn't get much better than that. Oh, and we bought a couple of crab cakes at the local IGA and had those for lunch.
Mmmmmmm...
Now we just have to put our heads together and figure out what project we wanna tackle next. I don't know what the project will be but I do know that we'll be on the road north tomorrow heading up to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.
Hahahaha, life is good.
Hooah!!
No comments:
Post a Comment