Carol's been gone for the past week and a half. She had been visiting her sister in El Monte, California. She decided she'd take the train down and back and so yesterday, I was at the train station in Salem waiting for the Coast Starlight to arrive.
And here it comes!!
And then the problem was in trying to figure out which end of the train Carol was getting out on. They unloaded passengers at either end of the train. None from the middle. And so I looked this way and then that trying to spot her.
And, finally, when the crowds cleared a bit, I saw this hand waving from the cart down at the far end of the station.
It was Carol!! Wise woman, she was letting the cart drive her back to the station.
And I totally agreed with the decision. Hey!! It was hot over there in Salem!!
I haven't been in temps around the high 80s in a long, long time. It was wearing me out. I mean, in LCO it is usually in the low 60s. Which is, after all, fine with me.
And here's our AmTrak Hero. He not only drove us back to the station, he drove us to the Mini!! In my book that qualifies for Super Hero status!!
And even before we got on our way, Carol dug through her luggage and gave me a ...
...present!!
It's a Casio ProTrek 3258.
What the....!?!?! It's easily the best wristwatch I have ever owned.
And the instruction manual is nearly a half-inch thick and the size of the type is about this size...
Pretty small, eh? Yeah, that's what I thought, too.
She was pooped, having ridden on the train for over 27 hours, so we drove on back to LCO and stopped for a late lunch or early dinner depending on your point of view.
Carol picked Jay's Fish 'N Chips to eat at and when we got there, we ordered .... some Fish 'N Chips. Hahaha, we're predictable. But that was what she was hungering for. We would have stopped at the Corner Cafe but they were closed.
And once we got home, she quickly put her flowers into a vase and on display.
And after a while, she went to bed. She was one tired little girl.
Unfortunately, a family with four unruly and unsupervised and undisciplined and loud and spoiled and rude kids were seated right next to her...for the whole trip.
The whole trip, Man!!
But, today was a new day and so we headed south to Newport for some serious shopping. And, along the way, we planned on doing a little bit of sight-seeing.
I still haven't tired of the drive to Newport. It's along the coast and the scenery is always fresh.
And while we were driving down, we spotted this guy, a bald eagle, sitting up high in a tree on The 101 as it runs along Siletz Bay. He's hard to see in this picture, which I took after we passed him and I was able to pull up alongside the road, so I used the marvels of modern technology and Pages on the iMac to put in an arrow to help you.
Even with the arrow, you'd have to enlarge the picture to even begin seeing the small blot that is the eagle. Yet, Carol spots them every time. Every time.
So we got out, walked down the road a bit and watched him.
And, while we were there, this is pretty much what he did. The whole time.
And while Carol watched the eagle, I looked around the area.
And, then, after a while, I gave up and headed back to the Mini. And I had a chance to look across the Bay. The tide, obviously, was out.
And while we were there, standing by the Mini, that son-of-a-gun took off and flew out over the Bay and then back towards the trees. Hahaha, he had to wait until I was out of position. The Fates are against me.
Either that or I need to work on my patience.
It was a foggy morning. It's really funny here along the coast. While some parts are deep into the fog, other areas, like along Siletz Bay were basking in the sunlight. It was like that all morning as we motored down the coast, in and out of the fog, in and out of the sunlight.
And, right after we left the Bay, we were in the fog.
And then we hit Depoe Bay....and it was both in and out of the fog. But plenty enough sunlight for this one to pose for me in her new California pants.
You can get an idea of what the day was like looking at Depoe Bay, the World's Smallest Bay.
They have a waterfront that runs for a couple blocks along their small downtown area. You can get some good views of the ocean along this waterfront. And we got some good views of the fog as it hugged the coastline.
We stopped near the north end of the small city. This shot is looking south along The 101 as it runs through Depoe Bay.
Ah, we're an adventurous duo and so, quickly, we were back on the road again and tooling down south to our rendezvous with Walmart. And we motored in and out of the fog. But, honest, foggy shots of the road are sooooo much better than the plain kind with just a lot of sunlight. So, I hit the foggy, hard.
I haven't gotten tired of this drive yet. It's always satisfying....driving along this stretch of road.
Since we were down this way and since the Government has been nice enough to sell me an access card for just $10 (for life) so I can get into the park for free, I used it to get into the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. I thought Carol and I could drop by and see what the Peregrine Falcon Fledglings were up to.
We saw them a couple weeks ago on another trip down to Walmart. There were four of them.
But when we got to the Interpretive Center, it was sorta fogged in.
And after some searching we found their nest but, apparently, nobody was at home.
But the fog was there...blanketing everything.
Hahaha, still, we always find a way to have some fun; regardless of the weather or where we are.
While we were in the Center, we learned that the fledglings had been having a rough time. Seems the Mother Bird has come up missing. Then, after a while, Dad went AWOL. For some unknown reason another male, AKA The Step-Dad, began bringing food to the four Fledglings. He wouldn't feed them but he would come by, drop off a carcass and then leave.
Then, when the Fledglings tried flying, another female falcon, hereafter known as The Interloper, attacked them. The Interloper evidently wanted the nest for herself. She attacked two of the fledglings killing one of them and severely injuring the other.
The upshot of the story is that the two unharmed fledglings moved over to the Cove for their own safety with the Step Dad. The Step Dad has not been coming round much, lately.
The injured one was taken into rehab. He's doing better and now they have to decide whether to release him back into the wild or keep him and use him as an educational resource. They're trying to make the best decision as to what to do for him now.
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| CB |
That was a bummer. I figured we'd stop by the Cove on the way out and see what we could. The volunteer in the Center said his wife was down at the Cove, where they'd relocated the Fledglings, to help folks who came by to see them.
Well, we were there and there was fog and a lighthouse so, whadya think we did? Hahahaha, we went out to see the lighthouse. I still had my camera and how many times do you get to photograph a lighthouse in the fog?
But, before we left the parking lot, I spotted these weeds. Not bad looking for a weed, eh? One man's weed is another man's rose.
We drove up to the lighthouse and, sure enough, it was swamped with fog. Which made for some semi-interesting pictures.
And, while I had several dozen pictures of the lighthouse in the fog, I only chose two for this blog.
You're welcome.
And this is Carol's contribution to the lighthouse gallery. She gets some really good shots with her cell phone camera. On this one, she wasn't even able to see the lighthouse when she took it. It's tough taking good pictures with that little thing but she does.
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And then she got this interesting shot. There's a lot of grass and wildflowers growing around the grounds near the lighthouse.
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| CB |
I tried getting something semi-artsy here. The mustard weed and...with the fog in the background.
The fog didn't appear to be in any hurry to move out. This is on the south side of the Head.
Hahaha, it was about as active as these harbor seals were.
I wish I could stretch out like that anywhere I wanted and sleep, sleep, sleep.
Ah, nirvana.
Except for the kid.
Go away, Kid!!
Then we walked around the lighthouse and saw this on the west side of the Head.
A wider angle shot with the ice cream cone rock in the center.
The windswept trees along the north side of the head.
There's just a lot to see when you're out and about.
So we went down to the cove and walked around a bit. What a kick it was seeing this tree. It just sorta grew down and then up along the side of this rock formation.
There's the same tree from a wider angle just to give you an idea of what the tree was growing on.
Then we ran into the lady who was watching the Peregrine Falcon Fledglings. She's the wife of the volunteer who gave us the information about the falcons in the Interpretive Center. She had a sighting scope set up so you could see one of the fledglings that had relocated here.
Really nice lady and very informative. We had a good and long conversation with her.
So the two fledglings relocated here. The BLM has a semi-hands off policy about the wildlife. The aim is to, bluntly, let nature take its course. Now it's up to them to survive.
This one, like the other, just stayed hunched up on the ground while we were there.
I don't know if they're eating. I don't think the Step-Dad is in the picture anymore. But it is up to them, now.
Here's the other one. They were about 20 yards apart from each other. They both seemed to just be, well, stressed and down for the count.
I don't know if they're capable of fending for themselves. Nature can be tough at times. But, The Interloper wanted that nest and....life isn't always fair.
Here's a long view of the Cove. And the fog.
After we left, we stopped down by Agate Beach. It was one of the two places we haven't stopped by along the coast between LCO and Newport. I'll check, but I think there is just one more park/wayside/refuge left before we've been to every one of them along this stretch of road. And there are a lot of them.
There's Carol Anne heading out onto the beach.
Looking north, up the beach. I wasn't real impressed with it. It has the requisite creek running down to the beach and then into the ocean.
And looking south. Notice the difference between the skies, north and south? There was still a lot of fog to the north but the south was looking better.
And there were folks out, trying to enjoy the beach. But, the wind was blowing. It's always blowing. A lot. They were hiding behind a dune using it as a windbreak.
I was up in the air as to which picture of this particular scene to include in this blog. I had three different shots of the same scene. This first one is Carol's choice. She liked it even though it sorta breaks all the rules of composition.
This one was my favorite, the third one I took of this scene. I tend towards panoramas (which, I guess, you already know) and liked the sweep of the whole scene.
The second one, the one that didn't make it, was taken with the girls to the far right of the picture leading out into the sand to the left. I didn't think it worked.
Hahaha, I couldn't make up my mind which one I should include, Carol's favorite or mine. So I put them both in. It's tough, picking out which pictures to present in a blog. And, again as you already know, I am lousy at editing my pictures.
But, I do enjoy the challenge....at times.
And here it is, a simple trip to the local Walmart, and it becomes a series of adventures. It's amazing how easily this all falls together with such little effort on my part. I get an idea, fly it by Carol and then we're off and, amazingly enough, things just fall together most times and we have adventures.
A simple thing with great yields. An eagle, a couple falcons, some great sights, a new beach, a little fog and a fun trip to Walmart. What more could you ask for?
Bottom line, life is good.
Hooah!
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