Twenty minutes of sunshine

Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day.
~Author Unknown

Today was cloudy, gray and overcast, from the time we woke up (actually, from the time the sun came up - we woke up before that), and throughout the rest of the day. I did not even unpack the D200. I thought about it a couple of times, wondering how some of the scenery would look in black and white, but there just wasn't enough light. We did get some pictures with "Snappy" - my point and shoot. I'll share a few of those below.

First stop today was Wal-Mart (I got the blister Band-Aids, and a new pair of walking shoes) and the gas station. Did you know that Oregon was one of only two states in the USA (New Jersey is the other one) in which you are legally not allowed to pump your own gas? I didn't know that until yesterday, when the attendant came running out of the store, hollering, "I'm coming; I'm coming." So today, I sat in the car and did not even look at the pump.

Next, we stopped at the long-awaited Sea Lion Caves. Why it's called that, I'm not sure, because there is only one sea cave. As a matter of fact, there was only one sea lion in the cave. Evidently the rest of the hundreds of them were out "in the wild" fishing. The little gift shop was full of (low-quality) pictures of the sea lions laying all over the rocks inside and outside the cave. The cave itself was really neat to see. We paid $25 and took an elevator 208 feet down into the cave, even though the woman told us there was only one sea lion - we just didn't know what we might miss if we didn't stop.

We did enjoy the vies of the Heceta Head Lighthouse, Oregon's most powerful beacon and supposedly the most photographed lighthouse in the United States (I would imagine our lighthouse has to be up there SOMEWHERE!) By the way, this image has not been converted to black and white - that's the extent of the color of the day, pretty much! Aunt Rocky saw a whale blow at this stop, but other than cormorants and seagulls, I didn't see any other wildlife.

Next stop, Newport. This was a great little seaport with lots of galleries. We went in two or three of them. We saw some sea lions playing around on the rocks that defined the outside of the harbor, but again, they were too far away and there was too little light. We thought about stopping at a place called Agate Beach, where supposedly you can find little Agate nuggets just laying around, but we knew we had a long way to go.

We chose to drive the Three Capes Scenic Loop instead of staying on US 101. We made a quick stop at Cape Kiwanda State Park. I picked up a couple of rocks for Tacoman - but they did not look all that interesting. The cliffs there are beautiful red and yellow sandstone, but (yeah, you know, the light...) We were all amazed at the fact that Oregon had sandy beaches - yes, there were a lot of rocks, but there was also a lot of sand. We were not expecting that at all!

The second stop on the loop was Cape Lookout. We missed the turn - go figure - so we kept going. The third and last stop was Cape Meares State Park - featuring the shortest working lighthouse in Oregon.

This park is also the home of the "Octopus Tree". This Sitka Spruce tree has several limbs that reach out horizontally as far as 30 feet before turning skyward. When Mom read about this out of the guidebook, I knew I had to stop and see it. Somehow, in the last few months, I keep having octopus encounters. I caught three of them on two separate fishing trips, and my good friend has made them into art (more about that later).

I mentioned the experience to "Master Po", who has Native American roots, and he shared a part of his book about animal visits with me. Basically, it said I whould stop trying so hard to do everything perfectly, and should concentrate on the things I'm naturally good at (okay, family members, you can take a break and get yourself back under control). Anyway, we stopped in the parking lot and took advantage of the facilities (AGAIN!)

Then Aunt Rocky and I decided to take the walk up the trail to see the tree. It was SO worth the walk! Just as I got there, a little bit of clouds parted and a shaft of sunlight came through a tiny patch of blue sky. We oohed and aahed about the tree, then walked to the cliff's edge (carefully) to see an absolutely beautiful vista of miles and miles of coastline. The sun was out for about 20 minutes, then retreated behind the clouds. How amazing!

We folded ourselves back into the car and moved on. We made it as far as Astoria, Oregon, on the edge of the Columbia River.

We had called ahead for a reservation, thank goodness, since the poor guy working all by himself at the front desk was overwhelmed with checking people in (and, I think, turning people away). Aunt Rocky talked to another guest who had been driving "down" the coast (as we were coming "up"), and she said they had tried to get a room at several motels before finding this one, and it was almost full. We had dinner at a wonderful place on the harbor, called "The Cannery". Out of the window we were able to see a seal swimming back and forth.

We came back to the room and checked in. We started laundry, and I started to blog. Aunt Rocky had helped me by giving me an antihistimine, as I was having an allergic reaction to something. Keep in mind that Benadryl probably makes her hyper. The medicine for allergies does not make her sleepy at all. It KNOCKED ME ON MY REAR END. So...while Aunt Rocky and Mom finished the laundry, I left the blog in the middle and crashed. Unfortunately I didn't STAY asleep all night, so I did hear the elephant that was staying upstairs as he lumbered around during the night.

We're all a little tired today, but Astoria is another beautiful town full of history and scenery, and we have "a ways to go before we sleep"... It looks like the sun may be out today. Either way, we get on the ship tomorrow. Yay! Have a great day; I know we will!