Oregon coast 2009!

First time to the Pacific coast for Sarah and Lucca! We launched our adventure on Saturday morning at about 0700. We had snacks, coffee, soda, and an eight hour drive ahead of us. Luckily the weather was nice, the music was flowing...guiding us from Coeur d'Alene, down the Columbia, and into the tourist town of Seaside. A room awaited us there...kitchenette, fireplace, seaside view and a grand total of four days to enjoy it.

This was a welcome trip. For Sarah, it was a celebration of a 30th birthday. For me, it was reuniting with the edge of the world after two years. For Lucca, it was a giant playground full of water and interesting things to munch and smell.

We drove and drove...passing through the "sleepy" small town of Portland at about lunchtime. Getting onto highway 26 we never found the largest Sitka spruce in the country, nor did we have any relief from tailgaters, but we were on a mission and made it to Seaside! It was too early to check into the hotel so we took a welcome walk along the beach. I was giddy, Sarah was happy to make it there, and the dog was simply blissful! After getting lost trying to find the darn hotel, we called and got directions. Four blocks off? Not bad. That night was spent eating at an ITALIAN restaurant of all places, but a mom for a waitress helped ease some tension.

We got up early and headed down to a little place called "Bagels by the Sea." Got some coffee and bagels with all sorts of stuff on them. Sarah had lox and salmon cream cheese...I got an "eggel" or something...and when asking for sausage on it..this gal at the counter kinda rolled her eyes and called in the order. I HAD to ask, "is that not a good choice?" Well, turns out she was just "tired" and didn't mean anything by it. Hmmm...alright. We ate by the ocean.

After that, we headed south to Cannon Beach. Which, I must mention, was NOT named for the camera. It was named appropriately, for a CANNON which washed ashore from a shipwreck up near Astoria...who'da thunk? (I'm an idiot sometimes....it actually on display when you get into town. Sarah had to point that out to me. I just thought they were referring to the most photographed location on the Oregon coast.)


Cannon Beach


Looks cold


Rescue dog looking for work


Mussels!


Decent light

We traveled from Cannon to Arcadia beach. From there, we managed to sneak around a rock outcropping and found an entire beach to ourselves (mostly).


Some kind of horsetail


Lucca exploring our beach

We walked over there for awhile, taking photos and staring at the ocean...which is when we noticed the tide was coming IN. Hmmm. Sure enough, making it to our access point we found it impassable. So we went on a little hike up the hill and down the highway to the car. No big deal. No harm no foul!

Our escape was blocked!

From there, we headed to Tillamook for lunch. There's basically no where to eat there except the cheese factory so that's where we ended up after a tour of town. It was a bit of a bummer finding the factory activity non-existent since it was Sunday, but we got some grilled cheese sandwiches and more INCREDIBLE ice cream than was probably necessary. After that, stuffed and tired...we motored "home" and didn't really want to go out. Room service is nice so we got a pizza and just chilled.


Can't complain with this!

After that, we took a late night walk on the beach. Lucca's glowing collar helping us see our wandering companion. But the wind was starting to pick up...

We woke on Monday morning after sleeping in to the wind just HOWLING. We made our way back to Bagels by the Sea and again had a rather unpleasant employee helping us. Forgot my bagel entirely! You would expect coffee shop employees to be the nice / upbeat type, but not in Seaside. Not really sure I would recommend that place. But this day we headed north toward Astoria. Stopping at Del Rey, we tried to walk the beach. Sarah went on a run after a plastic dog-crap bag that blew out of my pocket and I tried to drink coffee and eat a bagel while a certain yellow quadruped walked one foot in front of me until it was devoured. (Seriously pissed me off to have a dog, on a beach, with THOUSANDS of smells, to stalk me with a bagel.) But..we moved on. The wind made it very cold and so we just punched our way to Fort Stevens.

THAT was an adventure in itself. Blowing sand kept us in kinda tight...we walked up a dune and looked at the most visited shipwreck on the coast...then turned tail and got back in the car. Sand in your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, EVERYWHERE! Not pleasant.

We made it to Astoria and found "Hotel Elliott." Not much to that except that one of my relatives long ago started a hotel. Always fun to see your name spelled correctly. We wanted to be inside, so went to the museum of the Columbia / Pacific. Wandering around there for quite awhile, we learned. I found interest in the old school maps...hand drawn. We both were amazed by the amount of shipwrecks at the mouth of the Columbia and found out it's one of the most hazardous places in the U.S. Who knew? The coast guard there is absolutely incredible...I think making over 200 rescues a year.

Lunch was a little riverside diner where we enjoyed local beer, salad, and my first crabcakes. (not so good by the way...they tasted like nearly burnt cheese.) And we saw a seal. Fun! After getting back to Seaside we walked around downtown and got some dessert. Found a shop and got fudge (for the infamous fudge and mango treat), salt water taffy, and seafoam. Oh, and we also picked up a dog sleeping bag! It's even camo! That will be fun to play with this summer.

Ended up in a bar, on our last night on the coast. We had some more local beer and enjoyed a bucket of steamer clams.

Loosened up, we hit the beach with the camera and tripod and took lotsa fun photos!

I will now end this with all the other photos that I deemed fun and interesting. (I just got off a 10.5 hour day of looking at the computer and think I'm done with this.)

But real quick. We drove home and managed to hit the same sleepy, small town of Portland at rush hour. Nice gridlock there. Bucking the wind and rain, we arrived in Coeur d'Alene with time to spare.

It was a good trip and everyone had a good time. We're talking about the next one being to the Washington coast...on the Olympic peninsula. To camp!


Tried the sunset


Tried the sunset again


ORB

Happy everyone on the beach

Nice sky

Sarah on the Pacific!

Piercing eyes and happy dog!

The ladies on the beach

Happy dog

Ears blowing in the wind!

Lucca is happy with the pic...I just laugh!

Sarah and I on the coast

Who can catch the dog? (I like this photo)

Now THIS is a belly laugh!


Lucca reflects on her time on the beach.

Ubuntu

Seriously

First of all, thank you "anonymous" for the comment. Very appropriate! ...Dad?

I MUST post this here, because it's the first thing all day that made me laugh out loud from deep in my belly. Seriously!

Is this my Taterbug?

Turkey hunting...success?

The day started out wet and chilly. I awoke, hearing the rain drip from the clogged gutters and proceeded to NOT go into the woods. I watched a show about pike fishing. I lazed on the couch. I didn't make coffee, I didn't do anything more than flip channels and wonder what I was going to do today.

After a couple minutes...I got bored. (Really, as thrilling as that all sounds.)

Then, the idea from last night accosted my thoughts. I shall grab a certain yellow lab and make my way into the wet, dreary woods to take the shotgun for a walk! Finally collecting all my gear..oh, and Lucca...we headed out. It was a perfect snatch-and-grab getting the dog...unlocking the door, waking her from what was probably a nice dream...I just said, "let's go!" She's the perfect companion and after trying to figure out if she needed to bring me a toy or not, she complied and ran straight to the truck. I told her that toys were not needed for a greeting nor for the trip. "We'll get into more interesting things out there" I assured her.

Now, turkey "hunting" with a Labrador is lucrative at best. But, it was good to get her and I out. Sarah was battling 50,000 people in Spokane running Bloomsday and had asked if I had the inkling...to take Lucca on a walk. Well, my walks with Lucca are never simple. I don't like having her on the leash and I don't really like walking her around town. Simple solution for both of us is to just go into the woods. She likes the sights and smells...I like looking for antlers, critters, and soon...morels. We always have a good time.

We got to the parking spot and headed up a place I deer hunt in late in the season. I say late in the season because it's one of the few spots that a road will actually get to without being snowed in. I had some camo on, I was carrying a shotgun, I had a call...but to tell you the truth, I know NOTHING about turkey hunting. So we'd walk along and I'd squeak out something on the call. Walk some more / repeat. Meanwhile, my exuberant companion would run around and sniff things and try desperately to locate any sort of water. There was a spot on the road that held a puddle the size of a lab...which was consequently ran through, then rolled in, then layed in...a huge grin crossing the face of the one who conquered the pesky drainage issue.

Topping the ridge, I idly called again for the elusive turkey and got nothing but replies! Gobbles, hen calls, you name it! Back from where I came we took off and shot down a finger ridge to try and intercept the birds. We got closer and hunkered down like a classic turkey-hunter photo would like you to do. My back against a tree, setting up and calling...the dog wandering around and THRILLED that I was sitting at her eye level! Every time I called to this tom, he'd reply in a hurry. About sixty yards out and I couldn't see him...so I moved a bit. Set up again with the same excited lab, but by this time she was getting into "sneak" mode. It's really something...she could recognize me calling and the reply, she could sense my interest in this noise down the hill, and she understood the importance of remaining calm and quiet. This dog is a gem! The final time I moved to try and be aggressive on getting into a spot, she waited (without being asked/told) until I gave her the signal to follow me! Being darn near bright yellow/white didn't help our situation out much. I looked back and saw the elusive tom in question fly down the hill. There was no responding to my calls after that.

So we left.

Went BACK up the way we came and just kept going. We walked around for a couple more hours with no situation like we had encountered at that spot. But it was alright. Lucca got to roll in some fresh elk crap after jumping and playing in an elk wallow. I figure that she knew she blew our stalk and wanted to smell natural as well as apply some camouflage. (She's a thinker!)

Well, it had been raining on us all morning, so we were hoofing it back to the truck. Walking down a road I noticed another hunter getting into his truck. I'm pretty sure we were on public ground, but wasn't sure how much we looped around so I really didn't want to encounter him personally. We hunkered until he took off, but he drove UP the hill to a dead end. Hmmm. So, walking along this road the way they guy had driven, I heard a car engine coming down. Lucca was at a nice heal and took a minute to follow me as I was diving off the road bank and careening down the slope into a nice patch of Douglas-fir regen. She piled into me and we both layed down in the wet brush. (Sometimes it's fun to be a kid again.) Proof of that was on the grin Lucca had on her face when we finally got up. It's fun to be spontaneous and goofy.

We made it to the truck and I tried to dry her off as best I could. I had half a thought to drop her off at HER house with a big streak of elk crap on her scruff, mud on her feet and belly, and general stink that accompanies dogs with that much hair. But, I'm a nice guy I guess. So we came back to my place and I filled the tub. She's a great pup and will just stand there while being anointed with baby soap and sloshed with water. The best fun was drying off on the deck. I really do think dogs like running around outside, in the middle of the day, naked. (I took her collar off)

I then returned my new turkey hunting companion to Sarah who had made it home just a bit before we got there. Everyone was happy, stinky, wet and tired...except Sarah's cat Loki/butters/butterman who looked like he felt a little left out and kept asking to go out.

I hope he got dirty.