Today we packed up and left Seal Rock, Oregon. A mild weather front came through, and it got significantly 'cooler' by about 10 degrees. At this point, I can confidently say winter has arrived on the Central Coast of Oregon. Coincidentally, the temps in Sun City dropped below 90 this week - thank heaven! I've actually liked the overcast skies and the intermittent rain of the Oregon Coast. When the sun does peek out, the rains have cleaned the air and the blue sky looks pristine and delicate. My favorite quote about the rainy weather is this: "If you don't like the rain, move somewhere else!" The only stone in my shoe about lots of rain is having to always have/wear/deal with rain gear. I'm pretty sure I'd go bananas in a climate with real winter where you always have to wear coats/sweaters/hats/gloves/boots. Note to self: Avoid winter.
Breakfast is just not going to be the same. For the past 9 weeks, I've eaten my oatmeal while watching the waves break over the Seal Rocks. The ocean view changed each day. The color of the water was different each morning depending on the amount of sunlight. The waves sometime barely lapped against the rocks. Other days four foot waves crash ashore washing over the gaping string of lava rocks visible out the dining room window. Every morning I got to see gliding formations of brown pelicans skimming over the tops of the waves and diving into the ocean for their breakfast. The gulls as well as a murder of crows also swirled around each morning.
To get to the beach, all we had to do was to walk across the street. The rocks are even more exposed during low tide, and you can find some mighty interesting creatures clinging to the rocks patiently waiting for the ocean to come back and cover them over. Every time I went to the Seal Rock beach, there was always a new revelation. The last trip to 'our' beach revealed a pair of black oyster catchers and other birds I'd never seen before.
Gradually, we became so picky about our beach walks, we only went during low tide when the nooks and crannies holding animals, shells, and rocks revealed themselves. Each beach we walked had its own unique characteristics. We walked one beach barefoot. (For the record, this was Drake's idea.) This entire beach was one smooth stretch of sand with almost no rocks, or shells for miles.
My favorite beach was Quail Creek because their rocks were filled with small tidal pools. When I first saw these, they captured me completely. I had never seen a wild starfish or an amenome in the ocean. These animals seem to be plants since they don't have arms, legs, paws, eyes, ears or other accouterments we expect when we think 'animal'.
The obvious mammals at the beach are the seals. They became Drake's passion. We had a small group of gray seals that hung around the Seal Rocks. Some place names do have their origin in fact. The seals like the rocks at low tide. They can clamber aboard a certain set of rocks as the ocean recedes, and Drake delighted in watching them through MY binoculars, his Christmas gift to me.
All along the coast there are largish creeks that flow down the small hills and straight into the sea. Most beaches are bisected by a stream of fresh water bubbling into the sea. Often the only way to cross over the fresh water stream to the other side of the beach is at low tide. When we went to the Oregon State University research facility, Hatfield Marine Center, they had a chart showing how the salt water penetrates an amazingly long way up the creek. They also had a Pacific octopus. There is significant ocean research going on in this area of the Pacific Coast. This is a place where Oregon State does marine research, and is an NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration) station. The Coast Guard is also stationed at Newport with both boats (no surprise) and a spiffy orange helicopter.
Beaches are only one of the smooth spots of the Oregon Coast. I really loved the food. You only really get fresh seafood at the ocean. We ate in many places where they had the name of the boat that caught our lunch. In towns like Newport, Lincoln City, and Florence you have to enjoy the tourist scene. Vacationers come to the beaches in droves. We missed the real season arriving after Labor Day. I tried to cut a bit of slack for the locals since we met them at the end of a tourist season and they were tired, but overall their public behavior toward outsiders was pretty atrocious. It was small stuff: rudeness, mild road rage, exasperation and tiny snubs. Gradually, I became acquainted with individual people, and each of them validated my not so favorable impression of the people inside the community. They explained it as an insider/outsider thing; a way to preserve their identity in a sea of strangers.
The Pacific Coast at Oregon is striking, and beautiful in the extreme. We have loved this place. It has enriched my life, and my pictures allow me to relive it.
There are lots of them, but you're welcome to see this place through my eyes.
https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/2012OregonCoastAndSealRock?authkey=Gv1sRgCKGYjJek9smMcg
I'm watching election coverage along with everyone else in America, well, except for those folks watching Bridezilla re-runs, and those who are Netflixing. Currently we are flipping between CNN, Fox, and PBS. CNN gets the coverage edge because I'm enthralled with the 'smart board'. I wonder how many hours John King had to practice to be able to manipulate those giant touch and spread multi-screens. I also wonder who wrote the computer program that runs it. We do have a fascination with the Presidential race. The irony is your County Commissioner race has more impact on your daily life. The County Commissioner gets our potholes fixed, allocates the county's money, and solves those niggling local problems that make steam come out of our ears.
I do know I'm very grateful I'm not living in a 'battleground', 'swing', 'decisive' state. From what I've been able to glean, it's been non-stop TV and radio commercials in those states thanks to the influx of soft money OKed by a wrong headed Supreme Court decision. I think if I'd been subjected to non-stop negative political ads, I would have checked NEITHER on the ballot, and sent each campaign a bill for my earplugs. The dollar amount spent on political campaigns for Congress and the White House is going to top $4 BILLION dollars. How obscene and shameful that number is in these hard economic times, and in light of the natural disaster in the Northeast. It seems that the Senate is going to stay Democratic and the House of Representatives is going to stay Republican. Whichever Presidential candidate wins doesn't really matter. Hello, four more years of gridlocked do nothing government. What did $4 billion dollars buy?
I've also been thinking of past elections. The first one I remember is 1960; I was 10 years old. Some of you can remember the excitement when John Kennedy was elected. My 10 year old Oklahoma self thought he talked funny but had great hair. Only after studying American history did I learn that the Chicago mayor cooked crucial Cook County ballot boxes which swung Illinois and thus the election to Kennedy. Nixon decided not to contest those Chicago results because he thought it would be too divisive for the country. Doesn't that seem like a quaint idea in these election litigation times? Think about what happens in American history if Nixon wins the 1960 election. I'd like to peek at the past 50 years' of American history in an alternate universe where the 1960 election went to Nixon.
I think one of the surprises this year was the lack of a serious or even semi-serious third party candidate. Speaking of Richard Nixon, he adopted the George Wallace (third party candidate) southern strategy and turned the South which had been voting Democratic since the Civil War into Republican territory. The left wing of the Democratic party still contends the 5% of the vote Ralph Nader got in Florida in 2000 defeated Al Gore. What generally happens in American politics is that 'good ideas' of third party candidates are co-opted by either the Democrats or Republicans. One famous example of co-opting an idea is Social Security. This was a Eugene V Debs idea that Franklin Roosevelt picked up. (Debs was a labor leader, the founder of the American Socialist Party and got 6%, a million votes, running for President while he was in prison for opposing World War I.) The most recent third party candidate who influenced policy is Ross Perot with his magic markers and cardboard charts explaining the deficit to the American public. The winner of that election? Bill Clinton who became a deficit hawk and balanced the budget.
As I sit here watching returns, one thing is abundantly clear: We are a divided people. Half of us are positive the other half is wrong. We've been stuck here for twelve years now. In these past twelve years, the losers have been all of us in the middle. A key in American politics for over 200 years has been compromise. The government of this country was intentionally structured to foster compromise. Today in Congress compromise is not just a dirty word or an unpopular idea; it's dead and buried. If you shear off 15% of the right wing politicos and 15% of the left wing politicos, there isn't a dime's worth of political differences between the rest of us. I just don't understand why 60% of us are being disenfranchised by the extremist kooks on BOTH ends of the spectrum. They've got Congress completely stopped in its tracks. Where are the politicians who understand and practice statesmanship? They are being held hostage by threats and intimidation. Get out of line and suggest or endorse a compromise to achieve solutions, and outside money will miraculously appear to defeat you in your next election. Sigh. I guess it's time to wait for 2014 and hope we can break the gridlock in THAT election. I wonder how much money will be spent to make sure we stay gridlocked. That certainly seems to be the result of the flood of political money washing over this entire country.
Breakfast is just not going to be the same. For the past 9 weeks, I've eaten my oatmeal while watching the waves break over the Seal Rocks. The ocean view changed each day. The color of the water was different each morning depending on the amount of sunlight. The waves sometime barely lapped against the rocks. Other days four foot waves crash ashore washing over the gaping string of lava rocks visible out the dining room window. Every morning I got to see gliding formations of brown pelicans skimming over the tops of the waves and diving into the ocean for their breakfast. The gulls as well as a murder of crows also swirled around each morning.
To get to the beach, all we had to do was to walk across the street. The rocks are even more exposed during low tide, and you can find some mighty interesting creatures clinging to the rocks patiently waiting for the ocean to come back and cover them over. Every time I went to the Seal Rock beach, there was always a new revelation. The last trip to 'our' beach revealed a pair of black oyster catchers and other birds I'd never seen before. 
All along the coast there are largish creeks that flow down the small hills and straight into the sea. Most beaches are bisected by a stream of fresh water bubbling into the sea. Often the only way to cross over the fresh water stream to the other side of the beach is at low tide. When we went to the Oregon State University research facility, Hatfield Marine Center, they had a chart showing how the salt water penetrates an amazingly long way up the creek. They also had a Pacific octopus. There is significant ocean research going on in this area of the Pacific Coast. This is a place where Oregon State does marine research, and is an NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration) station. The Coast Guard is also stationed at Newport with both boats (no surprise) and a spiffy orange helicopter. 
