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September 2008 – Oregon Coast Twenty five years ago, we thought we’d try getting married. A bit nervous about how long this might last, we would say things like – shall we give it a try for a year or two, or – go for another year? Sort of it was a joke, sort of not. Well, we’ve been married for 25 years, and I guess we’ll try for another year. We had a lot of ideas of what to do to commemorate this event – I said we should go to Chicago. I said I did NOT want to just do something ordinary like go out to dinner, but something remarkable like go to Alaska. Guess what – going to Alaska costs a lot of money. So does a trip to Chicago. When push comes to shove, somehow, it’s harder to spend $500 to $1000. It looked like we would do nothing at all. Bob had found these cottages called “Shamrock Lodgettes” . We could go away, and I could cook in fake irish cutsey cabins! What a deal! Somehow, the reservation never got made. So, the week before our anniversary, we had no plans. We were still in the “I don’t know, what do you want to do” mode. I started looking at bed and breakfast – I would NOT cook, and we could go to the beach. But, the weather was promising to be nice, rare on the Oregon coast, and everyplace was full. Finally, I found one B&B which looked fine and had an opening. We called and emailed, and finally were able to get a room. AND, they would be able to offer Bob a low sodium breakfast! Such a deal. It was more than we would usually spend, but when we got married Bob spent too much for a place to stay that evening, so that was OK. We stayed in Lincoln City, and visited Depoe Bay and Newport. These were all places we had never been, and had very little information about. There would be the ocean, of course, and a fancy place to stay, and we’d see what else. “What Else” included the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. We saw a sea otter – these no longer can be found off the Oregon Coast, and are very rare in California and Washington. He was cute, but pretty bored. We saw puffins, one of whom was determined to pose for pictures. We saw an octopus. I’d never seen one before – he used his suction cups on the glass between us and him – and they look exactly like the suction cups one puts on windows. I think we got them from octopi! He was red and blobby and stretchy and made me nervous. The most exciting part of the Aquarium was a bit of a problem. We walked through a building, to discover that it was a traditional aquarium – glass cases on each side of us, big ones, with lots of sea life. But, if you looked up, you saw that the water was also above you – you were in a tunnel through the aquarium. It was open to the sky, and the sun shone through the bubbles, which swirled as the fish moved. And then we looked down. There were fish below us. We were walking through the center of the aquarium. At this point, it was too much for me. The light was strange, with the sunshine and the bubbles. The glass magnified everything. The floor dropped away below us, but we were walking not swimming, and it was as if there was no contact with anything we could see. Finally, we had to just leave, because the environment was so hard to absorb. But the fish – rays, skates, sharks, halibut, all kinds of wonderful things – they were amazing. After this, the fog rolled in, so the rest of the evening was not exciting. But we saw a great movie – The English Patient – and enjoyed our stay at the B & B. And the breakfast really was to die for. Sunday, however, the fog cleared off. We stopped in Depoe Bay, because I saw some cool rocks. Bob noticed that sometimes they’d spout, way out in the water – but it turned out, it wasn’t rocks, it was whales! They were close enough we could see them. They looked like logs, but then they’d spout, or dive, and you could see them move and know they were whales. Grey whales, which migrate by the Oregon coast and hang out near Depoe Bay for much of the year. I’d never seen one before. Then, we continued on to an “Outstanding Natural Area”. That’s what it’s called. It was a cross between a park and a wildlife refuge. There was a lighthouse, and a beach with GREAT cobble stones, and views, and I saw a starfish. As we walked, we saw some blobs of seaweed – there’s a lot of kelp in the water – that seemed to move. So we watched them, and the kelp turned out to be harbor seals: bunches of them, playing, swimming, close enough to see. The pictures cannot show how much fun they were having teasing each other, fighting with each other, splashing and swimming and rolling around, but we were able to watch them. The Oregon coast is wonderful. But we did need to go home. Next time, I want to have better binoculars, and I want to buy a kite, and I want to blow my own glass float, and to spend more time at the lighthouse, and to get better pictures of the pelicans and other birds. Should there not be a next time, though, we still will have seen the whales. And that may last us another 25 years. |
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