Ocean Travels

I can now check off the Oregon Coast as a destination site. I have spent the last few days with my mom in the car climbing sand dunes
, seeing very old trees, cute little puffins, and seeing pretty coastal views. The winding roads of the Oregon shore proved themselves to be quite beautiful, if not a tad cold and somewhat repetitive. I’m sure if I lived on the beach front I would never tire of the view, but driving and stopping at every scenic point seems to take its toll.

Mom and I hopped into the car after some stressful pre-packing. Kinda odd how most of my life fits pretty well into six boxes. Florence was the first stop on our adventure. We climbed the dunes, which seemed to go on forever. Then in town we drove around to the place where I dove freshman year, bringing back a few lost memories of scuba and Matt. On the road again, the road led us to a side hike ending at a 500 year old spruce. It was a super quick little walk, and unknown to us at the start, we were actually walking alongside a road side camp area! Not quite the middle of nowhere. At the end of the trail was this magnificent tree. It was unbelievably high into the sky and so thick around. Very cool.

We did some more scenic driving and picture taking and then, made it to Yachats where we were in for the night. Dinner was super gourmet. All the food on the trip was fantastic, but this was by far my best meal. A perfectly done halibut steak and veggies w/ rice…mmm. I’ve eating more fish this week then I think I have in a year.

Today brought us to Newport. There we saw the aquarium. The best parts were the turtle exhibit, the sea otters, and puffins. The turtles are such neat creatures. Bottom line I think I identify with them from years and years of a small (okay large) Ninja Turtle obsession, but also they are just cool to watch them swim around. Poor sea turtles though, hope they hang in there. Sea otters and puffins (sorry, Yelena, more so than penguins I’m afraid) are freakin’ cute. I wish they came in mini pet size.

Then Mom and I went to an old lighthouse. In fact, the house itsself had been preserved exactly like it was long ago. I wonder if my apartment might ever be a museum of how I lived in a few hundred years. It’d be weird if my life was on display for… the future!

Tillamook was the end of the trip. Tomorrow I’ll drop Mom off at the airport. Unfortunately, this town was not so hot. The cheese factory has got nothing on the Jelly Belly factory (by far my favorite factory). Although we did see some pretty big blocks of cheese (so not all was lost), it was too much of a ploy for me to spend money on cheese related touristy goods – um cheese shot glass anyone?