Seal Rock, Oregon

We’ve been relaxing on the Oregon coast for a few weeks and done a few interesting- and photogenic things so far. 

Walking on the Beach
The beach down the street from our house is a very pretty one with lots large boulders in the water, a few streams.

The town is named Seal Rock. Seal Rock is a VERY large rock-- sort of a small mountain jutting into the ocean.  You can see it in the photo below. I heard seals barking there once last summer but never saw any (the seals live a few miles away in Newport). But the rock seems to be a bird sanctuary. There are zillions of birds, mostly seagulls perched  top of it. So naturally there are a lot of seagulls on our beach too, The streams are favorite bathing spots for the seagulls and we often come across bathing parties of seagulls in the stream. Here is a photo of me on the beach watching a couple of dozen seagulls taking a bath in the stream. They were having a real beach party.

Kayaking
We live in a rather rural area- almost half an hour to the nearest supermarket. But we are surrounded by parks and beaches. There are some beaches with no public parking, like the one we use at the end of our street, as well as two public beaches near the house, as well as  two state parks or state beaches within walking distance. There is a third park about 10 minutes drive away and this is our favorite, Brian Booth State Park, This is where we do most of our hiking. There are nice hiking trails and another section of the park has a narrow river for kayaking.

 I went kayaking there last week. Franklin didn't join me this time. It was an early morning trip and he prefers the evening ones which are not available right now. The river is so close to the house that so I have kayaked this river at least twice before and it is always fun.  The sky was overcast with a fine mist coming down for mot of the trip but it didn't make any difference, I had a great time.

We saw this osprey nest alongside the river.  There are several chicks in the nest (on top of telephone poles)

                               I am not a birder but think this is a blue heron.

An Evening Out
One of our friends here in Newport is from Ecuador. She told us about an evening of Mexican music.  I’m from Arizona so this didn’t sound very special but we went anyway. Well, it turned out that I was wrong. It was special. This wasn’t Mariachi music like we hear in Phoenix at all. And the setting was interesting. A room in a community center overlooking the water so we could see the Pacific Ocean at sunset behind them and also on the side of the room.
The first band  consisted of 6 or so Indians from southern Mexico. It looked like they made every instrument themselves out of gourds, clay, bamboo, and big seashells. They had dozens of instruments and the music was not so much about melody as it was about using each of the instruments and harmonizing with all the other players. It was more like a peyote ritual - not even music really. I do have a short video but this blog won't support adding a video. Sorry. I could not get a photo of the sunset because it was backlit, but I have attached a photo of two men in the first group. The ocean is right behind them. 

The second band was more conventional but very good pop music with a very good singer who more or less danced out her songs. I don’t have any photos of this band. Anyway, the evening was one of those rare and wonderful evenings that turn out to be better than you expect them to be.

Picking Blueberries
There is a lot of fruit grown near the Oregon coast, and lots of berries. Most of these berries are wild. So far we have picked blackberries, thimbleberries, salmonberries, strawberries (not wild), and a few ones whose names I don't know and which don't taste particularly good. I have blueberries, blackberries and huckleberries growing in the yard.   But there are only a few blueberries on our bushes so yesterday we went to a blueberry farm to pick blueberries. I bake pies several times a week here. In fact I plan to make one tonight.

Sunset
Our tv faces a wall of windows that overlook the beach. Last night we were trying to watch tv but the sunset was so spectacular that I was completely distracted and took a LOT of sunset pics instead. Sunset comes late here-roughly 10 pm.  Here are few of my photos from last night, including some close ups. I DO use the sunset setting on my camera but I have NOT colorized these photos in any way.  You can see the beach and the rocks in the water at the bottom of most of these shots. There are a few close ups as well.

Trouble in Paradise
Today we have car trouble. It is Saturday so we can't bring the car into the dealership (even if we could get it to start) nor can we rent a rental car until Monday. Fortunately the car is safely tucked in our garage and we are in one of the prettiest places anywhere with a house full of food. So it isn't exactly a desperate situation. The worst thing is I missed the weekly farmers market today, as well as tonight's chosen evening activity ( a side show on New Zealand), But it is an interesting thought to more or less marooned in paradise until Monday morning when the car dealership opens- unable to escape if necessary.