Saturday, March 24, 2012

The Best Part of Travel, Part One

Dennis and I hadn't taken a vacation together for a long time until we went to the Northwest last week. He wanted to visit friends; I wanted to see the Oregon coast, a trip that has been high on my bucket list for years. Happily, his friends live on an island in Washington and Oregon lies just a few hours' drive down the road.

We saw a lot of trees and places where trees used to be. This venerable stump beside a walking trail is lovely, but the clear-cut areas, which are plentiful, are very ugly.


We saw a lot of water falling from the sky and all around us in various forms: creeks, wetlands, sloughs, rivers, lakes, bays and the Pacific Ocean. Here's a placid marina:


And here's the mighty Columbia River, flowing into the ocean:


I photographed the river as we were crossing it on this bridge from Washington into Astoria, Oregon:


We saw breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean during our drive down U.S. 101.


We ate a lot of oysters that were harvested from bays along the coast. When we saw these heaps of oyster shells, Dennis wondered whether the bays would overflow with oysters if no one harvested them.


We drank a lot of coffee. Everyone who lives there probably does. It seemed to help overcome the stultifying effect of heavy clouds day after day. Little drive-around coffee shacks like this one were plentiful:


To be continued.

1 comment:

Jayhawk Fan said...

Beautiful photos! I had no idea the Columbia River was so wide! Gorgeous shot of the Pacific Ocean...makes me recall our days in Monterey! I adore the coffee cabin, and a drive-through no less! Those flower boxes don't look very ambitious, however!