Last days at the Oregon Coast Tidepools and Forests and a Ghost Story

See the story below for the names of all these wondrous creatures.

 Great Ancient Giants Oregon's Islands

River Lighthouse at Bullards Beach

The Last Days along the Oregon Coast (Cape Lookout to Humbug Mountain Beach State Parks

A Pacific NW Ghost Story

The year is sometime in the last part of the 19^thCentury, the small Tidewater Crow sat on a cliff overlooking waves hitting the rocks jutting out from water below a bay. She didn’t know the name of the bay, the rocks or the cliff; the rainforest which crept onto the cliff was her home, but she like to venture out on the edge and soar above the cliff whenever a storm was brewing.

She lived in a huge twin cedar nurse tree in a tiny niche high in the branches; the two trees were connected by roots which grew into each other.  It was her retreat where she raised her young and escaped predators. A nurse tree is very special, it gives life to other life. She was not alone in her roost but others of her kind flocked nearby in what is called a murder of crows.

After a storm Tidewater Crow always found good things to scavenge along the sandy beach; some of things were food, some of the things were baubles for her nest. She knew that some of the baubles came from ships sunken at the end of their journey across the seas from the orient.

Tidewater Crow watched a little child looking in the Tidepools.  She wanted to warn the child to watch for the waves as a storm would bring much stronger and larger waves, but her kind had lost the ability to talk to humans thousands of years ago. Her squawking could not even be heard above the crashing of the waves.  She knew the Tidepools to be alive with orange bright ochre sea stars, red sunflower stars, green and pink anemones, hermit crabs, black leather chitins, mussels, gooseneck barnacles and black turban snails, but they couldn’t talk either and say to the little child, ”Hang on tight like we do.” Being intelligent like all crows, she knew that waves were alive as well but the controlled by the Storm, the Wind and how high they came ashore was controlled by the Moon. Waves had no ability to fly like her in any direction.  They could only move the way they were directed. So she worried about the little child. What was he looking for?

The sky became darker, the wind and waves higher and stronger and a great crash swooped the child off his feet into the surf.  Crow could not see the little child anymore who must have been swept out to the ocean or bashed into the rocks.  The little child she knew did not have the ability to swim under the water like her friends the whales. 

Tidewater Crow made a sad caw and cried salty tears.  She mourned her inability to warn the little child. She retreated to her niche as the storm grew louder and the wind stronger.

The next day was sunny and bright in the afternoon. The storm had left everything glistening with water.  And Tidewater Crow went down to the cliffs and saw to her delight and surprise the little child again. “How did you survive?” ask the Crow in her mind.

The little child spoke and Tidewater Crow almost fell off her branch that edged out over the cliff. “I can hear anything alive if it talks to me sometimes,” laughed the little child.   The storm was too loud if you tried to talk to me yesterday.  I was happiest here where my mother and father were happiest so I came back here to play in the Waves and wade in the Tidepools. My mother is here as well, see her over there watching me.

Tidewater Crow saw a small woman in deerskin dress, her hair was braided with blue and red beads.

“We live among the People …they don’t know we are here because we are ghosts, said the child, and that is why I survived.  I could not die because we both died years ago. I wish we could warn them of what will happen in another 5-100 years. The white man will come more in numbers and cut down the greatest trees, hunt the elk, ermine, and bear and fish the sea taking more of the life than they need. I know this because I traded with them along this coast in my adulthood. I was educated by them and lost myself for a while, being as greedy as them. The lumbering has just started but is going to continue and the rainforests will start to dwindle.  There will be no place for the People and they will be treated unkindly by the white man. But there are a few who will work for another 100 years and save what they can. I looked in the Tidepools now for changes. Could you learn the way to talk to them again to warn them, I am but a ghost and can’t cross the divide, but you are alive?

Tidewater Crow made a sad caw. “No she said, I can’t warn the People or the white man either; they will have to learn from their mistakes and they will.”

Note from Stefani:  Can you guess who is the little boy and Native woman?  Sacagawea and her son Jean Baptiste Charboneau’s story is so unique and sad in many ways.  Without her Lewis and Clarke’s mission would have been a failure. Lewis and Clarke took Charboneau on as a translator because Sacagawea (one of his two wives) was pregnant and that would show the Native Americans they met that their exploration mission was a peaceful one. At the end of the mission Clarke convinced Sacagawea and her husband to leave their young son with him while they went back to live with Hadasita. Clarke was good to him, but the boy never really learned about his own traditions from his mother.

We camped in many places along Oregon’s fascinating 362 mile coastline which at first glance reminded us of the beaches at home, but then looking again you saw wonderous islands of rocks.  Our favorites for hiking and the beach were Cape Lookout and Humbug Mountain which had Tidepools, a Mountain Trail covered in shamrocks and ferns and Stream falling to the ocean).  We liked for biking South Beach and Bullards.  Bullards the best because it was near Bandon which is near nice Wildlife Refuges (Simpson Reef-the island rocks where seals and sea lions loft around-Bandon Marsh- a birder’s paradise, Oregon Islands NWR-tall high islands that reminded of us whales and ancient giants), a nice lighthouse and you couldn’t hear the fog horn.

 You will note I am capitalizing what most English teachers would frown about, but there is a reason.  I have come to believe like many Native Americans that most of this wonderous Earth is alive. All along the coast you can see where the forests have been lumbered.  I don't understand why clear cutting is still allowed?  Well, I have hope someday soon we will learn.

Hope you like the all the photos.  Next stop Crater Lake, Oregon and Volcano Lands. 

Botanical Gardens, Geology and Oregon History

Japanese Garden with Pond

 

For Ben and Kelsey  who love Oriental Gardens. But I have a question for the viewers of the blogg.  Do you like the photos enlarged or not?  

You can actually click on something and get them enlarged and shown in sequence as I put them on..Let me know.  Comment!

We are still heading down Hwy 101 and also off some smaller off roads.  The history of Shore Acres State Park and its gardens and unusual geology (where all these photos were taken today) is intertwined with early Lumber Industry of Oregon, Shipbuilding, The Depression, WWII and a man named Louis J. Simpson(1877-1949), who was something of a rascal early in his youth, but became very rich, and then civic minded (giving land away to any company that would hire 50 employees, getting the railroad to Coos Bay and North Bend to help move the lumber from his mills and make the areas prosperous for all. Then he lost everything, one by one.  He never had children, but had two beautiful wives (the first died). Louis built a showplace estate (which had an a ballroom, indoor heated swimming pool) perched up on a scenic bluff with gardens from plants all around world and a huge farm. He even had his own electrical plant before most people had indoor plumbing, but didn't insure most of what he had.  He lost the first estate in a fire and built an even larger mansion which he lost with the Depression.  He made a deal with the State of Oregon in 1942 to purchase the property and with the US govt. Oregon housed WWII officers there.  They lived in the suites each having its own bathrooms. Finally the second mansion could not be restored after falling into much disrrepair and was razed. But visitors can still see sea lions, seals (we did today) off the scenic cliffs, walk and observe at low tide all kinds of organisms including the Green Anemone shown and among all kinds of flowers and plantings including the Japanese Garden, Rose Garden and at holiday times they light everything up.  We didn't see see whales today from the enclosed observatory, but that was because the entire coast of Oregon is fog/mist covered until at least 12 noon every day. We got lucky the first couple of days seeing them up close in the coves.

Concretions (Cannon Ball)  Mineral formations which start with decaying organic materials.  Will learn more later..

This is near the Simpson "Reef"(really rocks) where the seals and sea lions are gathering in hundreds.  Can you imagine the waves on a stormy winters day vs. a summer day.  Pat said he saw an elephant seal mixed in with the two species of sea lions (Stellar and California). Very dramatic!

At Sunset Bay Beach near the gardens.

Bladder Wrack or Rockweed like we have at home.  Here they farm it for food. (Agar makes hard ice cream, but I am thinking they eat it.) Pretty nice photo my phone did..Love the colors. Am I getting good at this?

Small Green Sea Anemone

Amost 2 months and I am sure there are some burning questions like

Have I run Pat over with the big wheels yet?  Has Stefani lost any weight exercising everyday?  Have we lost Elizajane?  Is she crazy yet?  Is Stefani crazy yet?
 Answers: No, No, No, No, Not anymore than I am already...
Please, Please make comments.  We miss all of you and want you to comment.  Then we will feel we are still in touch.  Tell us what is happening in your lives. 
PS Pat and I have only had two major differences so far, far less than the usual. Differences can be the spice of life you know...

Hiking and Biking the Pacific NW Wildlife

Hiking/Biking HWY 101 Oregon and the Pacific NW
Oregon has these beautiful campgrounds along the Pacific Ocean.  Many have a hike in and bike in campsites.  See below photos. But and this is a big But! Even though within the campgrounds are great bike trails the main hwy 101 has only small shoulders for bikers and hikers.  We are not the largest vehicle on this road.  Huge lumber trucks twice our size and more pass by us and the roads twist and turn. When we pass a biker and one of the trucks is also passing at the same time Pat almost stops the Proud Mary.  The lumber trucks whoosh by at the highest speeds possible.  We are slow and I compare us everyday to a "lumbering" dinosaur.  We fear for the bike riders.
Once on the bike trails in the parks, it is great.  The day before yesterday we biked to the South Jetty here at South Beach, saw more sea lions and went to the Oregon Coast Ocean Aquarium.  I wish instead we had biked to the Hatfield Marine Center which was nearby.  I am one of those individuals that must go to a zoo or an aquarium or a science museum at least once during any journey.  LI Aquarium in Riverhead is a better aquarium displaying more species (shark tank wow!) and different aquatic ecosystems (Amazon River, African Lake, East Coast Tide Pool).  The only exception is the Pacific tide pool hands-on exhibit, but at low tide you can go below the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse at Yaquina Bay Natural Area and explore tide pools for free. You will also see there harbor seals basking in the sun and it is a seabird haven with auks, guillemots, murres and tiny diving birds we couldn't id. Along the lava made cliff another highlight of the day was a beautiful female peregrine falcon,  a nesting pair stay right beside the Interpretative Center.
You could walk your bike over the Yaquina Bay Bridge to explore the rest of the Historic Newport Bayfront and Nye Beach , but we didn't. Most of the towns remind us of Montauk, but Newport is a little more built up with a Ripley's Believe It Or Not and other tourist "traps".  South Beach Park is not as nice as Cape Lookout Park mainly because it is a beach campground and an annoying fog horn beacon at the end of the jetty which is loudest when the sky is blue.   The hiking trail is a dunes trail of sugar sand very hard to walk in while Cape Lookout had a wonderful Rainforest trail. (I am writing a ghost story about Cape Lookout that involves a raven, rocks and a little boy. When it is done I will tell you more and give you more photos.)
The bridge is the highest spot and so important to know in case of a Tsunami.  All up and down the coast are warnings about tsunamis and what to do in case there is an earthquake which is find the highest spot available or say goodbye.  It is a little anxiety causing seeing all these signs.

Of course, the thrill of the last 3 days is the spotting of the gray whales at Boiler and Rock Creek Viepoints.  They don't stay up long enough for a good photo. But we could watch them for hours.  The trick is to find the blow spout. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Lighthouse at Yaquina Bay Harbor Seals, Sea Bird Paradise and Tide Pool Exploration

Best exhibit at Aquarium, the Jellyfish

10 inch Banana slug, photo for Dottie at the farm, they don't eat vegetables and are native here, good food for crows and shrews.

Hiker/Biker Campsite at Cape Lookout

FORT STEVENS STATE PARK

     Unlike the other forts that we have visited on our journey, Fort Stevens State Park is dedicated to more recent history, i.e., WWII.  Earlier in the day, we went to Fort Clatsop, a replica of the very small winter fort built by the Discovery Corps commanded by Lewis and Clark.  It was really just winter quarters for the 33 souls there for the winter. Like Cape Disappointment, Fort Stevens has many miles of dedicated bike trails as well as wide roads with ample shoulders.  We rode most of them.  I have been pondering the fact that when you really need a strong, wide shoulder while driving, such as on winding mountain and coastal roads with large drop off on your side of the road, you get little or nothing.  We should just be glad that we have roads at all.  But I digress.  

     Last night, we were treated to two parades in the campground.  The first was a parade of WWII vintage jeeps.  The passengers were all dressed in army uniforms.  That was interesting.  The second parade was just plain unexpected fun.  The members of a recumbent bicycle club were camped in a group.  Their parade happened after dark to show off their beautiful neon creations.  Not sure how they were powered, but they made us glad to have been there to see it.  Sorry, we didn't take any pictures.  There was a third parade that happened between 4 and 5 in the morning, as very noisy diesel pickup trucks hauled boats out to the Columbia River to fish.  I wasn't so crazy about that parade.  I can only imagine the lines at the boat ramps to launch boats for a day of fishing.  There must have been at least 1,000 boats at the mouth of the Columbia River.  When we passed through Chinook, WA, just before the bridge to Astoria, OR, the streets were lined with those trucks with empty boat trailers behind them.  The logistics of launching, parking quite a distance away, and then getting back to your boat in a timely fashion seems daunting.  

    I confess a great fear of bridges.  In my recurring dream, I take the ramp toward a bridge.  A sign warns that you should maintain your speed because there is a vertical loop in the road.  I stop the car and walk away.  On a bridge near Brunswick, GA many years ago, I was so afraid that I stopped the car and told Stefani that she had to drive.  The bridge to Astoria was not quite that bad.  For most of the span, it was low and easy.  But the last part just before Astoria appeared to go almost straight up.  Sphincters tightened as we approached. There was a scrunching of naugahide. There was a serious incline to the bridge, but it wasn't as bad as I feared.  Most things aren't.  

     

We were at Fort Stevens last night near Astoria and it has a great bike trail and wildlife viewing area and beach as well as Cape Disappointment, but the water is still too cold for this Yankee and no Hotspot again. I will let Pat tell you about the bike light show.  Uploading wedding photos has been difficult from email. I will try to give you a few each time of the best ones. Below Kelsey feeding Ben the pig, sorry you vegetarians.  They are real carnivores. And Kelsey has to be gluten free so they had a little cocoanut tort instead of a huge wedding cake with all kinds of deserts including ice cream.

 Kelsey and Ben with Delmar the steer (not Delbert), the best man.

 Kelsey, Ben and I at the traditional family dinner. Pat smoked salmon. Ben's friends gave him their idea of a bachelor party a few days before.  They buried him in the ground so he would understand the "weight" of his commitment (ahhhh). Ben and Toby with their unofficial godmother Celia at the dinner. They really are good men.

Last Adventures in Washington
Statue of Clark of Lewis and Clark off the bike trail near Cape Disappointment.  The bike trail was FUN!FUN! We did 14 miles and it was like the Grand Prix Raceway and you could stop and walk the beach or look at whale skeletons.  We just loved this area except for no Hotspotting.
One buffalo would feed all of Lewis and Clark's 33 discovery trail explorers, but by the time they got to the Pacific Ocean all food stores were almost gone and they traded for blubber and dried fish.  The men spent days and days on the beach making salt for the trip home.  They gave the Natives Fort Clatsop(Oregon side) to the Clatsop Indians but stole a canoe to get home.  The descendents of Clark made retribution 8 generations later.  Sacagawea and her babe who was later adopted by Clark with Clark's slave were the only people not paid at the end by the US govt. for their great contributions in land and money.  Lewis felt he never accomplished anything in his life and finally died by his own hand. The carpenter Gass who helped build all the forts they over wintered in and canoes wrote more in his journal than Lewis even though he had little education (19 days of schooling) published first and made the most money off the story. Fascinating history.
Saturday we stopped at a Safeway in Astoria to get much needed groceries and were so glad we waited until Oregon because right near the store were sea lions-hundreds.  They were following the salmon up the Columbia River.

Sea Lions near Safeway Grocery Store in Astoria Oregon

Pat in front of basalt cave at Cape Disappointment

Stefani at beach near campsite

CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT VIEWS

Pat's new kite from the International World Kite Museum near Cape Disappointment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cape Disappointment Light House from Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center

 

 

I have learned that I should carry my phone with me because it is easier to load photos from the phone.  Pat is taking photos but isn't putting them up on the blogg.  I will try to get him going because he has better photos of the beach.  It is  great place, bike paths called the Discovery Trail.  A little rain so we went to the Interpretative Center -just fascinating how they crossed the country and made it to the Pacific.  I think our going across country was easier than theirs(but Pat may disagree on some of the Hwy 2 and 101 turns. The beach is just wondrous with huge waves and basalt outcroppings.  It is too cold to swim, but of course the kids on the beach are jumping into the waves, they must be part seal. As soon as we go to the coast the warning signs changed from "watch out for bears" to "stay away from the seals or sea lions." Cape Disappointment was named so because it is at the head of the Columbia River and looks like a bay instead of the mouth of a river so explorers who found the area from the ocean thought it wasn't a way to get inland.  Explorers who came by way of the Columbia River were disappointed they had to go miles and miles further to find the ocean. On to Oregon!

Wedding Shoes and Honoring Women!

One of the things that impressed me the most at the wedding was that Kelsey, her mother, Linda, and her sister, Kristen, were able to walk down a hill to the altar in high heels.  These are “Can Do Women”!  Women who can milk cows, make cheese, raise chickens-bantams and heirlooms, pigs and those difficult vegetables, ride horses along beaches, coordinate and design as well as put up a whole wedding like any of the best Long Island Wedding Planners, not break out in a sweat for 6 months and still not fall down a hill.  I am totally in awe. I did mention before that Linda also sewed the wedding dress that Kelsey designed with special lace. I did get one photo of Linda looking a little crazy, but won’t share that with anyone because Pat has one of me after 44 hours of labor with Ben before I gave up and said “take him out through my mouth I don’t care”-the C section followed and Pat crying his eyes out while singing a song he doesn’t remember.  The nurses came to me the next day and ask if my husband was alright.  I said, “What? I am the one who went through the 44 hours of Ben trying to get out”. 

So in this blog, I am honoring Linda and Kelsey. My Momma, Shirley and Pat’s Momma, Sarah, the grandmothers and great grandmothers who were also “Can Do Women” who more or less raised their children alone. I am also honoring all those “Can Do Women” I know or have known like Carol Collins. (I miss her so and how those 3 named women would have so loved to see their Ben married.) I honor all those women who go to work each day and come home to then take care of their children.  When they told me back in the 60s I could do anything I wanted to believe them, but now I know we are all part of heredity, mix of the genes, and places and times. And we can only do the best we can.  Sometimes there is a cost, a cost we pay and not understand until we are older. My independent mother and Pat’s independent mother knew about the costs towards the end of their lives and I am beginning to figure out now.  They were both beautiful and wonderful women who loved their children dearly.

 I just had finished for the 2^nd time called Beach Music by Pat Conroy, given to me from my friend Lee for the trip. Each chapter was a person’s history and tried to explain why their psychology, why they were the way they were, was due to their families’ history and their geographies, where they grew up and the political histories as well. I do believe being born just after WWII, and growing up in the 60s in the south, poor impacted my beliefs and how could that era not mold me in some way with the civil and women’s rights movements, Viet Nam and the assassinations of great thinkers? I hope Ben and Toby will read the book one day because I think it would explain their Daddy and myself as well.

The cameo in the wedding bouquet is of the three Graces, a gift from Ben’s great grandmother to me, a gift I never knew the value of until I saw Linda, Kelsey, Kristen and saw their faces in the three Graces. My grandmother had a history of surviving.  I don’t know her whole story, but now I believe it was fate that I received the gift over the other granddaughters as it was fated for Kelsey.

Maybe the “men” will get another blog. You will see Chuck, Kelsey’s dear father, Toby our other dear son, Pat, Ben and Alex, Kristen’s boyfriend ,in the background of the first photo as well as Jingle who will deliver her first calf in 3-4 weeks and her companion, Delbert (spelled?), a steer, destined to feed eventually the families.

 PS The only disappointing thing about Cape Disappointment where we are now is there is no cell service.  So I am doing this on the run and you will have to wait for more wedding photos later.