Just about a month ago, when the call came that Nameless Giant Company had revised its initial offer, I decided to celebrate by taking advantage of one of my last days of glorious unemployed freedom with a day trip to the Oregon Coast.
I got up early and drove the back way over the hills to Highway 30, which parallels the Columbia River from Portland to Astoria, where it empties into the Pacific. The leaves were turning and a foggy morning was gradually giving way to gleaming sunshine.
I stopped briefly in Astoria for another cup of coffee, and sat on a bench along a little riverside promenade to watch ocean liners sailing in, cormorants diving, pelicans flying low over the water, and listened to the great raucous chorus of hundreds of sea lions basking on the piers.
Normally I avoid the town of Seaside; it's right at the end of the main highway from Portland to the Coast, so it's usually crowded and incredibly tacky. But this being a weekday in October, it was nearly deserted. The vast wide beach was empty except for a handful of people and small groups of ravens and gulls chasing the waves and pulling up little crabs. The air was calm and the sun was so strong that I was able to sit on the beach in just my shirtsleeves, surrounded by concentric circles of hungry gulls eyeing my sandwich.
So why am I a bad blogger? Oh, well, leaving aside that these pictures are a month old, just on the other side of that giant hill to the south it coincidentally happened that there was another pair of bloggers out for a similar excursion to famous
Cannon Beach. That's right, it's been a
month and I didn't even mention that
Jess and
Marc had been in town, visiting from Lon Gisland.
It also happened to be
Pony's birthday, so Marc, Jess and I went out to celebrate along with
Toddy and Brian (
Zeitzeuge's partner). Jess is an amazing photographer; he posted one
okay pic with me and Toddy and one hideous pic of me (to which I'm
not linking; I look like Quasimodo's cousin). Jess and Marc are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet; I hope they come back to visit soon!
Coming soon -- maybe next weekend? -- apartment photos!
I got up early and drove the back way over the hills to Highway 30, which parallels the Columbia River from Portland to Astoria, where it empties into the Pacific. The leaves were turning and a foggy morning was gradually giving way to gleaming sunshine.
I stopped briefly in Astoria for another cup of coffee, and sat on a bench along a little riverside promenade to watch ocean liners sailing in, cormorants diving, pelicans flying low over the water, and listened to the great raucous chorus of hundreds of sea lions basking on the piers.
Normally I avoid the town of Seaside; it's right at the end of the main highway from Portland to the Coast, so it's usually crowded and incredibly tacky. But this being a weekday in October, it was nearly deserted. The vast wide beach was empty except for a handful of people and small groups of ravens and gulls chasing the waves and pulling up little crabs. The air was calm and the sun was so strong that I was able to sit on the beach in just my shirtsleeves, surrounded by concentric circles of hungry gulls eyeing my sandwich.
So why am I a bad blogger? Oh, well, leaving aside that these pictures are a month old, just on the other side of that giant hill to the south it coincidentally happened that there was another pair of bloggers out for a similar excursion to famous Cannon Beach. That's right, it's been a month and I didn't even mention that Jess and Marc had been in town, visiting from Lon Gisland.
It also happened to be Pony's birthday, so Marc, Jess and I went out to celebrate along with Toddy and Brian (Zeitzeuge's partner). Jess is an amazing photographer; he posted one okay pic with me and Toddy and one hideous pic of me (to which I'm not linking; I look like Quasimodo's cousin). Jess and Marc are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet; I hope they come back to visit soon!
Coming soon -- maybe next weekend? -- apartment photos!
7 comments:
You're so funny. As handsome as you are, even the bad photos look good!
It was great seeing you. If you could just move Portland closer to us, we could see you more often. :) BTW, since I love you, I'll forgive you for that "Lon Gisland" thing. :P
Miss you!
I am not in the habit of censoring comments, but in this case I elected to for being off-topic, indiscrete and inaccurate.
October is the best time of year to visit the coast... tourists are generally gone and the weather is still pretty good.
Beautiful!
Sometime I have to get out there to see the Pacific Northwest...
you look rested and handsome. when you coming to the east coast again?!
Err...that photo was actually taken back in New York, LOL.
I need new photos, though! I'm working on that.
No real plans to go back east in the near future. I have to earn some time off first, and then, well, as you might imagine, I piled up a little bit of debt being unemployed for six months and moving across the country. Nothing unmanageable and all exactly as planned, but still..."vacation" is not really in the budget at the moment.
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