26 March 2007

Catching Up Again

Catching up again, I’m always catching up. Well, we are settling in nicely on the Oregon coast and really enjoying it here. Hopefully we’ll still be able to say that at the end of summer.

We have done a good amount of exploring in our area and I have a ton to post, only a small portion of which will make it into this post. Just know there are more coming, lots more.

First though is showing you pictures of our general area. In February we did a good amount of exploring and have enjoyed seeing the different areas around us at different times. They all have so many different faces, high tide, low tide, stormy, clear weather, etc. This picture is of a river where it meets the ocean. We come here a lot to watch harbor seals and sea lions playing in the surf, and of course the ever-present, fearless seagulls. It’s hard to see it in these images but the seals and sea lions get really close, I should have cropped these so you could see it better, but I have a lot of catching up to do and didn’t take the time. There will be better pictures coming in later posts.

We come to this spot not just to watch the wildlife but also to witness the beauty and power of the Pacific Ocean. She has so many moods and you’ll never get the same show twice. It’s truly amazing.

To finish up this post I’m going to tell you about our weekend. It’s a bit out of order, but we didn’t take any pictures so it’s ok. Over the weekend we went whale watching. Saturday was overcast and windy, white caps on the ocean, so we didn’t see anything, but collected a lot of information. Sunday started out the same way, but cleared up to blue skies and sunshine by about 91-10am. We jumped in the truck and took off to whale watch. Started at a place about 30 minutes from our house and saw a ton of whales. There were spouts all over the place and several came in close enough that with binoculars you could see them blow, then see their back ridge as they rolled, it was so cool. You could see their spouts with the naked eye. Then we drove to another place about 10min from our house. We only saw a couple spouts there, but were treated to something else completely amazing. As we were all watching for whale, out of now-where a Bald Eagle flies right in front of us. Literally, probably only about 10 yards out from the sea cliff we were standing on. Then it circled at another cliff and came back for another fly-by. It was so close you could see individual flight feathers in its wings. It was HUGE and it was amazing! There were two of them that were circling with some vultures, but only the one gave us the show. How cool is that. In one day we saw seals and sea lions playing in the surf (you always see these guys), whales spouting and rolling, and bald eagles flying right in front of us. I love it here.

Cheers~
;-)K