It’s been absolute ages since I’ve hung out around a fire, swapping stories and getting to know new people. The last time was… I’d have to say BCEP, earlier this year? In the beginning of April?
Whoof. Too long.
I arrived at the parking lot late, having accidentally set my GPS to the wrong side of a river tributary, but thankfully I wasn’t the last to arrive, nor did I miss the sunset. I walked up to the Columbia with a dozen donuts and a handful of fire-color packets, twin gifts for my neighbor whose birthday it was.
It was awesome when Bethan and Courtney invited me along – I know I’m a bit of the oddball in their friends group, so it meant a lot to me that I got the opportunity to join in on their birthday adventure.
It was really fun – and also a great change to further test out the night-photography on the new camera, I’ll freely admit!
Since New Years Eve fell on a Friday, I had Monday off work!
I know, right? Not a bad start to the New Year… And doubly-so, since the upcoming Friday was a day off too… so three day work week! Absolutely great start to the year!
Okay, enough bragging. I had Monday off.
I figured… Well, I was feeling a bit lazy, and didn’t quite want to deal with the adventure of icy / snowy roads and tire chains. So Mt. Hood was out. And if going East, into the mountains, wasn’t really feeling like a good option… why not a return visit to the beach, hmm?
Well, it turns out that one reason I could cite is the tides – a reason that I learned when I looked down from the staircase at Cannon Beach, straight into the foaming Pacific Ocean. Turns out, I’d timed it just right so that I’d arrived exactly at high tide… strangely, not something that I think I’ve ever seen at Cannon before.
I’m an intrepid adventurer though! No “high tide”, or “lack of beach”, silliness is going to stop me! I forged my way around, hiking over dunes and through the beach grass, making my way down the beach and into a singularly glorious landscape or churning waves and dispersed sunlight.
I walked for ages – I didn’t really track how far, or how long, I was wandering. I stopped in a nice copse of trees for lunch, and rested when I felt tired. I’d brought snacks, water, and warm layers… And since I’d started at high tide, I knew there wasn’t a risk of getting trapped anywhere since the only direction the surf was going was away from me.
It was lovely. Relaxing, quiet, and exactly as calm as I was hoping for on my last day before re-starting the trudge of work.
On my walk, I even found a few ocean-based treasures!
Jaw-dropping views not included, I found: – A really cute little beach toy, washed up on shore – A child’s bike helmet, now home to a colony of brightly colored mussels – A huge hunk of whale blubber!
Yeah, you read that last one right. Whale blubber! It wobbled!
A few days previous, a whale carcass had washed up ashore a few miles down the coast… I hadn’t really thought about it, but that’s the best explanation I could think up for what I found. It’s big, wobbly, and tons of seagulls were feasting on it…
As the sun dipped low, I made my way back to the car and toward the drive home. Beautiful snow-covered trees kept watch as a drove, and a glorious dinner of artichoke, steak, and tortellini awaited me back home…
It’s been a while since I’ve seen him – Back over spring break, if I’m remembering correctly, and I was super psyched to hear that he’d have some free time over Christmas to come up to Oregon and visit. I came up with tons of plans – keeping in mind that weather would be a pretty major contributing factor to what trouble we got into.
Without giving a full blow-by-blow of the adventure, I’ll fill you in on a snapshot of the conditions we found ourselves in: The world was burning down (or rampantly infected, more accurately) with the Omicron variant of COVID. Mt. Hood was getting belted with a full-power winter snowstorm. The roads between Mike and I were similarly under a snowy assault. And, to top it all off, both of us were pretty well burned out from the rest of the adventures of the year.
So what do you do when the whole world seems a little bit crazy?
Go to the beach! Duh.
“But Ben! Those are pictures of snow! That’s not the beach!”
“Right you are, other Ben! For you see… Mt. Hood and Mt. Shasta weren’t the only places getting pummeled with persistent precipitation! The roads to the beach were also under snow!”
But hey. We’re two New England boys, in Mike’s car with brand new snow tires. We got to the beach without any difficulty or fuss.
Once at the beach, we grabbed some lunch at a local Brewery before walking said lunch off exploring the coastline.
Have I mentioned that Oregon is beautiful?
Let me reiterate that fact:
Oregon. Is. Beautiful.
The walk was perfect – for me, at least, but I’m pretty confident that it was exactly what both of us needed. Low-Key, relaxed conversation. With a gorgeous background.
And no – I’m not going to transcribe everything we talked about. Because that would be crazy. And, while I’m absolutely crazy, I’m thankfully not that kind of crazy.
Though… Maybe someday we’ll start a podcast or something. Pretty sure our crazy would sell pretty well. Maybe.
For now – Enjoy a few interesting signs that we saw before the final installment on the day’s adventure!
**CONTENT WARNING**
***BUG AHEAD***
****WE WENT TO RED LOBSTER ON THE DRIVE BACK****
(I didn’t even know we had Red Lobster, to be honest. Many thanks to Mike for introducing me to Maine Lobsters in Oregon!)
