Yachats State Park, Yachats, OregonPictures are Googled, not mine.
I've had the song "Yes, We Have No Bananas" stuck in my head for ages so.... I ammend it to "Yes, We Have De Chocolate Chip Cookies." Okay, that wasn't funny. Whatever.
I am uploading pictures. It's a long and difficult process. I swear, taking pictures is easy and fun. Getting them on the computer and uploading them can easily make a person homicidal. It took 2-3 hrs to figure out how to put them on computer yesterday. Another hour or two to finally figure out how to almost upload them to photo site tonight - I am on the verge of being done. I hope.
Anyway. While PhotoBucket takes eons to load my pics I should write. Actually PB works much better than other sites, including Fotki, Picassa and even Facebook.
This may work.
Anyway. Typing not going so well tonight so this will have to be quick.
Today: Another LONG day, worth it but I have got to stop the 7am days as they are killing me. Not so bad the first time or 2 but I was SOOO wiped out when I got home. Napped for 3 hrs.
1. Newport: The Farmer's Market
But. Was worth it. Went to Yachats. A town an hour down the coast. RM had massage appt. Stopped in Newport at farmer's market first. BEST DANG FARMER'S MARKET I HAVE EVER BEEN TO IN MY LIFE. I wasn't expecting much; just a parking lot full of boring vegetable stands and a few pretty flowers. 5 min to walk around. Every other FM in my life has been like that. Why not this one?
Instead: Nirvana. There were maybe 20 stands but *every single one* was interesting, well thought out, high quality products. Every single one! It was more like a small festival than a farmer's market with the quality of products. And How you know you're in Oregon: TIE DYE.
The most wonderful booth with every tie dye clothing item possible. Their t-shirts and tank tops looked really comfortable and they were soo pretty. I need to go back and get one. Or several. The dresses, everything. Back to the 60s. It so reminded me of Longmeadow Days - the festival by my grandma's house that she took me to like 8 years ago and where I got my first tie dye tshirt. It was so like that.
RM said a woman sold bread and cookies and always had a long line - it was easy to see why. This woman's stand rivaled and beat that of almost any big city bakery I've been to - it was amazing to behold. I got a raspberry oat bar - playing it healthy but would have loved to get any of the other stuff. Mostly bread products but I had to pass up a really good looking chocolate torte.
And then my prayers were answered: For three weeks I've said the only thing this town lacks is
a good chocolate chip cookie, and then I found it. Amazing. I ate one while in line for other place, came back and bought three more. Found out where they are sold in town too, can walk to it when in town. Great find.
Other crafts and so on - lots of eye candy - fun to walk around - got pics so will try to post when can.
So that put me in a good mood to start.
We left at 8:15, got there around 8:50 probably, and left there around 9:45 maybe ..... Spent a while there. Also did short shopping trip at Oceana too . OH, and almost forgot: local Oregon strawberries! Yum! Felt so good buying local. :)
2. Yachats: Cape Perpetua Scenic Area
It was a pretty quick drive down Highway 101 from Newport to Yachats. I love the name of that town, how it sounds on the tongue. RM pointed out all the sights along the way - basically stunning beach after stunning beach, especially the one in Seal Rock.
You can drive to the top to the lookout point at CP, and because we only had an hour before RM's massage appt, that's what we did. This was stunning, of course, as well. The problem is - I had seen so many pictures of it, that there was no surprise value, no joy of discovery. The view was EXACTLY to the letter the same as the pictures. While it didn't make it any less spectactular, it did make it .... a little boring after the first 2 minutes. But amazing still - I can't describe in words. I'll need to post a picture and you can see, or just do a Google search for Cape Perpetua and you'll see. Seeing Highway 101 below us was cool. Got stuck behind a group of Japanese tourists, not cool. lol. Fun taking pictures.
3. The Spouting Horn - Cape Perpetua
We only had time for one more thing although we had planned four possible routes but that was okay. We went to the Spouting Horn, which was an area where the waves were supposed to slam against the rocks in a certain majestic way in which the spray would go up almost 40 feet, it was said. Or 10 feet, depending on what kind of day you got it on. At first we didn't see anything but as we waited we saw some pretty amazing stuff. The most fun thing was scrambling over the rocks and finding the nonmossy spots so I could get close to the action. More fun still was the challenge of taking pictures of the area and trying to get the spray in action. Taking pictures requires a unique kind of focus that seems to relax me in some ways. I just wish loading them didn't suck so much. I have no idea if they came out because battery died before I could look at them. But we'll see. It was a really fun area. Just beautiful.
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4. Yachats - The CP State Park
Blogger is sucking tonight. It just almost lost my entry, and whenever I try to make something bold it won't unbold it .
At noon RM had her massage apt. I wanted to stay at CP but that wasn't practical. I didn't think there was much in Yachats from the drive thru we did of it. I was wrong. As usual. I like this kind of being wrong, though. At first I couldn't find the beach. I found a little part of it, sat on a log for a while, managed to slip on a rock and get my shoes wet, was a bit downtrodden. But I decided to walk down the road a bit more to see what I found and Oh my Gosh am I glad I did.
The state park in Yachats, which is literally a 5 minute walk from their downtown, is the most spectacular place I have ever been in my entire life. I don't have pics of this one so will have to paint a picture with words as best I can. For anyone from Maine - Take Two Lights. Two Lights is a beach or state park in Maine that I have loved since I was a little kid. It is a very rocky beach and I loved loved loved scrambling on the rocks. There was no place that made me happier, anywhere. Well. Yachats BLOWS TWO LIGHTS OUT OF THE WATER. Literally. Yachats is like, 50 of Two Lights. It almost makes me ashamed to be a Mainer.... haha not really but man I will never look at Maine in quite the same way again I still love it but it's just a little baby state compared to Oregon. So, I got there and.... I was soooo tired felt like I hardly move....but I saw those rocks....those beautiful, amazing rocks that I would have killed for a chance to scramble on and wander around on at any other point in my life and I said to myself, literally, "It is my DUTY to climb on those rocks." So, duty calls, I did it. :)
There were three fishermen situated in one area.... I asked one what they were fishing.... Perch. Whatever that is. I just cannot describe to you how scenic this area was. I don't have the words for the - what do you call all those rocks that stick out into the ocean and form such interesting patterns in such a rugged, fascinating, inviting way? Miles and miles of nothing but sand and rocks and huge, huge waves crashing against the rcoks in the most spectacular way. Sometimes little cave like things the waves went under. Every few feet you'd find a new interesting combination or interplay of rock and ocean, a new degree, angle, direction, intensity level of wave slapping against rock.
I had gotten my shoes and feet wet back at the first place but for some reason it didn't bother me. Any other time it would have completely ruined my day. Threw me at first but I lied down on the log for a bit and thought, this is weird, I'm not cold. I don't feel uncomfortable. Go figure. So when I accidentally stepped into a hidden tidepool ish body of water the second time, and got hit by a wave the third, I just took it in stride: So what, I'm wet, come on, I've got places to go ! Who cares? And kept on walking. It was like the ocean was acting as some kind of anasthetic: because wet feet would have driven me *insane* any other time.
Okay, I just found two BEAUTIFUL pictures of the state park by Googling and put them on top to give all of you and me a visual. I love it, you can google anything.
Anyway....so took about half an hour of very happily cavorting around the rocks and walking across the length of the rocky beach, and then I turned around having had my fill. the funny part is I swear it took me 30 min to walk across the beach but only 5 min to come back. I'm not sure that's possible but I'm glad it was.
I sat on some steps - soooo spent but so happy. I was so tired I felt I could hardly breathe and various body parts were bothering me but I just didn't CARE, I didn't feel it, I just felt so happy to be there. I think I actually felt kind of overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. Is it possible to get overwhelmed by something beautiful? In one way I felt almost numb - it was too much to process. But in a good way.
I sat there on those steps and looked around, having 10 min before needing to go to the car. I looked at the blue sky, I looked at the dark blue frothing ocean, I looked at the dark rocks jutting every which way from the ocean, and I laughed. And laughed. The setting just made me happy. It was the weirdest feeling. It did NOT seem real. No place could be that beautiful for real, could it? It felt like I was in some kind of vortex, it really did.
5. The fish!
I walked back to the car, I got there at 5 past 2, RM wasn't there yet so I continued up the street so I could briefly see the shops. Not much time left and was so tired. Passed a candy store, the coffee shop was closed. Came to Luna Fish, a fish restaurant owned by a fisherman friend of RM's. Stopped to read the menu and this guy came out and said he was the owner. Told him I was RM's roommate so he knew who I was. Asked on a whim - I didn't plan this! - if he could do a grilled salmon, which wasn't on the menu but the only thing I really wanted. He said yes and that he would bring it out for me and only charge me $10 probably half the going rate for it in any of the resteraunts I've seen in Newport. Perfect. I sat on the picnic bench and listened to the radio in a state of bliss. How can you beat that - spend two hours at the most spectacular beach that ever existed, walk 5 minutes, and get served fresh local wild salmon without even having to so much as go in anywhere, which I couldn't have done because of MCS anyway? Getting served outside without having to beg for it is something I never take for granted and always greatly enjoy. It just seemed to complete the experience to have the ocean....and then local fish. Maine may be an ocean side state and known for the ocean, but I have to say, the Oregon coast does up the whole "seaside town and seaside experience" thing much better than any town in Maine or the East coast I have ever been to does.
The salmon seems to be a bit thicker and chewier here. Still good, just different. And always nice to have a hot meal. I had a big smile on my face when RM came up to meet me after her appt.
And then I pretty much crashed on the way home and when we got home because there was just so much to process! Writing it out now I realized just from a sensory perspective the sheer amount of sensory input I got today - it was all good but that doesn't mean it wasn't a lot. Wow.
Like I said....slept for 3 hrs or so.
I really think I need to rethink the 7am days but this one was well worth it.
I am going to regret spending so long typing tomorrow most likely although I hope not but I just had to write about this. How do we live and make sense of our lives if not to appreciate the good moments when we have them?
Pics might have to wait till tomorrow though.
Goodnight!
Kate
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