Sunset In California???

You wouldn't think we were down at Nye Beach right now to watch the sunset, it looks like we are in California. There was sooooooo many people down on the beach. It didn't appear to be anywhere we could go to get some "alone time".
View looking north.

View looking south.

Very close up of a log. It really is magical what the ocean can do to plant cells.

I suppose I can understand why there were so many people on the beach, this is a beautiful sunset. I have decided I like a sporadic cloud to reflect the pink sky. I will settle for a super clear night though.

Daisy is board and tired of watching sunsets I think.

Jered is still flabbergasted at the amount of people that are on the beach.

It looked like a giant spider as I was walking up to it, but it ended up being a helpless piece of driftwood.

This rock is just beginning to become exposed. Most of the summer is is completely buried. By the end of the spring it will be a huge rock that you have to jump up on it. Tall enough Daisy won't hop up unless she has some help.

We climbed up to a ledge to watch the rest of the sunset.

Daisy even humored us and attempted to not act board while we were enjoying the view.

And a beautiful view it was!

Weekend at the Whale Center

Got in some overtime this weekend :)
The weather has decided to stay for another day, and man, it is beautiful. I have to admit, I was a little cynical when Morris (the guy that works at the whale center full time) sent me multiple emails stating, "oh you are going to have so much fun this weekend, we are seeing fifty whales per day!!" I was like, fifty whales?? That sounds like a lot. Well he was kinda right, there are many whales out in the ocean. They are heading down to Mexico for this seasonal migration, so they are miles out in the ocean. I suppose it still has to count though. Wild Seagull playing on the mussel beds right in front of the center. It is a nice office view. I took this while I was sitting down looking out the window.

The jetty, no whales there though. It looked pretty calm from the shore, but really the swells were large enough that the boats were not going out in the morning. It seemed to calm down later in the afternoon. One of the commercial whale watching boats went out late in the afternoon.

This seagull was chocking down a seastar. I don't understand what kind of crazy animal would think that would fit down their throat. Very interesting.....

A group of Oystercatchers were on the rocks, not catching oysters. I thought I remember them being very territorial creatures, but just in this shot, I can see at least four. Maybe they are all one big happy family, but I am more leaning toward my memory being wrong.

I caught these guys looking at me, I have no idea for how long.

Later there was some excitement! The coast guard helicopter started flying overhead. Normally, this is just a show that they perform when there are tons of people around. But today they happened to be looking for a old man that wandered away from his condo. He was wearing orange and black, as well as a ton of other people walking the streets. It got really close, one could almost feel the wind blowing from off the propeller.

Not sure if they found the guy or not, but they were searching around for fifteen minutes or so.

Night Agate Hunting

I got to work this weekend, so I knew that there would be no time for agate hunting over the holiday weekend. Although that was very sad, I know that I will be happy and unregrettfull when I get my next paycheck.

The weather has been beautiful, so I thought we could go down to the beach after dark and look for some agates. I wanted to use my new orange camouflage headlamp, and my new blue 2-D cell maglite, and night agate hunting gave me the perfect opportunity.

My new favorite spot to agate hunt is down just before Seal Rock. We did pretty good for it being totally dark outside! I think this may be my new favorite night activities....well one of them.

Sunny Side Down

It is finally not dark when I leave work now!! We were driving home from work just past Moolack Beach, but had to stop to watch this beautiful sunset.
A lot of logs have washed up lately. The are so fun to play on....OR NOT!!!

A ton of rocks have been uncovered, but this beach must be related to Yaquina Head, because none of them are agates. Super lame, oh wait, not lame at all, just not as cool as an agate filled beach.

Once was a slow moving stream has turned into a fast moving river! Still haven't found the right settings for moving water. It looks blurry.

Jered didn't mean to walk right in front of the camera, but I think his face adds to the beauty of the picture :)

I still had to take another one without his head in it.

The tide was very high, we barely had sand to walk on.

Yaquina head lighthouse off in the distance. It is hard to see through the pink.

Reminded me of a basket sea star, but at least, a welcomed change of pace from the "boring old" beautiful sunsets that we see every day.

Office Party

To celebrate moving in the wonderful office, my magnificent boss Patti decided to throw us a party. Although I usually manage to make everything about me, it really was a celebration of the wonderful employees that built the building!

Ron managed to turn his frown upside down once he sat in my super ergonomic chair! But who couldn't smile when there was a giant cheese pizza right next to them?
It is the men of the night!! Barry and Jered are the kings for a day. They have no idea how happy they have made us who are occupying the office right now. They deserve a party! So there you go!

Oh yes, and there is JR too! He did a lot of work on the office too, especially the roof!

He deserves a beer too, although I am a little upset with him that he didn't bring at least one of his million children! Oh well.

It's Guys Gone Wild!!!

Barry, Jered, and JR, the super best guys ever, (I am especially excited about one particular one, but I'm not telling which:)

Barry normally takes the best pictures ever, but he is super mad at me right now. Earlier in the day, I took a picture of him and a pipe wrench that he had amazingly managed to break. I thought it was a great picture and inserted it into the parks "weekly highlights" (low-tech blog if you will). He seemed to think that our director wouldn't appreciate his destruction of park property. I think he will get over it. Have another beer :)

Dave, Dan, and Jim

Dan got laid off the end of December, but I am glad that he could return for the party. He did a lot of work on the office too! It was also very nice to have Jim show up, he doesn't usually come to after work events. He is so awesome! Looks as if Dave had to cut himself off already, even though I am sure he hasn't had a drink (no drinking in uniform:)!

Just before Jim leaves for his long commute home (Roads End I think) he had one more chip. I had to capture the moment!

The party dwindled down, and left just Jered, JR, Patti and I to clean up the mess. The rest of the night we tried to make Jered drink the remaining of the beers. We tried multiple different guilt trips, "oh, we don't want to carry them," and "this is your party, you have to drink all of the beer!" He finally gave in and had another one. What a good sport.

And after all of that, I was the only one that spilled anything on the myrtle wood counter top. I couldn't believe it. After the first bottle of champagne that opened just smoothly, I guess I got a little cocky. The second bottle exploded and spilled all over. Good thing Jered and Barry anticipated such a dumb move, and bought a plexiglass cover for it. Thanks again guys. I had the best week of work ever, and I owe it all to them. Oh I guess I also have the greatest people that I work with, and the weather has been beautiful, and my crazy neighbor hasn't been bothering me, and I have a super awesome boyfriend. But other than that, I owe the best week ever all to them!

Office Moving Day!!

I moved into my new office today! Oh, after a long and dramatic wait, the office is all finished. It is so beautiful!!! It was the most exciting day ever. We were all happy to move in, as it shows.
My new space, the bulletin board is hiding all of the crazy computer wires.

Drift Creek Falls

On the way up for the Sunday Drift Creek Falls hike, we had to stop at Fogarty Creek for some agate hunting. We got there while the tide was still somewhat high, but managed to come across a rather large rock bed. Jered found the biggest agate ever! So big it can't even be shown on the Internet. Daisy found nothing.

We happened to come across two sea stars that may have accidentally let go of their rock home. We placed them back in the water in this mussel tide pool. I figured that would give them the best chance.

People were coming, so Daisy had to get back on her leash just as we were leaving the beach. It is usually better to have her under control on the way back, she has a tendency to sniff all the way back, which can end up taking some time.

We made it miles up behind Lincoln City to Drift Creek Falls trailhead. It was cold. Only one other car was parked at the trailhead. We passed them returning to their car at the very beginning of the hike, so we knew then that we had the trail to ourselves.

The view of the falls start in the middle of the magnificent bridge.

Daisy did not think the bridge was very cool.

Then to top off the great hike....it started snowing on us!