09-04-09

I got up at 6:00am to go to the beach to see the full moon and low tide at 6:27. The temperature was in the 50s. I bundled up a bit and hopped on my bike in the dark. On my way to the ocean a dear froze in the beam of my bike headlight. I slowly rode toward it until it got spooked and scampered off. When I got to the beach the full moon was hanging above the ocean, its light reflected on the water from the horizon to the sand. The sun was just peaking over the opposite horizon. Cape Blanco Light House flashed brightly miles down the beach to the north. The moon had pulled the water far out to sea. I climbed farther out onto the rocks then I was able to do before. They were covered with muscles, star fish and sea anemone. As it got brighter I was able to look for agates on the beach. I wanted to take advantage of the low tide and combed the rarely exposed sand. I was used to sand and small stones, but found pockets of larger pebbles. I saw an agate twice the size of any I had seen before. As I bent down to snatch it up before the next crashing wave I saw another one of the same size just inches away. Then I got obsessed with looking. I spent about 2 hours at the on the beach, squinting, squatting, kneeling, and at times even laying on my stomach digging through the sand. I only saw two other people on the beach all morning and they too were agate hunting.
Corey, Trinity and I went to Brooking, Oregon about an hour south on the 101. We stopped at Cape Sebastian, hiked and soaked in the view. It’s so high above the ocean that it looks like you’re looking out of an airplane window, yet you’re walking down a trail.
Corey knew of a place where there are a few rare red wood trees in Oregon. We checked them out and hiked around at that park too.
Before heading back we stopped to stock up on supplies at Fred Meyer. Fred Meyer is like a west coast Wal Mart. They had some good deals. It was mediocrely satisfying to support a medium size corporate entity.