Trails and Tails

A Bronze Tree
Kites
Borderlines
15 miles of sand
Shipwrecks
Lewis & Clark
Disappointment

What have these all have in common.
Long Beach . . . . Washington.

The Mouth of the Columbia River has a history like no other American river. Known for the treacherous shifting sandbar and terrible storms this intersection of fresh & salt water has become a maritime legend.

This same river was also instrumental in bringing Lewis & Clark, our own American explorers, to the final destination of their years long trek to find an inland passage.

Not only has this river brought disaster to ships and discovery to explorers, it has also brought dividing lines between people. The states of Oregon & Washington use this river to be the borderlines to separate, Sales Tax, Income Tax, Bottle bills, Vehicle license fees, and of course pumping your own gas.

This past weekend we spent with our good balloon friends Dave & Sue. Dave was turning 60 and was kind enough to want to share this milestone with us.
We stayed in Long Beach, Washington. A nice typical West Coast beach town. Except for one thing.
You can drive on the beach. . . . .for a long way. I have not been on this kind of beach since I was a kid down in California. What a memory.



Like my art work? Sue wrote the 60 and I did the portrait of Dave.
There were lots of walks we went on. Not only on the beach but on the Discovery Trail, where we found animals and the Bronze Tree. A replica of the Clark Tree has been bronzed and sits out in the sand dunes near our hotel room. We can see it from the balcony. Supposedly this is the tree that Clark carved in it his name and date as the furthest west point in the exploration that he and Lewis went.



I was playing with my new camera and was trying different apatures and shutter speeds.
I got these pics of the deer in the area. The doe was taken at dusk, while the buck was taken at 6:30am. The sun had just started to peep through a cloud and all the grass got very vibrant. Nice. . huh?
Speaking of creatures. While driving up there Jerry almost hit an Otter. . .yes an Sea Otter. It was pouncing across the highway between Ilwaco & Long Beach, scared the dickin's out of us. And Saturday morning I was going on my walk and could not get the camera up fast enough to see a very well fed coyote dash across in the same place the Buck pictured below was.



WE hiked around Cape Disappointment to the two light houses, North Head was put in AFTER Cape Disappointment because the ships coming from the north could not see the Cape light house. Here we have Dave hiking up his pant leg trying to catch. . .?? I don’t know what. Dave. . .Please stop exposing yourself!


Sue found a good sittin' tree

Does anyone know what plant this is? It looks like a cucumber vine, but the flowers are very small and white, and the fruit is round and has soft spikes all over it. I have never scene it before.


In August is the Kite festival for Long Beach. It looks lovely. I would like to go to it if possible. Since we won’t be flying our balloon this year, maybe I can substitute kite flying with Jerry. . . . maybe not.

Thanks for the Great time together Sue & Dave, let's do it again sometime.