Captain's Log - Day 20 - Look, Jackie, A Lighthouse!
It is beyond belief! Yes, that's right, the HEAT is on! Literally, the heater is on in our room tonight because it is only in the 60's outside! It is like we have gone to heaven or something. We can turn on the heat and not have to pay the bill or feed the fire... imagine that! I know that Adam and Jackie are jealous!
Now, it is important for me to set the record straight. I did not make Dawn hike 500 miles yesterday to see some tiny little waterfall. In fact, it was only 425 miles and the waterfall was quite substantial! Alright?! I know that my kids would have loved to hike back into the woods to see such a beautiful sight - especially since I got to take 230 pictures along the way!
So, today we left Oregon and entered Washington, traveled north on I-5 and jumped off onto Wa. Hwy 4 west. It was a nice ride along the Columbia River and Dawn let me know what the fishermen along the way were fishing for. Of course, she knew this because her dad is quite the outdoors man and he told her that the Columbia is a big salmon and steelhead river. Well, you were right Mel, I asked one of the fishermen along the way and he confirmed it - he was after steelhead. Wasn't having any luck though. Poor guy, I stopped and rubbed a bit of the ol' Peters' fishing (un)luck onto him.
We pulled into South Bend, Washington, a bit chilled - we were even wearing our full leathers, too! So we thought that some dessert and coffee sounded good. Well, this little restaurant didn't serve any dessert but they did have some pretty incredible clam chowder and delicious fried oysters. That's right, I actually ate some oysters. Sorry Dad, we couldn't send any home for you and decided that carrying them all the way back in our saddle bags would make everything else smell too bad. Guess you won't get any this time around! Haha.
This was across the street from the River View Restaurant. There were all kinds of docks and fisheries where they unloaded their catch. Down the road a couple miles was a yard where they had tons and tons (literally!) of oyster shells piled up - like, several piles 20' high and 50 yards long! It was crazy! Dad, you will have to tell us what they use them for. It looked like they had a couple huge piles all ground up, too. Why? One of you very wise readers will have to know the answer to this very puzzling question.
All along the roadways we have been enjoying the wildflowers. They were all through the desert and every other road we have traveled. These were flowers we named "Dawn's droopy yellow flowers." They probably have a real name, but that one works for us. These buggers were really tall - as you can see they were over my head! And they have been everywhere as we traveled through Washington so far. My Mom would probably pick them and plant them in my yard, only to find out that they are a protected plant and illegal to move! Way to go Mom!
Man, can you believe how bald that guy is?! Holy smokes!So we decided a stroll on the beach and a little dip was in order. After all, we are at the Pacific ocean! So we put on our trunks and headed for the water. Problem was, I couldn't get Dawn to take off her coat to go in - instead, she just went wading in the salt water. I told her she was going to ruin her leathers and she said, "Cows go in the water all the time and it doesn't hurt them! I really don't think it will hurt me either!"
The sand dollars were all over the beach. We thought about bringing some home with us, but thought the odor might clash with the oysters. What do you think? Maybe Will has something in his car cleaning kit to get the dead fish ocean smell out of the bike.
Well, Adam, what do you think? We thought Jackie would absolutely love to go explore this lighthouse. After all it is the tallest one in the state of Washington! We were inspired to go exploring as many lighthouses as we can just to get the pictures for Jackie - make her jealous or something!
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