Misty Morning in Bandon

By the time we arrived in Bandon, Kathryn was already in a tizzy. It was the furthest south we were going in our adventures and also the town with the petting zoo (you can recap on that HERE). We were so determined to be there right for opening that we ended up being well over an hour too early.
Since waiting at the door would just be taunting her and take forever, we went back into town to explore the coast and kill some time and we were very lucky for it. There was a heavy blanket of mist that morning and the tide was coming in along some gorgeous rock formations which loomed out at us.
As the morning arrived we found a way to scamper down to the beach and shoot some nice video of waves and get lots of nice pictures of rocks and nesting seabirds. It turned into a well lit morning as well which worked nicely for an obligatory arm-out-holding-the-camera-duo-shot.
And below is a panorama of the whole beach as the sun rose. You can click on it to make it quite a bit bigger since its very small here.

Multnomah Falls

The Columbia River snakes along the border between southern Washington and northern Oregon all the way to the sea. We ended up following along this stretch for quite a ways on our adventures this summer to visit a number of spots before heading further south.

One of these places was Multnomah Falls which is a gorgeous spot with a rather steep hike to the top of the falls consisting of a dozen or so switchbacks.
The hike is pretty reasonable except I was perhaps overfussing about the potential cold at the top and as such we were both bundled up in too many layers so the climb was more arduous because of the heat than any lack of physical fitness.

The view from the top was equally impressive, offering a commanding view of the Columbia River and both states.

The top of the falls was also populous enough that we were able to get someone else to take a picture of the pair of us, helping to prove that two people did go on this trip since most of the pictures only have one or the other of us.

Long Beach, Washington

Near the end of our west coast adventures this fall we happened to look through one of our guidebooks about horseback riding spots about 30 minutes before the turnoff to Long Beach in Washington.
We had not originally intended to stop there but Kathryn had been wanting some horseback riding for ages and the town boasted a Cranberry Museum to sweeten the deal, so we made an overnight detour.
Through a bit of last-minute panicking we were able to arrange seaside rides the following day and ended up having a 2 hour private ride along the beach.
We were also set upon on all sides by these young birds, which I will call Common Murres until my father corrects me. Its either harder to be a Murre than you think or they were not very good at it because the beach was littered with dozens and dozens of them that morning and perhaps a third of them had died.
Oddly enough over the course of our ride most of them set out into the water and by the end there were hardly any on the beach, even the dead ones having been carried out by the tide.
There were no oil slicks to have contaminated them and no offshore rocks nearby where they would have roosted, so any theories on what the hell they were doing and dying there about are welcome. (Turns out there is an algae bloom in effect on the West Coast currently. The algea strips the weather proofing like an oil slick and kills them. This phenomenon is very recent possible exacerabated by Climate Change- ed.)
Long Beach is essentially alive because of the tourist trade and is any child's dream. Aside from several kite shops, candy stores, toy shops and the like, there is a Curio Shop (read: kitsch souvenirs and stuffed animal heads) which seem to be more common in Washington than you'd expect.
One of their star attractions is Jake the Alligator Man (shown below) which is some sort of weird mummy from back when they had more dead kids and alligators around than copies of Photoshop.

Newberry Volcanic Monument

This fall as part of our west coast excursion, we just crossed the border between Oregon and Mordor at the Newberry Volcanic Monument. Its a huge lava field created by a group of still-active volcanoes in the area.

This particular flow is thousands of years old and was once inhabited by dwarf black bears until hunters decided they were too cute to live.
Kathryn looks around for a likely place to destroy the One Ring.Panoramic view of the field from the base of the volcano (click to enlarge)

Stretchy Kitty

About 2 years ago we for some reason decided to get a cat. Originally we were going to get one as a joint Christmas present but Kathryn managed to make the date creep forward bit by bit until we wound up getting one in early November.

For some reason she also picked the biggest one in the whole shelter and so we ended up with a little bear cat that weighs 18lbs (actually almost 22lbs- ed). Over time we've found that he will do just about anything for kitty treats and have compiled the video below of his efforts.

And here he is wondering what all the fuss is about.

And you can see it HERE in higher resolution if you like.

Fall Migration

Winter is closing in on the west coast and the fall bird migrations are well under way. Although we're quite used to large flocks of geese and whatnot from Manitoba there have been a few huge flocks of unexpected birds out here worth mentioning.
Recently we had an evening walk through Stanley Park and near Siwash Rock we came upon a huge flock of 700-1000 surf scoters which were chasing after something or other in the water and generally being a swarm for a good few hours. The picture above shows their flock in the water with an gas ship in the background for scale and the picture below shows the birds themselves in a bit more detail.
While we were in the okanagan we saw several huge flocks of coots, which are always a favorite of Kathryns but which we typically see only in groups of 2-3 typically but there were huge stretches of Vaseux Lake that were absolutely covered in them.

Halloween Roda

This Halloween we joined up with Kathryn's capoeira group for a Halloween Roda and general wander about and party afterwards. They played and leapt about for a little over an hour both inside the studio and on the street outside, much to the amusement of passing spectators who are unaccustomed to seeing a cowboy fight a pirate in the street. I also managed to win a costume prize by dressing as a capoeirista on the one day of the year that nobody else was.
A pixie fights a man in a dress, just like in the stories.
All under the wise and discerning eyes of Professor Nego
All in all a great way to spend the evening and get to know some of these folks a little better too, great times and hopefully more of the same next year