Oregon City - Portland - US 6 - Tillamook - Oceanside - Cape Meares - Wheeler - Cannon Beach - Ecola State Park
I am writing this while I wait for the sun to set at Ecola State Park. The weather is quite nice, although the wind, coming over the Pacific is ice cold. A good thing that I bought some sweaters in San Jose.
This is my weblogging office for today:
I must look terribly young, not that I will complain. As I sit there, a man walks by and says: "Now, that¥s a way to study. Is that what you do?", mistaking me for a student.
The day starts in Oregon City, where everyone is already gone when I wake up. It is raining outside, so I decide to sleep in a little. I also discover that I have more days than I thought, so I decide to give the Oregon Coast a try.
Peter stays with his family, so I¥ll be on my own.
Before I go, I go to Old Navy in Oregon City. I ripped the pants I bought for the Conference. Although it is entirely my fault, they give me a new pair. I felt a little bad, as I wouldn¥t want my clients to do such a thing. It was their choice, however.
As I leave for Killamook, I catch a quick glance at downtown Portland. Yesterday evening, I watched a Basketball game Portland vs. LA where I learned that Scott Pippin and Detlev Schrempp now play for Portland. Seems to be a more important City than I thought.
As I pass Beaverton, the landscape changes yet again. It looks like Toskany.
I drive along the Wilson River. I park to take a picture. As I climb down to the river, I loose my footing and crash down into the valley. If I¥d broken something or lost my consciousness, no one would ever have found me. Scary.
On the drive, I take pictures of the beautiful Oregon coast. I post them here for you to admire without a comment:
Writing this I notice that I should take more care in recording where I took the pictures. Too late, the damage is done.
Coming up the hill, suddenly a view point appears and a man is standing there holding a remote control.
This is high up the cliffs and there is no place to land his precious toy which sails the winds like a seagul.
The view from this point is nothing less than spectacular. I immediately understand why the guy chose this spot.
Travelling alone gives me time to think and, unfortunately, it brings back demons from the past. I wish I could leave them behind here, but I can¥t bear the responsibility of the bad karma pollution I¥d be causing. Anyways, the demons travel with me, so even without the use of an airplane they had to catch up eventually.
At last, I come to Ecola State Park. Dutyfully, I make a lot of pictures.
I also meet Jonathan:
The landscape looks very mysterious:
I can¥t find the Hostel (and, honestly, probably I didn¥t try very hard) so I check into a nice but relatively expensive Motel. I decide to head back into the state park for the sunset.
The sunset is promising to be quite a show. Just before it starts, a flock of seaguls takes to the air. Some clouds appear. They look beautiful, but threaten to mess things up.
Here are some of the pictures I take during the sunset:
The Powerbook is a strange object in all this natural beauty.
After the sun has set, I take another picture from the view of Conon Beach.
At night, I take a tour of Canon Beach. I love the digital camera for the artistic night pictures it can take. Here are some examples:
As I head back, I notice street work in progress. All the shops, restaurants and even the bars are closed already, still those workers try to get their work done so that people can use the street again tomorrow. Try telling that a german road worker. Usually they turn up when the most heavy traffic is expected, like on the Autobahn when the holiday season starts.
They are gone the next day and the road is free to be used again. Amazing.