Oregon

The folks in Oregon have a beautiful coastline which deserves its own post. The above shot is a photo of a favorite viewing area, Cape Foulweather and the Devil's Punch Bowl. It was cold and raining.

At some point I'd like to take Jake (my cross bike) down the full coast line from Seattle through California as I noticed there were quite a few touring bike riders cruising along.

These guys were in the Oregon Aquarium Aviary. They were pretty funny, hopping off of ledges and splashing into the water right in front of us.

There was plenty of lush greenery around. There also were many different types of flowers in the Aquarium area as well.

The Aquarium has seals, otters, sharks, sea lions and some of the largest crabs alive in the world, Japanese Spider Crabs.
It's been quite a while since this area has had a Tsunami, but I stopped to read up (below) on what to do if there is an earthquake.

Below are some of the little jelly fish that were in the Aquarium. Not sure why, but I just stood there looking at these guys for quite a long time. I think I know why it is recommended to have an aquarium in one's house, as it is calming sitting there watching the creatures. I also was remembering my brother and I getting the heck stung out of us by these creatures at Myrtle Beach as children.

After some steamers and ales at the Rogue Brewery, I decided to take a walk out on the pier there to see what the locals really do.

The Sleeprobber was a really cool boat moored behind the brewery. It looked right at home at the dock where one of my favorite beers, Dead Guy Ale, was born.

As a kid I used to love crabbing on the Virginia coast and was reminded of those days out on this pier. These were not blue crabs, however. They were Dungeness and Red Rock crabs.
The LRs and I had a lengthy visit with with two crabbers on the dock. They were ladies in their upper fifties who I could tell had been doing this a long time. They were using fileted out salmon and steelhead tails and backbones that had been recently left on the docks in the area. She told the LRs this is what we should be doing and pointed to where we needed to go to get the fish parts for trap bait.

Above is a legal sized Dungeness the ladies were particularly proud of sitting on top of a couple of Reds. We were told the Reds are best in stews. Dungeness, as you may know, are sweet and spectacular steamed with butter and lemon. If I lived in Oregon, this is what I would be doing for sure. Along with salmon and steelhead fishing. There was another local casting a large piece of lead with a treble hook with nothing on it. He said he was trying to snag lost crab pots. Interesting, yesterday's Missoulian had an article on government funds headed to this very area to remove 15,000 lost pots that are having a negative impact on the marine life. I love this coast.