Turn of the (20th) Century Cat Meme

The Original Grumpy Cat?

Sometimes I feel self conscious of the fact that I am a cat person.  Well let me rephrase that.  I am self-conscious about the way that other people will react when they find out that I am a cat person.  There seems to be such a stigma about people who own cats.  Somehow owning a cat automatically means you are two steps from crazy.  And if you are single and own a cat you are just one swift breeze away from going down to the local shelter and smuggling out a duffle bag of kittens.

I find it interesting to note that this stigma is still around despite the fact that cat's own the internet.  Without cat's the internet would never have gotten the hold that it has on the world.  Of course maybe that is part of why the stigma has been maintained.  I mean cat videos, pictures, and memes don't upload themselves.  And while cats paws are perfectly designed for catching mice they are not designed to run a computer mice.  Or maybe this stigma has really come into it's onw since the internet became ubiquitous?

I remember being young and knowing and fearing becoming the "crazy cat lady."  But I wonder when this came around?  I mean is this just a hold out from when owning a cat meant that you were a witch?  So strange...

I few weeks ago, a friend and I went to see the Pittock Mansion.  It is an amazing mansion build in the west hills overlooking Portland.  The mansion is amazingly beautiful and suprisingly homey.  Downstairs there is a painting of a fluffy white cat which looks perturbed about being forced to sit for a painting.  When I saw that painting I couldn't help but giggle.  I felt some vindication in the fact that these very wealthy people had spent the money to commission a painting of their cat.   I felt slighly less self-conscious of all of the pictures I have taken of my cats over the years. 

At least one of us is comfortable in this picture. 

Annual Cake Decorating Practice

Rosina's Comedy/Tragedy birthday cake 2013

When I moved back to Oregon in 2006 I needed something to entertain myself so I decided to take cake decorating classes.  My mom had decorated all of my cakes growing up and they were always amazing.  She had all of the cake decorating kits and I decided I wanted to officially learn.  So I took three courses at the local craft store and I can decorate a pretty decent cake, I just don't very often.

In fact I seem to really only decorate a cake once a year, for my friend Rosina's birthday.  It's so interesting that she is the only person that I really decorate a birthday cake for.  My other friends don't get one, my parents don't get one, my coworkers don't get one...  I think it's just kind of become tradition.

It started when Rosina moved back to Oregon after a few years away (there must be something in the coming back to Oregon that inspires cake.) and it was coming up on her first birthday back here.  We were going to have a party and I had recently had my cake decorating classes and I wanted to test my skills.  So I asked her what she wanted her birthday cake to be.  Her response: A shark.  So I devised a plan and created a shark cake.  The next year it was Cherry Blossoms cupcakes.  Then a whale's tale. And last year was a cake version of one of her paintings that she had just sold.

This year when I asked her what she wanted she said, "Well the year was had some really great moments and some really crappy moments, what about the comedy/tragedy masks.  That seems appropriate."  So I set out to make a comedy/tragedy cake.

While this year the initial aesthetics are not particularly stunning the cake ended up having a lot of symbolism.  I decided that since we were showing the light and the dark of the year that the cake should reflect it with more than just the design.  I decided that the cake it self would be both light and dark, chocolate and vanilla alternating.  Additionally, I chose to create the masks in yellow and blue and then create the border by mixing the two colors.

Like I said the cake is not as aesthetically impressive as some of my past cakes but it is steeped in  symbolism.  Maybe I should find some reason to practice more than once a year.  Anyone want cake?

The inside of the cake -
I was pretty pleased with the outcome of this aspect of the cake.

 

Action shot of the cake fulfilling it's destiny.

 

 

A Sign of Spring

A lamb looking as a lamb should look.

I work for Portland Community College.  This is the first week of spring term and for the first week of the terms I work a few days at a campus.  Earlier this week I worked at the Rock Creek Campus.  The Rock Creek campus houses the Veterinary Technology program.  To support the Vet Tech program the campus has a farm.  One of the highlights of the year at the Rock Creek Campus is when lambing starts. I used to work at Rock Creek and they would always send out emails letting everyone know that the lambs had come.     

Since I was at the campus and it was that time of year I headed out during my lunch to look at the animals.  There were a bunch of lambs and of course they were adorable.  But the farm animal that really tugs at my heart strings is the calves.  There is something about their little pink noses and their gangly little legs.  I just find them adorable.   

I don’t have much more to say beyond that. Baby animals = adorableness.  

Curious Baby Cow

Baby Cows looking cute way in the back.

Evaluation of Easter Candy

 

 The Next Evolutionary Step in Easter Candy

Of all the candy holidays that there are, Halloween is of course the best.  But the best candy is Easter candy. For the other candy holidays the candy is just regular candy in holiday colors.  Easter is the only holiday that has candy that is only available at this time of year.  Once the holiday passes those candies disappear into the vault only to emerge in the spring again.  Of courses the best of these is the Cadbury Crème Egg which is the most exquisite confection in creation.  

I could write a dissertation about the perfection that is the Cadbury Crème Egg but I want to save that for when I actually have to write a dissertation.  Just know that I think that it is the most perfect confection. Once in college I bought enough crème eggs to fill two shoeboxes, enough to last me the entire year.  Unfortunately, I ended up keeping them for two years and threw most away. Every time I went to eat one I had the thought “If I eat them they will be gone.”  Lesson learned.  To get Crème Eggs year round I just need to move to the source. I knew that the UK was the place that I was meant to be but when I studied abroad in London I found that they sell Crème Eggs year round. The dream was cemented.  

Besides the divine Cadbury Crème Egg there are other things that make Easter Candy the most amazing candy.  For example the egg shaped candy bars.  I enjoy Snickers and Reese Peanut Butter Cups any day of the year.  But the egg shaped Snickers and Peanut Butter Cups have the perfect ratio of all of the ingredients creating the perfect balance of flavors for the pallet.  

Then there are the Jelly Beans.  I love Jelly Belly’s which are of course available all year long and the best Jelly Beans known to man.  But at Easter other companies get into the Jelly Bean game.  We get Jolly Ranchers, Starburst, Nerds, Life Savers, etc.  Any company that sells any kind of fruit flavored candy the other 11 months of the year jumps on the Jelly Bean band wagon.  This is great for Jelly Bean fans.  I mean the other 11 months of the year we have Jelly Belly’s and flavorless balls of gummy color to choose from.  It is fun to have a variety. 

Finally we have Peeps.  People either love or hate Peeps.  I happen to love them.  I mean really what is not to love; its spun sugar dipped in sugar.  Peeps have become a staple for all candy holidays which is fine with me.  But they are originally an Easter only candy so I am including them in here.   In their constant quest to improve the people at Peeps moved from chicks to include rabbits, hearts, Christmas trees, ghosts, etc.  They added flavors  and now they have created a Peep Pop. I mean what could be better than peeps on a stick.  Everything is better on a stick.   

Dream Traveling

Kayak tour up the Wailua River, Kauai - 1/28/13

 



I generally don't dream at night or at least I don't remember my dreams at night. With the change to Daylight Savings Time I have been remembering my dreams, mainly because my sleep pattern is obviously off and I am being woken up mid-dream.  The interesting thing is that in the few days since DST I have had three seperate dreams in which I am traveling.  I am not sure what that means.  On the one hand it is pleasant to think I'm getting to see the world in my dreams.  On the other, it's a very strange world.

Megan and I not in Japan but at Hanalei Bay, Kauai 1/25/13

Megan and I Travel to Japan

My friend Megan and I were traveling in Japan and had stopped at a convenience store which seemed a lot like the ABC Stores in Hawaii. (Gee I wonder why that would be the store that I pictured.) As we were checking out the girl at the check out counter invited us to come and stay with her and her family.  Apparently we were traveling without any reservations and decided that staying with random sales clerks we encountered. 

So this nice sales clerk took us back to her place which turned out to be incredibly small.  She lived with her entire family in a tiny place.  Each grouping had basically a room that they lived in and the rooms were less like actual rooms and more like little caves.  She was being very generous and she and her husband were going to let Megan and I stay in their tiny, tiny cave and they were going to go stay with in her parent's tiny cave with them. 

As we were settling in we were both commenting on how small the places were, and they were small.  There was no communal area just living completely in these tiny tiny caves and the doors opened onto the hallway of the apartment building (?).  As we were discussing it we started to hear voices coming from next door. Not only were these rooms incredibly tiny but you could hear your neighbors almost perfectly.

It was then that I woke up and realized that I actually could hear my neighbors above almost perfectly.  They were having a loud conversation, not a fight, just a conversation, at 3 AM.  :-/

If my subconscious is right, this is what it looks like between the Hawaiian Islands.  It's not.

Kayak Trip up Wailua River - 1/28/13

Dad, Aron, and I Paddle Between Hawaiian Islands

My Dad, my brother Aron, and I were taking a trip paddling between the Hawaiian Islands.We had apparently decided that rather than use a boat to do this trip we would use surfboards.  If we insisted on using boards to paddle between islands and chose the surfboard as opposed to the paddle board, I have no idea.  The problem with the surfboard is that we couldn't stand up and paddle, like with a paddle board.  So we were paddling between the islands like you normally paddle a surfboard.  Which means we were laying on the surfboard paddling with our arms.   I could insert a joke here about how my arms are tired but that didn't seem to be the case.

The more concerning bit was that we were constantly encountering whales.  Now the area between the islands was not so much open ocean as you would think but actually more like a river with dense brush at the edges.  In fact it looks exactly like the picture up above.  Now I know that we weren't just paddling a river because of the whales.  

The Hawaiian Islands is where Humpback whales come to have their calfs and spend the winter.  So there are a lot of them around the islands.  But in my dream there were practically schools of them.  And they were curious, or maybe they were just jerks.  More than once my feet hanging off the end of the surfboard would brush up against a fin.  Now in real life I get nervous swimming in live water because I am honestly paranoid that I am going to run into some aquatic creature.  So having these whales constantly bumping into me was freaking me out. 

The Last View of Hawaii - Honolulu Airport 1/29/13

Andrea and I Travel Through the Denver Airport

My cousin Andrea and I were coming home after a trip abroad.  Where we were coming from I don't know but it required a stop in Denver.  Now I don't think I have every been to the Denver airport but I am pretty sure in real life it is much bigger than the airport that I traveled to in my dream. 

First we unloaded from a small plane directly onto the tarmac, like they used to do it the early days of aviation and at very small airports.  We gathered our stuff off the ground where it had been piled and headed into the terminal.  The terminal had it's standard airport terminal things; video screens announcing arrivals and departures, baggage carousels, and the like.  But this particular terminal was also part elementary school library. 

I am not sure whether Andrea and I had only planned as far as getting ourselves to Denver or if there had been a change somewhere along the trip back that had stranded us there.  Eitherway we needed to figure out a way to get from Denver to Portland.  And in waying our options we needed to view a map to see how far we were from home.  And where is the logical place to go and find a map?  Why the reference section. 

We headed over to the reference section of the airport and pulled out an atlas to discuss whether it would be better to just drive back to Portland or to try and figure out how to get a flight back.  I will honestly never know whether how we made it home because I woke up.  But I am convinced that every airport needs a reference section.

No Judgment Zone

Cup o' Goodness - It might look disgusting here but it was a beautiful thing.

Today was one of the bosses birthday and so we had cake. In fact there were three cakes. Now I can't eat wheat and so I never get to indulge in the cake at the office birthday parties.  But luckily most store bought cakes come with copious amounts of frosting which I can eat, and I do.  I am quite adept at stripping a piece of cake of its frosting without disturbing the cake underneath.  There is pretty regularly cake in our building and my coworkers know that I enjoy eating the frosting so some actually bring me their frosting off of their cake. It's a nice system.

So today there were three cakes in honor of a birthday and for some reason, most likely meetings, the party was at 9:30 am which meant cake for breakfast.  Breakfast cake is the best.  Because there were three cakes there was plenty left over by the time lunch rolled around.  I happened to be in the kitchen area microwaving my lunch when I realize that the sheet cake was on the table and it had some frosting flowers on it.  Now frosting flowers are the best because they come off the cake easily without disturbing the base frosting and cake below so removal doesn't waste the pieces below.

Yes that picture is a cup full of frosting.  It is two flowers worth and some of the decorative edging.  And yes I did eat it for my dessert after lunch.  And I enjoyed every minute of it.  And I am secretly hoping that there is still cake tomorrow that I might take the frosting off of again. And yes, I might have a problem. 

Cake with the two full frosting flowers removed. 
Notice how the underlying structure is undisturbed? Yup, I'm that good.

Happy Birthday Mom - February 16th

 

Mom and I on a black sand beach on the Big Island, Hawaii
December 2009

I have the best mom in the world. I know that everyone says that, but I am pretty sure that I am the only person telling the truth. 

My mom is the most generous and kind-hearted person that I know.  She is constantly thinking about and doing things for other people.  I benefit from her generosity more than I probably should since I am a full grown and almost fully functioning adult. 

When I started this post I thought it would be so easy to talk about how amazing my mom is but I have been sitting here trying to adequately describe the level of awesomeness of her but I find that mere words can not express it. I think that the only adequate way to express it would be to have all the adjectives that describe her spelled out in the sky... by fireworks.  That might come close...maybe.

All I can say is that if I am even a quarter of the person that my mom is when I grow up, I'll be pretty lucky.

Happy birthday to the undisputed most awesome mom in the world!

Grown up kids - February 13th

I have a confession to make, I love motorcycles.  I am a little bit scared of them and know that I will never be the owner of one simply because the one time I tried to learn how to ride failed miserably. But I love riding on motorcycles.  There is just something so freeing about it.  I think it must take us back to when we learned to ride a bike as a kid.  The area that we were able to go suddenly increased just because we learned how to ride a bike.  Things that were just too far to walk to weren't too far on a bike.  And there was the wonderful feel of the wind rushing by.  With a motorcycle all those feelings that we had when we rode our bikes as kids are there but they have grown up.

I was walking to class on Wednesday night and parked in a lot near the building was this motorcycle and sidecar.  You don't see many sidecars that aren't in some WWII era movie.  How cool would it be to ride in that side car whizzing down the road.  Just the perspective would be so different than any other.  Of course whoever was driving the bike would probably get sick of me humming the Indiana Jones theme song incessantly. 


(Note: This flu/cold thing has really knocked me on my butt so I'll be back dating a few posts.  Hopefully this will be over soon and I'll be back to my regularly scheduled life.)

Down for the Count

My first aid station for the weekend.  Keep them all within reach.

Just as I was restarting my attempt to blog every day I was struck down with the flu.  I think it's been a long time since I had the actual flu.  I felt odd beginning Tuesday evening and again Wednesday morning.  I was bound and determined not to come down with the dread disease that seems to be making its way through the population.  Even before I went to Hawaii I was taking Emergen-C and drinking a lot more fluids than normal.  And Wednesday morning I took my first break at work to go to the pharmacy and stock up on prevention tools.

I think I lost my fight around noon when I started to get cold.  Now I am normally always cold but this was down to the bone, teeth chattering cold.  I had class that night though and since I had already missed two classes and you can miss three without penalty I was not going to miss class. So I sat in my art class with my coat on, zipped all the way up and shivered.  When I finally made it home the first thing I did was get out my thermometer.  I can't tell you how many times I have felt like garbage, been freezing, and could swear I had a fever only to pull out that thermometer and find out my temp was just fine.  Not on Wednesday - 100.3.  I have never been so happy to have a fever in my life.  It felt like vindication of some sort.  (Don't ask, I was feverish and you don't think clearly when you are feverish.)

The next four days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) consisted of me laying on my couch watching hour after hour after hour of Netflix.
On Thursday afternoon my mom brought me a care package.  I had called my parents on Wednesday night to check and see how they were doing.  They have been battling the same thing for two weeks now and Wednesday my dad had actually gone to the doctor and he never goes to the doctor willingly. In our conversation I told them that I had secumbed.  So it was nice when mom dropped by Thursday with a complete care package and I mean complete.  Powerade, Ginger Ale, Cough Drops, Alka Seltzer Plus, Kleenex with fancy lotion, and a homemade batch of chicken soup.  I don't care how old you are, when you are sick the only thing that can make you feel better is mom.

So that was my weekend.  For the most part I feel better although I have entered the hacking cough stage of this thing.  I feel fine then suddenly a tickle then I cough but it's never just a cough or two.  No, this is a 5 minute hack out a lung cough-fest.  Once the cough-fest is done I'm good for another half hour or so.  I feel for the poor people who live above me and have to hear me hacking.  Another interesting thing about the cough is that this whole time my nose has been clear.  My sinuses have felt plugged but my nose has been clear.  Except when I cough.  After a coughing fit I always have to blow my nose so even though I haven't had a runny nose this whole time my nose is still raw.  Not fair.  At least I have fancy lotioned up tissues to try and keep it under control.

Stop and Smell

 

Flowers received while in the hospital Sept 2008

I have noticed several people on facebook posting pictures and with the caption, "Day ___ #February Challenge"  So not being privy to what February Challenge was referring to I went to Google.  I found out that there is apparently an February Challenge on Instagram where you are supposed to take a picture everyday of the month and they have themes for the days.

My first thought was, "They stole my idea!"  but after a second I realized that I could use this to my advantage.  There are bound to be days in this month where I don't know what picture to post.  Well I can use their suggestion for the day.  Combine their idea with mine.  :)  Of course this was instantly complicated by finding that there are only about 57 different lists for each day.  The only day that they seem to agree on is the 14th.

The list that I looked at in my searching that I remembered said that today should be "Something I smelled."  Well I didn't really smell anything picture worthy today.  My dinner smelled wonderful but it was not the type of dinner that translates well to photographs.  So I thought, "Well they always say 'Stop and smell the roses' so I guess flowers would be appropriate." 

I love having fresh flowers.  They are so cheerful and smell so beautiful.  But I don't get them very often because it always makes me sad when they wilt and I have to throw them out. I tend to hold on to them for longer than I probably should.  It seems so sad that flowers are so beautiful but really only for a brief moment.  That is probably a metaphor for life. It is has truely beautiful moments but they are fleeting and pass too soon.  Which is also I guess where the saying stop and smell the roses comes from too.  The roses will only be beautiful and fragrant for a moment so you have to take advantage of the moments when they are.

It's not as if I am discovering these ideas for the first time but sometimes its good to be reminded

Critique

Color Wheel Collage

 

 

Analogous Color Collage - The colors are hard to see but it is
blue, blue-green, and green.  I will be changing the center of the flower
to a slightly darker color based on feedback from tonight.

 

 

I work for a college and part of my benefits include getting to take classes tuition free and so I take a class or two every term. My coworkers don't really understand me because I have a degree, there is no need to take academic classes, and there is definitely no reason to take them for grades. And yet I do. I love to learn and enjoy taking classes. I have always been that weird one who likes school. And it doesn't really matter the subject. I was talking to a friend telling her that I got to take classes for basically free and she got very excited and said,

"That is so cool! What have you taken?"

"Oh, Western Civ, Psychology, Sociology..."

"...Oh..."

I know that people think I'm strange but I love taking classes. And I have taken some "fun" classes. This term I am taking an art class which is very fun. It is ART 116 - Color Design. 

 

Tonight was our first critique for our first two assignments; the Color Wheel Collage and the Analogous Color Collage.  I was nervous about the critique but it went really well.

 

The Color Wheel collage was a very fun assignment.  We had to find examples of all of the colors on the color wheel in magazines and create a collage... just like the name implies.  I was nervous about it to start but I am very proud of my finished project.  I spent quite a bit of time choosing from the wide variety of pieces of magazines that I cut out and arranging them in a way that I thought was pleasing.  When I started out I wanted all my pictures to be a theme but I found myself getting frustrated and so I just decided to let it be random and I am so glad that I did.  I have tried to figure out which wedge is my favorite but I can't do it. I look at each one and see all the parts and how they come together and I am just pleased.

 

The Analogous Color Collage assignment was to take a black and white picture and convert it into a color picture using an analogous (next to each other on the color wheel) color scheme.  It was all about matching the values of the colors.  I got the assignment right before I left for Hawaii and didn't actually start work on it until Wednesday.  So over the weekend.  In fact when I pulled it out and my instructor saw it she said, "Wow, you really did a lot.  I know what you did this weekend."  (Don't tell her it was only a few hours on Saturday night.)

I chose a very simple picture of mine because I didn't have the time to go into detail.  It was incredibly stressful. I started with one color scheme which didn't seem to work because my original picture has some very large contrasts in value and I just couldn't find the right papers.  However after going to Michaels and spending like $20 on paper and raiding the paint chips at Home Depot I decided I just needed to start.  And surprisingly I am quite pleased with it.

 

That didn't stop me from being very nervous about the critique however. My picture is very simple and I knew that other people were doing incredibly complicated ones.  I thought that the simplicity would be detrimental.  But when I took it out the people at my table expressed their amazement at it.  Then critique the first thing that the guy who critiqued it said was, "It's perfect."  That is not true but it was nice to hear.  Overall the comments were really good, which was surprising but nice.  There are a few comments about things I could change which I will try and do before I turn it in on Wednesday. 

 

So whew...  I am sure that the next critiques may not be as positive but at least I know that I am not completely devoid of artistic talent.  

I Left My Flip-Flops in Hawaii

The path along the ocean from Kapa'a Kauai to Donkey Beach - Jan 27th 2013

 

 

Metaphorically of course... 

You know that song, "I Left my Heart in San Francisco," well I think that I have discovered the Hawaiian version. 

The place that we were staying in Kauai is right next to a path that runs from Kapa'a (the city where our resort was) to Donkey Beach, which is approximately 3.5 miles north.  On Sunday (Jan 27th) afternoon, my friend was reading and I felt the need to go for a walk so I walked this path.  And on the way back I happened upon the most unusual site; a lone pair of flip-flops on the path placed side by side. 

At the time I was completely alone on the path and had seen no one going in either direction for several minutes.  There is a beach down a steep hill to the left and there was no one on that section of beach to which the flip-flops might have belonged.  It got me wondering what the circumstances were which brought those flip flops to be on that path alone.  Perhaps the next time I go back to Hawaii I will leave a pair of flip flops along a beach path so that a part of me can always be in the islands.


Side Note:  My intention with this blog was to make a post every day of the year.  But as you can see by the date that hasn't happened.  I went to Hawaii on January 22nd and took a laptop with me full intent on continuing my streak.  But it turns out that places just don't have free wi-fi like they used to.  So rather than pay for internet I spent my money and time on more important things, like relaxing. And after I got back I had to get caught up with real life. So I might catch up with missed posts as time goes one.

The Art of Packing

The final weeding

My grandfather always said that when traveling to take less clothes and more money.  I've always tried to emulate that as much as I can when I travel.  The problem is that I still have a tendency to over pack.  I'm much better than some people but I still have a long way to go.  I have found a technique that works for me when it comes to packing that gets me closer to my grandfather's wisdom.

When I pack I first pack everything that I might think that I would need, provided it fits in my suitcase.  I pretty much cram my suitcase completely full.  The next step is that I leave it for a few hours and come back to it to look again.  Generally on this second look I lose a few items that I was unsure about to begin with.  But after this round I still feel as if I have to much stuff so I leave it again.  This might happen a few times with things being taken out and then being re-added then taken out again. 

Finally the night before I leave or just before I am leaving I take (almost) everything out of my suitcase again and do a final check.  This final check allows me to make sure that I have what I want and to take out those few things that are unnecessary.  After this process I inevitably still have more than I need but I feel better about myself because I have reduced along the way.  Maybe someday I will be able to just pack without needed to do the weeding but I need more practice.  I guess that means more travel. Oh well...

Novelty of the Previously Ordinary

A Payphone at Little Whale Cove and it actually works

Yesterday while at the beach we stopped at Little Whale Cove.  It is a gated housing type development where my grandma has a lot. No house just a lot. But that gives her access to the amenities which includes the clubhouse.  Attached to the outer wall of that clubhouse was this very rare piece of machinary, the payphone.

It is amazing how as some technologies rise things that used to be commonplace become rare again.   I guess that is the cycle of the technological life.  First something is new, advanced, and rare.  Then it begins to gain in popularity it begins to sprout up more and more places until it is ubiquitous.  Eventually the technology develops and as the new items are on the rise the older ones become more obsolete.  Eventually the technology that was once everywhere is a rarity and becomes a novelty when found.  Kind of a typical life cycle for better or worse.

Off to Get Some Vitamin D

A typical day at the Oregon Coast

 

This morning I got a call from my mom asking if I wanted to go with my parents, grandma, and aunt to the beach.  The valley has been innundated with cold fog for the last few days and this morning on the news they were saying that the coast was going to be clear and warmer than the valley.  So I decided to go along with them to see the sun and get a little bit of vitamin D. 

 

Going to the Oregon coast is a unique experience.  I have lived here my entire life and it still makes me laugh.  We Oregonians love our coast and spending time there.  But the water is so cold and the wind is usually blowing and there is usually a chill in the air even in the summer.  So proper beach attire here is fully clothed, with coats, shoes, gloves, and hats.  During the summer we may replace the coat with a sweatshirt or a light jacket and forgo the shoes but it's pretty much the same.  And when people here go to the beach we don't sit and sun bathe.  If people are sitting on the beach its usually wrapped in blankets or towels.  When we go to the beach we walk.  People walk up the beach.  We drag sticks behind, we weird designes out of our footprints, we try walk as close to the water as we can without getting wet, we let our dogs and our children run free...  We walk.  I guess that is why when I go to tropical locations I have a hard time just sitting on the beach.  It is just not something that we do.

 

 

People enjoying the beach in proper Oregon beach attire

 

I am smiling in that coat.

 

 A family walking their two dogs and their kid. 
It looks as if they have leashes for their dogs and their daughter but the
little girl is "walking" one of the dogs but her dad is also holding onto the leash.

 

 

 

I often wonder what a person who lives in So Cal or Florida or any place where people just sit on the beach would think about us Oregonians and our beaches.  I love our beaches and they way we enjoy them.  I feel like it is uniquely Oregon.  There is a local TV station that has a commercial on right now that has their weather people speaking about how we don't fear the rain, we'll do anything in the rain because we know that if we had to wait for a sunny day we'd never do anything.  They say that there is a term for the people who live here and the term is unstoppable.  I like that.  I don't know that we are unstoppable but we are unique.  And we do know that if we waited for a sunny day nothing would every get done.  And if we waited to enjoy our beaches for a warm, calm day the majesty of our coast would go completely unappreciated. 

 

Anyway I went to the beach today with my parents, grandma and aunt and had a nice relaxing day.  We went to Little Whale Cove and wandered around there for a while.  Went and had lunch and then walked on the beach.  There was no grand plan for the day.  The plan was simply to get out of the dreary cold valley to the sunshine.  And there was sunshine and while the news was right that it was warmer there than in the valley it was still cold enough to warrent the entire winter garb. 

 

Enjoying the view at Little Whale Cove

 

 

The ocean was amazing.  The waves were very large and seemed to be rolling in forever.  I am not a surfer but it looked like the kind of waves that a surfer would love.  Dad and I talked to a surfer on the beach in the afternoon and he said that the waves further out were big and I believe him. The waves that I saw were huge, much larger than normally seen at the coast.  The water was really churning at the coastline but further out it looked calm and peaceful. 

 

The waves crashing on the rocks at Little Whale Cove. 

 

It was a nice day and even though it was cold, seeing the sun is nice. Especially after it's been hiding for a while.