While the day was starting as a repeat of yesterday with gray stormy weather, by 11:00, things were clearing out, which was good as we had plans for the afternoon that involved us leaving our cozy enclave. We were both surprised by how quickly we had become attached to this place by the ocean. From yesterday’s photos, you might wonder what the attraction was as it’s not always what is obvious to the eye at first glance, but we knew that past the gloom was this view. Now with the sun fully arrived and Friday promising to be a sun-drenched glorious day too, would you think it crazy if I told you that a big part of me wished for a week of crippling weather bringing the threat of melancholy with it?
As far as writing goes, that will not happen until well after dinner tonight, though that 3,000-word behemoth blog entry from yesterday needed serious editing this morning, so I was able to tend to that. I was approaching the end of that task as the weather cleared, but by then, we needed to get on the road. We were traveling north to Yachats proper for a meeting that had been planned nearly a month ago.
Yesterday, my little sister Amanda Horton and my brother-in-law Brandon drove 350 miles south from Seattle, Washington, down here to the Adobe Resort in Yachats. They are down for a few days of vacation, their first in two years, using the opportunity to visit us in addition to getting away.
While the photo is showing us standing in front of the ice cream shop, socially distanced mind you, we were meeting at the Luna Sea restaurant for lunch. It took us an hour and a half of gabbing before we could get our order in, and due to COVID restrictions, we couldn’t even eat on the property, but that wasn’t a problem as a nearby table in front of another restaurant that was closed served us just fine. Until that time, we just talked and talked. Even when we thought we were leaving, we continued the conversation for nearly another hour. We are uncertain if we’ll get together tomorrow as, although Amanda asked about the possibility, we gave them a pass should they need more recuperation time on their mini-vacation.
There’s a 20ish-year difference in our ages and a solid generation gap between us, but there’s a deep curiosity that binds us as siblings. Amanda needed to make her life somewhere other than Arizona, which is likely similar to the circumstances that drove me from Los Angeles, California. Sometimes, having the opportunity to define yourself away from the influences and environment that starts feeling like a trap is a great reason to grab what is often a once-in-a-lifetime second to seize the moment and change our destiny. She was one of the lucky people to do just that. Sadly, our origins are from dysfunctional parents where we never had the chance to be proper brother and sister besides her very first few years when I spent many an evening watching over her or taking her out to parks to visit the ducks or go pick oranges. After I joined the military, it would be nearly ten years before I’d see her again, and by then, she was a teenager like all other teenagers. But now, our family is tiny and will soon enough disappear. That we have this briefest of moments to meet up on vacation is a real treat, not lost on me.
With the weather turning gray again with intermittent rain and getting a bit cold after standing outside for a few hours, it was time to part company. Caroline and I thought we were heading back to Ocean Haven until we figured we’d run down the trail at Devils Churn. It doesn’t matter that I already have maybe 10,000 photos of foam from this exact location; it’s always exciting to stand next to this gash in the earth and watch the furious waters race back and forth, trying to compete for space where there’s little to be had. In the process, the ocean beats itself into a frothy overflowing chaos that earned it its name: the Devils Churn.
I’m leery to write anything here describing anymore than I just did as I’d imagine I’m only saying something already said before on a previous visit. As a matter of fact, I won’t dare compare these photos to some of the others I posted in years past, as maybe they look identical. But I don’t care, as every time we stand before this dynamic monument to what looks like the most violent butter-churning device ever invented, I stand in awe.
Should you have thought that one foamy photo would be enough, you are wrong. I just realized one thing I may not have shared over the years: if you fell into this deep, narrowing chasm, you’d die. I refuse to believe anyone could be rescued from this cauldron of fury. The water is so aerated I can’t imagine keeping your head above the surface; if it were above the surface, you’d be gulping volumes of seafoam. Then, if you were to get your bearing, the next wave would come in and slam you with brutal force into the rock ledge, game over. I’m not so certain that retrieving a body from this liquid hell would be possible, so I stand far back, giving the Devils Churn the respect that it demands, and hope some rogue sneaker wave doesn’t come in and clean us out of its way.
You know how when you do psychedelics and mathematic shapes unfold, producing blissful moments as you stand in astonishment at the incredibly beautiful complexity? Well, that’s what I get here without the shrooms or acid as the universe exposes itself to my naked eyes and naïve mind. With that in mind, if you can’t see what I’m referring to, then you should seriously consider finding yourself a dozen hours, some things that bring on hallucinations, and pull up a floor so you might look inside the vastness of the universe and be dazzled by its magic.
Maybe I’ve been pulling your leg the whole time, and this is nothing more than a river of meringue that some pranksters dumped upon the surf? That idea, too, would come to you while tripping; seriously, you should consider going where your mind is afraid to travel.
This is the Oregon trip of eating my own braggart words as I start to feel we’ve hardly stopped at a fraction of all the places I claimed to have covered on our previous extensive journeys up and down the coast. Here we are for our first sunset photo at Neptune State Scenic Viewpoint. While it’s a good photo, I think nature can do better, so we move down the road believing with almost 30 minutes until the sun sinks out of view there are more opportunities to capture a masterpiece.
At Strawberry Hill Wayside, I believe we found today’s perfect spot. How is a location like this measured? If every couple of minutes, a new, more spectacular scene is framed that elicits oohs and ahs from Caroline and me, there’s a really good chance this is it. If I get to 40 or 50 photos in less than 2 minutes, that can also be considered a good indicator. If I step left or right a few feet and swear that this perspective is the greatest ever, either I’m drinking my own Kool-Aid, or this really is the place to find the money shot.
Twenty seconds after the previous photo with a different aperture, I think the warmer colors make for an even more impressive sunset photo. I’m enchanted by those remnants of golden light surrounded by the heavy storm clouds that weigh low on the ocean while in the distance above them small windows of blue sky can still be seen. It’s as though everything that the sky can offer is available right here.
While this wasn’t necessarily a favorite sunset image, it joined the ranks of being featured due to this seagull being captured in just the right place.
Then I walked over to where Caroline was standing and found that she had located exactly the best place in our universe, such as it existed in this moment of our lives, and so I moved in on her place with the superior camera and stole her thunder by snapping this masterpiece. So you need not ask; I’ll offer you what makes this one such a work of art: do you see that glimmer of golden light on the ocean at the bottom of the photo? That’s the magic. Like I said in the title at the top of this blog entry, today was not the same as yesterday.