Yesterday was another typical gray day on the Washington coast, and since we have been on the go a lot since we arrived here in Long Beach, we decided to stay home and take a day off. Except for a trip to the dumpster to throw trash away and moving the Explorer a couple of times to make it easier for folks to either pull out of or back into RV sites near us, I didn’t leave the motorhome all day.
The interior road here at the Long Beach Thousand Trails preserve is so narrow and the RV sites are so tight that every time an RV comes or goes, it seems like at least one neighbor has to move their car or truck. But everybody seems good natured about it and are glad to help.
I spent most of the day writing, and getting frustrated when I tried to get online to research a couple of things in the story. I finally gave that up and made a note to go back and double check them once we get to Seaside, where we’ll hopefully have a better internet connection.
Since we didn’t do much worth writing about, I thought I’d share some photos from a walk on the beach near the campground that Terry took Sunday evening, both to share some of the natural beauty around us and to showcase some of her photography skills. All of these were taken with Terry’s Canon SX40 digital camera
Here are three views looking south toward Cape Disappointment.
And this one zoomed further in to show some of the pelicans who have flocked (no pun intended) to this area to feed on the salmon that are running in big numbers right now.
I’ve seen a lot of pelicans in my time, but never this many in one area. Everywhere we look along the beaches and on the Columbia River they are flying in long lines like this. And it’s almost like they are synchronized. The first bird in a line will swoop down to the water and then back up, then the next one and the next one after another. And it’s like they all wait their turn, none further back in the line breaks formation. I’ve never seen that before. I’ve seen folks at Golden Corral that weren’t that well mannered!
And here’s a neat silhouette picture Terry took of one with the sun behind it. It almost looks like a drawing to me.
This freighter is several miles away from where we were standing, waiting for a bar pilot to arrive and navigate it over the bar and into the Columbia River. The stretch of the coast from Tillamook Bay in Oregon north to Vancouver Island is one of the most dangerous pieces of water in the world and sailors call it the Graveyard of the Pacific for good reason. Heavy waves, strong currents, and sudden storms have taken a toll of thousands of ships and boats over the years. Over 2,000 vessels and 700 lives have been lost right here near the Columbia Bar alone.
At first I thought this was a huge snake that had washed up on the beach, and sent Terry to check it out, since I’m even more afraid of snakes than I am of bridges. But it was just some sort of seaweed.
Paying attention to texture can lead to some excellent photo opportunities too, as these tire tracks on the beach demonstrate.
And, of course, sunsets are a photographer’s delight. Here are two Terry took from the beach and another taken looking back through the beach grass as we walked back to the campground.
I only took one picture all day long, but I think mine is the most beautiful of them all.
Today we plan to check out the kite festival here in Long Beach if the weather cooperates, and I’m sure Terry and her camera will be working hard getting more great pictures!
Thought For The Day – Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you. – Walt Whitman
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Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Those pics uncle nick are beautiful.
Wow! Those are some of the neatest pics I’ve seen in a very long time. That lady sure has a lot of talent. And she’s stunning to boot! You are a very lucky man Nick Russell.
Beautiful pictures Miss Terry! You really need to put some of your work on Photobucket and some of the other online photo websites where people pay to use them for book covers and illustrations because yours are as good as anything I’ve seen there.
That is one beautiful lady you have there Nick. All of that talent for weaving, spinning and photography and she fixes stuff, drives over bridges, and cooks too? You better treat her right or somebody will steal her away from you!!!
Excellent pictures Miss Terry! I want to see more blogs of your photos as you travel south down the coastline. We can read Nick’s crap anytime! 🙂
No question about it Nick. Your pix is #1!
We love looking at Miss Terry’s beautiful pictures. It doesn’t matter what the subject matter is they are all so good and brings back our memories of when we could still travel and experienced many of those places.
Not seaweed Nick, it is part of a piece of kelp. Nice pictures. We are in Newport and it was sunny yesterday down here……you aren’t affecting the weather as much as usual, thank goodness!
Thank you and Terry for sharing the beautiful pics of the sunset and other coastal sites and the picture of the beautiful photographer. I am going to share them with my daughter and grandson who also love to capture beautiful coastal sunsets in southern California.
Excellent picture of Terri. You did good!
Good morning!
It’s great to sit outside with my tea & read your great blog with beautiful pictures to boot.
Nick has been sharing about Miss Terry’s new camera for a while & I’ve been wanting/needing a bigger & better one…so I checked it out & mulled over it for a few weeks, then imposed a 2 week cooling off period on my self.
The pictures from the last couple of weeks just made it harder to resist. I have to tell Miss Terry the pictures today would have done me in if I wouldn’t have pushed the “buy” button on Sunday. Thank you for the links about the camera…mine’s being delivered today! 🙂 I can only hope to have great pictures as you two do.
Oh did I say I love your blog too? 😉
Vicki
Fulltiming since 1-26-13
Loved the photos. My favorite is the one of the tire tracks. The sun behind the grass and the silhouette of the penguin are tied for second place, but they are all wonderful. IMHO Miss Terry is a true artist.
Gorgeous! Wish I were there.
Terry sure has a sweet hubby…and yes, your photo is the prettiest, Nick.
Wonderful photos! Good job Terry! We are at Seaside now. Very crowded. We got the last spot on the north side and the south side was pretty full too. Sun has been bright all day since we left Oceana at 8am. We are using our AC for the first time in many weeks!
Hoping to get to the kite festival tomorrow. Maybe we will run into each other:)
JanC
A good writer and a great photographer. You guys should get together.
Thank you. Your pictures are wonderful. I grew up in Long Beach, and you captured the true beauty of it there.
Miss Terry should be in FRONT of the camera more often! 🙂
Nick we were there a few weeks ago on Long Beach and when I saw that stuff we now call some type of seaweed I knew it had to be a snake and I sent Tom over to check it out. The Pacific Ocean has some strange things floating in their waters.