October 1, 2001
This is more of a continuation of yesterday's ramblings than anything actually new. We had to take a little drive because of the near 80 degree sunny weather. Of course, no "little ride" is complete without a "little walk," but more on that later.
Yeah, I'm still sure that's not a mermaid there on the rocks. But I'm still real glad she went home with me. On the right is a crab that isn't quite dead yet. Barby found that out when she went to nudge it with her toe. Good thing she had her shoes on! The waves breaking on the rocks were fun to watch, and while I got some pictures of them, we've all seen better pictures of waves breaking on rocks, and while they all look pretty much alike, I was reminded of the writer that compared the hypnotic effect of watching waves to that of watching the flames of a campfire. Soothing, melancholy, thought-provoking, and with the edge of a thrill as the danger is contemplated.
Oh, yeah. Back to the crab that Barby discovered was still alive. It was destined for dinner. That's what attracted us to it in the first place. The seagulls were chasing each other around and we wondered why. And on the right is a little hermit crab that Barb found among some flotsam. As she held it, we'd get a peek of it peeking out at us, and occasionally a tentative claw would emerge, but even after setting it back in its place, we never did see it emerge completely and crawl off.
And then it became obvious why we didn't see the little hermit crab wander off. If you look carefully, you can see coming from the lower left of the picture on the left, the zigzag track of some little critter, and then from the lower center of the picture you can see the footprints of a seagull. Then in the middle of the picture there is an indentation in the sand. Right where the small tracks end--and the seagull tracks then go to the right. Oh, well. Everything is food for something else, isn't it. Us included. It's rather easy to think of one's mortality in the wake of the events of Sept. 11, isn't it. And there are those of us who believe that there is a life beyond this one, and it is one that is eternal; we are grateful to know that we will be part of it. Feel free to e-mail us if you wonder where you'll be spending eternity, and I'll be happy to share some thoughts with you. And on the right is more evidence of food. Oysters--or more correctly, oyster shells. This was one of several "mountains" of shells we saw in Oysterville. Now if there ever was a properly named town, Oysterville is it.
Barb is holding one of the shells to give some perspective to just how many there were in this pile. I know absolutely nothing about the little bipod or whatever it's called, or the industry that is still alive and well here in Willapa Bay. There were bundles of these shells that I could only assume were used to sink for the little oysters to attach themselves to. The older I get the dumber I get. It's amazing how much I don't know about so many things. Am I the only one that feels like that? On the right, I'm not sitting down to rest. Barby asked me to sit on the log so she could get both the grass and the water in the picture. Of course, she had some trouble getting me to get back up on my feet to continue our "little walk." There are several trails around the Ledbetter State Park that includes the Willapa Wildlife Refuge, and we came binocular equipped to look at birds and whatever else we might find. At this point we're about 1/3 of the way around the loop, and haven't seen bird one. Not even a dead fish on the beach. Nothing at all except one other couple going the other way with their dog.
We're not sure who's the weirdest. Barb for her love of big mushrooms or me with my love of patterns in the sand. We indulge each others weirdness pretty well for the most part. The "little walk" included forested sections as well as a good bit on the beach, and this hunk of wood was way up on the beach, and the wind was blowing pretty good and had made these patterns.
As both my boys will tell you, anytime you pick up a piece of trash it becomes yours and you have to dispose of it appropriately. This time Barb picked up a little bobber that some fisherman had lost, and decided that one piece of flotsam could be tied to another piece "appropriately." I caught her brushing the sand off her hands after tying the bobber to the log. And there she goes with another mushroom. They seem to start out kind of round and quite red, and end up flat and sort of yellow. This one was about 4" across in its immature state.
Now, read this sign carefully. It says on the top line, "Bay Loop 1.1 MI" does it not? And don't the little ^ and > mean we can take the trail either to the right or straight ahead? And doesn't the second line read "Beach Trail 1.3 MI" with only the ^ meaning straight ahead? Well, that's what we thought too. And so with my knee still bothering me a bit we elected to take the "Bay Loop" figuring that we'd go 1.1 miles and get the chance to see wildlife of some sort so off to the right we went. There were even corresponding colors to make sure we were on the right trail. Now, since I didn't wear my pedometer, I have no idea how far we went, but it sure wasn't any 1.1 miles. We didn't take a lot of time memorizing which color (green) we were suppose to be following, but a "loop" is a "loop", right? As we were wandering through a meadow after following the beach along the bay for a while, we met a couple and asked them about birds, since they had binoculars and cameras with them. The fellow pointed down the trail and said that there were a bunch of shorebirds on the ocean side of the peninsula, so off we went. By the time we got back to this sign, we figured we'd done not only the Bay Loop, but also both Beach Trails, and a minimum of 3.6 miles. Today I'm sitting right here "working" on stuff. No "little ride" and no "little walk" to go with it. Unless of course the sun keeps shining and Barb twists my arm to take her to see Jake The Alligator Man at the Marsh Free Museum. Operative word there is "free" of course. The write-up on the place makes it sound like we could spend a whole day or 20 minutes there. I'll keep you posted. We decided to end our day by watching the sunset down at the beach. I carried my chair with strict instructions that I was not allowed to do any walking other than the trail to the beach. Those are tire tracks in the sand in the picture on the right. And I'll give credit to Barb for taking the sunset pictures.
Sunsets and waterfalls. All so beautiful and all so different. That's me on the left and I'm not sure who it is on the right, but he taught school someplace in WA and told me I might as well leave, because there wasn't going to be an encore.
As soon as we packed up the chairs and started walking back home, the moon came up. Perfect finish for another wonderful day. What a life we're enjoying.