A two day photo safari of the Northern Oregon Coast, November 1-3:
With our friends, Nick and Kathryn Delany, we planned a two day trip to the northern Oregon coast for a photography exercise. We met in the afternoon at our timeshare in Seaside, the Worldmark Resort, spent the evening together, took some photo excursions the next day, and here are my results, with some help from Nick. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a small book of thirty-six word-pictures of our beautiful coast.
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| The Cedar Creek between Grand Ronde and Hebo. |
In Tillamook Anne and I stopped for a cheese orgy, first at Blue Heron French Cheese Company and then at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
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| A Highland Coo is one of the menagerie at Blue Heron Cheese. |
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| This small gauge engine and rail car is on exhibit at Blue Heron. |
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| Also at Blue Heron were several Guinea fowls. I've eaten them in Scotland, but had never seen one close up. |
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| The Tillamook Cheese Factory is much larger than Blue Heron. |
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| One of the features of the Tillamook Factory is the viewing platform where you can watch cheese being processed. |
Along the coast between Tillamook and Seaside Anne and I made several stops--one for lunch, but mostly for photo opportunities.
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| By Bay City we saw several rocks loaded with cormorants and gulls. |
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| At Hug Point State Park, a short hike got us down to the rocky beach and this lovely scene. |
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| Only a couple of miles past Hug Point is Arcadia Beach with its broad sand beach. |
Anne and I were still early for our check-in time at Seaside and our meeting with the Delanys, so we took a walk in one of Oregon's quaintest tourist towns, Cannon Beach.
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| The interesting mural decorates the walk to an entertaining attraction in Cannon Beach. |
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| The Cannon Beach Distillery offered up tastings of their several gins and rums--Anne did the tasting since I'm the driver. |
At the Worldmark Resort in Seaside we met up with our good long-time friends Nick and Kathryn Delany who now live in Vancouver, WA. Kathryn is a working artist (ColorSplashes.com) and Nick, recently retired, is just getting started in fine art photography.
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| Anne, Kathryn, and Nick walking back towards Worldmark on the Seaside Prom. |
After a good breakfast in one of the local beach-side restaurants, Maggie's, we headed out of Seaside to find subjects for Nick and I to shoot, digitally of course. The ladies hiked along--Anne and Kathryn took their own photos and gave the guys creative encouragement. Even though the weather was not the best (but it was typical Oregon), I managed to get some showable images.
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| The first stop was Ecola State Park just north of Cannon Beach--this view is to the south from the park. |
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| It would have helped to have clear weather, but I was still able to get this image of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse about a mile and a half off shore. |
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| Next we visited Ft. Stevens State Park on the most northwesterly tip of Oregon. On Columbia Beach we tried to catch beach reflections of the Peter Iredale shipwreck. |
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| Nick caught me walking back from taking the picture below. |
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| Columbia Beach |
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| A seaweed bulb on the beach. |
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| While photographing the shipwreck we were approached by a KPTV Portland cameraman on assignment to get reactions of locals of a small earthquake that occurred offshore that morning. Since the biggest reaction he got was one lady who said the quake felt like the cat jumping on her bed, he came down to the Peter Iredale to do background photos. |
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| Up from the beach, we explored one of the batteries at Fort Stevens which had been built originally in the Civil War era and then reinforced in both World Wars. This is the Commander's Quarters. |
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| In World War II this battery housed two large gun emplacements. |
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| A couple of interior shots of the battery. |
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| Before we left the fort, we stopped at the south jetty of the Columbia River where waves were crashing and pelicans were flying--this shot is from a long way off. |
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| Isn't technology wonderful! As were driving Kathryn found details about this cafe for lunch in Warrenton. |
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| And at Arnie's Cafe I discovered a huge, sinful treat--a fresh, hot cinnamon roll. I justified the sweet treat by saying I was braving the elements for my art. |
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| Across the Columbia River into Washington state we hiked out to the decommissioned North Head Lighthouse. |
That evening we ate at one of our favorite beach restaurants, Dooger's in Seaside.
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| Seaside on a rainy evening. |
The next morning it was again breakfast at Maggie's on the Prom in Seaside before we headed back home--Delanys to Vancouver and we to Canby.
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| The Seaside beach with Tillamook Head in the background. |
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| Anne at one of the lookouts near Oswald West State Park. |
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| The view south on a brighter day. Of course, it's expected that the weather turns nicer just as you leave the beach. |
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| One of our finds on the way home was this little shop, Bear Creek Artichokes, 11 miles south of Tillamook on Hwy 101. Homemade pestos, scones, and jams all made it into our shopping bag. |
The weather wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. The company was terrific, and I look forward to seeing what photos will come from Nick's work.
