CAPE DISCOVERY SP My Birthday
Surprise! It rained all night long, but it’s my birthday and we will find some fun somewhere. Excited like a schoolboy, I woke up before six; Penny was awake as well. We turned on the furnace and crawled out of bed after a short bit. I had noticed it was quite warm while getting up to pee during the night. The temperature doesn’t vary much; 47F-52F is what we’ve experienced. That’s not intolerable. We were busy writing postcards, this blog and recording our expenditures before breakfast. We went a bit stir crazy sitting and reading. So I said I wanted to hike in spite of the rain since we move on tomorrow to the opposite bank of the Columbia in Oregon.
First on the list was the North Head Lighthouse about 2 miles north. It’s a short drive and a short hike to the lighthouse from the parking lot, but it was raining pretty hard. Everything looked black and white. The surf, some 100’ below, streamed incessantly in a steady cadence from far to the north to the south as our eyes could see. The north jetty of the river was barely visible, but the jetty was the line of demarcation between the ocean and the river.
From the North Head, I tried to photograph the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse and include McKenzie Head in the frame. Heads are promontory rocks along a coastline. Clark and his party documented their visit to this promontory in 1805. They camped “a short distance from there”, which was in the area of where we were camped! The photo, was shot in the rain with an iPhone of a subject about 3 miles away, I was sure would be a discard. But, reviewing it later, I was overjoyed to have caught the light pointing directly at me!
After returning to the parking lot, we turned north up a paved trail to Bell”s View point. It was raining harder, but there were a few remnants of time gone by, such as an elevated wooden cistern, and gun batteries from WW I and WWII. The observation platform was quite new and top notch, but the view had become obscured by vegetation. Young men were walking up through the vegetation carrying fishing poles, but no fish. They weren’t properly outfitted for the weather; I wanted to ask them how they could fish from that promontory in these conditions. But they were racing to their car to get warm. We had better coats than they.
Penny was really cold and ready to throw in the towel, but after sitting in the warm truck while I peed, agreed to one last climb: McKenzie Head! We had the fan on high as we headed back toward our campsite, stopping short at the McKenzie Head trailhead. It was really raining. Penny gamely followed me up the hill for the first 200 yards. But it was steep and slippery; it was cold and wet. She knew I wanted to climb the entire distance, but stopped and said it was too much for her heart. I knew she would feel bad if I didn’t continue, so I gave her the keys and told her to go get warm. Once again the view was black and white in the rain, but I thought it quite lovely on top of McKenzie Head. I felt honored to stand in the spot those men had stood!
Back at the Ship, we cranked up the heat and stripped off our wet clothes and put on dry garments. We spent the afternoon reading to one another before hitting the sack for a rest. This was a rare date night, so we hit the showers and clipped nails, pulled hairs growing where they weren’t supposed to, and put on some clean clothes.
Our objective was oysters on the half shell; but where? The cashier at the grocery gave us two ideas. I knew where the first one was. I missed the turn into the parking lot and took the turn on the other side of the restaurant to loop around to the lot. Unfortunately, I missed a stop sign on the second right turn right in front of a state bull! Lights flashing, we got pulled over. After an interminable wait, he returned giving me a warning. Thank You! They didn’t have oysters anyway, so we went to the Castaway, where we enjoyed a dozen Willapa Bay oysters on the half shell and seafood lasagna of crab, cod, and shrimp, paired with a Pinot Gris. MMM!
From there we visited the Salt Pub on the marina where we had a beer and used their wireless to catch up on important matters. Who won the Apple Cup? Home by 7pm, we settled in and celebrated another amazing day. Tomorrow we leave Washington after six weeks of visiting friends and family, exploring remote and nearly pristine landscape, enduring rain, and believing the road goes on forever, the party never ends! I had a great birthday; I feel like a kid at 67. Like Peter Pan, I don’t want to grow up!