Ahh, vacation. Poor Joshua now has at least 9 months of Geekdays for me to catch up on, so he can kiss his weekends goodbye until I go back to school! We trekked over to the coast this weekend, and next weekend we plan to head over to Crater Lake with Sam and Kam, so stay tuned.

Anyway, we had a full day of frolicking planned, since apparently the sun doesn't show itself on the coast all that often. We chose a great day for it, and got sun all day after about noon. (Those who know me well know the sun is rarely my friend. Live in Oregon for a few months and you'll understand why I don't mind it anymore - the sun is rarely around long enough for me to dislike it here.) So we started off heading west toward Florence, and went from there.

There was quite a lot of randomly beautiful scenery that we wanted to take pictures of, but even though I said several times to be sure the camera was charged, someone didn't, so we had to conserve! We were pretty impressed most of the ride out there. We just kept saying, "Hey, look! Nature!" Of course, we didn't photograph the barren spots that were abundant as we drove through Siuslaw National Forest, where loggers have more than had their evil way with the place. It was pretty depressing. Anyway, random nature:

We went to The Sea Lion Caves first, which was terribly cool (though equally stinky). The first thing I noticed as we walked through was that the scenery was the most Goonies thing I've ever seen. It made me want to grab a treasure map and find One-Eyed Willie. (That sounds vaguely obscene at this age). (As an aside, when Joshua read the 'accessibility' portion of this page, he said it sounded like a treasure map, which probably started this whole Goonies thing). Regardless, when I looked out at the coast from the ledge, I was pretty sure I was already picking up clues to find the treasure.

I took this picture because it says, "Thar she blows." Is it required to put that on anything instructional related to whales?

There were a lot of seals (or probably more accurately, sea lions) hanging out on the rocks outside. They did not smell good. They did make positively wonderful noises, however.

We took an elevator down about 200 feet to get to the caves, and Joshua felt it necessary to document our elevator ride. He also really wanted to jump in the elevator. I wouldn't let him.

Once we got down there, we got to see even more stinky sea lions (they were very cute, though), and it had an even greater Goonies feel to it than we had seen up above. I could easily imagine walking down the cool underwater pathway and instead of seeing these seals, seeing a pirate ship. I really wanted to be a Goonie when I was little. Cyndi Lauper didn't help things. (Seriously, check out the last image in this series. How fun does that look!?)

Starfish live here:

Joshua got hungry while we were there since he hadn't eaten lunch yet. Poor sea lion never saw it coming...

We went back outside (again, no jumping in the elevator) and got to see a pretty nifty lighthouse. I'll make lighthouse jokes in reference to the Simpsons in a bit. (You knew I would).

Here are some birds on a ledge. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be exciting or not.

There used to be something tied to the edge of this cliff. Probably something holding up a boobie trap (that's what I said!)

So many seals we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. So we looked at them.

Joshua was supposed to be taking a zoomed in photo of my hand in the sea lion's mouth (he had big fangs!) but he didn't so much do that. I don't know how he became the Official Photographer (except that I thougt for sure I would drop the camera into the ocean)

Where I come from, the ocean and the mountains do not fraternize. Although where I come from, there are no mountains, so it's not really an issue. This was taken from the car.

After the sea lion caves, we headed to Old Town Florence to have some lunch and ice cream (and let me just say that Oregon salt water taffy has nothing on New Jersey salt water taffy. This would surprise me if it weren't for the fact that all Oregon food is but a pale weakened version of its east coast counterpart. And in some cases, so pale that to even call it a counterpart to something in NJ *coughpizza* is insulting.) After lunch, I had to go take this picture of the Bridge Joshua Wouldn't Take a Picture Of. Don't ask why. Honestly, that boy is a mystery.

As a punishment, I cast a spell on him and turned him into a giraffe. He got better. (The clerk at this toy store tried to convince us that we really both needed to buy fake eyepatches. I was so into it. I wanted to talk like a pirate all day. Joshua, of course, wanted none of that. He is a scurvy dog. Avast, ye mateys! Arrr. I'm the Sea Captain.)

So after some frolicking in Florence, Joshua dragged me down to Reedsport, also on the coast, for the educational portion of today's show, which appears as the Oregon Divisonal Chainsaw Sculpting Championship. Sometimes that boy is downright weird. But hey, I'm always up for an adventure. It turned out there was some very cool artwork being made with chainsaws right before our very eyes. If this isn't local Oregon culture, I don't know what is:

Is that a pancake on his head?!

Lots of neat chainsaw sculpture. I wish I wasn't so impressed. And I wish Joshua's fingers weren't almost obscuring the Elvis sculpture down at the end! I think he feels threatened by Elvis, so he sabotaged those pictures on purpose. (Each of these is worth a look).

Bears were a popular theme for the day (if you hadn't noticed). The little one is trying to sneak a peak...

After the chainsaws, we figured why not hop just a bit further down the coast and take a quick visit to The Mill Casino in Coos Bay. On the way down, we got to visit some more cool scenery near Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.

There was even a lighthouse! (go figure) (It was run by E.A.R.L., my soulmate)

So after I lost $60 and Joshua won $72 at the casino (which was really lousy), we headed home. On the way, we stopped for drinks in a town with a population of 120, where an old woman with cotton-candy pink hair at the convenience store told me she liked my haircolor. I mean old. Like 70. It was fairly surreal. There were only 3 other buildings in that town, one of which was called, "The Road Kill Grill," one of which was a "3rd Hand" shop, and one of which was "The Loose Caboose". Use your imagination. (I wish I was making this up.)

Lastly, what update would be complete without a bunch of really poor images of cute animals that I made us stop to see. We had already seen hundreds of cows and sheep, dozens of horses, a chicken, and a llama, but I had never seen Elk before, so of course I made us stop and admire them.

So there you have it. We clearly need to get back into the swing of this whole Geekday thing. Or at least I need to get back into the swing of writing these updates. Maybe giant bear sculptures made with chainsaws just aren't as funny as they should be. Next week - Crater Lake!