playing tourista

I was a hard core tourist today. It took me from 9 am to 5 pm to make it 50 miles because I stopped at every pull out and took in every tourist attraction - it was great! The weather today was dreary so I didn't feel rushed to get out on the bike so I started the day tide pooling at Seal Rock. I saw 2 leopard seals and a bunch of starfish and other thigns I couldn't identify. Then to the Alsea Bay Interpretive Center to pick up an Oregon road map and come to find out they had a display on the history of transportaton in OR! So I spent some time reading about that and was happy to discover that the beautiful concrete bridges along hwy 101 were designed by Conde McCullough. I wanted to find out who had designed these after noticing how striking the Yaquina Bay Bridge was (pic posted yesterday). Now I know, as do you. The one posted today is of at Heceda Head. I spoke with the nice woman at the interp. center for a bit and she made several very good suggestions about places to stop. I proceeded to take her advice and went for a hike at Cape Perpetua. She said it offered the best views of the coast so I had to find out. I must say, the view was incredible and vast, but maybe not "the best" that I have seen. Lots of Pacific Ocean and that's about it...but there was a 500 year oud Sitka Spruce that was quite impressive. What was even more impressive was the couple that I met up there - they were in their late 70's (and hiking!) who were also on an 11 week adventure. They gave me a few places to check out in CA - like Fern Canyon in the Red Woods and the scenic bypass that is about 6' wide. Looking forward to that, but lots of other adventures to be had before I hit the CA line. Anyway, then I went to the Heceta Head Lighthouse and was going to tour that, but it was a 30 min. wait and I didn't think it could be that cool, esp. since I went up the tallest lighthouse in WA and this is not the tallest lighthouse in OR, just the most photographed one, and I could do that from the outside. So I proceeded to the Sea Lion Caves. It was kind of a trip. There used to be a bunch of stairs that went down a wooden ladder or sorts - now that would have been cool! Now it's just an elevator and a bunch of stink. It felt too zoo like so I'll try to post the video I made to save anyone else the $9. that they charge. I ended up at the Sand Dunes. I wish I had a motorized recreation vehicle because it would be fun to rally around and check things out. oh well - I walked around instead, the "environmentally responsible" thing to do (i.e., I don't own a motorized rec vehicle so I don't have a choice thing to do).