Day 49: Oregon Coast

Vacation's over, back to work.  Time to hit the coast.

Not exactly something you expect to see in Oregon, but whatever, we've seen more surprising things than that at this point.

Sidetrip: Ponzi Winery in Oregon wine country.  Literally the best sandwiches ever.  It has been almost a month and I can still taste them.  Arguably the best half hour of the trip, culinarily speaking.

Deep into Willamette Valley (Oregon wine country)

Unfortunately, this picture doesn't really do Willamette justice, but the colors were wild.  Too lazy to edit the picture to bring out the right tones.  My feet are all blistered from the Grand Canyon, give me a break (that's right, if you're keeping track of the dates, we're now a full four weeks behind on posts...)

First good weather on the Pacific Coast!  Forgot to mention -- the purpose of hitting the coast: whale watching in Depoe Bay, OR.

Dirty-ass cars look more legit.  Note the tennis ball, still perched atop the Highlander like a noble Scottish swordsman defending the universe from Sean Connery.  Kind of hard to believe that it took until this very moment to realize that the car's nickname should be (or, should have been, R.I.P.) Christopher Lambert.  There can be only one.

LET'S SEE SOME WHALES

Oh no...  No.  NO!  NOOOOOOOO!!!
Two weeks too early.

At least it was pretty.*

*For the record, this is NO CONSOLATION, DAMMIT.

Winter contemplates throwing herself from the precipice in defiance of the cruel timing of the whales' migratory patterns.  Drama queen.

Wait, is that...?

Are those...?

Seals?!  Silver lining, perhaps???

Swing and a miss.  Kelp.  It was just kelp.  KELP.  COME ON!

"Devil's Punchbowl"

Yaquina Head Scenic Area.  Get used to seeing this lighthouse...

Cobblestone Beach -- I thought these were put there after the quarries nearby were abandoned.  Apparently not.

I liked every picture, so I just put them all up.  Oops.

Accidental self portrait.  Technically speaking, 500 self portraits.

I KNOW the sun totally washes this out, but there's a bird RIGHT in the middle -- which I didn't notice because the sun was so bright (which, I guess means everyone now knows I pointed the camera right at the sun like a total amateur)

Actively deciding to leave the horizon skewed.

We still have yet to figure out what most of this stuff is...

?????

We were supposed to race the sun to see Spouting Horn, but it was low tide and we missed it (here's what it would've been).  So instead we risked life and limb to climb out to the edge of the...rocks?  Sea wall? Rock wall?

Winter actually got pretty close to jumping here, and almost dragged me in with her... Seriously.  It's not funny.  No really, stop, it's not funny.

This fantastic shot of two unidentified individuals took way too long to set up and pose for...

The ONLY restaurant in Roseburg, Oregon open past 4pm, as far as we're concerned.  The whole town looked abandoned, except for this one street light.  At any moment some creature of the night was ready to lunge for our necks...

Seriously.  Vampires.  Werewolves.  Zombies.  Rage virus infected Brits.  Be afraid.

Greeky cheesy goodness.

We barely made it out of there.  Time to restock in preparation for the zombie apocalypse, or some sort of Twilight-themed takeover of the human race.  Two bottles of wine should do the trick.  One bottle of white in hand, time to find a red.  Wait, what's that chocolate wine thing--?

Annnd he drops it.  WINNING.

Dinner of champions: wine and vitamin water.  A combo for the ages.