A wave of plovers

hundreds of snowy plovers on the shore each standing on one leg. if you get too close, they take off en masse forming waves with their white chests and black backs before settling a bit farther from me

boardwalk in Long Beach WA

a blue whale skeleton

the 4 mile long Megler Bridge over the mouth of the Columbia connecting Oregon and Washington 

our room

bcourtyard

in the spring and summer, they have puffins on the Rock. this would be the only puffin I saw

first attempt to the beach blocked by a torrent due to heavy rains the night before

Haystack Rock, home to the best tide pools on the coast. however you have to be there at low tide

1000 plus miles and we are in Seattle where we will stay a bit. My luck has run out with avoiding colds.  too much helping kids blow their noses last week.

yesterday was supposed to be our easy day but no such luck.  numerous accidents on I-5 made 65 miles take 2.5 hours, most of the time chewed up trying to find an alternate way out of Olympia. We despaired as we still needed to go through Seattle at rush hour but that ended up less onerous than predicted

low tide was supposed to happen at 6:15 am. dawn was supposed to happen at 7:15 rain was supposed to be 0 % after 6 am. however it was pouring.  when we finally got there at 7:45, the Rock was surrounded by 200 feet icy water.  perhaps I read the tide table of a year ago?

Cannon Beach is very cute.  we had a nice breakfast at the Pig n' Pancake: sourdough pancakes with my veggie omelet. But we would have to wait too long for the shops to open. On the road again stopping to get Oregon wine, over the bridge and on to Cape Disappointment, which turned out to be a disappointment as a ten minute stop would cost $10.  Didn't look nearly as nice as the Southern Oregon coast or any where in California. We walked along the beach at Long Beach where we saw the magical birds. the sun made their under bellies silver.  the town looked too tacky for lunch   One of the stores had a sign that it was the store husbands hated presumably because their wives would spend all their money in it. We drove north up the coast for about an hour, the bay barely lower than the road. There were a few washes.   We drove through a few lumber towns but didn't find anything promising to eat at until the outskirts of Olympia. I thought we were only an hour away.  Ha!  what a mess! we would very slowly clear one accident but then come to a complete stop. AAA maps weren't helpful at all as we were in between the big cities. We were at one point on Sleator-Kinney road, where the girl band founded by Carrie Brownsten got its name. I thought since we were headed north unimpeded that eventually we could get back on 5 but instead we came to a deadend surrounded by water. Backtrack again. the phone shows where the traffic is stopped on the interstates but it wasn't too useful on the side roads .

In Seattle we went on to dinner though as we just ate lunch, I was not hungry. I was tired and my throat sore. All night I heard Steve tossing and sighing He said I am too noisy to sleep with. I guess because of my cold

tonight: Seattle Symphony