Today we were going to meet a buddy of Mot's in Washington state. They met playing their addiction (World of Warcraft) online.
(Yes, we were driving 3 hours to meet virtual strangers - we're crazy that way.)
The drive up was gorgeous. Where we missed the leave color changing this year in NE and IA (due to strange weather patterns)....it is in full swing here in this part of the country. I'm going to try and get some better pics of it this week...but my Canon DSLR is dead to the world (you can imagine how unhappy I am about that)!! Although, it's rained everyday we've been here, and will continue through the week...so my little waterproof point and shoot is getting a workout!!! :-)
As we were nearing our ultimate destination, we drove through Aberdeen, WA. The sign as you're coming into town say "Aberdeen, Come As You Are." I loved that!!!! Upon further investigation, my deduction was correct....Aberdeen is the home town of rock star Kurt Cobain from Nirvana. Cool, eh?
Anyway, we arrived at David (Poole) and Mary Ann's beach front condo at just after 10:00 am. Poole (his online name) is a traveling nurse currently working at the Aberdeen hospital. But they live in Westpoint.
After introducing ourselves and doing the initial introductions, we took off for a tour of the area. We first went to a lookout tour, showing a view into Grey's Harbor.
(Mot and Poole on the Gray's Harbor lookout tower)
Poole is from Norich, Norage, something like that, in England...I'm still researching that one. His wife is from southern Texas. They met working at a hospital in Amarillo, TX I believe. Their 25-ish year old son is named Thor. I kid you not!!!
(this is a small view of the docks - port? - wharf? in Westpoint)
We then went to eat lunch at the One-Eyed Crab. Food was about as fresh as you can get for seafood. :-) Those of you that know me, know that I do not like seafood...not one bit. I ordered fish and chips (albacore tuna was the fish of choice)...I ate it. But regretted it later. I was ill feeling most of the night. My body and seafood just don't get along. But anyway!!!!
After lunch, we went walking down on the wharf, docks, whatever you call it! Westpoint houses some of the boats that fish for Alaskan crab (as in Deadliest Catch). We stopped to watch deckhands getting one of them prepared for the upcoming season. Name of the ship is the Balyhoo.
After that stop, we drove over to the ocean side of the coast. The waves were pretty scary, and unsurfable (there were quite a few surfers on the bay side).
From there, we went to the lighthouse.
The Gray's Harbor lighthouse is the tallest in Washington, and the third tallest on the West Coast.
Here is a picture standing on the ground floor looking up. (of course we had to go up in it!!!)
(Pardon the blurry pictures. I couldn't get one clear looking photo in the place, wonder if it's haunted?) hehe
(Mot walking up the stairs ahead of me.)
He really wanted to go up so he could see the lens. It was fully intact, which is pretty rare. In fact, the lens system was still in it's bed of mercury until 2004.
(close up shot of the lens)
(Mot getting ready to touch something, with a don't touch sign on it...aren't boys fun?)
After the lighthouse, we went back to their condo, made some tea, and gabbed for a number of hours. What an awesome couple!!!!!! :-)
We left a little after 5:00, and headed south in the direction of the bridge to Astoria. Everyone keeps talking about how awesome it is to drive across (5 miles). And, the route there was on the Pacific Coast Highway, so what's better than that??
Well, if it hadn't been raining, and completely dark 30 minutes into our drive, things would have been great. As it was, the trip home was.....well...interesting. As you can imagine, the roads along the coast are steep and twisty, with sharp drop offs into the ocean. Add to that complete darkness, heavy rain...and fog! Yeah, you get the picture.
About an hour into the 3+ hour drive home, I got the giggles. It was actually quite funny, if we weren't' being so darned serious about it. It lightened the mood. :-)
A song came on the one radio station we could find in those particular little mountains (that wasn't country or churchy)....the lyrics went something like this.
Can't go to school, cause I don't have a gun. Can't get a gun cause I don't have a job. Can't get a job cause I can't go to school. So now I'm looking for a woman with a gun and a job. Alice Cooper, gotta love it.
(ok, so that's not word for word the lyrics, but it's really close, here's what the words actually are)
Funny thing about the song...it's called Lost in Amercia. It was ironic that song come on at the time it did. As we're driving across Oregon, on a scary mountain road, in the pitch dark, raining, foggy night. :-)
Anyway, halfway through this particular little mountain stretch, we discovered we're almost out of gas. Hmmmm......there are no gas stations here. Hmmmmmm.....oh well. We finally come across this little place...with the OLD 80's gas pumps, and a dude sitting out front. There is some crazy law in Oregon that says people can't pump their own gas. Something to do with being green and not spilling. I don't know. Anyway, neither of us wanted to stop there, but if we didn't, we'd be in trouble. The guy ended up being really nice and gave my tired looking Mot a cup of coffee for the drive. :-)
We have discovered that people in Portland can't drive in the rain. Now, in a place that rains ALL THE TIME, how is that possible???????
We got home about 9:30 or so....sat in the living room and talked to Bill and Sharon for a little while, then hit the sack. Up tomorrow at 3:00 am for hunting again!!!!
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