It's another drop-dead beautiful day in Juneau. Got up to 80 degrees or so the past two days. Toasty. Another scorcher today. I've been busy...
Monday was roof sweeping and gutter cleaning day at the elders. On Tuesday there was wood to stack. Wednesday I demolished most of the fence on one side of the folk's place and hauled the debris to the dump. Then a trip to Home Depot to purchase replacement timbers and lumber. Yesterday was post-digging day capped-off with hauling and stacking more firewood which had been dumped in the driveway the evening before. I thought I was going to be hiking all week - but it hasn't worked out that way...
This morning I have to head to town to help load the Juneau Golf Club's miniature golf course at Centennial Hall and then unload it at Nugget Mall. It was part of the safe graduation party on Tuesday night. I haven't read of any multiple-vehicle pile-ups in the paper - so I guess graduation went off without a hitch.
After wrestling the putt-putt course, it's back to the elders for some nail pounding. The perimeter fence should be secure by mid-afternoon. Sentries will be posted. Trespassers will be violated.
NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS: AFTER THE FENCE IS BUILT I BELIEVE ALL MAJOR SPRING ELDER PROJECTS WILL BE COMPLETED. Yippee!
Meanwhile Dougie and Alison continue their trek:
Made our way up 101 yesterday from Florence. We really like our time there -- played at a nice course (Sandpines), and had a very good meal at the Sidestreet Bistro. Not much action in the casino on a Tuesday night, but Alison enjoyed playing a slot machine that featured dancing pigs dressed like Elvis.
Yesterday we stopped in Newport and walked around the waterfront. This is a real fishing community and the docks and the smell of the seafood plants reminded me of Alaska. Adjacent to one of the working docks there are some old half-submerged planks that migrating male California sea lions use as a haulout. There were probably 8 or 10 of them laying there, barking loudly together every time one them moved or for whatever reason reason they bark. You could hear them for blocks, and they don't seem the least bit bothered by their close proximity to all the gawking tourists.
We had lunch at Mo's Annex -- not to be confused with the original Mo's across the street. Had some halibut that was pretty good and watched a big ol' gal who was expert with a fillet knife work through a few tubs of catch from one of the puker boats (as my Dad calls them). Some kind of local white fish, probably rock cod or near relative.
From there it was up to Tillamook, where we took a quick tour of the you know what factory. Cheese making on an industrial scale. I don't know what I was expecting, I just didn't think it would be so ... sterile is the best word I can think of. We did get to have ice cream cones, so it wasn't a total disappointment. I have also never seen so fucking many cows. There are 28,000 of them in Tillamook County, according to one of the helpful placards on the cheese factory self-guided tour. We beat a hasty exit.
The coast between Florence and Lincoln City was foggy, so we weren't able to see much during that part of the trip. But the visibility got better the further north we got. We decided to go as far as Cannon Beach, and what a beautiful spot it is. We are staying at one of the places right on the beach (the Ocean Lodge) where we lucked into a great rate on a really nice ocean-front room. The surf just pounds a long sand beach bookended by dramatically large rocks, the most prominent of which is naturally referred to as "The Haystack" (reminiscent of a rock of the same name near Noyes Island that Swanson and I became quite familiar with when we fished on the Osprey). Had razor clams for dinner last night, a bonus.
Today we played a nice course near Seaside, the Gearhart golf links (http://www.gearhartgolflinks.com/), one of the oldest golf courses in Oregon. It was tough course. Lots of trees, and the fairways were too narrow for my style of golf, so to speak. I was behind trees and hitting my second shots from neighboring fairways all day long. Played with a nice guy named Cliff, former longtime lonshoreman from Astoria.
Other parts of Oregon had some severe weather this afternoon, thunder storms and the like, but all it did here was get windy and rain a little- the first we've seen this trip.
Tomorrow we head north again, and it's home on flight 79 Saturday night.
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