All the things that make the Oregon Coast amazingly beautiful and at times disconnected is exactly what I needed this week!

Throttled with No TV at the Perfect Time

We drove a couple of hours north on my new favorite highway, the 101, where postcard views are around every corner. We have settled at a park where there are zero TV channels over our antenna. Add to that the fact that we used our allotment of high speed data and are throttled…making streaming impossible.

Ah, the solace of being insulated from all the hubbub around the election circus. Being forced to sit outside and commune with Steller’s Jays rather than getting sucked into polls and podcasts was an unexpected benefit of technology failing us at the perfect time.

Sand Dunes, Coos Bay, A Lighthouse and A Lake Creature

There are some charming towns along the Oregon Coast. One of those is Coos Bay. It has all the typical tourist trappings along with some really nice people. The air quality was bad on our recent visit due to planned forest fires nearby which is a novel idea for this Midwesterner… We strolled the main drag and walked along the pretty waterfront where there are some very randy pigeons who have no sense of decorum.

Greg and I were visiting Eel Lake when we noticed a shiny black “thing” swimming in a strange pattern near the surface of the water. We spent 20 minutes watching and pondering. Then it started coming towards us on the dock. “What the heck is that? Is it a giant eel? It’s getting aggressive! Or is it just curious?” After taking several steps toward the shore we found out it was none of those things. It was a scuba diver… in a lake. Crisis averted.

Yurts, Yurts, Everywhere

We have started our first volunteering gig at an Oregon State Park and it is great! We are “Yurt Hosts.” This means that we clean yurts and get them ready for the next guests. There are six hosts here! We are never the only face of the park like we were in Washington State. And in this role, we are not the first line of defense or the main source of information. Refreshing!

A Brief Visit with The Elephant (in the Room)

There is no place for politics in this blog. Just sharing that I think it is normal to have lost sleep this week. Funny coincidence that Jimmy Buffett is playing on the radio right now. Lemme grab a margarita!

Catio Corner

We sleep just fine in any conditions. What’s your deal, humans? Relax, stretch and enjoy the sunshine as often as you can!