Shiver Me Timbers

Living out here, feels a lot like the Tom Waits Song... I'm leaving my family, I'm leaving all my friends, My body's at home, but my heart's in the wind, Where the clouds are like headlines on a new front-page sky, My tears are salt water, and the moon's full and high... And the fog's lifting, and the sand's shifting, and I'm drifting on out, Old Captain Ahab, he ain't got nothing on me now, So swallow me, don't follow me, I'm traveling alone, Blue water's my daughter, and I'm gonna skip like a stone... There's nowhere I'd rather be than front row on the mighty Pacific. Most of the time, if I'm not at work, I'm off walking the beach someplace. Usually alone since no one enjoys it with the same level of enthusiasm. I take my son to be the beach by our house is the weather's cooperating, but usually it's a solo assignment. The Pacific is anything but pacific, at least in Oregon. It's usually stormy and full of rage, with wild tidal swings, treacherous sneaker waves, and a strong cold wind that's a gift from the Bering Sea in the north. Sure we have nice sandy beaches, but it ain't the kind you lie around on with suntan lotion and bikinis. For one, it's usually in the mid 50's or at best mid 60's. You usually need a coat year round. If you're lucky, the wind will only be 20 mph or so, but often in the winter it hangs out in the neighborhood of 30-50 mph and occasionally gets as high as 100 mph. The water's only around 52 degrees so you risk hypothermia if you try your luck at swimming, and really, between the currents and the temperature, only a fool would do so. So even during tourist season, it's still relatively quiet around here. Sure there's people around, but not like you'd have in Southern California. So even in the height of summer, it's possible to find solitude on the beach. I like to go before work and look for agates. I can usually find a few if the tide's out. The beach is also a good place to find jasper, which occurs along with agates. Usually they're small, but occasionally you can find bigger pieces. We don't have a huge variety of shells, so the main things I find are clams (locally we have soft shell clams, razor clams, piddocks, and geoducks), cockles, blue mussels, and occasionally an oyster shell or two. I also occasionally find small whelks, and tritons (snail like critters). Occasionally I find something that's fossilized. Given the forested nature of the coast, there's lots of driftwood, and I like to collect the smaller pieces. The main species of tree we have here is the sitka spruce, but there's also alders, big-leaf maples, hemlocks, and apparently a bit of redwood since I find the foliage washed up on the beach occasionally. Speaking of wood, I also periodically find small samples of petrified wood on the beach, which look nearly identical the driftwood, but when you go to pick it up, feels heavier. Most of the time I just like to walk the beach, but occasionally I'll go dig clams or go crabbing. Being at the mouth of a bay, this is a good place to do those kinds of things. Since I don't have access to a boat, I don't get to go fishing really which is too bad because this is a major commercial fishing area, so presumably there's stuff out there worth catching. If I didn't have a small child, I'd probably do more food gathering more often, but he's still too young to do this kind of stuff with. I really like being able to go walk around by the ocean. You never know what you'll find washed up on the shore, and you can't beat the exercise.