Between Sea and Sky
A story from an interlude on the interview trail last January...
We drove over the mountains. We drove through the woods. We drove west until we ran out of land and the sea met the sky. And there, at the edge of the world, where the waves rolled onto the shore, it was beautiful.
As always, thumbnails expand when clicked
It was a day that began with exploring tide pools filled with brilliantly colored sea stars and anenomes and urchins and ended watching for the legendary green flash at ocean sunset. To share that day and the beauty of the sea and shore is today's entry; enjoy. :-)
prophetkristy had very kindly offered to share with me the natural beauty of her home during my visit between interviews at U. Washigton and UCSF/Stanford. The day before we had gone eastwards, into the high mountains ( Friends and Snows). This day, we headed westwards, over the Coast ranges, to the Pacific coast itself.
Our first stop was the seacoast town of Newport, exploring the Hatfield Marine Science center there while we waited for low tide. prophetkristy, veteran of marine biology expeditions to the bottom of the ocean aboard the famed DSV Alvin [1], was a wonderful guide to the science and the marine biology, and it was a facinating time for a science geek like me. :-)
After a quick lunch, we headed out to Yaquina Head itself...
Fourteen million years ago, a river of magma from a stupendous volcanic eruption flowed it's way to the sea, forming a spit of solid basaltic rock [2]. Over the intervening millenia, the ocean wore away the softer sandstones on either side, gradually creating a penninsula jutting out to sea. In it's shelter, beaches and rocky tide pools formed, populated by countless, brightly colored sea creatures, hiding in the recesses as the ocean retreated with each outgoing tide.
Thumbnail of panorama from the beach
We picked our way across the rocks, stepping carefully on bare patches of rock to avoid harming the sea life. The shallow pools left behind by the tide teemed with sea life in bright, vivid living color, from sea-green anenomes gently swaying in the currents to bright vivid seastars in a riot of colors from red to purple. Small fish occasionally darted from cover, shrimp and crabs scuttled, and in the distance, warlruses bellowed as the surf crashed on the rocks.
I'd been lucky enough years ago to explore with culfinriel the reefs off Waikiki, whose beauty I tried to share in words with all of you who haven't yet been lucky enough to see it with your own eyes [3]. This time, I'd brought a digital camera to try to capture the experience in photos, so that we could bring the remote Oregon coast home to all of you. :-)
Thumbnail of panorama from on top of Yaquina Head
As the tide began to roll back in and the sun began to set in the sky, we climbed back up onto the cliffs to watch the sunset and wait for the legendary green flash [4]. We visited the lighthouse on the head, and then settled in on the cove top to wait with stories and songs and laughter, the spectacular natural beauty of the coast stretching to the horizon in every direction.
We didn't see the green flash that day. Merely a beautiful sunset and the first stars of night peeking out, and a memories of a happy afternoon between sea and sky.
We drove back to Newport for dinner, to the main road along the harborfront, where little mom-and-pop restaurants prepared meals from catch straight from the sea. We had a wonderful dinner with clams and fish and crabs and everything else piled high, and more silly stories and laughter. And then the drive back to Eugene, OR, and then the next day up to Portland, to hang out in the famous Powell's Bookstore, rambling over multiple floors and most of a city block. There was geeking out on books of all kinds and prophetkristy showing me the autographs of Stackpole and Zahn and many other famous authors within the SciFi section. Too soon, alas, it was time for me to head onwards, and with a last hug, she was headed back to Eugene and I set out for lunch with an old friend before heading to Portland's airport.
I've been lucky enough, through the course of my travels for activist and scientific work, to have had the chance to eat at many of the nation's best restaurants; stay in five star hotels; spend evenings out in the nightlife from Boston to Honolulu, from the jazz clubs of Chicago to the salsa floors of Miami Beach. They're nice and all, and my future travels in my career surely will have more of the same. But in the end I'm still the boy who grew up with summertimes on Michigan forests and lakes and night hikes under the stars. Let other folks have the fancy establishments with their bright lights and big cover charges. I'll take the beauty of clifftops and oceans and the laughter of family and friends to share it with. :-)
My sincerest thanks to prophetkristy, for sharing the hospitality of her apartment and the natural beauty of her home. I hope that this entry captured just a little of the wonder and awe of the day on the coast, and that you enjoyed. :-)
[1] See the series of LJ entries by her entitled Like Finding Nemo, Only Less Cartoony, for a spectacular record of her adventures aboard the Atlantis II mother ship and aboard Alvin itself, link here.
[2] For overhead view, click here.
[3] Night on the Reef
[4] Learn more about the Green Flash in this Astronomy Photo of the Day).