HWY 101 S. — a passing glance

This last week me and Wyse got away to see my family in northern coastal California (Crescent City and Eureka). These are a selection of pix from the trip taken on the Droid. **BTW, this is a tremendously long post









This is what the harbor in Crescent City looked like on Friday. Yeah, no boats. That's because the tsunami from a few weeks ago totally wiped out the port, destroying the docks and 35 boats that were still in port. As of Friday they were beginning the process of removing the few boats that were sunk in the boat basin with a giant crane, and they had floating booms set up to coral any oil or fuel from the vessels.


One thing you see a lot of on HWY 101 thru Oregon is bridges. Every town seems to have one. Here's a couple I like best, Waldport and Newport.






Driving thru cow country, Hebo and Tillamook.




Here's another thing that I think might be particularly Oregon, putting giant letters on the sides of hills over towns. In this case, a giant capital G over the town of Garibaldi.




And finally the bridge I love the most, the Megler Bridge on the home stretch.

For more pix of my family, click below

Crazy kids

Here's some Droid pix of the kids from the last week.




-DKM

Politics and portraits

This week we're doing a story about the two new chairs of the county political parties, so I did some portraits. On the left (both literally and figuratively) is Karen Spackman, and on the right (same situation), is Brett Malin.

Runners dodging raindrops

From my all-too short time at the NHS track meet yesterday afternoon

-DKM

Ducks and dikes and geese, oh my

Yesterday afternoon new US Congresswoman Jaime Herrera hosted a town hall meeting at Hilltop Auditorium to listen to public comment and debate on the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge's proposed plan for changes on the Willapa Bay. The face of the refuge is Charlie Stenvall, a nice guy who I've always liked doing stories with, but was not the most popular guy in a room full of people with their own ideas about why the plan was bad, especially for hunters.

Waiting for a wave (that thankfully never came)

Like many of you I was up particularly early this morning as news of a possible tsunami coming to our shores circulated. 3 a.m. for me. After watching and reading and listening to news for like three hours and debating what my family wanted to do I eventually ended up at the Peninsula evacuation site, the upper and lower campuses of Ilwaco Middle/High School. They were open at 4 a.m. letting people like Guadalupe Bonce in for shelter. The only thing Bonce brought with her from her home was a painting of the Catholic icon, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Most folks came to get to high ground, but in the course of being there they also found themselves with a high enough vantage to see the mouth of the Columbia and the Port of Ilwaco and grouped together at the top of Hilltop hill with cameras, binoculars and radios waiting for a big wave that never came.

Inside the school buildings people were taking care of each other, which is always a heartening thing to see.

After being there about an hour and a half it was clear that the initial danger had passed, though school superintendent Boyd Keyser advised folks that they could stay as long as they liked as the "all clear" had not yet been given. And, in fact, as of 10:30 a.m. when I'm writing this it still hasn't been. What a crazy morning. I need a nap.

-DKM

Noisy birds

On my way back to the office this afternoon I saw this tree at a stop sign and pulled over to check it out as probably more than 50 of what I believe are starlings were congregating. It was a cool sight. What was even more so was the sound these birds would make, all at once, what a sound, very noisy.

-DKM

A lucky (sun) break

Yesterday I got lucky and the rain let up long enough for me to take in an Ilwaco track practice. Spring sports workouts began this week, though, honestly, we just had snow last week. Doesn't feel much like spring. Indoor baseball practice today. INDOOR. BASEBALL. PRACTICE. There is something so wrong about that...

-DKM

Bowling

This is a group of pix I took yesterday of the bowls made by local school kids and artists that will be sold next Saturday as part of the Empty Bowls fundraiser. I love having fun with the Vignette App on my Droid.


-DKM