Squirrels & Whales

September 14 - 16, 2017
Elks # 1858 Recreation Park
Florence, OR

On our way from Long Beach, WA to Florence, OR we passed through the squirrel infested town of Longview, WA.  Many years ago after witnessing the demise of most of the town's squirrels on the street in front of his office, a local contractor decided to build a bridge over the street so the squirrels could cross safely. 

This engineering marvel was such a success that several more bridges were built. The town now holds a Squirrel Festival each year to celebrate the rodents and their replica bridges.

We had originally planned to travel to Mt. Ranier, Crater Lake and Proxy Falls.  The routes to each one were blocked by wildfires so we switched to Plan B - driving down the coast of Oregon.  It's good to be flexible.




At Sea Lion Cave we went down in the cave even though the seals weren't there.  In the summer they gather on the rock ledges outside the caves.




 

In the winter the seals move into the caves.

South of Sea Lion Cave

                                               North of Sea Lion Cave

We saw whales almost everywhere we stopped.  I was surprised that they were so close to shore in relatively shallow water. 

If you look very carefully a whale fin is visible in this photo.












The biggest problem trying to photograph whales is that you have to be very quick with your camera.  Dave wasn't.  I think we now have hundreds of photos of the Pacific Ocean showing nothing but ripples where a whale used to be.