Visits and Adventures

Well, I am thoroughly enjoying my spring vacation so far. I drove down to Corvallis on Monday to spend the day with DeMara. We went to thrift stores, ate sushi (well, I did), and watched chick flicks. It was a very fun, girly time. Happy Birthday, DeMara! I came back on Tuesday and spent a completely indulgent afternoon in Powells. It's so easy to get absorbed in the books and lose all track of time -- I was astonished to leave the store and find that it was dark outside, and that I'd been there for almost 5 hours! And enjoyed every minute of it. I do love that bookstore. :)

Yesterday my friend Paul and I drove to the coast and went for a hike out to the end of Cape Lookout, a 2-mile spit of land sticking out into the ocean that's a popular spot for whale watching. It was a lovely little hike through the woods -- with lots of detours to inspect cool trees and side-trails, of course -- and we did get to see several gray whales. They were really close to the cliff, and we were about 430 feet up, so we were pretty much looking straight down on them, and could often follow them underwater by their silhouettes. It was very neat. After that hike we went to the main Cape Lookout State Park and wandered along the beach for a while skipping sand dollars. I got to practice my shellfish taxonomy, and taught Paul the genus names of several shells that I learned in my faunal analysis class last quarter -- it's so neat to be able to actually use what I learn! We each found a comlete sand dollar to take home, and followed Paul's rule of taking one piece of trash for every shell or cool thing taken from the beach. It was really hard to find trash, though, since there have been major beach cleanup projects this last week! But that's a good thing. :) The weather was extremely cooperative yesterday as well -- it only ever rained when we were in the car, and always stopped conveniently when we got out. :) All in all, it was a very fun day. I came home to find Anne and Ameena dyeing Easter eggs, but was too tired to participate -- they're serious about their Easter eggs. :)

I don't have too much more planned for the break. A walk with Hugo tomorrow morning, watching "Motorcycle Diaries" tomorrow night, dinner with Jim and Siri Kirpal on Easter, and finishing my taxes at some point. But there's plenty of time in there for more fun adventures, so you never know!