Tuesday...Aug 15

The air is cool, the wind is calm and the tide is going out. What a grand morning for walking. Aleene and I walked the “hard” sand (the sand recently exposed by low tide) south for twenty minutes…all the time hearing the pounding surf and feeling the warmth of the sun. Whew…summer at the coast. We have two more days before we go back to the heat (upper 80s) of the valley and to reality.

Yesterday we drove up the coast and through “cow country.” Dairy farming is big out here. You see virtually no crops, just grassland. They can pasture year around so they do not use the volume of grain and little hay for their cattle. The most surprising thing to me is the number of Jersey herds. We did pass a large herd of Holsteins, but it would appear that they are going for butterfat content rather than volume. Farmers will supply the market where they can make the most money, usually.

There is a small island just south of Netarts that is a seal haven. When Jan and Gary were here we drove past and what looked like rocks turned out to be about 100 seals. We went past it again yesterday this time with the binoculars at hand. There were fewer of them, but the seals were out. It was low tide so they had a very narrow channel to escape in the event they wanted to vacate the sandbar.

Oh yes, we are mooching the WiFi from the neighborhood inn. They must use the same access code as the coffee shop. Anyhow, we can sit in the camper and surf (the net.)