08.11.09

08.11.09

Oregon State Capitol and The Coast

Our hotel was only a couple of miles from the Oregon State Capitol, so we were able to arrive there just as it was opening for the day. Really fabulous grounds! 

We enjoyed walking around for quite a while before we headed inside. 

Beautiful flowers and fountains were everywhere.

We were fortunate enough to be able to climb up 121 steps to the "Pioneer Gold Man" on the roof. Apparently the passageway had been closed for about 7 years and had recently reopened. We climbed the very steep spiral staircases that led to the roof.

 The view was spectacular!

Afterwards, our tour guide gave us the Inside Tour of the building, which included many interesting facts, and fantastic murals all over. 

Lots of covered wagon paintings around this capitol. It was neat to think of the early settlers coming to this amazing land.

I think the grounds were about the prettiest we have seen yet. 

Super soft, cool, GREEN grass. And my most favorite statue EVER. The man riding a horse and reading a book! Made me pretty happy to see what Ryan would have looked like if he'd been born in the 1700's.

We headed over to Highway 101 after our Capitol visit.

 Seriously? 

There's not much I can add to the experience. Except I'm so SORRY you can't even GRASP with these pictures the amazing beauty. YOU MUST GO....

This is Cape Foulweather... which made us laugh for very obvious reasons... This was actually our first glimpse of the Coast.

The Devil's Punch Bowl (above)  When the tide comes in, it is completely filled with water which fills in via that "small cave" in the upper right corner of it... I say SMALL, but a good sized boat could sail right in there...

Driftwood Beach... yup, it's really called that.

Above... Devil's Churn

It's really hard, in pictures, to appreciate the MAGNITUDE of all these areas.... the picture above is taken from the top of a cliff... it looks like a swimming pool!  If someone were sitting on the edge of those rocks, you couldn't even be able to see them!  Also above, that is Devil's Churn.

Hiking down to see Devil's Churn a little closer... a pod of whales were playing just past Devil's Churn and we enjoyed watching them... they are quite a bit harder to photograph.

This is the Spouting Horn (above), it's an ocean geyser... water rushes in to those caves to the right of it and forces water and air through the cracks, the pressure creates the "Spout" every few minutes... we enjoyed watching it!

Heceta Head Lighthouse (above)

The Sea Lion Caves... 

And yes, Ben worried and worried over tsunami's... He had a plan to get us out safely at the first sign of danger... and yes, he knew those signs, too.   Hmmmmm.  Preparation is everything.  I'm thinking he'd make a GREAT Risk Manager someday... or perhaps FEMA would appreciate his services?

We eventually got off the road (it was a very hard thing to do... but it was getting dark) and found a hotel outside Coos Bay... mostly because we wanted to stay in a town that shared the same name as Carly (we've called her CooCoos for years!). Found another Drive By Pick restaurant, this time for seafood, and it was EXCELLENT. We were quite pleased with ourselves for our great Dinner Luck. We found a Baskin Robbins because we decided we needed ice cream cones, and what do you know, it was $1.50 cone night! Score! Back to the hotel for BED... with sweet dreams of the Oregon Coast. Again, you MUST go.

Oh, we were quite certain that at some point during the day, we saw a weasel run across the road! Weasel Sighting. FYI.