Betsy's Birthday Trip

Wednesday, February 25 -- We are spending three days on the Oregon Coast, staying at the Inn at Manzanita to celebrate Betsy's birthday.  Today, we drove from Portland to Cannon Beach to complete a 4.7-mile Volkswalk track around town and south along the beach past Haystack Rock and then returned.  Here is what we saw:

Ochre Sea Stars feasting on mussels.

Giant Green Anemone.

Ditto.

A Horned Nudibranch (or Sea Slug), captured by a naturalist.

Another Nudibranch in the tide pool, wild and a little smaller.  The horns are on the right side.

Ochre Sea Star.

Gooseneck Barnacles.

Pacific Acorn Barnacles.  The barnacles were stratified on the rock with these at the highest elevation, the Goosenecks below, and Mussels at the lowest level, over a vertical span of about 4 feet.

An Aggregating Anemone.

A Fiddler Crab.

All of the above critters were found in the tide pools at the base of Haystack Rock

After the tide pools, we continued walking along the beach and found the smallest sand dollar ever.  The sand dollar is on the right next to my keys, a keyfob, and a bottle opener.

We made in to the famous Stephanie Inn, which has lots of rabbits who keep the grasses mowed.

The elk also do some pruning of the bushes.

In fact, the rabbits have spread over a wider area.  This one looks almost like a "belted cow."

Ditto, but with a different color scheme.

After exiting the beach and turning north, we passed by more elk on the streets.

Wild Daffodil

Calla Lily

Green-winged Teal.

Some interesting birdhouses, with mushrooms, all wooden.

We arrived back to our car and drove south on the Oregon Coast Highway 101, which is also named the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq Veterans Memorial Highway (who knew), to the small town of Manzanita, OR.  

After checking in at the Inn, and resting a bit, we walked up the Main Street of Manzanita to the Offshore Grill for dinner,

which featured several brews for local breweries.  This is a particular favorite located in Astoria, OR.

Dinner was "Seafood Louie" for me,

and "Steamer Clams" and house salad for Betsy.

The critters, plants and the duck were all identified using the App 'Seek', adding to my list of observed species.  I have observed about 600 species of the 90,000 species that the latest version of Seek can identify -- lots more to do.

Cheers!