Heading to the Coast - Oregon

After a fun trifecta weekend, Andrea had to head back up to Eugene to resume real life. So the dynamic duo of Tammy and I recruited a new third - Felicia (pictured left). I remember when I took my cross road country trip 3 years ago, we drove along the west coast in Washington, and I had wondered what the coast line of Oregon was like.

Tammy, Felicia, and I took a 2 hour drive out to the beach. We also brought Felicia's dog Saddy.

The Beach
2 hours later, we made it to the beach. So when you think west coast and beach, you think surfing. right? Here's the deal with the beach in Oregon (over Labor Day Wknd):

• Very cloudy and almost gloomy - Since there are mountains that run along the west coast, orographic lift occurs, which causes a lot of clouds and eventually rain; This is the reason why Seattle is always so rainy.
  

• The beach and the water is very cold - The rotating ocean current brings the cold water from Japan to the North American West Coast, and eventually warms again when it rotates down to California.

• The beach is very windy and good for kite flying - This is due to the difference in the air temperatures along the water and mainland.
  

Re-cap:
Talk about good times! Our drive consisted of going up and down a variety of forest filled mountains and lakes. Since Felicia is a environmental law student, she knew a ton of stuff about the environment. Apparently a lot of the trees in the area we were driving were Douglas-Firs (a.k.a. Christmas Trees) and that most of the logging (tree cutting) industry takes place in the Pacific Northwest. BOOM! Instant education. We talked a bunch of global warming, and petroleum issues. That will be for another entry. But good times.

In my next entry, I'm going to close off Oregon with random pictures and a special video of the brat pack from Oregon (Andrea, Felicia, and Tammy). But for now, here are some pics from the day.