Sea Life

(Bandon, OR) Warning: I said I wasn't going to include so many photos in my next post. Well, I was wrong....there are actually more today than yesterday. I had a little extra time today to actually pay attention to my photography so I got some pictures I really wanted to share. Hope you like them.

Since we're just doing two dogs at a time, we decided to try Slugger and Boogie together today. It seemed like an odd combination to me but what the heck. Mike wanted to take the girls for a really long outing today so that meant the boys needed to go on the shorter outing with me.

When we got to the beach I noticed that the sun was at a really nice angel for what I hoped would be some pretty shots of the beach. So I let Boogie off leash right away so I'd have both hands free to take some pictures. I told him to be a really good boy and not to get in any trouble. He assured me he'd be a really good boy!

I always love watching the water roll up onto the beach and today it seemed especially pretty.



I then turned to start our walk down the beach and saw this spectacular view.



The colors were just spectacular this morning.



The thin layer of water over so much flat empty beach made for some very pretty reflections.



The dogs were being really good and very patient with me ignoring them while I was taking pictures. Well here, see for yourself.



What good dogs! If they're going to be that good, I guess I can take more pictures! So I looked out into the water and caught this wave crashing against the rocks.



How fun is this! Then I noticed that everyone seemed a little bored.



Okay, guess I'll pay attention to the dogs for a bit. Slugger really wanted to do some swimming so we threw some sticks. Since the waves were a little fierce we decided to leave the leash on since he has no fear.



But as we went down the beach the waves got much calmer so we let him off. Then he really got into the spirit of the game. Think he's ready?



He came back with great enthusiasm as well.



As we got a little further down the beach the dogs decided to do a little tide-pooling. Here they were very busy checking out the rock covered with barnacles.



Not much further down the beach we got to do a tiny bit of real tide-pooling. Here's Boogie's version of tide-pooling.



Look what he found - check out this pretty green anemone.



And here we found quite a few still under water around the base of the a rock.



I know, pay attention to the dogs! So we start strolling down the beach watching the dogs play when for some reason the subject of dinner comes up. Mike and both agreed that it would be fun to have some fresh crab for dinner. We had barely got this out of our mouths when Boogie comes running toward us with a crab leg!



We were so busy laughing. He then proceeded to screech to a halt to eat his new-found catch.



Fortunately he's very good at letting us take things from him. We weren't sure this was very fresh. Plus we're pretty sure he wouldn't know to spit out the shell. We got under way again and within a few minutes we heard Slugger barking, leaning way forward, and then jumping back quickly as though something scary was attacking him.



Boogie noticed something was going on and ran down to check it out. And to Slugger's amazement, Boogie didn't take things cautiously at all - he just walked right up and picked up the very scary thing.....an empty mussel shell. Poor Slugger - so many things are sooo scary.



Slugger and Boogie are both quite the rock climbers. If we come across a rock, they scurry right up without a concern at all that it might be too steep. I'm amazed at what steep rocks they can climb.





After Slugger got part way up he started his thing where he stops in his tracks, leans way forward and then jumps back like something is biting him. We glanced from the ground and couldn't see anything so just looked around at other things. But after 15 minutes he was still leaning forward and jumping back. So Mike decided he'd better check it out.



Mike couldn't find a thing at all. But Slugger wouldn't leave. So Mike decided to go to the top which of course then made Boogie want to follow. Boogie made it to the top very easily and decided to pose nicely on his way down.



One thing I noticed on this trip was that we are most likely going to have "contact" trouble with Boogie. He never runs down to the bottom of the rocks to get off. He jumps off from about four feet up the rock. Oh no!

A full half hour later Slugger was still mesmerized by some scary thing in the rock. Mike finally had to go up and get him and make him come down. Finally we could move on.

Yesterday, this spot was completely covered in water. It was interesting to get to places in the rock that we couldn't even get around to see yesterday.



I thought it was very interesting how the colors were so different from one section of the beach to another. This is on the portion of the beach after we crossed though the rocks onto the other beach.



Of course Slugger had to immediately climb the rock. This time he was just taking in the pretty scenery!



He was probably watching the crashing of the waves between the rocks.



We were heading back to the first side of the beach and I saw how once again the colors were so pretty from between the rocks. There are two different places you can go through the rocks. Here is a picture from each hole.






I guess bird chasing is a fun thing for any dog as Slugger decided to take his turn at it today. I loved the colors and reflections!



I just couldn't resist another couple pictures on the way back. We'll be here a couple more days but I don't know if I'll see colors like this again so I was snapping away.






Boogie decided to do one last pose before we left.



As we were pulling away from the beach, I noticed this cool "c" in the sky. I wasn't sure I was going to get a picture since I was taking it through a dirty car window - but I don't think you can even tell!



With everyone at least exercised it was now time for some “people time.” We went to Old Bandon (which is just a block or two from where we went to the beach) as there are lots of fun little stores. The first store we went into was the supposedly famous Cranberry Sweets store. I’ve never been in a store with so many different kinds of candies. And they had a sample bowl out for every type of candy. I probably only tasted 1/10 of them and I was totally stuffed. It was pretty funny – as you got to the back of the store and of course had eaten a lot of candy by then they had this mirror which had a sign on it that said this is what you look like after eating our candies. I didn’t really pay any attention to it until this really fat lady said she needed a mirror like this. Well, I’d never heard of a fat person liking a mirror so I glanced in to see that this was a slimming mirror - it made you look really skinny. I think that lady is probably right - all mirrors should be like that!

After buying a bunch of candy, we went down to this beautiful new pier that had just been built last year. There was a boat marina...



a pier along the beach - here you can only see the design on the railing....



and a long dock for fishing and crabbing.



There were a few little shops on the pier that rented poles and crab pots. How fun would that be! I talked to a guy that said everyone was catching their limit in a little less than two hours!



As we started walking by the marina we noticed some seals swimming around. I was surprised at how many there were. Until I noticed that on the end of the marina was a fish cleaning station.



The seagulls were well aware of this too. The guy would toss the unneeded parts of the fish into the water and suddenly it was dinner time!



The seals looked so cute just swimming around leisurely without a care as they knew food would be coming at some point.



Sure enough, dinner was just tossed in to the water - down he goes.



After a quick bite, he comes up again to wait for the next morsel.



We walked along the long pier and at one point saw a turtle (not real). This isn't that good a picture but I included it just so you'd know I really am on this trip! Ha ha. Mostly it just helps show how nice the pier is.



After walking around for a while we decided to have dinner at Tony's Crab Shack.



Not only could you eat here but this is where everyone would bring the crabs they caught to be cooked. I could swear I'd hear each of them scream as they were tossed into the boiling water. Yuck!

As you can see it's not a fancy place - just a little sidwalk place but the food was really good. In keeping with the theme, I had a crab cocktail and Mike had the Famous Crab Sandwich.



I'll leave you with one more picture of a cute seal.



Debbie
8/7/07