Monday, June 10
Today is my daughter’s 25th birthday and it was hard to be apart from her. We texted, we wrote her name on the beach, and we called her; but it just wasn’t the same. U til last year, when she and her boyfriend went away for her birthday, we were always together at the exact time of her birth every year on her birthday. It was the last family tradition to die.
Anyway, I’d thought I’d take some time to reflect on this trip so far and on retirement. Last night was Sunday and while I was working I used to get the “Sunday scaries” every Sunday night dreading the work week ahead. Now that I’m retired, I’m lucky if I even know what day of the week it is! My blood pressure has gone down so much that I don’t have to take one of my BP pills anymore. This trip and vanlife in general has been therapeutic to my mental health. It’s just so freeing to be able to go where you want and when you want on a whim and to have your whole home on wheels right with you. A week ago we were sweltering in the heat some of the desert Southwest and now we are wearing two layers of fleece on the Oregon coast on the beach because it’s only 57 degrees and it’s windy. One day we are hiking to waterfalls and the next we are searching for rhododendrons in the redwoods and today we were on the beach examining tide pools. Every single day is a new adventure and something to look forward to. When I was working, the best thing to happen would be if one of my researchers successfully synthesized their target compound or I had a day where nobody did anything stupid in lab. Now it’s watching the sunset over the Pacific or seeing hundreds of sea stars in the tide pools and finding a sand dollar on the beach. Too many people work past their expiration date just because they are stuck in their ways not because they need the money. If you can, retire younger! Live life to the fullest! Make every day a new adventure!
When we woke up today it was foggy and we had the whole day planned for driving the Oregon coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean on Highway 101. I knew it would clear up. Sure enough it did! Our first stop was impulsive and not even one we had circled in the map based on an Oregon Top Ten Coastal attractions list. We pulled over at Pistol River to see some sea stacks. After taking some photos from the road I decided to go down to beach level. Jessica stayed with the van. Best decision of the day! It was serendipitously low tide and all along the edges of the sea stacks were hordes of barnacles, sea cucumbers, hundreds of sea stars, and green sea anemone. It was the jackpot! And while I did get wet feet when I didn’t dodge an incoming wave fast enough, it was incredible. I even found my first sand dollar—in perfect condition—and I vowed to give it to my daughter as a birthday gift after I clean it up and bleach it.
We stopped at many pull offs but the next one that was most memorable was at Brandon Beach state park, where there was an overlook of a sea stack called Face Rock (look at it sideways) and someone had meticulously crafted this huge labyrinth on the beach. It was so cold and windy there and the sand blasted your face and got in between your teeth. I was wearing two layers of fleece over a long-sleeved shirt!
For 40 miles beginning at North Bend and ending at Florence stretched the Oregon Dunes NRA, where we watched people with dune buggies and others sledding down the slopes.
We saw sea lions at Cape Arago, a lighthouse at Heceta Head, and Thor’s Well (a spouting horn at high tide) at Cape Perpetua, which is where we boondocked at a pullout overlooking the ocean and watched the sun set.
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