A Brief Time

View from our front door

Rich and I feel blessed to be able to volunteer at Silver Falls State Park for six weeks. The park is beautiful and is marketed as "the crown jewel" of Oregon. We work hard cleaning cabins. The downside is feeling rather exhausted at the the of the day. The upside is we are in better physical health. The park elevation is about 1300 feet. Many mornings are in the thirties. On those mornings we bundle up in many layers and shed clothing as needed. And yes, we had three days of . . .

SNOW

We worked in the snow, too.

Who Needs an Alarm Clock

Mimi's, I am an angel face


It is 6 am. Mimi jumps on the bed and yowls is my ear. If she is feeling particularly sweet, she puts her nose in my ear and purrs, loud. Time to go outside, time for fresh food, she says. Is the draw to go outdoors, birds she hears? To pee? I have no idea. I don't turn on a light or put on my glasses. Rich and I had a wonderful reprieve with the time change to daylight savings. Reveille at only 7 am. As spring ebbs to summer and dawn is earlier, wake up is now about 6:30 am. Rich and I adjust to Mimi's rhythm. Take turns letting her outside and putting down fresh food.  

Ops!

Relaxing in the Welcome Center during the Super Bowl

Well, Rich and I were having so much fun at Beverly Beach, we forgot to post a blog and now the month of February is over.

During the month of February our volunteer task was campground maintenance. Our favorite! Our challenge was the cold weather. Some mornings we would work for about thirty minutes and then warm up in the Welcome Center. The cool thing was our golf cart broke and the replacement was a gas powered, two seater vehicle, "gator". The golf carts are slow, you can walk faster than they go. The gator is a speed demon. Rich was in gator heaven.

Welcome

Working in the Welcome Center at Beverly Beach in January has been fun. Our main job is to greet visitors. Occasionally, we have a sale and have to remember how to run the cash register. Housekeeping duties require the most effort, a 30 minute effort. During down time if I can distract Rich from a puzzle, we play cribbage. About 20 inches of rainfall to date so we are very happy to be indoors.

Watching Whales

One of the greatest perks volunteering at the coast in December and January is watching gray whales during their southbound migration. To be perfectly honest, a gray whale sighting usually means seeing its blow or spout.

In December Rich and I took the Whale Spoken Here training so that we could volunteer during the December whale watch week. Geared up with layers of warm clothing, rain pants and coat we volunteered for two wet and windy days. Our second day, there were over 100 visitors. We enjoyed talking whale with folks and will volunteer again.

A couple gray whale facts.

Only the males vocalize.
For some reason, only females have been documented approaching tour boats.

Rich's note. There is a gray whale that is now exploring the atlantic ocean. To arrive on the east coast from the west coast, it swam the northwest passage.

A Normal Day?

                       Cheryl in the kitchen at Yaquina Bay Lighthouse.

                                        Rich in the lighthouse dining room.

                                          Lighthouse from the back.

December at Beverly Beach was unusually dry. About four inches of rain. About ten inches is normal.

Unintended Consequences

Although Rich and I do not have a TV in our little trailer, we do enjoy watching DVD's on a computer. Since we have very limited space in the trailer, we check out DVD's from a nearby library. One day recently, short on time, we planned a quick ten minute stop at the Newport Library. The plan was that each of us would choose two DVD's. Okay so far. The first DVD was Apollo 13, an entertaining tense thriller even when you know the outcome. The second was a foreign film, Poetry. Sounds benign but emotionally difficult to watch. I don't remember the third title. After we watched it though we decided not to watch the fourth DVD which was also a dark drama. The next trip to the library for DVD's we checked out comedies.