Water, rocks and birds...many, many birds

I left Portland, OR this morning, heading west to the Oregon coast.  Before I got too far, I stopped briefly at a Uwajimaya grocery store in Beaverton.  You can buy your favorite Asian food there, mostly Japanese stuff.  I bought lunch...a couple of musubi (rice balls) with unagi (eel) and sliced hot dogs.  That's right, hot dogs.  And a side of sunomono or cucumber salad.  The mandarin oranges I brought from home.  Yum!

When I reaching the coast, I hopped onto U.S. Hwy 101, and I'll pretty much take that road all the way to California.  I visited three different state parks with great views of rocky coastlines.  My day was made more complete with my favorite photo subjects...animals!  I managed to snap some brown pelicans in flight, the very common sea gull, a white-crowned sparrow and a California ground squirrel, which was stuffing its cheeks full of grass.

I found myself with some extra time, so I made a side trip to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.  As I walked along the path down to the lighthouse, I noticed there were literally thousands of seabirds in the water and on the rock islands.  Being spring, it's breeding season, and the common murre in their rookeries were an impressive sight.

I ended my day with some cheesy fun...the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in Newport.  It was overpriced, but I needed a little break from all the scenery.  Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, I'll be looking at more seascapes and doing a little hiking.