Road trip: The fun begins in Oregon

Yes, it's that time of the year...time for my spring road trip.  It officially started yesterday, but all I did was drive down to Beaverton, OR where I spent the night.  When I left my hotel this morning, it was overcast and pretty much stayed that way for most of the day.  My morning destination was the Talking Water Gardens in Albany.  The wetlands of this project are part of what is called engineered water treatment.  Wastewater produced by the local cities goes to the water treatment facility, then it's further treated by the wetlands which cool and aerate the water before it returns to the Willamette River. 

I walked around the nice trail system at the gardens, and took pictures of the birds I encountered there. It was so peaceful and quiet, and other people were enjoying the morning there, too.  I saw American coots, green-winged teal, red-winged blackbirds, a solitary greater yellowlegs, a lone white egret and many mallards.

In the afternoon, I continued driving south on Interstate 5 and stopped in Eugene to check out the Museum of Natural and Cultural History located on the campus of University of Oregon.

They had an interesting exhibit on the history of beads around the world and in art. I was particularly impressed by a large art piece created by over 600,000 beads!

There was also a cool exhibit on the prehistoric Helicoprion, also known as buzz saw sharks.  Now, I admit I've never heard of such sharks, and they were definitely different than most shark-like creatures with their unusual tooth configuration.  The exhibit included a model of what Helicoprion might have looked like, as well as casts of their tooth patterns. 

Tomorrow, I continue traveling south...I'll be driving most of the day with just one place of interest on my itinerary.  I'll be looking forward to getting off the interstate and into more scenery, too!