Some pics

As a way to relax before classes started, we took Teacee to the beach on the last weekend in June. She had never been to the coast here, and had heard how beautiful it was (she agreed - the Pacific coastline is never-ending gorgeous). All pictures are courtesy of Teacee, as I haven't finished my roll yet...

We started our day by going straight over to Florence, where we had a late breakfast. Here are Mr. Duck and I on a pier in oldtown Florence (you can see the famous dunes in the back).

Then we went to the Sea Lion Caves. Most people from this area have been there, but if anyone hasn't, it's the world's largest natural sea cave, and is year round home to a colony of stellar sea lions. You can take an elevator several hundred feet down into the cave, where they have turned a ledge into a viewing platform.

The closest building in the picture is the elevator, and the cave is directly beneath.

We wanted to take her to see the lighthouse visible on the far cliff, but the parking lot there was crazy full, so we didn't want to deal with the crowds.

Next, we had a picnic on a small beach near Lincoln City. Here is Teacee on the trail down to the beach (a good 10 minute hike, at this particular beach)



And here are Mr. Duck and I at the local 4th of July celebration in the park near our place.



They had wine tastings for 50 cents! Teacee had never been in the US for the 4th either, so it was fun taking her and pointing out different aspects of Americana on display. And I got some SUPER cute earrings from a local artist...

Also, I freaked out on poor Teacee. She wanted her picture taken with the American flag, and there was one next to this Paul Revere guy, so I took her camera to get a shot of her, and when I looked up, she had grabbed the flag and was pulling it to show it in the picture, and we both learned how much I disapproved of the manhandling of the flag... Totally bit her head off, and then felt bad. I surprised myself at the vehemence of my reaction...




addendum - In Japan, many people still associate their flag with WWII, and thus it has very different and often negative connotations for them, as opposed to the great amount of respect that we hold for ours. So Teacee really had no way of knowing that tugging and pulling on our flag would elicit that kind of response from me. So she let go, and just held the pole :-)