Coast Weekend/Nirvana

To say the least, school has owned my life the past two weeks. I'm not the only one whose life has been taken over by literature reviews and presentations, so a group of us were beyond excited for our trip to the coast this past weekend.

My good friend R.D.B. spearheaded a plan to rent a beach house on the coast way back in Winter and the much anticipated weekend finally arrived! We left Rainy City, U.S.A. Friday afternoon after the 2nd year graduate students finished their final research presentations and embarked on a near three-hour drive to the coast.

After weaving through the dense forests, we finally saw ocean and turned north on the 101. With the sun hovering over the Pacific and the fact that I left my computer and all books school related back at my house, I was at peace with the world. No conceptual frameworks to mull over, no readings, no work. Heaven.

In total, twelve of us went to the coast, with a few more who joined us for the day on Saturday. We made family-style dinners, drown our stress in the sounds of the Pacific, relaxed in the hottub, played catch on the beach, read FOR FUN(!) and drank a choice adult beverage or two.

Needless to say, we're already planning next year's trip! I'll leave you with a few photos from the weekend:

(the house)

(the view)

(the coastline)

([some of] the group)

(playing catch)

(S.A.M. and Shilo)

(bliss)

Devil's Churn

My friends and I took a day trip to the Coast a couple months ago and I just found this video footage on my camera! It's a short snippet of the wave action at an inlet called Devil's Churn.

Please excuse the commentary and lack of video editing on my part. It's week 6 of the quarter and pretty much all of my energy is spent on being a grad student.

Enjoy!

Driving Down the 101

After the hard work of physically moving into my new apartment, my aunt and I decided to hop in the car and drive to the coast. We saw mountains, plains, rivers and lakes on our marathon drive, so why not throw in an extra hour in the car to see the Pacific Ocean?

Our destination: Newport, Oregon. It proved to be a modest town with an ample supply of seafood and tourist kitsch. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit; there were some very magnificent works of pottery and glasswork. Another entertaining aspect of Newport:

sea lions

       

After wandering the shops of Newport, we took the scenic 101 (Pacific Coastal Highway) south. Here are a few sights from the many pullover stops along the way: