On the Road with Lauri

 I have always had a thing for lighthouses. And Oregon is all about their lighthouses.   Driving down the Coast of this beautiful state gives a person plenty of chances to visit these lovely old places. They all feel like they could tell stories.  I love how they are carefully maintained by their local communities and how each lighthouse lists all of the keepers who lived there.  In the last several days I saw the lighthouse at Heceta Head (near Florence.  The photo from far away feels very dreamlike, which mist shrowding the lighthouse. Today, I saw the lighthouse at the Coquille River (near Bandon) and the beautiful one at Cape Blanco.     Other trip highlights so far: I reunited with a couple of old friends of mine on the beach in Newport.  It felt really good to see each other after all these years (and yeah, it was windy out there!) I stayed on a riverboat in Newport, which was utterly beautiful. The fog rolled in while I was there. The ...

As I write this, the Oregon Coast is under a tsunami warning, linked to an earthquake in Russia.  And - get this - my hotel is as far out on the dunes as any hotel in Seaside, Oregon.  And I am on the first floor.  Facing west. Families are packing up and leaving, as folks are pretty rattled by the warning. I started to spiral a bit before the updated tsunami alert said we were talking waves about a foot over average. It is supposed to hit around midnight. Still, as I called Bob and we started crafting my emergency plan (pack up before bed and drive somewhere away from water to wait it out a bit), I cannot deny what I was feeling: It was adrenaline. I mean, as we age, we avoid risk. We avoid too much excitement or craziness. And sometimes, it means we don't have adventures anymore.   Haystack Rock this morning - a Cannon Beach treasure This part of the aging journey has always petrified me. I remember sitting in a Denny's when I was 21. I was studying with my be...

 Okay, if you are a Vashon Island neighbor (particularly if you live on the water), plug your ears I hate how the beaches are not public in Washington. It's sort of crazy. On Vashon, it is almost armed warfare sometimes, with property owners getting VERY angry if you walk on the beach.  There is a whole complicated formula you can quote them about when you walk on the beach, but every time I get crosswise with one of these people, I think of this: I miss Oregon. Bob and I started our young married lives in Portland.  We met dear friends we still know today. We lived in an adorable house that cost about six cents. We explored Oregon history with weekend road trips. And, when those weekends brought us to the ocean, we enjoyed it to our heart's desire. Because Oregon, well, decided the beaches are for everyone. And they have belonged to everyone since 1967. And doesn't that sort of make sense? There are other things I miss about Oregon sometimes.  I feel a lot of sentim...

Travel Eve The night before you leave on a trip brings up a lot of  feelings. Anticipation.  Excitement. Anal-retentive thoughts about whether I have packed everything, what I might have forgotten, whether I have all of the necessities.But layered on top of everything is an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.  I always intended to travel.  When I was a kid, I used to tell people I wanted to grow up to be a foreign news correspondent (my dream was to be based in Russia). I anticipated a life of professional accomplishment, of countless trips and adventures. And I was going to see a lot of the world.  But life happened and things went in a different direction. We ended up raising three fantastic kids on a little island in the Puget Sound.  For ten of the years the kids were growing up, I basically put my career on hold and ran a home-based PR business.  Money was not flowing freely in those days.  I was also busy, with three kids and tons of voluntee...