Misty mornings

Mornings here at Long Beach are gray and misty no matter what the weather forecast, so we waited until mid-morning to drive south to the Cape Disappointment State Park. As you can see in the photos I posted, we didn't wait quite long enough. However, the marine layer would drift and blow so I was able to get a few good pictures.

Cape Disappointment received its name from British fur trader John Meares after he was unable to locate the mouth of the Columbia River. The state park encompasses 1,882 acres that includes two miles of beach, a large campground, two lighthouses and the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. We stopped at the North Head Lighthouse first, climbing the several sets of steps to the top and marveling that the lighthouse keeper would carry 30 pounds of kerosene up with him to keep the light going. Both the North Head and the Cape Disappointment lighthouses are still functional and are maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard.

While up in the lighthouse we saw a black-tailed doe, a yearling and a fawn. The parks volunteer mentioned that there were two other volunteers below who were doing a wildlife count, so I stopped by to check out their sign board to see what types of birds and mammals had been sighted that morning. There were several varieties of gulls, cormorants, sparrows, ravens and pelicans, the deer, porpoises and harbor seals. I was able to see a porpoise splash a couple of times, but they weren't jumping out of the water as we sometimes would see at Myrtle Beach.

There was a tour bus crowd at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive center, so Denny and I chose to hike up to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse to take in the view. The last stretch was uphill but doable for seniors although you can't go inside the lighthouse as you can at North Head. The view was worth the walk.

A lunch of burgers, onion rings and clam chowder at Julie's Loose Caboose diner in Long Beach completed the morning. We also tried their "Coastal Pie" which had raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, apples and rhubarb. We decided that we'd try making our own version as it was quite good and I know Denny could make it better. I'm thinking raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, apples and rhubarb-sounds good, doesn't it?