Today, we just got back from our west coast trip to California and Oregon. We took a redeye from Portland, OR, with two connections, so I got no sleep last night. If any portion of this diary is incoherent, I have my excuse. Portland today is barely recognizable from the city I was familiar with when I lived in Oregon 25 years ago. Back then there were literally no traffic jams. Now? Oy.
Our main purpose for coming to Oregon was to visit friends of ours who live in the rainforest near the Oregon coast, between Tillamook and Newport. We stayed at an Airbnb in the beach resort town on Neskowin, which turned out to be a very short drive to our friends’ house. We arrived at the accommodations late at night and so saw nothing. When we woke the next morning, we saw out or back window a beautiful little stream leading out to the beach, where a very large rock covered with greenery dominated the landscape. Early in the morning, there appeared to be a surprising number of people on the beach, to the left (south) or proposal rock, but I gave no thought to it. Later in the morning, after breakfast, we took a long beach walk to the north of the rock. Upon returning, we ventured south of the rock, where I realized that the objects I took to be people on the beach in the morning were not people at all: they were tree stumps. Of course by that time, the tide was coming in and it was harder to see them, but there were dozens of these stumps. We went out to the beach again in the morning before breakfast to get a better view, and one of those photos is what you see at the top. There were dozens of these stumps distributed around the beach. In fact, I would judge that it would not be safe to swim on this beach at high tide because of the danger of running into one of these stumps.
So a natural question to ask is what the heck these stumps are doing there on the beach. I had never seen anything quite like this. It made no sense that the trees would have grown as they were located, as they would have died in salt water. Hubby suggested that the presence of the stumps might somehow be earthquake related, but I thought the phenomenon could have been at least partly man-made.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, hubby is right! These stumps had been buried beneath the sand until the storm season of 1997-98 eroded enough of the sand to expose them. These stumps are all that remains of a Sitka spruce forest that stood in that spot 2000 years ago, except it was 150-200 feet higher above sea level. The forest was laid low (literally) by one of the periodic earthquakes that occurs along the northwest coast. These earthquakes occur with a frequency of every few centuries. The last one occurred around 1700, and we’re overdue for the next one.
This was quite an interesting piece of science to just stumble across by accident while on vacation. While it’s really nice to unplug and turn off your brain during a vacation, it’s also nice to learn something new.
And now, on to the Comments, found below the fold. But first, a word from our sponsor:
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Top Comments (June 22, 2019):
From ericlewis01:
Bobs Telecaster pegs Trump in annieli's diary.
From Holgar:
This comment, in which LimeyExpatDave answers the question "What have we become?" with the brutal truth. From rflctammt’s recommended post.
From elenacarlena:
I recommend this comment by JoanMar in my so-far-top-rec-list diary, "It's Not Just Four Severely Ill Migrant Toddlers"
There’s something pathetically wrong with someone who can only feel empathy for white skin, blue/green eyes, and blonde hair....
Yet here we are.
Top Mojo (June 21, 2019):
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Top Photos (June 21, 2019):
Courtesy of jotter