Yesterday it rained.... all day, so there wasn't a whole lot of outside time for me. I did get out and about however, driving first to a favorite used book store in Lincoln city to trade in a few books and pick out some new ones. Ended up with a couple more mysteries by Martha Grimes as well as one old Louis L'amour that I wanted to reread. So that was a good visit for me.
    Once done with that errand it was actually time for some late lunch. On the menu was pizza from a restaurant that I use to visit back in the late 70's when I lived in the area. Galuccie's started out as a little hole in the wall restaurant with about 6 tables. Way back then they had the best pizza, not only in the area, but as far as I could tell, the best that I had ever eaten. And believe me, I know pizza. My friend Dave and I would often go in and get one of their large combo's or, my favorite, seafood, and then proceed to eat pretty much the whole thing between us. We were both much younger of course, and skinny back then, and I think we could both eat 8-10,000 calories a day without suffering the consequences. The restaurant is now in a new building and at a different location, bigger, but in my mind it certainly isn't better. The pizza is still okay, I got an 11" seafood so there would be enough for two meals, and it tasted pretty good, lots of veggies along with shrimp, smoked oysters and clams. As I said; it was good, just not as good as I remembered it.
    Once done with lunch, and since it was still raining, I headed south to the Siletz River and turned up the river road there. It's a 26 mile drive up the river and back over into another river drainage. The one for the Yaquina River. Along the way it was nice to drive along the river looking at all of the small farms, the wild areas with huge trees and ferns on all of the ground. In the cleared areas were orchards and blueberry fields along with happy cows and chickens and ducks. It was very pretty in the mist and the fog.
    Continuing on the road I eventually ended up over in the town of Toledo Oregon where I walked the 6 blocks of their old downtown area and looked at an old logging locomotive and a couple cars they had displayed nearby. Otherwise it was just your regular small town stores without much of interest for me.
   From there it was back on the river road, this time the one down the Yaquina River to the town of Newport.  Since the rain was only kind of misty by that time I wandered around the shops and docks down there once again. This time though there was time to take a few pictures of the hundreds of sea lions that were hauled out on some of the docks and over on the rocks of the break walls. They were fun to watch, but boy are they noisy....  as well as very smelly.
    Today it dried out. The rain stopped sometime in the early morning hours and, while the sun hasn't been shining brightly, it was certainly brighter and warmer today. So it was a good time to get out and do stuff.
   One of the first things on my list was a flu shot. I had been putting it off for to long and I have found over the years and by experience, that it is a good thing for me to get a shot every year. I go to a lot of contra dances each year and because of that I meet and touch a whole lot of people. The times I haven't gotten a shot.... well that was just not a good thing for me. So for $28 I'm hopefully immune for yet another year.
    Also on my list was a hair cut. I was trying to remember when the last one was and discovered that it was way back when I was still in Denver. So it was way past time for trim. I was lucky to find a guy who wasn't busy, wasn't too expensive and was even good at what he does. Fifteen minutes in his chair and I was good to go.
    Then it was time for some fun. I headed south across the bridge out of Newport. My destination was not very far, it being the Marine Science Center on the south side of the Yaquina River and Bay. I have been there at least 6 times over the years, but there always seems to be something new for me to see, and even if there wasn't, it is still fun to go in and play with the starfish and sea anemones in the 'hands on' pool. I wandered around and looked at all of the exhibits and displays and even wandered outside where they had a few orphaned seals and sea lion pups as well as some puffins and other sea birds. As always it was fun to watch the movies they had there, including this one really cool one that explored how one of their octopuses kept climbing out of it's tank every night and crawling over to another tank that had clams in it and eating them all before crawling back over to his own tank again.
   So now I'm back at the library checking out my email and FB sites. I'm about done here though and it is getting on towards dinner time. I'm heading out tomorrow morning unless it is a real hurricane outside. It has been fun hanging out in this area for so long, but it is now time to move on to someplace new.


brk*