Disclaimer: This post is one of those that ended up being written years after the experience was had. While there was a paragraph or two posted way back then with a single photo, there were no other notes taken, so most of what is shared here must be extracted from the images and what memories they may have lent us.

Sunrise at Fort Stevens State Park on the coast of Oregon is exactly what one would be expected to take advantage of after waking in a yurt that is within walking distance of the shore.

We were on a short walk before meeting up with the friends we had dinner with last night.

The wreck of the Peter Iredale that’s been out here rusting away for the past 102 years.

Here’s Captain Kirk hamming it up for the camera. thought he’d be cute, but unfortunately for me, I snapped the photo a moment too soon. Just as he approached to give the appearance he was going to lay one on me, I turned my head and gave him a full-on-mouth kiss – with tongue. Yeah, who’s laughing now, Mr. Millhollin?

Update in April 2021: Sadly, Kirk and I had a total fallout back in the middle of 2017 due to circumstances that were complicated due to my wishful thinking and (in large part) my inability to simply deal with funding issues with the company I was running at the time and that Kirk moved to Arizona to be a part of. I don’t believe there can ever be a resolution beyond where we are today, which is totally 100% non-contact. After knowing the guy for 22 years, I often wonder how he’s doing regardless of the circumstances around our parting.

Kirk had wanted to take us out to a small area spit of land on the Jetty Trail near Point Adams, where at other times of the year, he’d found an abundance of mushrooms, the special kind of magic ones that authorities frown upon harvesting.

This amanita muscaria or fly agaric is not one of the ones I was referring to although some claim that they too have mystical properties.

Kirk, Rachel, and the kids needed to head back early to Portland, so Caroline and I returned to our yurt to get a bite to eat and pack up our stuff. Though we weren’t going far.

We are still at Fort Stevens, except instead of the Pacific Ocean side, we are over on the Columbia River. The ruin is part of an old series of military batteries built over one hundred years ago to defend the Columbia River’s mouth.

The rusty and crumbling fortified hulks are just the aesthetic I’m in love with.

It turns out that there’s a guided tour that takes visitors into the underground structures; sadly, we didn’t get to participate in that as we weren’t aware of those tours at the time we were visiting.

Some people go for jewelry and nice clothes; I go for textures and patterns found out and about.

Near Swash Lake and Jetty Lagoon, just wandering around.

While I believe we are somewhere out on the Clatsop Spit and that we are looking at the Columbia River, I could easily be wrong, but we are in the general vicinity of that area.

A late lunch in Astoria across from the Pilot House Luxury Suite that we’ll never want to afford, though secretly we’d love to.

What happened to the time between lunch and this late afternoon is lost in memories that cannot be found, but that’s of no real matter because here we are, smiling and happy at Cannon Beach, Oregon.

[I have some faint memories that our friends didn’t actually leave but hung out with us a bit more. We definitely ended up buying a big bag of saltwater taffy in Seaside – Caroline]

Add to the other thousands of memories we have of sunsets along the coast, or is it millions by now?

Yep, it’s so cold out here at the end of the day that even I needed a beanie to keep my ears warm. Did I tell you that Caroline spun and knit this work of love for me?

The iconic Haystack of Cannon Beach at sunset, what could be better than a walk here, even on a chilly late fall day?

We’ll be sleeping in a yurt again this evening down south of Manzanita, Oregon, at Nehalem Bay State Park.