LOSING YOURSELF IN THE WIND

For TJ.

There was the day we watched the seagulls ride the wind. We’d given up and retreated to our van in the parking lot above the dunes at Washburn State Park. It was one of those days on an Oregon beach when the wind was blowing so hard you felt like you were standing still even though your feet were moving.

The gulls were loving it though. They’d fight their way up the beach against the wind; and a moment later there would be a grey white blur as they let the wind carry them down the beach. We spent nearly an hour watching those birds surf the wind.

Sometimes it blows so hard the roar past your ears is almost as loud as the breakers and you nearly fall over when you finally get behind the dunes.

Find a place to stand on one of the Oregon headlands: Heceta, Sea Lion Caves or Cape Foulweather. Blue sky meets blue ocean and the wind blows. Oh, how it blows. Close your eyes and lose yourself in the wind.

NOTE: Cape Foulweather is one of the highest points on the Oregon coast. It’s located between Newport and Depoe Bay and Captain James Cook named that chunk of basalt in March of 1778. It was the captain’s first sight of the west coast of North America and the weather that day was truly foul.