Just 24 miles

I am taking a writing class in Newport. It is just 24 miles down the coast from me every Saturday. Doesn't sound like much driving and normally it isn't. But here on the coast where we get heavy rain and 70 mile an hour wind, it can be a bad drive. But I decided to take it because, well, as you all know, I love to write.
This was about how to write your memories for your family and to pass down to your kids so they have a living history of not only the births and deaths of family members and a few old photographs, but the stories that you remember your mother, father, uncles and aunts or grandparents telling you along with those stories you have stored that will be forgotten or lost when we are dust in the wind.
So, as I got into this class I was surprised at how many stories I came up with. How many things other people in the class sparked a memory for me that made me want to write about other subjects. It was very energizing.
It helped that Saturday was a beautiful day of blue skies and calm winds and cotton ball clouds. The people I met at the Senior Center were interesting and funny and spurred me to go have lunch on the bay and take some pictures. It was glorious!
On the way back I took my time and really saw the sights. I stopped at Moolak and Beverly Beaches and wondered how they got their names. I drove out to Yaquina Lighthouse and looked around again. It was getting to be close to sunset and the fog was in the distance as it usually is around here so I was not able to go out to the Devil's Punchbowl again and see the tiny winery that is there at the western most place of the continental US, nor did I drive out to Cape Foulweather which is aptly named during the winter. This is where most of the bad accidents happen when it gets really wet and icy then. But I did stop at Otter Rock for a moment to take a peak at the slash of orange that was trying to break through the cloud layer and make a sunset anyway it could. Then I went through the quaint town of Depoe Bay past the sea wall and the cement whale there. Over the bridge and the smallest harbor ever, past the whale watching building on the ocean side. Around past the resorts and then the view of the coast line that I never tire of.
A short drive through Lincoln Beach and Gleneden to the four small bridges that take you  along the wetlands, over Drift Creek and the Siletz River and then brings you to Siletz Bay. I think at high tide its all of 6 to 8 feet deep at any one part, and at low tide you can walk out onto most of it as it is just wet sand. The Three remaining rocky pieces that stand in it catch my imagination with the one or two pine trees that grow there so forelorn. One morning while driving by I saw a regal bald Eagle sitting atop the biggest tree surveying the water.
Then you pass through the five burroughs of Lincoln City. There is Taft, Nelscott, D Beach (the shortest river ever)Wecoma, Land's End, and you see the small theatre the Bijou that should be saved. It is a single theatre that is old and only shows one film and I love it.
So on a short 24 mile drive I cross five bridges, the smallest harbor, the smallest river, the most western winery, drove along a beautiful coastline, through a short canopy of trees at Cape Foulweather, past a beautiful bay and end up at my house looking out at the ocean. Not to mention there are six art galleries that I pass on the way.
So, I think it's a fair trade. What do you see within 24 miles of your house? I may not have these sunny days as often as those of you south of me in California. And I do miss the sunshine and warmth, believe me I still do. But I find when I do get a clear sunny day no matter how cold it is I am ready to make my way outside and enjoy it.
Happy travels.