Day 4 - First Injury of the Trip

Waking up in a tent, with the sun shining in and the birds chirping outside, has to be one of my favorite things.  But I can only savor it for  a few minutes until I realize that I am close to heat exhaustion as the three layers of clothing I put on in the freezing moments of the previous night are no longer necessary.

(And the fact that I always wake up having to pee like nobody's business also cuts into the enjoyment.)  But aside from all that, we got an early start and got some coffee started pronto.  Dan cooked up some bacon while I worked on the egg/mushroom/onion scramble (did I mention that we are somewhat of foodies...even when camping!)

After breakfast, we headed South for Cape Perpetua.  We had read about it and seen a few pictures on Google but other than that we didn't know what to expect.  We ended up accidentally driving to the top (whoops!) of the point we were planning on hiking to.  So we shot some photos and drove down to the Visitor's Center.  From there we hiked down to the beach and spent the next several hours exploring the tide pools.

Squirrelly enjoying the views from the top

 At one point, we came to a secluded spot where we started shooting a few shots of some well positioned sea stars.  All of a sudden, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye.  Across the jetty from us was a seal, otter, sea lion...we weren't quite sure what it was but we were lucky enough to  watch him for a few minutes and see him dive into the water and come up moments later with a fish, that he quickly scarfed down.  (Later, back at the Visitor's Center, the Ranger told us it was a River Otter, but I'm not totally convinced seeing as we were at the sea, not a river, but who am I to argue with a Ranger?)

We named him Seymour, which made more sense we thought he was a seal

We continued down the rocks and discovered multiple tide pools full of sea stars, anemone, sea urchins and crabs. 

Purple sea urchins and green anemone

 And then it happened...

While carefully navigating the jagged lava rocks, I made the mistake of stepping on the dangerously green moss-covered slippery rock and proceeded to EAT SHIT.  About 0.3 seconds elapsed between the time when I was vertical to when I was horizontal.  My very sweet and compassionate boyfriend heard the impact of body on rock and wisely helped me up before momentarily asking, "Can I take your picture?"  Fortunately for him, I have a high tolerance for pain and was able to laugh at my fall and begrudgingly posed for his photo.

Warning - slippery when wet

 After that we explored a little more and then headed back to camp.  I took this time to check my email.  One part about this trip that I haven't mentioned yet is that although I am hoping to make a career change and find work that I am passionate about, I am currently still working on a part-time remote basis (hey, somebody has to pay for this trip!).  I am what the cool kids like to call "a digital nomad".  Actually, this is a goal that Dan and I share, to find work that we are passionate about that we can do from anywhere there is an internet connection and cell phone service.  So I spent a few hours sending emails and making phone calls before we took a walk down to the beach.

Then we ventured into town for a beer at Rogue Brewery and to catch the 2nd half of the NBA finals Game 5 (did I mention Dan is a huge Miami Heat fan?)  The Heat didn't win but that didn't stop us form cooking up some delicious camp pizzas. 

All in all, it was another great day.  I avoided major injury in my fall, only a few bruises to show for it.  Hopefully that's the worst that will happen on our trip.

-Lauren