The Sea Calls Me

 Karen and I have been dealing with surgeries and rehabilitation for a few months during the late winter of 2023. I have not been Yurt camping at the Oregon Coast, at Bandon, since January, 2023.  

In a few weeks I will be solo Yurt camping at Grayland Beach State Park, near Westport, in Washington.  YES!!!.  

Part I: Southwestern Washington

Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay, Long Beach Peninsula, Lower Columbia River
A Traveler's Hypertext Notebooks, Guides, and Resources

Part II: Grayland Beach
A Beach Camper's Hypertext Notebook,
Studies, Readings, Activities, Seasons, and Tips 

Part III: Doing and Seeing   
Photographs, Blog Posts, and Reports from 2021-2024  

Part IV: Reflections of Beachcombers   
Poetry, Short Essays, Commentary, Quotations   

Southwestern Washington

 

Grays Harbor
 

Willapa Bay
 

Long Beach Peninsula
 

Lower Columbia River, North Side, from Ilwaco East to Washougal

Olympia south to Vancouver, Interstate 5 Corridor
 

Native Americans in the Area

Northwest Coastal Oregon: Astoria to Cape Lookout

 

Four Days in Grayland Homepage

 

“The waves broke and spread their waters swiftly over the shore. One after another they massed themselves and fell; the spray tossed itself back with the energy of their fall. The waves were steeped deep-blue save for a pattern of diamond-pointed light on their backs which rippled as the backs of great horses ripple with muscles as they move. The waves fell; withdrew and fell again, like the thud of a great beast stamping.”
-  Virginia Woolf, The Waves

Not many birds seen by
the cold low tide shore;
I thought I see many more.
Saw seagulls at the Westport docks,
Waiting for free fish guts,
Tossed potato chips or popcorn bits,
Tossed aside by fishermen
Laughing over old jokes and riddles,
Hoping for better weather
When the lingcod might bite better.

"The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; – on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch’d land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in."
-  Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach, 1860

Four Days in Grayland
By Michael P. Garofalo