Tai Chi Chuan Practice

A repost from January 2014:

I have been so busy with Taoist studies, yoga practice, weightlifting, walking, gardening, teaching, reading, and working part-time that I have not been practicing my Chen Taijiquan forms each day.  Starting today, I will renew my efforts in this area of mind-body arts by the daily practice of the Chen 18 Form and Chen broadsword 23 Movement form.  

We don’t "really learn” Tai Chi by listening to, imitating, and following a live Tai chi instructor, or reading Tai Chi books, or watching Tai Chi instructional DVDs.  The “learning” comes from practicing Tai Chi, playing Tai Chi, moving by Tai chi, and feeling Tai Chi.  We move from being awkward and uncomfortable to moving gracefully, fluidly, easily, confidently, and beautifully.  Live and virtual Tai Chi instructors provide us with information and ideas about what Tai Chi has been for others and could be for us, its rich history, and provide us with a model of how a "form" might look and be realized as expressed by their body-mind.  

Our instructor's "mind" set or intention is important - depending, for example, on whether they emphasize martial applications or they are a New Age energy arts dancer.  Likewise, our own progress in "learning" will depend upon our own "mind set" of intentions, dedication, toughness, the courage to go beyond our limitations and failures, and our willpower.  

Learning Tai Chi is always a complex matrix of interactions, lived experiences, daily training, and accumulated muscle memories.  Less thinking and more practice, training, and doing will result in the greatest learning.  Repeated movements are the foundation for Tai Chi learning.  

"Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states."
-  Carol Welch 

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply.  Willing is not enough, we must do." 
-  Bruce Lee  

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."
-  Alan Cohen 

 

Chen Style Taijiquan Short Hand Form, 18 Movements
Created by Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei

Bibliography, Resources, List of Movements, Resources, Links, Instructions, Comments
Webpage by Michael Garofalo

 

Chen Style Taijiquan
Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei's Short 18 Movements Tai Chi Hand Form
List of 18 Movements

1.     Beginning Posture of Taiji 

2.     Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds the Mortar

3.     Lazily Tying One's Coat  

4.     Six Sealing and Four Closing  

5.     Single Whip 

6.     White Crane Spreads Its Wings

7.     Walk Diagonally  

8.     Brush Knee

9.     Stepping to Both Sides   

10.   Cover Hands and Strike with Fist  

11.   High Pat on the Horse  

12.   Kick with the Left Heel  

13.   Jade Maiden Working Her Loom  

14.   Cloud Hands  

15.   Turn Body with Double Lotus Kick 

16.   Cannon Fist Over the Head  

17.   Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds the Mortar  

18.   Closing Posture of Taiji    

List of Movements in Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei's Short 18 Form  (1 Page, PDF)  English Only  

List of Movements in Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei's Short 18 Form  (1Page, PDF)  English and Chinese   

List of Movements in Chen Taijiquan, Old Frame, First Form, Laojia Yilu   (2 pages, PDF)  English and Chinese 

Chen Style Taijiquan

Tai Chi for Health by Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei


Chen Broadsword (Saber) 23 Movement Form

 

Our Family Photography Projects for 2022

We are now working on a  Family Photographs Project.

Phase 1

This involves the tedious process of collecting together all of our digital photographs from our two desktop computers, one laptop computer, cell phones, OneDrive, tablets, CD collections, and four external hard disk drives. 

We ended up gathering together 58,000 digital photographs into 450 Folders and using up 156 GB of external hard disk drive space.  I did some rough organizing, file renaming, weeding duplicate folders, and placing them all in one Folder (named "Photographs of BKG and MPG") on one Seagate 5Tb external hard disk drive.  Then, I backed up this one Folder on all the other three external hard disk drives.  

A lifetime of our personal digital photographs-- now all safe in one place, roughly organized by year, with backups.  I am sure we will add a few stray Folders of digital photos from the past, and our family or friends might add some other older digital photos.  

Also, now there is a new storage home for all the digital photographs that we will be adding after January of 2022.  Using my Canon SX740 digital camera, I intend to compose and transfer many more thousands of photographs before I die.  

I am studying two books on this new software. First, the book by Scott Kelby titled "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 2021".  I am following his instructions.  This 'Lightroom' book is very informative and useful to me.  Second, the book by Rob Sylvan titled "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic For Dummies 2019."  

I've always enjoyed working with database software and databases (manual and electronic) since 1963. I used Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel and other database software many times in my professional employment.     

My first import into Lightroom was with 10 Test Folders so as to learn how to use Lightroom for Importing and doing basic classification and cataloging markup after importing a Folder.  I am taking my time.  I imported just one Test Folder, and then learned how to do classificatory mark up on individual photos or on larger groups of photos using keywords, search terms, signature presets, special collections, presets, rating flags, etc.  Plenty more to learn about Importing and using many other Lightroom functions in the Library Mode.   

Then, one by one, I will import into Lightroom the 450 Folders in "Photographs of BKG and MPG" and do the markup for each Folder.  Gradually, during February of 2022, I will complete the importation of all the 450 Folders containing 58,000 digital photographs.  

As a former professional Librarian for over 40 years, I find Lightroom to be a very good tool for the database management of digital graphic images.  

Our digital cameras, mostly Canon, over the decades, output digital files in the .jpeg format.  Lightroom can easily handle a wide variety of digital formats.  

Phase 2

In late January of 2022, we set up two portable tables with chairs in front of the fireplace in our larger TV/Reading room.  We placed our HP laptop and the new photo scanner on the tables.  

Then, we began the slow and tedious process of gathering together all our old paper photographs, both black and white photos, as well as color photos.  The old paper photographs were found in boxes, photo albums, drawers, plastic cases, on bookshelves, and in file cabinets.  They were found inside the house, the garage, the attic, the closets.  

We scan all the paper photographs with the Plustek Photo Scanner.  We are both very satisfied with the speed and ease of use in scanning, the quality of pictures scanned, the numerous software options, and its file handling.  It can output scanned files in .jpeg and other digital formats.  

A few of the best or treasured old paper photographs are kept, some of the best are sorted out and given to family members or friends, and many are tossed into the trash can for the landfill.  All are scanned!

These paper photographic images are now all digitalized.  Later, if needed, an images or group of images can be tweaked for digitalized quality or artistic improvements using Lightroom or Photoshop.  

Folders of the scanned paper photographs are then Imported into Lightroom and roughly classified or quality rated.  

Phase 3

Gather together all our photographic slides.  
Scan all these slides into new Folders.
Import into Lightroom the digitalized images of slides in the Folders.  

We will be using the Kodak Slide and Scan hardware and software for scanning color slides.  

Hardware and Software

In our home in suburban Vancouver, Washington, we have two small bedrooms each converted into a home Office and reading room.  Sometimes, on many cold days, to reduce our electric consumption, we only heat these two Office rooms.  Each of us has their own cozy den for reading, napping, electronic connectivity, and entertainment.  And, each of these rooms have a Dell desktop and other connected electronic equipment and gear.  Mostly old equipment, but working fine.  We have Comcast XFinity for Internet and telephone and umpteen channels.  

We are both using an old "renewed" HP Desktop Elitebook 8470p Laptop, Core i5 3320 m 2.6ghz - 8GB DDR3, 128 GB SSD, DVDRW, Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit.  $260, renewed, recycled, saved, or rescued.  Basically, an  old dog of a heavy computer.  It seems to be passing all my tests of performance, e.g., checked CDRW and audio today.  My little puny ASUS laptop died two weeks ago.  I use a Seagate 4Tb external hard disk drive.

Paper photographs Scanner:  Plustek Photo Scanner.  Ephoto Z300, scan 4x6 photo in 2 seconds.  It includes three software applications: scanner mode, picture quality editing and cropping mode, and file manager mode.  $215.  We are both very satisfied with the ease of use, quality of pictures scanned, software options, file handling.  

Digital Photo Viewer Portable:  Aluratek 10" digital photo frame w/4GB built in memory, USB SD/SDHC support, $85.00.  A nice gift for somebody special - including selected photographs that you have taken of them.  

I keep my Notes About Photography in a hypertext notebook.  

I pay for using Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop, $10 a month.  

Makenna

Our 55th Wedding Anniversary

Karen and I were married on January 26, 1967.  

We raised our two children together.  

We lived in Bell Gardens (14 years), Biloxi, Mississippi (4 years), Hacienda Heights (13 years), Red Bluff, California (19 years), and Vancouver, Washington (5 years).  Karen retired at age 67 and I at age 70.  

Innumerable THANK YOU's for a great life with a fine and caring wife, Karen.  Outstanding 55 Years with You!!

My Birthday

Today is my 76th birthday.  Michael P. Garofalo, January 23, 1946 -  

My daughter, Alicia, and I, 2021

My two grand-daughters, Makenna and Katelyn, and I, 2021

My parents were Bertha June (1921-1994) and Michael James Garofalo (1916-1997).  My two brothers were Paul (1948-) and Phillip (1952-).  

My parents and I in 1947
In South-Central Los Angeles

My maternal Grand-Mother Mabel Ast Blaize on the left,
and my Paternal Grand-Mother Lena Garofalo in 1947.  

Paul, Big Mike Dad, Philip, Me, Mom
Circa 1958

I grew up in East Los Angeles and attended St. Alphonsus Catholic Grammar School, Cantwell Catholic High School (Honors Diploma), California State University at Los Angeles (B.A. Philosophy), and the University of Southern California (M.S. Library Science).  

I worked for the City of Commerce Public Library System from 1963-1969.  

Blanche Karen Eubanks and I were married in 1967.  We celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary in 2021.    

Karen and I in 1970
Biloxi, Mississippi

Served in the United States Air Force, Air Training Command, from 1969-1973.  Honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant.  

I worked for the County of Los Angeles Public Library System from 1974 to 1998.  I retired as a Library Administrator, and Regional Administrator for the East Region in the San Gabriel Valley.  I worked at offices in the Compton library, Bell Gardens library, East Los Angeles library, Norwalk library, Huntington Park library, and West Covina library.  

We lived in Bell Gardens and Hacienda Heights - both in the East Los Angeles  metropolitan area.  

Karen and I, and our families and community, raised two children, Alicia June and Michael Delmer.  We now have two grandchildren, Katelyn and Makenna. 

Alicia June, my daughter, and I in 1976.

Alicia, me, Karen, Mick, circa 1990

My colleagues in East Region at our
Community Library Managers Meeting, Circa 1993
For 15 years, I was the Regional Administrator for 22 libraries
in East Region of the County of Los Angeles Public Library System

I started creating websites in 1995, and a blog in 2005.       

Karen and I lived in Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, from 1998-2017, in a rural area on a five acre parcel.  We both worked part-time for school districts.  I was the Technology and Media Service Supervisor and District Librarian for the Corning Union Elementary School District; and Karen was a Special Education Instructional Aide.  We both enjoyed gardening and landscaping projects. 

 

Red Bluff, California, Sunny Garden

Yosemite, North Dome, 2005

Sean, me, Mick
Alicia, Karen, April
Circa 2007

Karen retired on June 14, 2014, after working part-time since 1998 as a Special Education Instructional Assistant for the Tehama County Department of Education in Red Bluff, California.  

Mike retired on July 1, 2016, after working part-time since 1998 as the Technology and Media Services Supervisor and District Librarian for the Corning Union Elementary School District in Corning, California.  

I taught yoga, taijiquan, qigong, pilates, and other fitness classes at the Tehama Family Fitness Center in Red Bluff from 2002-2016.

In 2017, we moved to Vancouver, Washington.  We are now both retired.  

Family in Oregon in 2013

Vancouver, Washington, 2017
Our New Home

Flinn and Garofalo Family Gathering
Vancouver, Salmon Creek, Washington, Summer 2021

I am very fortunate in having fairly good health, a positive attitude, and stamina for work and play for all of my long life.  I was fortunate in being able to be productively employed for 54 years, and earning good medical insurance for Karen and I.  

I am a philosopher by inclination and practice.  

I have been active with various sports, physical conditioning programs, walking, fitness, Taijiquan, Yoga, hiking, etc., during my entire healthy long life.  

However, during this past COVID epidemic period I did not walk each day, kind of huddled in my home office and read, smoked too much cannabis, daydreamed, lolly-gaged, goofed-off, and acted like a lazy depressed retiree.  Therefore, I was very out of shape at the end of 2021.  

My personal goals for 2022 are to:  

1. Maintain a dietary habit that reduces my blood sugar. 
2. Reduce my body weight to 225 pounds. 
3. Walk and exercise every day. 
4.  Read and write:    Four Days in Grayland     Cloud Hands Blog. 

5.  Help and take care of my wife, family and friends. 
6. Support humanistic and environmental causes. 
7.  Explore Photography using my Canon SX740 camera, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop; and work on our Family Photo Project😊 with Karen. 

8. Enjoy old age. 
9. Travel to the Coast and Yurt camp each month for four days.  
10.  Yet to be Determined, New Opportunities, Unknown

That about sums it up!

A Blogger's Hardware Setbacks and Steps Forward

Suddenly, my thin ho-hum ASUS laptop computer, used for field work and play, lost the ability to connect to my home wifi, then went blank and would not turn on again.  It could not be revived, despite my heroic medico-laptop efforts.  Sadly, this weakly little laptop was pronounced dead on 1/21/2002 at 3:54 am.    

Things break down and don't work anymore and my wallet hurts.  

I went on a Yurt Camping trip from Monday (1/17) to Thursday (1/20) to Nehalem Bay State Park near Manzanita, Oregon.  All my writing about my travel experiences, nature studies, poetry, notes, and some photographs for this trip were lost, gone, taken to the grave in the hard-drive-soul of my dead ASUS laptop.  

Yes, a setback, a cheap laptop equipment failure,  DaRn$##!!XX**!, lost written work, no warranty backup, and my wallet groans.  

Home Office Desktop System:
I write, manage photographs, read my Kindle books and Internet documents, search the Internet, and use computer software on my home office desktop computer set up.  I run a big Dell desktop computer, Epson printer and scanner, and external hard drives.  I have a nice big Samsung computer screen. Yes, and all the associated peripheral electronic gear and goodies.  Also, I use a Samsung Galaxy A32 cellphone power-house will fast T-Mobile 5G.  Very Nice, very cool, very powerful, with it, current, and my wallet moans again.    

Recently, as a sad story goes on, I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 on my desktop.  Sadly, my trusted webpage editor, Front Page 2003, no longer can inset photos in a webpage.  Yikes,  DaRn$##!!XX**!.  Still have to solve this problem with Front Page.

History!  Figure out and find solutions.  Move on!  

What Steps Forward?  Do It!!

So, I bought a used and refurbished HP Elitebook 8470P laptop.  My wallet shed a $250 tear.  We shall see how this hefty businessman's travel tool works for me.  

Lot's of extra computer laptop work ahead for me in the weeks ahead.  Time, time, time ...

I use my Cloud Hands Blog as searchable electronic filing cabinet.  Blogger software is simple and free.  Material can be used elsewhere in webpages.  All blog files can be backed up.  Handy.  Sharable!

I do use the laptop in the field for viewing pictures taken.  For taking photographs, I use a Canon EOS Rebel T7/2000D, a Canon SX740 PowerShot, and my cellphone Galaxy A32.   

I do regular backups on external hard disk drives from my desktop and laptop.  

Nehalem Bay, Oregon

I woke up today in my yurt in Nehalem Bay State Park.  This park is quite large with a long sandy beach, sand dunes, shore pine forest, bay views, and many hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails and roads.  The park is over 4 miles long.  

There are 310 campsites in this Park.  There were only 10 trailers/RV campers, no tent campers, and 3 yurt campers.  Thus, the Park was 95% empty of any campers this cold rainy winter day.  I enjoy the privacy, the quiet, the solitude.  

Fog, drizzling, misting, low clouds, cold, light rain ... 

Today, I plan to drive through Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway Beach and Garibaldi.  I will stop at many places in these areas.  

I walked around Barview Jetty County Park near Garibaldi.  Crews were working on the north jetty entrance to Tillamook Bay.  

I visited Manhattan Beach Wayside Oregon State Park.  

I walked on a wood boardwalk through a swamp old growth cedar forest near Rockaway Beach, and along the beach and bay.  

I ate at the Big Wave restaurant in Manzanita twice: halibut fish tacos for lunch, and pan-fried razor clams for dinner... both were excellent!    

Plenty of restaurants, gift shops, services, library, market, and cafes in Manzanita and Rockaway Beach were open.  Nice homes in Manzanita.  

What to Do at Night?

Sunrise at 8 am and sunset at 5 pm.  15 hours of Darkness.  [Photography at night?]

Reading books, cellphone Kindle, and writing on my ASUS laptop.  Reading comfortably at night in my yurt:

The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans.  By Cynthia Barnett.  W.W. Norton, 2021, 432 pages.  VSCL. 

Nehalem Bay and Manzanita Local Information            

 Nehalem Bay State Park     Images    Google Map

Nehalem Bay State Park Wikipedia

Manzanita City   Population 400.  Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images    

Explore Manzanita

Manzanita Visitor Center

Manzanita   Restaurants    "You can enjoy a farm-to-table experience at several local restaurants;A Mighty Thai, Big Wave Cafe, Bread & Ocean, and Neahkahnie Bistro just to name a few. Each serves seasonal, regional items year-round.  The area also features more conventional food offerings, including pizza, Mexican cuisine, casual fine dining, pies, pastries, contemporary and old-fashioned candy, ice cream and seafood."

Travel Options

Have a Great Time at the Beach

Neahkahnie Mountain   Hiking trails to peak.

Neahkahnie Mountain  "This peak is an inspiring place, where the Tillamook tribe believed their most powerful god resided. In fact, the name Neahkahnie comes from their words Ne ("place of") and Ekahnie {Ekone] ("supreme deity")."  

Four Days in Grayland   By Michael P. Garofalo.   Camping and travel adventures in the Pacific Northwest. 

Nehalem Valley Historical Society Museum in Manzanita

Nehalem City   Population 400.   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images 

Nehalem Restaurants

Nehalem River     116 miles long.  Images

Nehalem Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in Wheeler 

Oswald West State Park Wikipedia

Oswald West State Park

Lower Columbia River: Astoria to Portland, Ilwaco to Vancouver

Long Beach Peninsula  

Wheeler   Population 400.     Images   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.

I have camped in a Yurt at Nehalem Bay State Park five times in the last two decades. 

Yurt Camping in the Coastal Northwest     By Michael P. Garofalo

Nehalem Spit Trail

Fishing, crabbing, walking beach dunes and shore, kite flying, river side exploring, mountain trails hiking, kayaking. 

Rockaway Beach   Population 1,400.      Images    Google Map

Rockaway Beach Travel  

Rockaway Beach Restaurants

Rockaway Beach Old Growth Cedar Preserve   Raised boardwalk trail, 1.1 mile, into old growth cedar forest.  Bog and forest. 

Rockaway Big Tree Boardwalk  Includes the largest cedar tree in Oregon. 

All Trails

Lake Lytle Images

Lake Lytle Pier

Bar View Jetty Beach Walk  

Rockaway Beach Travel    Travel II

Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.

The following photographs were obtained from the Internet:

Rockaway Beach

Lake Lytle, Rockaway Beach

Manzanita Beach

Boardwalk in Old Growth Cedar Forest

Cliffs above Manzanita, Highway 101

Nehalem Bay

Nehalm Bay State Park, Oregon

A Repost from February, 2020:

I really enjoyed the expansive scenery at Neahkahnie (Manzanita) beach in Northwest Oregon.  I parked on the roadside near a pine covered slope on Ocean Road.  I was about 40' above the surf.  It was a clear day in the 40's F, with wind and sprinkles.  A few people were walking the wide flat sandy beach or roadway.  The sheer cliffs of the south-west face of Neahkahnie Mountain go straight down into the crashing surf.  I enjoyed watching a stunt kite flyer show his fine skills.

At the end of the day, I walked alone in the sand dunes on the west side of Nehalem Bay State Park (NBSP) .  The sand dunes are both high and wide and 5 miles long.  The wind and cold were daunting if you were not dressed properly.  It was getting dark.  The endless Pacific Ocean waves came pounding in to the sandy shore - thundering and roaring day and night.  Tide after tide, for eons, now, seemingly "forever."  The billions of bunch grasses bent away from the gusting wind. 

I was comfortable and dry in my clean yurt.  It has lights and electricity.  NBSP is well maintained.  This beautiful park was 95% empty.  A one night camping fee of $31, and a reserved yurt fee of $55.00.  I'd choose yurt #A11 for a family camp-out.  It got down to a chilly 35F at night, so nobody was tent camping, and only about 10 RVs in the whole campground.  Empty, Cold, Drizzling, Windy, Raining, Damp - Winter Camping in Coastal Oregon.  Come prepared! 

The town of Manzanita has everything Karen and I would need for a two-night motel getaway.  If you want shopping, drive 21 miles north to Cannon Beach.  We have stayed together here twice at NBSP in a yurt in the summer.

Today, I drove home: Cannon Beach, 101, Seaside, Astoria, 30, Ranier, Longview, I5, Kalama, Vancouver.  Highway 30, an excellent major highway, is relatively flat and straight and very fast for my tastes.  I pulled over and let cars pass many times.  I could return the way I came (Portland, route 26, and route 53 to Nehalem).  Or, drive 70 miles south on 101 to Lincoln City and back to Salem.  Or, take 101 north to Astoria.  All are beautiful drives if you take your time.  Pull over, stop a lot, stretch your legs, sip a favorite beverage, step outside your car, walk, enjoy the views.

Beautiful scenery: pine covered mountains, logged and planted tracts, port and tourist towns, fishing, coastal weathered homes, enchanting rivers and bays, farmsteads, isolation, lovely country roads, spectacular homes and estates, Highway 101 history and lore, cliffs, wind and rain, the thundering of the surf.  Coastal Oregon - my favorite.

Today, I was home, unpacked, and resting at 2 pm.  Art class at 6 pm. 

Lower Columbia River, Washington

Today, I'm going to Nehalem Bay State Park in coastal northwest Oregon.  I will be camping in a Yurt.

I will drive to Longview on Interstate 5, then drive west on WA4 to Naselle and then Chinook.  I will detour off WA4 and drive around roads leading to Altoona, Pillar Rock, and Miller Point.  Three rivers meet the Columbia River in this small Bay area: Grays River, Deep River, and Crooked Creek.  

I plan to walk around Middle Village Station Camp on the Columbia River near Chinook.  All  of the islands in the Columbia River from Chinook to Skamokawa are part of the Lewis and Clark National Park and Wildlife Refuge.  There are many historical sites in this area, like Middle Village.  

Then, over the Megler-Astoria Bridge (4 miles long, built in 1966), then south on US Highway 101 to Nehalem Bay and the town of Manzanita.  Yurt check in time of 3:30 pm.  

A stop in Seaside at the Carousel Mall for Asian lunch and shell shopping.  

Weather reports indicate this week's weather to be 45-50F, little wind, fog, low clouds, misting, drizzling rain, and intermittent light rain showers day and night.  I am prepared for wet weather with suitable clothing, shoes, and gear.  Weather was decent for a January Winter day!  

Picture of me in rain gear for walking the shore pine forest trails, sand dunes, and intertidal seashore or just sitting at a picnic table or chair outdoors at Nehalem Bay State Park in the misty, drizzling, sprinkling wet world of coastal Manzanita.  

The Tsunami warning has been lifted after last weeks volcanic eruption in the Pacific.  More people probably came to the beach last week, to see some big waves, which never, thankfully, arrived.  

The surf at Neahakanie Beach near Manzanita was mild at low tide this afternoon.  Shorebreak waves 1-3' on the sandy seaside.  

You can park along the road below Manzanita, elevated maybe 30' above the sea, and stare out your open car window as the mist, fog, and drizzling rain keeps everything wet wet wet.  

North of Manzanita all the way to Seaside are forested higher mountains, hills, tight river valleys, and dramatic cliffside views from Highway 101.  The dramatic rocky cliffs facing the pounding surf are memorable.  

All photographs below were obtained from images on the Internet:

Pillar Rock

Altoona-Pillar Rock-Miller Point Bay Area

Altoona-Pillar Rock-Miller Point Bay Area

Middle Village Station Camp

Middle Village Station Camp

Megler-Astoria Bridge

Chinook - Wikipedia   Population 450.    Images

Chinook County Park

Chinook:  Travel    Port   Port-Estuary

Chinook: Baker's Bay    Gray's Bay

Middle Village Station Camp

Chinook Tribal Nation

Chinook   Dock   Boat Launch 

Naselle:  Naselle River  Images   Store  Gas  Inland from the Columbia River.  The Naselle River flows into the south end of Willapa Bay

Naselle River  Images 

Naselle Library TRLS

Naselle is about six miles east of the junction of US101 and WA4.    Junction of US101 and WA4.  Johnston's Landing.  Along the wide Naselle River valley, and near the bridge over the Naselle River.  The Naselle River flows into the south end of Willapa Bay.  Parking near the bridge.  62 miles east of Exit 39/I5. 

Fort Columbia Historical State Park    South of Naselle

Megler-Astoria Bridge   South of Naselle 

Chinook Village

Junction of US101 and WA4.  Johnston's Landing.  Along the wide Naselle River valley, and near the bridge over the Naselle River. 
The Naselle River flows into the south end of Willapa Bay.  Parking near the bridge.  62 miles east of Exit 39/I5. 

Junction of WA4 and WA401.  Head south on WA401 if you want to get to the Ilwaco/Astoria Bridge.