My neck-o-da-woods

[AAFO_WSagar]

Thanks to "BeachBoss" for setting it up.. I went up with a local pilot today to fulfill the need for some aerial photography for his client.. Almost 600 images over the period of almost two hours over the most beautiful part of the Pacific Northwest, perhaps the entire country.. (world?)....

Picked up and returned to the little strip near my home, I was not only allowed to fly the plane back from our assigned photo area, my pilot toured the area where I live for me for a few orbits..

I'm a "tomorrow" deadline for the work, so no real time to spend with this but while some proof sheets are printing, decided I'd share the "small drinking town with a fishing problem" where I live.. Actually, that's Illwaco, where the Coasties practice saving lives in the worst conditions anywhere (Columbia River bar) but it's only about 3 miles south... As you can see from the photo.. if we get a really big wave.. I'm gonna have to move REALLY fast to get to high ground.. BeachBoss even faster cause he don't have four wheel drive and can't beat hasty down the beach..

Fun day.. as always with this stuff, lots of hurry up and wait but all worked out well in the end!

Hope client is happy and I'd love to be able to do more of this stuff in my little part of the world..

Far as atmosphere goes, Dutch Harbor ain't got much on us.. Our crabs are smaller, I think the fisherman's "drug" of choice might be different.. *ahem*..

A uniquely different lifestyle here to be sure.. we call it "beach time"... met a couple of guys at the little strip after we were done, meeting their friends to go fishing for a few days... they flew in their 182, their buds were driving. They needed a ride, I was available.. The ride turned into about an hour of getting them to where they got signed in for charter, got their permits and then onto their hotel...

Both guys, neat ol' retired guys who are Reno fans, kept apologizing for keeping me so long... I just kept saying.. we're airplane people. You'll return the favor to me someday, or someone else and we'll all pay it forward. Way I see it, fellow gave me a ride to get the Stearman shots, would not accept so much as a coke in return. He paid forward for these two guys. Prolly spent about as much time with them as he did with me.

I'd say I died and went to heaven living here but I ain't dead yet!

[gp70442]

Re: My neck-o-da-woods

That IS pretty country Wayne.
I've driven down the coast a few times and it's gorgeous.

GP

[ignomini]

Re: My neck-o-da-woods

Congratulations man, you hit one of the 7.2 (on average) sunny days per year up there!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: My neck-o-da-woods

Congratulations man, you hit one of the 7.2 (on average) sunny days per year up there!

Actually, it's sunny a lot more often than anyone thinks (we do try to keep that a secret tho.. )

The thing is, the weather "forecast" is very often wrong.. the current reported conditions on weather channel are very often wrong. I'll go to it, read what it's doing and they will say cloudy with showers and I'm looking at the sun.. I think it's some sort of conspiracy to keep folks away..

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: My neck-o-da-woods

I think the proper term would be "when"

Yea, the "if" part is will it be in my lifetime or when I happen to be here!

If you look at the pic with my condo in it, you'll see that this is a really skinny piece of "land".. All sand, a "sandspit" is how it's geographically described.

Ocean current flows north, catches, then carries a lot of sediment out from the Columbia over the millenia.. Big ol' rock that juts out into the ocean just north of the river blocks the current, creates an eddy, sand gets deposited and builds to a big long skinny body of "land" and here we are..

Pretty vulnerable to be sure! I'm fairly "safe" in that I live less than two miles from safe ground and BeerNazi has a place on that safe ground... I can get there, most of the way, via the beach at very high speed... if I'm quick about it...

Folks on the north tip of the "spit" would be in big trouble.

[440_Magnum]

Re: My neck-o-da-woods

decided I'd share the "small drinking town with a fishing problem" where I live.. Actually, that's Illwaco, where the Coasties practice saving lives in the worst conditions anywhere (Columbia River bar) but it's only about 3 miles south...

Now Waittaminute... I've got a souvie T-shirt from Pacific Beach which clearly proclaims that IT is the "small drinking town with a fishing problem." Or is it equally applicable to all....

And you're right- I was there for a bit over a week in the late summer of 2004, and that place is *beautiful*. Once the sun came out, anyway.