"Pick 'em up, put 'em down."

(click to enlarge pics)
It rained a little overnight, just enough to make things wet this morning. But by noon the sun was out and the temps rising to the mid-60's. I have a dozen or more pics of taken from the cliffs overlooking Sunset Bay and the area just south. Incredible views of the surf and cliffs.

Two dimensions don't do justice to the size and scope of the coastline here. Similar to pics of the Grand Canyon.

The pic to the right is as close as I could get with my zoom to a Puffin. We watched them fly to and from the cliffs (nests) out to the bay.

We went just south of the cliffs to a state park that was private land and the site of a mansion built by a lumber baron 100 years ago. The mansion is now gone but his gardens remain well tended ... by convict laborers we saw working there.

I don't know how they get so many plants to grow so well where the sun shines so little and the temps stay so moderate. Then again, we can grow 226 varieties of cacti.

They even have a lily pond ... that's doing better than mine. Grrr. And in the middle of it all, a fountain.

Like  said, I have lots of pics, some prob. better than these. It's a beautiful section of the lower OR coast. We're going back to one of the bays tonight at low tide.

Scenery aside, OR is a weird place. If you're under 20 you have various parts of your body pierced, and if you're over 20 you've added tattoos. I swear I saw a pair of 70-year old hippy women, complete with long gray hair and jeans too long and scuffing on the pavement as they walked.

This afternoon we went to Bandon (where we are now) and walked the streets of "Old Town." (Read: tourist area.) Most of the shops seem to have a gravitational pull that sucks Pam right in. For me, shopping rates just barely above oral surgery.

We've seen lots and lots of people bike camping. What I did on my motorcycle only on bicycles. I finally got so curious that I talked to one of the guys. I may have to give this a try. I've got much of the basic equipment already. It would take a different bike so I could mount paniers and fenders but this guy said the best bike for the task is old school - steel frame, basic shifters, etc. so it's bullet proof. He averages about 50 miles a day, sometimes more or less depending on what he wants to see. The OR state parks allow bike campers to stay for $5 a night. He's out for four months, obviously longer than I could go. But a week is doable. Pam isn't thrilled at the idea but she's gotten used to my crazy ideas - like doing a pan-off restoration of a VW, or restoring not one, but two 100-year old houses, or doing marathons, or....

I'm thinking an issue: Should I, as a Christian, oppose gay marriage? I don't mean personally (obvious answer) but politically, publically. On the one hand, I am the state per Rom. 13 - the govt. is God's instrument for good and against evil. Therefore, when I vote I should vote for righteousness. On the other hand, Satan is the prince the power of the air (Eph.) and this world is under the dominion of sin. So can/should I expect a righteous society? (cf. Reconstructionism's error.) And how is vocally pressing for a society based on biblical morals different from the fundamental Islamists who press for Sharia law? Does trying to impose biblical morality on a population constitutionally opposed to it (the sin nature) turn into enemies the vary people I want to reach with God's love and grace?

I don't have the answer. Like I said, I'm thinking it.