Looking for a new job and working on getting full use of my leg back, we needed to get away and start looking at kitties. Mrs. Faustroll still wakes me weeping for Ocean, and even my curmudgeonly eyes sometimes cloud in the morning when I imagine I hear her jumping down from the futon upstairs getting ready to demand some food.
So we headed to the Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood, where we discovered they demand adopters swear to keep the cat indoors, which we are not going to do. Keeping a cat inside is at least as cruel as belling it. Spaying or neutering I can accept as part of an adoption agreement, but not being able to play with a cat in the garden? That's not acceptable.
From there we headed over to Lincoln City, where we discovered that the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was playing and started toying with the idea of finding a room and staying to watch the movie. First, though, we headed down to Newport to visit the Lincoln County Shelter, stopping at Depoe Bay and saw a whale.
We wanted to walk on the beach.
We considered driving down to Yachats but instead headed back north to Lincoln City where we found a room, went to the movie, made a meal in the room, and had a good night of sleep.
The next morning we headed north up the coast, stopping at the Clatsop County Animal Shelter before heading back to Idiotiville, taking old highway 202. This is the road that runs past Jewell Meadows with its Roosevelt elk herd.
We had often driven down there just to see the elk, which usually resulted in staring out at a large empty area of grass.
Lately we have stopped driving down to see the elk, and whenever we pass, we usually see some.
This time we saw two herds, this first one had 6 bulls grazing, and after a while, we noticed several cows down the slope toward the river.
I took a few pictures and we drove on, and I should have stopped to shoot more pictures of a huge herd bedded down in the meadow, mostly cows, a few with calves, maybe a hundred or so, but we needed to get home. Maybe I'll get some shots of the big herd this week.
Hurt Locker is playing at the same theater in Lincoln City, and we're thinking of driving down and staying overnight again, assuming the snow and hail we've been having this afternoon is not sticking around.