John Burridge

We went to Muriel O. Ponsler Beach again to escape rising pollen levels and to search for agates.  This is the time of year when the pollen levels start to rise; the trees are very active right now, and I'm not looking forward to when the grasses start up—after an hour of typing outside, my laptop, keyboard, and mouse have a dusty yellow coating.  It's good for Mark to get out of the pollen and it's also good for him to get out of the house and into nature.

Mark is a natural early riser.  I pulled myself out of bed at 5 AM and we managed to leave the house a little before 6, just after sunrise.  By pre-arrangement, Mark drove, and I napped a little.  

I must have misread the tide tables, because at a quarter 'til 8 the tide was much, much higher than I thought it would have been.  "You be sure to keep an eye on the ocean," Mark warned.  "Don't think I didn't see you last month, standing on a rock, surrounded by water, with a funny look on your face."  (Reader, I was in no danger of inundation, and the retreating flow of the ocean around the rock formed a natural deposit of agates and stones of interesting nature.)

When we got to the beach, there were only three or so other folks there, so we could let Aoife off leash while we threw her ball for her and hunted for agates.  Sometimes she'll drop her ball on top of an agate, at least for Mark, but this time around we stumbled over two really large ones on our own.

Afterward, Mark wanted to go to the Strawbery Hill park and look for seals.  I was hoping that I'd be able to photograph them, but they were mostly in the water.  The tide and foam and my far-sightedness made it difficult to zoom in on them with my camera.  It was easier to get images of cormorants.  I was hoping that I might catch a pelican or two, but they were too far out to get a good likeness. 

We were in Florence by noon, where we walked along the streets and docks.  Florence is a very dog-friendly town, which I hadn't realized until then.  That said, Aoife was very leery about going down one ramp. They've made an effort to have interesting art along the paths—an icosahedron caught my eye; I thought it was welded metal, but I think it something else.  

We grabbed a light snack from a dock chowder stand, but the combination of Three Aggressive Dogs (snarling and lunging), hot noon-time sun, and a busy dock wasn't the best for the dog (she didn't like it when a boat bumped into the dock next to us), so we ate quickly.  

Sunday we escaped the pollen in the Willamette Valley and headed to the coast.  Mark decided that since we usually head north when we get to Highway 101, we would head south instead.

We walked along a very windy jetty and watched osprey at Honeyman State Park and wound up in Florence.   As we drove over the Siuslaw River Bridge, the finials and art deco-ish bits caught my eye and I said I wanted to photograph the architectural details of the bridge.





We walked through Florence and up the stairs to the bridge's deck.  I've taken photos of the bridge before, but usually from a distance.  I am a little confused about how the bridge's structure works as a bridge, because I'm not used to seeing concrete used in a suspension arch -- maybe it's concrete-clad iron girders?







In any case, the bridge has aesthetic lines in the arches.  The 1930's decorations remind me of the Empire State Building.










We walked along the eastern side of the bridge, which was a little alarming because the sidewalk didn't seem to be far enough away from the traffic.  I took a few detail shots and realized that I wasn't going to get good detail on the various designs embossed into the concrete unless I crossed 101.  So I did and was rewarded with much better lighting (the hight contrast on the concrete caused by direct sunlight confused the light-meter on the camera).




I think scaled down columns like this would be fun in our back yard... it might be too imperial, though.  And I can hear Mark saying how they might tip over onto someone or a cat.
The arches had decorative wings on them.  The details came out much more clearly on the west side of the bridge.
One of the things I like about 1930's American architecture is that they took the time to put little decorative details on otherwise utilitarian objects; it gives a animistic or spiritual aspect to structures.
The timing was perfect for this photo, and I didn't realize until I got home that the shadows of the feathers were lining up with the feathers beneath.
I really do think the columns were inspired by the Empire State Building.  Or maybe the Chrysler Buildind.
Or Orthanc. 












I'll have to keep how they sculpted this column in mind the next time I'm making sand castles.  I think a simple triangle-cut plank could make a good tool to get this effect.




Mark gave me a hard time for crossing Highway 101, and I replied it wasn't like I clambered under a moving, two-ton, ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) robot at JLP (yes, I saw a photographer do this--the engineers all collectively gasped).

I took a final, obligatory photograph of sunlight slanting underneath the bridges gothic arches.