Sea Lion Cave

Saturday afternoon we drove about twenty miles south  to view the sea lions. It was a sunny day and we had an enjoyable drive along the scenic rocky shoreline of Oregon. The sea lions congregate in one of the world's largest sea caves located along the coast here.  There is an admission charge which gives access to an elevator that goes down about 200 feet into the cave. The cave has been open to the public for 75 years. According to a staff member there have been times when there are no seal lions in the cave. Today we saw plenty of them, as you can see in the photo above. It didn't  smell too good down there and the barking of the sea lions made the cave quite noisy, but they were still quite awesome to see. After seeing them we drove over to the Heceta Lighthouse, reputed to be one of the most photographed of all the lighthouses in the states.

I am not posting a closer picture of the lighthouse because I want to show the rocky bluff upon which it is perched. This lighthouse helped guide sea captains for more than a century. In 1963 the lighthouse was automated with its light upgraded from a kerosene 5 wick lamp to a 1000 Watt bulb. On Sunday we attended services in Newport with my brother John and his wife Linda. Just as the services were about to start we saw another couple we knew- cousin Grace and her husband Peter.  We are planning on visiting them this coming week at their home in Silverton Oregon. They have been vacationing in this area the past few days. As John and I sometimes find out,  it is a small world when we connect up within Lutheran communities.