On our first day in Oregon, we were greeted with the smoke from all of the fires in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. Our best hopes and wishes go out to all the people affected. It was quite a ride landing in Portland as we passed the top of Mounts Hood and Adams poking out above the smoke cover.

Arriving in Oceanside was a relief as most of the smoke was replaced with blue skies and a nice on-shore breeze. Our only stop today was to visit a couple of old friends, (the) Octopus Tree and the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

Octopus tree is a 250 year old Sitka spruce with a base that is 14 feet across, limbs that spread up to thirty feet wide and it is 105 feet tall. It’s unique in that it has no central trunk. Based on the expert counting of several children in my vicinity, the tree has either six, seven or eight limbs (name be damned).

Cape Meares lighthouse has the distinction of being both the shortest and the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. The light itself is a mere 38 feet high, but it sits on a bluff 217 feet above the beach below. Its Fresnel lens, making distinctive red and white flashes, could be seen 21 miles out to sea.