SEALS! IN OREGON CITY!!!! At Willamette Falls!

  I grew up in Oregon City, Oregon.  End of the Oregon Trail.  THE End.  In fact, my Dad's side of the family came over on the trail.  And where I grew up the trail ran by the end of the road.  I grew up out in farmland.  Now the city limits are like 1/2 mile from where I grew up but it's still exceptionally rural out there and very rugged with some of the homestead farms out there even. 

At any rate, in the center of town are the Willamette Falls (Pronounced Wih LAM ett - not Wih la metty).

Oregon city is quite picturesque actually.  My grandparents (like 5 generations before me) were married out on the rocks up here in the picture in 1842).

BUT ANYWAYS:

This is just down from the falls, you can't see it but here I'm actually under Highway 99 (McLoughlin Blvd) running through Oregon City (OC) and looking south at I-205 in a stairwell that you would never know existed unless you found it, and that takes you right to the edge of the river.  The water came right up under my feet here.

SO tonight I went back to Oregon City to pick up a new bike (new to me, well, old to me but newly in my possession) from my mother, and took the kidlets to Mike's Drive In.  I think there are only um, three in the Portland Area and I don't know of any that are anywhere else.  I think it's a local thing.  One in Oregon City, Milwaukee and Sellwood and...that's it!  The food's pretty good, but their shakes are pretty good too with some kind of exotic custom flavors (for a shake for a "fast food" restaurant) like Marshmallow Pineapple or Cherry Toffee.  ANYWAYS, after a shake the kidlets were totally HYPER.  So we had to burn off some steam.

Parked the car by the McLoughlin House (Dr. John McLoughlin's house?  You know, Hudson Bay Company?  British?  Was hated by the British because he helped American Emigrants to the area with supplies and medicine?  That guy?  Yes, that guy!)  Here's a blurry picture of his house taken at night.

ANYWAYS (meanwhile, back on the farm) there's a set of steps that go from his house all the way down the cliffs of Oregon City and if you wander through the city a bit you'll find a stairwell leading under the highway and right to the river.

And there as I talked on the phone and wished my dad a happy birthday, I thought I was hearing seals - like ocean seals?  The ocean is only an hour from here so we go pretty regularly, actually I was just there two days ago.  But I know what seals sound like but you don't hear them in the middle of a city that's like over 100 miles from the ocean by river (Willamette, then Columbia then Ocean).  No.  You just don't.  I grew up here.  But as I sat there I saw a beaver head out into the river.  Not unusual but unique to see one just 20 feet from me.  (And then fuzzy animals came out of the woods and we all started singing while sea urchins came out of the water and did a musical "Under the Sea" number).  But I thought I was hearing things because you just don't hear that this far inland.  I was thinking it was semi's rubbing up against something while unloading at the paper mill and reverberating through the river valley or something.

Then I kept seeing movement out of the corner of my eyes in the water and then outright splashing and was thinking "that's one hyperactive beaver!"  Until I actually saw there were seals catching the fish running up the river to the falls! 

I've seen them at the beach, people feed them all the time in Newport.  Here I had my own private beach and about five seals circling the fishing boats and catching salmon!  I watched one of them pick on up and slam it on the water and then let it go and then throw it around! (I don't think they know Obama and Liberals don't approve of such cruelty.  They should be eating tofu!)  This went on for an hour and a half right in front of me! (not just the slamming but all sorts of stuff.) They were swimming by me with their fins in the air.  You can see my view in the picture above.

At any rate, they also were harassing the fishermen who's lines were in the water and scaring off the fish from around the boats and then catching them and throwing them around in bloody messes. 

SO! Since we've had problems with seals coming up to Bonneville Dam I'm now wondering if the fish &  wildlife will have a fit about seals being at Willamette Falls!   It will be interesting!  I haven't heard anything about it on the news but it will be something to watch.  They were having quite the catch (Free! Unexpected pun!)