Oregon has the best tidepools and sunsets!

Yesterday morning, we woke up and went here... this is Gull Rock, just offshore from where we stayed the night before (Inn at Otter Crest - another very nice resort on the Central Oregon coast with huge rooms sitting up on a bit of a cliff). We explored the tide pools which for an ecologist - well it just doesn't get much better than that! (Funny - I accidentally typed idea pools instead of tide pools. I kind of like that!) The tide has been low every morning and evening right about the time we have had to explore, so that has worked out well!
A sea urchin that got eaten by something. Sea otters particularly like urchins.
A closer view. Love the purple!
A purple ochre sea star, green anemone, sea urchins exposed at low tide.
I thought this was so cool. It's some sort of algae/seaweed with "bladders" that probably make it float.
A "wall" exposed by low tide. I'm not exactly sure how those circular half-holes get formed but you can see some are filled by seastars and anemones. Look closely and you can see some irridescent seaweed above.
A closer view of another section of the wall with oodles of sea stars, and overhanging seaweed.
Psychadelic seeweed!
As we were walking back in, we spotted this harbor seal hanging out. I love all the colors of the various seaweeds - reds, greens, browns, and irridescent rainbow!
We spent the bulk of the day exploring the artistic community of Toledo. I am not much of an art enthusiast so it was not all that interesting to me but apparently Michael Gibbons is a fairly well known painter and we stopped by his signature gallery in Toledo as well as the one of Ivan Kelly, and a couple others. I shot this pic of Michael's paintbrushes.
This is Michael Gibbons by one of the paintings on his studio wall. He is creating a very cool image of the ascension but it wasn't ready for prime time and he didn't want a photo. He even knew of my grandma Jane Leonard who is an artist and lived in Lincoln City for many years before moving to Sequim, WA. Everyone was very nice. We then ate at Pig Feathers BBQ(not a vegetarian friendly place but I managed to get a baked potato - or should I say nuked potato - a salad and the most delicious home-cut fries!! They also served us samplers of beers they are about to start brewing in a new microbrewery, and I had their sage-blueberry sauce and home-made spicy BBQ sauce with the fries. Very good! Then we visited the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Museum and the older man doing the tour was pretty animated and cute. I learned things like... three children got mailed on rail-cars as "baby chicks" before the practice was made illegal.
A self-portrait I took at the Gerdemann Botanical Preserve where we strolled around for a while after checking into our hotel in Yachats- the Overleaf Lodge. Another incredible property!
I took some photos at the preserve, particularly of several rhododendrons. Check them out below...


The Overleaf - in Yachats (population 697 or so!) is situated on these lava-rock bluffs which remind me of the Galapagos. Very cool. I explored and photographed at sunset. There was a low cloud on the horizon so I didn't see the green flash. Bummer.