Bill’s most recent school visit was at the Faulconer-Chapman School (grades K-8) in Sheridan, Oregon. (A note on the name: Yup, Civil War general Philip Henry Sheridan was posted here in Yamhill County, at Fort Yamhill—before he was famous, in the 1850s).
Bill was impressed by how the teachers here were eager to reach out to teachers at OTHER area schools--the ones not lucky enough to be picked as NASA Explorer Schools. They made a point of saying how they wanted to share the curricula and other science-teaching tips.
Sheridan is about 50 miles inland; we pointed our silver nosecone to the coast, then headed south, ultimately landing in Newport, Oregon, where we holed up for a couple of days in a cheap hotel with a view of a clearcut so we could plug in our technology and catch up. If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute; “Oregon sunshine” (rain) alternated with the real stuff at roughly half-hour intervals. (This region gets 10 – 12 FEET of rain a year.)
In this era of visual overload, where everyone routinely see thousands of images a day thanks to newspapers, magazines, TV and the internet, I find that Oregon’s coastal scenery strikes me with this weird shock of recognition: “Why, it looks just like the pictures!” You know: the pictures you’ve seen in environmental magazines, in coffeetable books, on the evening news, even (forgive me) blowing by in the background in The Simpsons cartoons: The perfectly pyramidal mountains neatly festooned with triangular green spruce trees; the perfectly scenic cloud wisps; the brooding, jagged dark rocks thrusting out of romantically foaming seas; the immaculate white lighthouses with the red roofs; the harbor seals, gray with black spots, hauled out on the sand, lounging happily, as pelicans soar in an orderly line along the beach. It’s . . . well . . . perfect.
As long as you squint when passing the inevitable honky-tonk miracle miles that some of the little coastal towns have allowed to sprawl along Highway 101. Must . . . have . . . espresso . . .
(We also saw a sign for “sand-boarding.” A Sport That is NOT Football? More investigative journalism is needed.)
2 comments:
Did you hit the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport? One of the neatest places on the Oregon Coast, right on the beach with every guest room named after a literary giant. Don't miss the Henry Miller room!
Darn! We missed it. But we ate at a really fabulous little spot, Legal Ocean Seafood. They also sell fresh fish, and all the little hand-printed tags tell you who caught it, where, and on what kind of gear . . .
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