THE MILLION DOLLAR VIEW

It is 5:30 in the evening, and I am reclining in my lounge chair admiring the sunny, sparkling view out the big front windows. We are facing west, 20 or 30 yards from the water, where I can watch the little fishing boats leave the bay. Gulls are wheeling and the mast lines of the sailboats in the marina are snapping. It is an iconic end-of-summer coastal scene, cool and breezy.

You can see from this photo how the heavily forested hills come right down to the bay. This is a truly beautiful spot, though the beauty of the place seems secondary to most of the people here - serious fisherfolk and crabbers.

Charter fishing boats leave the bay daily and come back with halibut and tuna; the docks and crabbing pier are busy with people setting and hauling their crab pots (not very good luck this week, though).

When Odel played golf today, I joined friends for a walk around the marina. A young man leaving the charter boat area was carrying these two big squid back to his camp (for crab bait). Elaine - an avid fisherwoman and crabber - posed with them (probably wanted to grab 'em for her own crab pots). Mary and Elaine gave Odel and I two cleaned, cooked crabs - YUM!

Many people come here to stay weeks, or a month, or longer. Us "drycampers" pay $10 a day for an asphalt parking space (with million dollar view), access to bathrooms with showers, and a dump station. Prices go up from there, to $36/night for a full hookup site (water, electricity, and a sewer connection) with a grass yard and picnic table (and the million dollar view). The high-end sites are always full, and the drycamping sites are busy, busy, busy as well. A fascinating slice of life.