We're back from our road trip. Oakland->Seattle->Port Angeles (WA)->Fort Canby/Cape Disappointment (WA)->Sunset Beach (OR)->Harris Beach (OR)->Oakland. 2,346 miles r/t. 

Over the next week or so I'll be posting some of the pictures from the trip, like this one above, on my photo blog. And as soon as I can think about it, some comments about the trip should appear here.

The common refrain was "Why don't we do this more often?". Especially along the Oregon coast. On this trip, we spent most of our time in Seattle and Port Angeles, visiting friends and family. This left little time to explore the beach towns along the WA/OR coast. 

And while this wasn't our first trip down Highway 101, we did find some places we need to get back to soon.

Cape Disappointment (Fort Canby) State Park is right near the beach. Campsites are within a short walk to a long white beach that looked more like a sandbar. And, like many of the WA and OR campgrounds we've visited, it rates a 10. Cape Disappointment (the name relates to part of the Lewis and Clark story) has its lighthouse, and it is paired with Fort Stevens State Park on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. Another great campground we've been to, but not on this trip.

We also camped at Sunset Bay, near Coos Bay, Oregon. And Harris Beach, both Oregon state parks. There are many other spots in between. We need to come back and explore them all.

At this point, we're "lite" campers. Backpacking doesn't seem to be an option any longer. And this trip we didn't even bring a tent, preferring the inflatable bed in the van. Very cozy. Had we planned to stay in one place longer, a tent would have made sense.  

Some observations:

• Crows are everywhere. They seem to have replaced blue jays. And they're noisier.
  
• At Harris Beach we saw the same red-billed oyster catchers we saw at the Seattle acquarium. Equally noisy.
• State park campgrounds in WA and OR were nearly full. On our last trip, at about the same time of year, they were mostly empty. Either more people are camping, or there are just more people.
• Need to spend more time in the beach towns. Like Rockaway OR. They remind me of Long Island (NY) where I grew up. Had strong urge to stay. Beach towns are very mysterious.
  
• Gas prices vary widely from state to state, probably due to local taxes. 2.83/gal in WA, 3.11 in CA
• Station attendants in OR pump your gas .. there is no self-serve. The human interaction was interesting.
• Someone should do a book interviewing campground hosts in the state parks. These retired folks volunteer their time to act as the den mothers/fathers, and keep the place comfortable. They have interesting stories, as we found out. Many are totally footloose, going from state park to state park all year round, with no fixed home except their RV camper.
  
• We really need to do this more often.
  

As any regular reader of this blog must know, I've taken a summer break from blogging about music. I can only deal with one art form at a time, or so it seems. My main focus for the past number of months has been photography. Not music.

But this is about to change.

Today I made a visit to the Other Minds office in San Francisco, mainly to have lunch with our director, Charles Amirkhanian and to talk about events for the coming year.

And to clean out my mailbox. I haven't checked the incoming cd's in many months. And there was quite a stash of new recordings waiting for me.

So this evening I've been listening to a bunch of new recordings from Cantaloupe Music in NY. 

Actually, it's been pretty quiet around here this summer. After an intense winter and spring, I decided turn off the music while I exercised my visual cortex instead. And this has been rather good. I still have the habit of starting each Sunday with something by Bach or Vivaldi, something I started over 30 years ago. But other than that the CD player has been underutilized, the internet radio player gone silent, and I've been spending time sitting on the porch not listening to anything in particular.

It's been a summer of letting the ears go fallow. But in its place I've been spending a lot of time looking at things ... looking at photographs and photography blogs. Trying to determine what makes a good photograph. Not sure if I've come to any conclusions so far. But I think I now know where I stand.

So it's back to music. My weekly radio program, Music From Other Minds, has been on reruns all summer. The first new program of the season, #115, is September 7th.  The pressure is back on, so I'll probably get a couple of shows done in advance.

Lots to choose from in this stack of CDs. The first one I sampled tonight was a recent Cantaloupe release by Evan Ziporyn. It's called Frog's Eyes, and I urge everyone to buy this recording. Four pieces for large ensemble, performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. The recorded sound is quite spectacular, and the music is riviting. You'll be hearing a lot from this CD on Music from Other Minds!  Congratulations, Evan.!

Now I can get started cranking out more programs.

By the way, see the recognition we got on another blog, Bob Shingleton's On An Overgrown Path. And he mentions Other Minds in this video.

Stay tuned. 

Amy Elkins, a photographer in New York City and self-declared "photo geek", coined the term wanderlustagraphy, and created a web site to go along with the idea.

I know, I'm back to talking about photography again. Sorry.

Wanderlustagraphy loosely describes the desire to wander around, taking pictures. Going to strange and odd places, and taking pictures. The operative word, I think, is desire. It's the desire to wander and take pictures. And the need.

Amy spells it this way:

I guess that's what I do, or have done since I first got a real camera over 40 years ago. Just taking pictures of where you are is not very interesting. But taking pictures somewhere else, where you want to be ... that's interesting. 

You can join in by sending Amy your wanderlustagraphy (find out how on her website). 

You'll find me there, too. 

Ok. One more photo item --  just uploaded the 300th image to my photo blog.