On Monday we awoke to a bright sunny morning again and many of the campers were preparing to move out. We could take our time because we only had a few miles to go to our next site, Nehalem Bay State Park and so we had a leisurely morning watching the activities all around us. We learned from the host on site that one camper over the weekend had caused a commotion because he could not get his slideout out on his RV because there was a branch (or limb as they call it here) was in the way. He decided to remedy the situation by sawing off the branch – big mistake, it cost him a fine of $750 which is equivalent to about £500! We arrived at Nehalem Bay having backtracked a few miles and found our site. We were very pleased with it as it was well positioned for the beach access and showers etc. There was quite a lot of space between the sites and we were nestled amongst the pine trees. As soon as we had set up we went to get a shower and Linda noticed a nest with three very large baby barn swallows in it. She showed it to Seamus and he said that they would be fledged by the next day. When he visited the bathroom later in the day they had gone! We walked to the beach and wandered to the right for a mile or so – very pleasant.

It was much cooler in the mornings here and Harvey’s thermometer dropped to 59F overnight - brrrr. By lunchtime though it was lovely and warm and so we headed for the beach. This time we walked to the left. We had decided to leave the cameras behind as it was a little breezy and there had not been any birds around – Oh dear, we were not good boy scouts in "being prepared"!  As we walked further and further along the beach it became deserted – it was blowing a hoolie and the wind surfers were tazzing along and leaping 10 feet in the air over the waves. Seamus then spotted a bald eagle sitting on a driftwood branch and he allowed us to walk right passed him within about 50ft. Mind you he watched us every step of the way and, feeling rather vulnerable, we picked up a stick, just in case, because its talons and beak could have done serious damage if it had chosen to employ them! We had never been so close to a bald eagle whilst it was perched – they are enormous birds. What a picture it would have made!!! We managed to walk almost five miles there and back but it was certainly a battle against the wind on our outward hike but much easier on the return journey.

Wednesday was a quiet day all round as Linda had not had a lot of sleep and the weather was overcast and quite cool all morning. In the afternoon it brightened up and we ventured out on the cycle path which was a two mile ride and took us to Nehalem Bay itself. It was a very pleasant ride through the trees and we passed two deer en route which were right beside our cycle path - they took not a bit of notice of us. We found a seat overlooking the water and sat and enjoyed the view, watching cormorants flying back and forth and then perching on some drift wood with their wings held out to dry.

With Linda feeling a little better on Thursday we decided to go cycling in the morning and beach walking in the afternoon. This time we took both cameras on our cycle ride and were delighted that we did because we saw our very first sea otter. We were absolutely thrilled to see it slinking down the beach to go fishing for its lunch and we watched it dive down and then bob up for air. The sea gulls also decided that it was lunchtime and they were hooking out crabs to devour. After lunch we headed for the beach and this time we walked as far as we could go to the righthand side of the campsite – again it was around five miles – Linda paddled in the sea all the way whilst Seamus dodged the incoming tide! It had been a lovely day and then disaster – Linda was eating a piece of chicken at dinner time and bit down on it with her broken tooth. The pain was awful and she was in agony for the rest of the evening and retired at 8pm dosed up with painkillers and Ted the microwavable hot water bottle. She never expected to sleep but within a very short while she had drifted off and thankfully did not wake up properly until 7.15am the next morning.