Haystack Rock.

This is Haystack Rock.  No, not the one in Cannon Beach, Oregon, which is the only one I knew of until this year.  This is the one in Pacific City, Oregon, near Cape Kiwanda, and it is the world's fourth largest seastack!  It stands 327 feet tall (for comparison, the Haystack in Cannon Beach is 235 feet tall and is "intertidal", which means it can be reached by land) and I am determined to get a closer look one of these days, perhaps from a dory boat, or my kayak!  (I keep hearing the theme from Jaws in my head when I imagine myself paddling out there, but I am going to do it!)

In the meantime, I have enjoyed almost a week here in Pacific City with this monolith in the background...listening to the endless cycles of waves, enjoying the last bits of summer on the beach.  There are surfers here all the time, families, runners, lots of dog walkers, and even a few naked beach goers (pretty sure they were European)!  I have been carefully considering the talents of the stand-up paddleboarders who come and go from time to time...another thing on my to-do list.

It's lovely and I am so lucky to have such luxuries as down time in this incredible place. 

I've been working, a little bit (really hard with these distractions), on my Burma images...going to be auctioning some beautiful canvases in Fairbanks, Alaska at a Partners fund raiser at the end of this month.  And I am getting ready to launch a gallery on our webpages of the beautiful faces of the Karen people we met on our trip this past Spring, so stay tuned for that (something about Flash Player not working on a 64-bit IE format...?  Ugh, I have a love-hate relationship with technology, to be sure!)  All of the proceeds from any of my canvases, prints or cards will be sent directly to Partners to enable them to continue their amazing work with the people of Burma.  Perhaps you want to help?

I hope you are enjoying the last bits of your summer, wherever that may be...as for me, the beach is beckoning.