The Dale's Trails: Tide Pools and Glass Blowing

I slept well last night with the help of the rains pitter patting on the RVs roof. I love that sound and it always relaxes me. This comes from memories from when I was a child spending the summers in southern Delaware in a cabin on Chipman’s Pond. The cabins roof was tin and it was like a symphony playing to us when it rained.

We are going to tide pools today. Now I wasn’t sure what these were but I love walking beaches looking for treasures so I was sure I would like it. Come to find out, I love it. When the tides go out here, there are pockets or pools of water left behind. They are crystal clear and look like little aquariums. You don’t know what you will find in these pools…shells, rocks, coral, little fish, mussels, and starfish! At Otter Rock we found the Devil’s Punchbowl at the foot of Cape Fowlweather. The huge bowl, with 2 openings to the ocean, allows you to rock climb down and into the punchbowl. This was so fun. Of course to get into the punchbowl, the tide must be low. A short while later we came back, when the tide was higher, to see what it would look like with water in it. We were standing, taking the above 3 pics, where the large white wave is on the right side of the picture. A bit scary to think if you weren’t respectful of the tide, you could get trapped inside.

At Yaquina Head Natural Area the beach is so different. Very little sand was here. It was deep with Cobbles which look like rounded black river rock but is actually lava. This occurred from lava meeting the cold ocean followed by 14 million years of weather and erosion. Amazing how deep these cobbles were and how they are only here. They weren’t a couple of miles down at Agate beach where the sand went on forever before you got to the water, nor were they at Otter Rock where the punchbowl is, which was very close. So strange this Mother Nature.

Up in Lincoln City is a shop called Lincoln City Glass Center at the Jennifer Sears Glass Are Studio. Here, Kelly Howard is hard at it creating her works of art. She is a glass blower. To watch her do her craft is work of art in itself. You can make an appointment from Wednesday thru Sunday to blow your own glass float (a glass ball you can hang or sit on a base) but must leave it for 18 – 24 hours in a kiln and get it the next day. Well this is Tuesday and we may not be in the area on Thursday. I asked her if she could stretch the rules and allow me to make a float today. She was so gracious and said yes! I am going to roll and blow my own float !

I was able to retrieve the initial glass, roll it, pick up some pieces of glass chips that will produce the swirls and color variations, reheat the glass in the 2100 degree fire, get more color chips, all the while you must continue to roll the molten glass in the air. I pinched and twisted the glass with huge 1 foot long tweezers, then used a wet cherry wood cup to help form the circle, then I was able to blow air into the bulb. After the globe was completed I lightly tapped the steel rod that held the glass with a wooden club to separate the globe from the rod. A loud crack and it was separated. Kelly gathered more glass and placed it on the bottom to form the base and put a stamp into the new glass to mark the year it was created. I will pick it up in the morning. I can’t wait to see what it turns out like. The colors I saw today will be different tomorrow when it is cool. I am so excited.