Heceta Head lighthouse

The fog persisted all day, much to my quiet disappointment. We weren't going to get a clear view of the lighthouse at Heceta Head on this visit. While it is the most photographed lighthouse on the Oregon coast, if not in North America, I'm not going to get my picture. But, what is is and I'm OK with it. Have to be. In the morning I'll pick up a postcard in the gift shop here at the hotel. And, here's a link to a lovely web site about the lighthouse if you'd like to take a look: http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=131.

We did, however, go to Heceta Head for dinner at a B&B in what was the lightkeeper's house. An elegant five-course experience none of us will ever forget, prepared and served by the couple who run the inn (she's the chef and he's the presenter of the property history and serves). We enjoyed his talk during cocktails. (Appetizers, by the way, were Oregon apple purses, Oregon bay shrimp alliade and artichoke heart and parmesano reggiano spread served with Kramer Vineyards sparkling wine.) This photograph is of the centerpiece on the table at which Tal and I sat. Our host offered to move it once we were seated, but the twelve of us decided to talk around it, the hydrangeas and roses too beautiful to set out of view.

And, these two photographs were taken from inside the house -- one onto and beyond the front porch showing the fog between the house and the edge of the headland and the other a view of the raised beds behind the house. Neither image is as out of focus as it looks. The glass in the windowpanes is old and wavy.




Fact is, all disappointment aside -- without getting any photographs or having a tour of the lighthouse -- we saw the Heceta Head light at its most striking and at its most necessary. By the time dinner ended the fog was very heavy. Standing in the front yard of the inn we witnessed just how dramatically the Fresnel lens refracts the light, sending brilliant, piercing shards in all directions, the lighthouse silent on its headland, but resolute in its constant, consistent message.