We were walking down the dock today and Barry spotted a boat load of sea urchins so we stopped to talk to the guys. In order to harvest them they have to dive for them to about 35 feet. Only a tiny amount on the inside is used for sushi. He said that 4 of them, 2 divers and 2 on the boat got about $1,500.00 worth in 4 hours. The fellow we were talking to showed us the tool they use to harvest the sea urchins and said that he had whales and sea lions that were swimming around him. The whales apparently leave the divers alone but the sea lions are very inquisitive and try and get the divers to pay attention to them by swimming very close to the divers and crowding them. He said that was a bit unnerving because they are so large.

This next picture is one of my impression of the U. S. of A. It is a parking lot. They love to pave everything down here. At every marina we have been to there has been acres and acres of parking lots. I guess when you drive everywhere in very large cars you need to have a place to put them. In one place they didn't even bother with sidewalks, they just painted lines on the hardtop, very practical actually.

We went to a casino today with the crew of another boat, both fellows are German by birth and were born shortly before the war. We heard a few stories about what it was like there and the one fellow had actually been in a concentration camp. His mother was non-Jewish but his father was Jewish and he said he was the only blond haired, blue eyed kid in the concentration camp, but because of his looks he was treated better than other Jewish children. It is interesting hearing other people's life stories and learning the American slant on the world.

The winds are still very high so we will be here tomorrow as well. We got a map of the area today and plan to go walk on a beach tomorrow. They have beautiful beaches here in Oregon.