Week 7 was my last full week of doing interviews, and it wasn’t exactly a climactic one. It was a week of blustery, chilly afternoons…not the best for ocean fishing and crabbing. The bay crabbers I talked to seemed to be doing well, though; most were hitting their limits of 12 crab per person. I even talked to one group of 6 crabbers in Waldport that managed to limit out with 72 crab. 72. Friends from Missouri, can you imagine having the meat of 72 freshly caught Dungeness crab sitting in your freezer right now?

Although the week was slow for private boat interviews, I did manage to talk to a few charter boats about their crabbing gear. Interestingly, even though charters are pulling ~8-10 crab pots per trip and taking ~150 crabbing trips per year, most boats only lose 1-2 pots in a given year. Those are impressive numbers, and I was happy to hear that the experience of charter boat captains and deckhands seems to be paying off by helping to limit derelict gear and marine debris.

After talking to the charter boats, Justin (my mentor) and I went to Local Ocean for lunch. I never take pictures of food (I know, I know, I’m a millennial and you probably don’t believe me, but I swear it’s true), but I just had to share a photo of this gorgeous, colorful salad topped with Albacore tuna. Medium-rare is the way to go:

I wouldn’t ordinarily be so excited about a salad, but eating at a restaurant where you know the fish is bought locally and caught sustainably makes me feel good about what I’m eating. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read some of the other scholars’ posts about buying local products (especially seafood) and sustainable fishing practices.

The following weekend, a couple of us made the trek across the bridge to spend some time wandering through the farmer’s market. Armed with backpacks and laptops, we then headed to Nye Beach to get a change of scenery, do some work, and have a cup (or two) of coffee. One of the things I’ve missed most about IU these past eight months? My favorite local coffee shop, a bottomless mug of coffee for $3.45, and ~8 hours of studying, listening to music, and people watching. Thanks to Carl’s Coffee for helping me get my fix.

With Crater Lake being so far away, I was worried that I wouldn’t get the chance to the famous landmark before the summer was over. Luckily, my roommates were as anxious to see it as I was, so on Friday afternoon of Week 6, five of us piled into the car and headed for a small hotel room in Roseburg. We crashed early – after the 4-5 hour drive, 9 PM felt like 11 – and left at 6 the next morning to beat the crowds to Crater Lake National Park.

For those of you in the Midwest, Crater Lake’s reputation is definitely well deserved; it was every bit as beautiful as I had expected, and more. The water was a deep blue that was so vibrant it seemed almost unnatural, and the shallows were a clear turquoise that rivaled the Caribbean Sea. Of course, there was no way I wasn’t going for a swim in that. One of the park employees instructed vaguely that we could jump in “a little ways around the corner,” so we found a spot that looked good and went for it. Not quite as chilly as the plunge I took the weekend before, but not exactly balmy, either.

After a steep hike back to the parking lot (during which most of my energy went towards trying to not look like I was dying as much as I felt like I was), we were ready for another hike. We decided to explore more of the area and head to Toketee Falls and Hot Springs in the Umpqua National Forest. We got lucky and had the hot springs mostly to ourselves. Unfortunately, the photographs don’t quite do them justice, but we spent a good hour soaking in the warm water and watching the stream below rush past.

It was the warmest I’d felt in months.