Real-live Bearcats along the Newport Waterfront

On Saturday evening we dined at a swanky hip seafood place that Red had found online. It was in the nearby town of Newport. We drove into town as the sun was setting. There was quite a long wait for a table, so we left a text number and killed time strolling on the docks along the harbor, past a long row of weathered fishing boats, greeted by an old salty Popeye-faced fisherman as we passed by one of them.

Unlike Lincoln City, Newport is still a working-class town. It has a sprawling harbor along the sheltered mouth of the Yaquina River. It was clear that the tourist dollars penetrated only so far down the coast from Portland. In twenty more years, it might be different, but for now Newport retained a nice balance of modern amenities (like the classy restaurant on the waterfront) and the old fishing industry that had sustained it for many decades.

Another nice feature of Newport was that we were now beyond the range of my recent visits to Oregon. I knew I'd been to Newport before, but I couldn't remember the last time---perhaps sometime during college, but I couldn't recall. It was a relief not to be barraged by the pinging parade of random memories.

At the end of the dock we found the large sturdy marine research vessel from nearby Oregon State University, painted in the school colors. I stood on my tiptoes and peeked over the side to look into the empty boat, curious about what was inside. 

I explained to Red the difference between OSU and UofO, and how the distinction between the "land grant" and the "state university" is repeated across much of the west and midwest. She's from Ohio, where everything is rolled up into one giant institution---the Ohio State University. But that's not her alma mater.

Turns out her undergraduate school back in her home state has the same uncommon mascot as mine---the "bearcat." At my school, however, no one ever quite knew the meaning of the mascot. It was always a joke that no one knew what it was. Was it a bear-like animal, or was it cat-like? That was before the Internet, when you could just look these things up. Red enlightened me. She says it's a real animal. I'll guess I trust her on that one.

After dinner, back in the room, the afternoon heat now dissipated, we stood on the balcony and looked out over the long beach and the dark ocean. With the last bit of midsummer twilight lingering along the horizon by the cape, the brightest of the stars were becoming visible in the northern and western sky.

Now it was my turn to play the teacher. I pointed out all the constellations I could identify---Boötes, Virgo, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and---most prominently in front of us---Leo, diving head-first into the Pacific. The bears were holding their own, but the cat was winning the day.