Today, the sightseeing portion of our day involved a trip to Seaside, Oregon, where Lewis and Clark ended their prototypical road trip. We had a different fourteen-seater bus; the back seats were a bit stuffier this time.

We got to Seaside, got out of the buses (to the continuous loop of "The Candy Man" playing from a nearby candy shop), and resolved to all meet back there at 3 PM. Then we all went en masse to the same place.

The road ended in a little circle surrounding a statue of Lewis and Clark, with the beach down below. I'd never been to the Pacific Ocean before, so I went down and dipped my shoes into the water. As I got back up to the statues, the main group began breaking up, so I went looking for something for Karen. Nothing but touristy crap for sale that one could find anywhere in Florida (I didn't know Oregon had pink flamingoes).

In my wanderings, I discovered that L'Apostrophe had been to Seaside as well:

When I got out of the souvenier stores, empty-handed, no Hashers were in evidence, so I went and got a Reuben sandwich on a bagel. As I finished it, I ran into Squelch, and soon after we encountered the main group of Hashers, who were en route to the Seaside Aquarium.

It wasn't the Tampa Aquarium, but it did have some nifty creatures: octopi, some really fat seals, and some cool jellyfish that I don't recall ever seeing on the east coast. I took a movie of them, which I'll put up when I get a fast enough upload connection.

From there, we walked around town a bit, then returned to the Hash offices, where we took turns strapping on a motion-capture suit and doing weird things. I got physical, doing a diving shoulder roll for an upcoming animation I have planned. I did it three times, since there were calibration issues at the edge of the mocap sphere's range. It was fun every time; I haven't done physical stunts like that since high school. This was a real treat, as mocap usually costs upwards of $100/hour.

(click to enlarge)

After that, Noel Pickering and Bob Croucher recorded some "tech talks" on the new A:M v12 features, showing the new render layers and cloth simulation. Really neat stuff. Thence, back to the hotel.