Happy 24th Birthday Michelle!!!! 12-16-07

Happy 24th Birthday Michelle! Our baby and her baby are blowing the candles out on her birthday cake! Where has the time gone?

Seth spent the night with us last night and spent today with us. Hurricane Seth...he is always on the move and always talking.

These last pictures are of Michelle on her first day in the world and then two days later on her first day at home being held by her big sister Andrea.

Albany, Oregon for two weeks 12-13-07

Today it was a very frosty morning, got down to 34...brrr. Larry was in no rush to get outside and starting breaking down with it that cold...hard on the digits. After dumping the tanks we were on the road by about 10:30.

We headed inland from Newport on highway 20. AFter we went over the coastal range what little weak sun there was disappeared in the clouds and fog. We only traveled like 79 miles and it took an hour and forty five minutes to get to our home in Albany for the next two weeks. It is gray, damp, foggy and frigid here...yuck. The high today was 38, did I say brrrrr?!

I didn't take any photos today, I even forgot the camera when we went over to Michelle's this evening. Seth was in fine form, very excited to see us and I missed a lot of cute photo opps...well, next time.

So as you know when we visit family the blog gets very sporadic...ta ta for now!

South Beach SP, Oregon 12-12-07

Today was overcast, grey and cold, not much wind. We left Bullard’s Beach at 10 and headed north on 101. The tide was coming in and the waves were huge. We stopped in Florence at the Safeway for some milk and a Mocha at Starbucks.

We got behind this lumber truck and I found the patterns on the end of the 2x4’s fascinating. These were made from very small trees.

We traveled 119 miles and are spending tonight at South Beach State Park in Newport, Oregon. It is a very large campground and extremely popular in the summer. It is a ¼ mile walk to the beach but the path is paved. We got in at 1:30 and needed to get set up and have lunch so we could get to the beach. The sun sets around 4:30 so we wouldn’t have very long to scavenge.

The best time to visit the coast is now; no traffic, no crowds, the pick of campground sites and the light on the beach is so interesting with the sun so low in the sky!

Tomorrow we head inland for Albany where we’ll be for two weeks spending the Christmas Holiday with Michelle and her family.

Bullard's Beach Treasures 12-11-07

Today was an overcast day and cold, but at least it was only slightly breezy and not windy.

My first order of business was to drive into Bandon to get a new hair dryer. Mine died after many years of faithful service, at least 10 and lately was pulled into service as a back-up room heater. It worked better that the space heater we had, BUT I couldn’t use the space heater to dry my hair and this time of the year air drying is NOT an option. My head would be frozen in no time. Tiffany’s Drug store had just what I needed and lots of things that I didn’t expect to find there, so I came out of there in a half hour with a whole bag of things. Lovely bath salts and bubbles for the baths I’ll be able to take at the house in Fallon and some wonderful aromatherapy all purpose cleaner I haven’t found since I had my own shop, so it was an exciting little shopping trip.

High tide was around 11:30 so we were waiting for that to hit before hitting the beach. We got to the beach around 1:00. We layered our clothing so we were comfortable out there in the damp cold. Oddly enough we were the ONLY people on the beach all afternoon, we’ve never experienced that before, and it felt kinda weird.

You’ll see lots of this huge tree stump/root natural sculpture in these pictures from different angles and as the tide went out it of course seemed to move up the beach. We loved it and wished we could get it into our backyard up in Fallon, it would take up a huge hunk of the landscape!

We walked almost to the lighthouse but we had been gathering beautiful rocks and fossilized shells and with about 5 pounds of rocks in my one pocket and carrying a few pounds in my hand we had to head back. Larry had been gathering too and on the way back as much as we tried to resist looking down, we kept finding another treasure and then another. We were pooped when we finally got back to the truck and thought our arms were going to fall off; but freaks that we are we went back for some more! Larry even lugged a huge, heavy piece of wood back to the truck, the one I found was lighter but longer and Larry found a really big agate. Our hands were blocks of ice with holding rocks instead of keeping them tucked into our pockets…oh yeah THOSE were filled with rocks. This was a really nice beach of treasures! We were too tired to hang around for the sunset. We wanted to get back and get warm and eat! It was a very refreshing afternoon for us and we had great fun.

What are we going to do with all these rocks you ask? Hmmmm, I guess I’ll have to let you know when I figure that out. At our house in Chester I had the concrete guys put the rock collection I had at the time in the edge of our patio and it turned out really nice and was fun to look at. So who knows where all these beauties will turn up? Christmas gifts? Tee hee.

Heading for Bandon 12-10-07

Today was another cloudless, glorious day on the coast. This first picture is from our site before we pulled out this morning.

We pulled out around 10. Larry heard sirens going up the highway while the tanks were dumping and just before we pulled out onto the highway an ambulance sped by in the direction we were going. We were concerned it was an accident and we would be held up a really long time. After about 5 miles we came up to where the “incident” was and we were stopped. Everyone up to that point had been going by, but we were the first ones behind the first cop and ambulance on the scene. There were no crunched cars, but there was a body covered with a blanket on the shoulder and a huge dog jumping around the cop and the fireman on the scene. Larry had his scanner on and apparently someone had hit a transient and run. We had to sit there for a bit until the cop determined that the north bound lane was clear of any scene evidence and let us through. It was all really disturbing and has stuck with me all day.

The scenery was breathtaking today, it was just so clear and bright, hardly any traffic. We stopped in Gold Beach at one of Larry’s favorite places for breakfast, Grant’s. It is a large airy café with views of the ocean and the food is always good.

Our destination today was Bullard’s Beach State Park just north of Bandon. We had never been here but someone we had hosted with in the past had told us about it. It is amazing how quickly the area has gotten the debris from last weeks storm cleared up. There are fallen, broken trees all over the place. We weren’t sure we would get satellite here because there are so many trees, but once again Larry found it. We traveled 87 miles today.

After we got set up we drove back into Bandon to check out its little shops. It has cleaned up its act and is no longer the funky, hippy town that it once was. The café that had the best coffee drinks was gone, darn it. We did stop in the fudge shop for a couple samples. The wind was bitingly cold…brrrr. We stopped for groceries and then headed back for “home”.

We decided to cruise on down to the beach access and check it out really quickly and catch the sunset. It was REALLY cold but soooo pretty. The beach goes on forever, it is easy to get to and the sunset was stunning. Hopefully the weather is great tomorrow; I have rocks to pick up off the beach…tee hee.

Overcast and chores 12-9-07

This morning we had clouds scooting in. It was mostly overcast all day and weirdly windless. Today was laundry day and cut Larry's hair day. I get better at it all the time and it gets easier, though if someone professional watched me they would probably have conniptions.

Tonight with the clouds the sunset was beautiful. I turned around to see what was happening to the sky behind us and found this rainbow. It didn't photograph very well, but it was very pretty.

Tomorrow we hit the road north.

Stunning day on Oregon Coast 12-8-07

I don’t know why I always expect the coast to be warmer in the winter than the mountains but it frequently isn’t, any more than the nights are warmer in the desert…it was in the high 30’s last night, at least it wasn’t real windy.

This first picture is our view out of our window this morning. A stunningly clear day, we have had extremely good timing with the weather here considering the coast was battered with the storm of the century (so far) last week. I think there was more damage further north, but we did have to wait in the Redwoods yesterday as they were cutting up a Redwood tree that had fallen across the road.

The tide was high this morning so no walk on the beach. These pictures are of the beach during high tide and then mid afternoon when the tide was heading out.

Tonight we went to the Azalea Park here in Brookings to see the communities Christmas Lights display. It was pretty and creative. The wind was blowing and it was freezing so we didn’t linger! I didn’t take the time with a tripod so I didn’t get a lot of good pictures.

Harris Beach SP, OR 12-7-07

Yesterday we sat in Eureka an extra day listening to the rain thunder on the roof and being rocked by the wind; decided we didn’t need to travel when the weather was supposed to be better today.

This morning it was still pretty blustery and cold when we left but as we got further north it started clearing. These first two pictures were taken from the overlook above Crescent City…isn’t it a lovely day!

We got into Harris Beach around 1 and traveled 114 miles today. We love these nice easy days. Our favorite site was open, and they had cut down a lot of the brush around the site so we have a lovely clear shot of the ocean. With the sun so far south we can watch it set right from inside the trailer when it is cold and windy.

After we got set up we put on our coats to head for the beach. The sun was warm enough but the wind was out of the north and was cutting. The tide was going out and the wind was doing interesting things with the waves and the sand. The light was stunning with the sun so low in the sky, it made the rocks so dimensional and the colors just glowed! We are staying here for three nights so lots of pictures of the ocean and rocks! This weekend is supposed to be sunny…yay!

Exploration 12-5-07

A foggy overcast day in Eureka today. We didn’t know there was a Costco here until we saw it on the map we received in our welcome packet, so we scoped it out. We found a few interesting things, but managed to walk out empty handed. They even had my favorite Café d’Vita mocha mix but I decided to pass on it and not get in the habit of having it again. It is hard to find.

We then drove on out to Ferndale, the historic Victorian Village. I like to walk around there and poke around the shops. There were a couple of new ones since we were through last. The street was lined with decorated Christmas trees in front of each shop. The fog had lightened up, and the sun showed up weakly for a bit. We had lunch at a little café, finished our walk and then headed back to Eureka. I stopped at a couple stores to find some yarn and then it was back “home”. The fog settled in heavily about an hour before dark.

Heading for Eureka 12-4-07

Last night the wind howled and it poured rain. The gutters were raging rivers. This morning per Larry’s request it wasn’t raining and the wind had stopped. It was even warm (at least compared to what it had been). So getting ready to hit the road was a pleasant experience compared to the cold and wind we had been experiencing which would have made the outside work miserable.

We had a pleasant drive north on 101 to Eureka. Water was running out of the hillsides and creeks were raging from all the rain the last couple of days. It became warmer the farther north we headed, which seemed really weird. In lots of places as we climbed the coast range the clouds were hugging the hilltops.

Near Confusion Hill in the Redwoods there is a huge rerouting of the highway being done. I wish I could have gotten some pictures (hard to find a place to pullout with your home attached to the back of the truck), the two huge towering bridge supports that they had in place across the river were something to see. It will eventually bypass a piece of road that is always having landslides and rocks. The Eel River was wide and muddy brown with all the rain run off.

We left Ukiah at 10:20 and arrived at the Fairgrounds in Eureka at 2:00. We traveled 159 miles, a nice easy travel day, the kind we like. It is $20 a night here with full hook-ups but with Escapees, Good Sam or AAA you get $5 off a night. It is on Harris Street which is busy during the day but quiet at night. There is a fire station across the street but we didn’t hear anything from them after we went to bed. The fog snuck in shortly after we got setup. We do dislike being in damp, humid locations, but as we are only visiting…ah, the life.

Ian's Birthday Party 12-3-07

Just a quick entry before I hit the feathers. We hit the road tomorrow and with the wind and rain we may not have satellite for a couple days.

We had a lovely day with Ian yesterday. He is really growing up and his speech is improving a lot so now we can have conversations. He had his 5th birthday party at the bowling alley with a lot of his friends. He had a blast and even got a strike and picked up a spare. His Scooby-Do cake was very tasty and he received a lot of wonderful gifts.

We went to Andrea's this evening. I fixed dinner and we did some laundry and said our good-byes. Tomorrow we head north. We are planning to spend the night in Eureka. Larry has been wanting to check out their RV setup at the Fairgrounds.