September 1 - 30, 2014 (Mehama, Lincoln City, Pacific City, OR)

Wow, how can a whole month have already passed......I guess when you are retired and very busy time just flies by. 

Here is a brief recap of our last month.....

We did take a little mini vacation to the coast.  We spent 3 nights at the Logan Rd RV Park in Lincoln City.  It was a huge change going from our private rv spot at my mom's to these tight and unlevel spots at Lincoln City.

We did have amazing weather though, one day it actually reached over 90 degrees at the beach, it was incredible.  We spent the day playing on the beach with Gracie and then after dinner going for a long walk down the beach as far as we could walk to Lands End.  It was an amazing day.

Gracie chasing her ball, she gets so excited and loves to chase her ball

Our look back down the beach from Lands End

Sunset on our walk back from Lands End

Saturday the day was much cooler, so we went to lunch at Mo's for some clam chowder and then spent some time walking through the outlet mall.  Sunday was cloudy and cool also, but we had a quick breakfast and then packed up and headed down the road for Pacific City to our next stop.  While Rich was outside packing up, he ran into one of our old co-workers.  They had a nice quick visit before we left.  I think it was our shortest travel day so far, it was only a 30 minute travel day.

Our site at Pacific City was much nicer and we really enjoyed staying at the Cape Kiwanda RV Resort.  We originally were only scheduled for a 2 night stay but managed to stretch it out to 5 days. They had a big tour group that was coming in that had all the pull through sites reserved.  We kept checking back to see if they had any cancellations and weren't having any luck.  On our second night, our neighbors little dog came over for a visit and we started talking to the dogs owner and during the course of the conversation found out that she was scheduled for another two nights but was going to have to leave early.  So we quickly asked if she minded if we took her reserved spot and she was very agreeable to our request.  So the three of us headed to the office to make the arrangements and the best part was that they arranged it so we didn't have to even move our site.  

Our pull thru site at Cape Kiwanda, much nicer than at Lincoln City

When we were checking in on Sunday we were told that they were holding a jet ski competition down the beach a ways.  So after we got set up, we headed out to the beach.  We hiked up over the big sand dune and down the other side and along the beach for probably close to 2 miles.  It was a nice long walk and of course Gracie loved every minute of it.  I think all dogs must love the beach, I know Gracie sure does.  We saw a couple hang gliders by the dune and while we were walking a couple of powered parachutes flew over us.  We could hear the jet ski competition way before we could see it.  We stood around and watched for awhile, it was rather interesting.  I wonder how the judges managed to keep track of everyone?  

Running down the back side of the dune

Hang glider waiting to take off

Powered parachute flying by

Jet ski competition...brrr it looked might cold, even with wetsuits



Walking back from the jet ski competition, we still have to climb this dune



Whew, we made it to the top and once down the dune only a short walk to the rv park.  We had to stop and savor the view as it takes a lot of effort to get to the top.

 
We had a very relaxing enjoyable time, we did run into another co-worker, Nancy from ODOT and her husband and had a nice visit catching up on news from work.  We tried to climb the dune every day.  One day climbing the dune we went at it from a different angle and ended up crawling through brush and up and over trees.  Gracie and I weren't too happy about this trail, it was very scary but I'm glad to say that we survived.  We spent one day sight seeing and stopped at the Tillamook Cheese factory for cheese and ice cream.  We took a nice bike ride, I flew my kite, we did a lot of reading.  It was a wonderful time, so wonderful that we decided to stay another night even though it meant moving from one site in the rv park to another.  We enjoyed the rv park and the close proximity to the beach so we will definitely be back to this rv park. 

Ice cream at Tillamook Cheese Factory and no, I was not eating two ice cream cones, I'm holding Rich's while he took the picture

The vacation house that Rich and his family used to stay at when his kids were younger

Getting my kite ready to fly

Another view from the top of the dune

Haystack rock

Sunset with Haystack Rock

Gracie and me smiling after we reached the top of the dune via climbing up cliffs, through brush and over and under trees....we were both glad to reach the top.

Our drive home from Pacific City was uneventful until we got to my mom's road.  Boy we sure shook up the 5er going up the gravel road through all the rough washboard.  When we got to my mom's we spent a couple hours of shoveling gravel trying to level out our parking spot a bit.  It was nice to get backed in and all set up again in our nice private spot.

The last couple of weeks we have spent working on various projects around my mom's.  The biggest one is probably tearing out all of her old shrubbery in front of the house and working on a dry/wet creekbed.  In a couple of days we'll be planting the new shrubs.  We spent some time painting exterior and interior window trim as she's getting new energy efficient windows installed.  Rich painted and roofed a pump house that my brother built to go over my mom's well.  Rich has worked on fixing a leak in my mom's pond and various other honey do's.  Poor Rich, he gets a list from my mom as well as me.  He sure is a patient husband, I'm blessed! 

 


Working on wet/dry creekbed, it's almost finished.  You can see work on the new windows



Work in progress on landscaping

more work in progress, this was before I started the wet/dry creekbed

Rich painted and roofed this cute little pump house my brother built

Mom & me working on staining interior window trim

We had friends Gene & Judith out to the 5er for dinner one evening.  We had a great visit and shared some traveling stories.  We unfortunately forgot to bring the camera out.  We also attended a friends Irish/India wedding and again forgot to take pictures.  Rich was "volunteered" to cook the chicken for the wedding reception on the Traeger.   It was a lot of chicken to cook and I'm happy to report the chicken turned out wonderful. 

And then of course, there is our adorable new grandson, Elijah.  I try to spend as much time as I can with him, he is growing so fast.





So snuggly, he's so precious.

We have another busy month ahead of us, so I probably won't post again for several weeks.  We still are not sure when we are heading out and even where we are headed yet.  I guess that's the joy of being retired and mobile for the time being.  Until next time......