Thursday, April 2, 2009

It Was Just Beachy


After seeing our new nephew, the second leg of our vacation began ... we went to the Oregon Coast! I had been nearly three years since I had seen the Pacific Ocean so this trip was long overdue. We stayed at Surftides in Lincoln City, which is right on the beach. We chose to be economical on this trip so we opted for the least expensive room, and that meant one king sized bed and a partial ocean view (in other words, a small strip of the ocean was visible over the rooftop in front of us). We also took a cooler packed with sandwich makings and milk and it was a godsend! I don't even want to imagine all of the fast food or expensive food we would have had otherwise.

Here is a list of memorable things that happened on the trip:

- warm chocolate chip cookies in the lobby of the hotel
- the salty air
- sharing a bed with our daughter, who despite her young age, snores like and old man
- flying the kite in perfect beach weather
- microwaving Easy Mac and forgetting to add water (imagine the smell of burnt, dry pasta!)
- drinking "Three Buck Chuck", or the Charles Shaw wine from Trader Joe's that only costs $2.99 a bottle, from the hotel mugs - classy!
- stunning sunsets
- watching our son sort of freak out when introduced to sand
- eating sugared cereal as a special vacation treat. Mmm, those Golden Grahams were as good as ever!
- going to a yarn store that took up the bottom story of a house. The yarn was gorgeous and tempting, yet I didn't buy any.
- eating at Mo's. You can't go to the coast without making a stop there. I even ate clam chowder and a bite of my husband's fish 'n chips despite my aversion to seafood. I am very proud of myself.
- making sand castles
- driving along to coastline and admiring the cute little cottages and not so little vacation homes that over looked the ocean.
- going to the hotel swimming pool. Unfortunately it wasn't very warm.
- the kids took a bath and my daughter made a bubble tiara for her brother and called him a "boy princess".
- my daughter's first tooth came out. The Tooth Fairy managed to find her way to our hotel and left some money.
- wearing earplugs to drown out the sound of my daughter's snoring, only to be thwapped in the face repeatedly - she is a very restless sleeper.
- driving down Highway 101 to Newport in the typical coastal weather - overcast, windy, and drizzling.
- having a massive headache due to the weather; just call me a human barometer.
- going to the Devil's Punchbowl and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.
- driving along Newport's historical bay front and seeing that things have changed very little over the years.
- getting home safe and with very minimal whining from my son.

The kids, happily getting sand up in their britches.

A wonderful moment: Daddy teaching his girl how to fly a kite.

I think my son enjoyed his first trip to the beach because it was okay to get dirty!

Yeah, I'd say we all had a great time ... especially my daughter to is begging to go on vacation again ... she likes to stay in a hotel ... she likes to sleep with Mommy and Daddy!

I'm glad to be home.

3 comments:

Journeying Five said...

you should frame the father/daughter kite picture, it is beautiful!

Kelly said...

Thank you - I probably will frame it. It's my favorite photo!

PeePaw said...

It sounds like you had a great time! Mo's!!! Um, um good!