My wonderful friend, Cathy, invited us to come stay at her place on the Oregon coast. I've never been there, so it sounded great to me. Little did I know how wonderful our two days with Cathy and Steve would be! Thank you so much for inviting us to your little piece of heaven on earth.
We arrived just in time for a beautiful sunset over the Tillamook mountains, after climbing on top of one of the many they own. It was a nice hike after traveling in the car for 8 hours.
The night sky was amazing away from the city lights.
We started DAY ONE with a trip to the AIR MUSEUM where they used to build and launch blimps in the war. The history and preserved artifacts was as fascinating as it was entertaining. How did they build that building back then without all our modern-day technology? It's incredible!
The hanger that fit eight blimps!
It's so big I can't get the top of the building in the picture.
That's Caden, Parker, and Thad standing at the door.
Just how big is this guppie air crane?
Let's go in and see.
This big!
You could easily fit 2-3 cars inside this thing!
Cockpit of the air crane.
I never knew there were so many blimps!
And they built them here in Tillamook.
This is a picture of 8 blimps inside the building we toured.
This is the construction of the hanger back in 1941 or 42.
Doesn't this look like face of confidence at the wheel?
Caden thought Algebra was difficult.
"I would love to drive these to school." -Parker
DAY ONE continued on the beach - CAPE KIWANDA. It was a little windy and cold, but worth the trip.We worked our way down the beach toward the sand dunes. (According to Thad's FitBit, we climbed 26 stories in the sand, but if you take into account that we slid down two steps for each one we took forward, we probably climbed more like 40 stories. Ha!
Bandit, the St. Bernard showed us how to climb.
Steve and Cathy, our tour guides for the weekend.
And let's not forget Bella, the Maltese/Shitzu!
A boy's paradise!
I appreciated the beautiful photo ops.
The Lactic Acid creating Sand Dunes
Yes, we climbed to the top and lived to tell about it.
I even climbed it barefoot. It was easier than with flip-flops.
Bandit waited for us at the bottom.
DAY ONE WRAP UP - Ended at Cape Meares Lighthouse with
spectacular views of the ocean and the sunset!
Parker hanging on Thad
One of my favorite shots of the sun setting.
Parker took over the camera for these two shots.
A natural talent.
And this is one of Steve's
DAY TWO!
We ate our second breakfast fit for a king: Sausage, eggs, bacon and tons of fresh fruit, and then we took off for Cape Meares beach in Bay Ocean. Steve knows all the back roads to get us to the unpopulated spots. This beach revealed lots of rocks and tide pools because of the low tide. We even saw caves in the mountainside that are usually under the water. We hunted for agates among the rocks and found crabs, starfish, barnucles, and sea anemones like this one. (We didn't take this picture).
DAY TWO Continues at Maxwell Point where we watched a few whales blow off some steam. Too far out there to see with the camera, but they came up on the left side of the furthest rock.
Dr. Who?
A creative way to camouflage a port-a-potty.
BANDIT, our loyal companion
On vacation with these handsome young men.
We're enjoying every minute with them.
Back to our "home-away-from-home"
The outdoor kitchen was a BIG HIT with us.
It was relaxing to eat in the sunshine every day.
Our evening ended with a couple of unforgettable rides...
The Fat Boy
The Land Tamer
and an amazing view of the moon through two telescopes.
Parker still remembers the "witch" flying over the moon.
Thank you Steve and Cathy for being THE BEST vacation hosts EVER!
See you next year.