Happy 80th Birthday, Mom Hall!

After a good night's sleep on the Washington side of the Columbia river, we decided to make our way slowly down to the Oregon coast and our beach house.  We couldn't check in until after 4:00 so that meant we had the day to fill along the way.

To get to Washington and then to get back and heading to the coast  required going on three more different bridges---I tell you that Portland is a bridge-lover's paradise.

Some of the fun of a trip is the odd things you find at unexpected places.  We stopped and got gas and saw this at the nearby grocery store.  It is actually a vehicle which they must use for parades and things like that.

 



In Oregon you are not allowed to pump your own gas (it is actually a law there).  As Gary was talking to the guy pumping our gas this morning, Gary mentioned that it was his mother's birthday.  The worker commented that it was his dad's birthday, too, and then proceeded to use the squeegee to draw a candle on the windshield in front of Mom Hall.  He insisted that she "blow" it out before he wiped it off.  It gave us all a laugh and it was a sweet fun moment with a stranger.

Our first planned stop was at the Tillamook Forest Center.  It was a beautiful spot even with a light rain during most of our visit.  Again this reminded me that my memory isn't what I think it is because I can not remember any of the history surrounding this place although it happened during part of my life time as a child.

This forest had several major burns at intervals of 6 years apart which damaged millions of acres of trees.  This started in the mid-1930s.  In a effort to both protect the forest in future fires and also to recover the forest, they started a massive forest rebuilding through the 1950s and 60s. Schools, church and communities sent volunteers to plan millions of Douglas firs.  They said that actually 2 out of every three seedlings planted were eaten by deer seeking food.  You would never know it looking at this forest today.  The visitor's center had a great film about the whole history of the area and it was so interesting.  As my cousins live nearby I wondered if they were part of those who planted in this area during that time.

A fire watch tower.
That would be another isolating and lonely
job.  This tower actually had a tiny room
but some only had a tiny seat for the watcher
to use as they searched for signs of fires

Along with the visitor's center there was some walk ways around the area including (you guessed it--another bridge).

Vonette, Mom Hall, Mike and Charon watching the stream with Gary on the umbrella

 We wandered down through the forests until Tillamook and after lunch headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

This place was CRAZY.  The parking lot was huge and packed and there were long lines to buy ice cream and cheese.  Gone is my childhood memory of actually walking through the floors of the cheese factory while the workmen explain the cheese making process.  I loved that as a child and I was excited to share that with Gary.  However now Tillamook Cheese is big business.  We could look into the factory area and they had signs and short videos teaching about the process.  You still do get free cheese samples and I tasted everything this time.

From there we continued down a spur of 101 along the coast and enjoyed some beautiful scenery.  We stopped at this view area to share these views with Gary's mom.

The slight rain added a different look on the beach and it was stunning.  Finally we made it to Pacific City and the Kiwanda Beach House.  There was a moment of panic when the key code to the gated community didn't work and the agent didn't answer my first call at 5:01 pm on a Friday.  Luckily she called me right back with the new code and we finally made it to the beach house.

And it was truly on the beach with only sand from house to beach.  And we didn't want to leave!  Except for running to the store for pizza and groceries twice and eating out at a restaurant once, all we did was play games and play on the beach until Sunday morning.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Vonette and Gary headed for the water

Vonette couldn't remember a time when she had been at the beach so it was fun to share that experience with her.  Although all beaches in Oregon are declared public lands because this area is accessed only through the gated community there were not many people on the beach during the time we were there.  Now Oregon water is cold and since the air was not much warmer (around 75 degrees for a high), it was not really set up for much water play, but it was still amazing.

Our beach has the second largest "haystack"
on the Oregon coast line

Charon, Vonette, Mom, and Gary
on her 80th birthday.

We collected sea shells.

And watched the sunset.

 



 

And we got to wake up on Saturday and do it all again.  I had some suggestions of places to go or things we could do, but in the end, we just stayed and enjoyed our little piece of paradise.

 

East front view of house

You walk out the side of the house to the beach.
It was a bit of a walk through heavy sand and a little hill to the actual beach

One of our purchases on Saturday were some kites.  It was actually a bucket list item for me to fly a kite on the beach.  (Don't ask Gary how much the kites cost?  We actually brought them home with us to reuse.  I just reminded him that it was still cheap for a bucket list item.)

 

Selfie while we were both flying kites
Bucket List CHECKED

 

Mom watching us fly kites

Gary Kerr is flying a kite from his chair

This is Gary's kite.  It was a dragon fly and a bit
more complicated to fly.  I think he enjoyed the challenge of it.

Some inside views of the house:


The main living area with three windows looking out to the beach

View from our bedroom on the lower level

As I mentioned, some things you would have never seen--it is a bit hard to tell but this is what we found on top of a home along the side of the road.  It is mannequin legs in fishnet stockings and high heels coming out of a toilet.  I bet you have never seen that before!!  Thanks to Vonette for spotting this.

We ate out at the Pelican Bar for fish---although most of us ended up having some type of beef.  We did have some steamed clams and cuttlefish for appetizers.

 

 

 

The restaurant was even closer to the haystack so I got this view of the rock.

We headed back to the beach after dinner and started kite flying again.  Gary said that I really should have set my bucket list to be flying kites on the beach at sunset.  I took these pictures while flying my kite.  There was a great wind and it was perfect flying weather but it is still tricky to fly a kite and take a picture with a cell phone at the same time.

especially as I wanted to get closer to the rock in the ocean which was opposite the direction that my kite was flying.



I was doing great until for some reason my kite caught an odd breeze and it started going back and forth and finally fell down despite my best efforts.....so as Gary pointed out technically my kite fell before the sun actually set.  Lucky for him that my goal had already been met.

We had hoped to fly the kites at night but there was no wind then so we missed that moment.

Sunday we had a quiet morning and then packed up to head back to Portland to catch out afternoon flights but we made one more stop along the way................