The Oregon Coast - a favorite family place to visit and relax. Opinions were shared in January about whether we should rent a house in Rockaway Beach or Manzanita. Rockaway Beach won out for several reasons: 17 miles from Tillamook and Fred Meyer; a few minutes away from Kerri Lin Fishing Charter in Girabaldi; great beach with lots of driftwood for nighttime campfires and 20 minutes away from the Oregon Coast vacation mecca, Cannon Beach. We rented the same house we stayed in three years ago and Grandma got to sleep in the bunk bed room with all the grandkids!
Our first family Selfie, Jacob holding the selfie stick!
We spent our days Flying kites, burying Odie, and moving driftwood.
Building fires and playing Phase 10
Jacob and Colin loved the water, even though it was cold!
The skim and boogie boards were a great hit!
Celebrate as if someone left the gate open!!!!
John, Jacob, and Bradleigh caught all this fish and pulled in the crab pots!
Jon and Linda have owned the Kerri Lin Charter boat for over 30 years. They are retired teachers and both grew up in the Lewis-Clark Valley. Linda's mother, now 102 years young, lived near my friends Liz Crum and Betty Huffman. I enjoyed my visit with these lovely people as well as watching them work hard to please all their customers.
Son, Jeff, masters the art of fillet!
Jacob caught the biggest fish of the day!
And John prepared panko-crusted ling cod!!
Karen made the open faced crab and swiss sandwiches! By far it was the best meal of the week.
We did a little hiking through the forest above Smuggler's Cove, in Oregon's Oswald State Park.
It was a bit long for Colin so we never did make it to Cape Falcon outlook. Duane said, "it's not about the view for me, it's about hiking as a family. Same for me, after all I got to see the huge trees!
We also visited Arch Cape and walked through some caves!
We spent one afternoon posing for various family pictures. The light was perfect, but the wind wrecked havoc with our hair. The kids made it fun and we giggled a lot through the whole process!
Jake and Colin had a teeter-totter adventure that resulted in giggles for one and pain for the other!
Even as I write this I'm filled with gratitude for my children and grandchildren. I can't think of any gift better than spending time with them. No matter they all have electronic devices to distract them, but so do I! I need my IPAD to read by daily scripture and reflections. We had no bedside lamp in the bunk room so I needed my IPAD to read my book. I'm amazed these kids can multi-task, such as playing Phase 10 and a game on their phone at the same time. I observed a lot of sharing, kindness, and acceptance during the week. Bradleigh agreed to the top bunk; Jacob played for hours in the cold ocean water with Colin; everyone played Phase 10, a grandma card game. John cooked breakfast for us every morning and Duane took hundreds of great pictures and stayed up late to upload them to his computer. Anne brought all the fixings for Smores and Karen did the laundry and cleaned the house!
Peace is seeing a sunset and knowing Who to thank!
Why is the sunset more colorful than the sunrise?
It is the irony of life saying sometimes good things happen in goodbyes.
I had lots of moments on this vacation to walk outside, stand in silence, look up to the sky and be grateful for my amazing life! And I know Who to thank!
