last day of vacation

We got up early saturday morning and went for a drive up the beach looking for sand dollars. we did finally find one that was not broken and we also saw this guy out and about on the beach.

After breakfast we took the beach highway into Long Beach and walked around town for a few hours and found a nice sandwich shop to eat lunch at called Surfer Sands.

Then we headed back to camp and took a nap before packing up and heading home. On our way out of town we stopped for one last treat at Scoopers Market!

As some of you may know we have a dream of one day owning our own live aboard dive boat. Until this last weekend the only maker we have found that makes the kind of boat we want was in France. On our drive home as we passed thru Raymond Wa we saw this beauty along side the road and found out it is made right there in town!

Mind you it is a long way off before we will be able to afford a 60-100 foot custom boat like this but, hey thats what dreams are for right?

day five - last day...?

On friday we were going to tour the Tillamook Cheese factory but my knee was hurting so bad that we decided to go home a day early. =(

So we packed up again and headed up the coast to Washington. One thing to remember is that as you go up the coast it may be only 30 - 50 miles to your next stop but the road is so windey (and sometimes foggy) that it can take hours to get there.

As we hit Long Beach Washington the sun finally came out! (we had not seen sun since the day we got to the beach) So we thought we would park the tent trailer on Matt's aunt and uncles lot in Ocean Side and play on the beach for an hour or so.

When we got there we saw that his aunt and uncle were up from California for the summer. After visiting with them for a bit we headed for the beach! Once there we thought it would be fun to have our own fire and eat our dinner out there.

We had so much fun we thought why not stay to see the sunset then camp with his aunt and uncle for the night and go home saturday! =)

day four - family

I know i said this trip was just about us but sometimes you just have to take opportunities when they come.

On thursday we decided to more up the coast from Newport to Nehalem Bay State Park. One thing we learned on this trip is that ALL of Oregon's state parks along the coast are 100% reservations only. If you haven't planned ahead you have to wait and see if anyone has canceled or is leaving early.

We always got in but one guy in line had been trying for two days... After setting up in our new location we drove up to Sunset beach just 32 miles up the coast where Aunt Dorris and Uncle Knude's family was having their family reunion. We couldn't not go see them when they were SO close. We had so much fun playing in the water..

and Dave built a fire so we could all keep warm, cook hotdogs and roast marshmallows!

As you can see from the pictures it was not a sunny day but,
it was so fun to see them and spend a few relaxing hours on the beach.

day three - sightseeing

On our third day we didn't have to change campgrounds so we enjoyed sleeping in and had a nice waffle breakfast.

Then we packed up sack lunches and headed out to the Sea Lion Caves.

On our way back we stopped by Seal Rocks to attempt a geocache and walk down to the beach.

Unfortunately the fog had gotten so thick and we were getting cold we decided to cancel going on the long walk down the hill to the beach.

So we decided to check out the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.

Where we also saw some sea lions..

Then we finished our activities with a well deserved nap!

day two - change of location

Day two after diving in clear lake we took a little nap (a must when camping) then took down the trailer and headed for the Oregon coast. We have a dive buddy that lives down here and he sent us an email letting us know of all the fun waterfalls and scenic byways we could see and take on our way to Newport from the lake. We stopped at a few that were right next to the road and had room for trailer parking.

We arrived in Newport and found a spot at the state park set up camp and had just enough time to make it to the beach for sunset.

summer vacation

Matt and I set a goal this year to "vacation" more. Oh sure we have always taken vacations from work but for the most part we stay home and worked on stuff or we travel to/with family. Don't get me wrong family is great but in our 16 years of marriage I don't think we have gone on more then 4 vacations alone and they have all been weekend trips. So we are down in Oregon vacationing! Thanks to Randy and Lisa for letting us borrow their tent trailer we get to stay for a whole week!

We packed everything up over the weekend and took off at 10am Monday morning. After a few quick stops (gas, back home to fix the tail light, the dive shop, Costco, Safeway), and a medium length drive, we arrived at Clear Lake Resort in Oregon by 7:30pm. According to Google maps the trip should take about 6 hours with traffic from our house to the resort.

We had just enough time look out across the lake once, find a "rustic" campsite to park the trailer in and set up for the night.

After having some sandwiches and chips for dinner, we played a couple games and went to bed.

We started our first day by getting up at the crack of dawn (6am) and went for a brisk scuba dive (Lake temperature was 40°)

The lake is accurately named, visibility was VERY good (just a guess- 75' to 100')