Washington Park

One of my favorite places to go is Washington Park in Anacortes. It's such a fun park to spend the day in or just to enjoy a nice slow scenic 3 mile drive. So a few weeks ago we had a nice sunny day and not wanting to waste it we (sheri, joel, seth, ellie, matt and myself) set out to have a day at the park.

Matt has a new camera so we got-

some fun...

some cute...

some cool...

some playful...

some helpful... (please note this is a Ford diesel F350 1Ton Crew Cab jump starting a Prius)

some not so fun...

pictures of our day!

After spending time driving around playing at the park the kids wanted to know when we were going to go "play" at the park?! So just before heading home we stopped off at the toys. The ground was very wet and slippery resulting as you can see in a tragic end to Matt's care free days of mobility for the next 4-6 weeks. (he got his very own pair of crutches and boot the next day) No I'm not a mean wife who has to take a pic before going to help. It just happened that as I went to take a photo of seth rolling down the hill Matt slipped. (I knew I should have had it in video mode!) =)

We also decided to stop over at Grandma & Grandpa's house with dessert to finish off our fun filled day only to find Matt was not the only one who had been injured that day.

Grandma stepped wrong on her little step stool and it flipped up and hit her leg! Then while we were there I went to get the ice cream back out of the freezer and was attacked by a butter tub full of frozen strawberry puree.

Still all and all we had a great day and we think next time...

YOU should come with us!

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.