Saturday, August 9, 2008

The Beach and Olympics

We had a fun two days at the beach. In light of the fact that we were able to get yurt's in August and we are grateful for that...I have to say that staying at one site for a few days works better for a family then moving around.
I also learned that I don't like Newport, Oregon in August. Too many tourists. We like the South Oregon Coast because it is not as populated and harder to get to. The wildlife is also better down there since there are fewer people.
The kids had fun playing in the huge sand dunes on the central coast. Climbing those dunes is a great workout! Fog and drizzle had started by the time we arrived at our first campsite, so we did not go out on the beach. There was a group cleaning clams and crabs at the fish cleaning table and the boys loved watching them. I think we are going to try crabbing when we go camping for Liam's birthday. I need to pick up life jackets for the boys (this is a great time a year to get them, since it is the end of the season and everything is on sale) I also need to find out about licenses and directions for what crabs to take and what to leave. It sounds like we can rent the nets and it is not very expensive.
When I was growing up, my grandfather lived in Tillamook, Oregon and we had a good source of fish and crabs. My favorite thing was crab on english muffins with melted cheese.
Back to our trip...On the second day, there was a pretty low tide and the park service was offering guided tours out to the tide pools. I took Christian out to see the tide pools. He has moved beyond his "kelp issues" he had last year and had a great time. He has also moved past his "crab issues" he used to have. He loved crawling around the rocks and seeing the animals.
After that, we packed the car, played on the beach at the campsite and headed to Newport. As I said earlier, it was too crowded. We went to the aquarium then went on to our campsite. That night Christian got to fly his Spider Man kite that my parents gave him and Liam enjoyed taking his fingers in the sand and making markings. I wrote his name out in the sand and liked running around it spelling it. We went back to the campsite, made watermelon sorbet in the ice cream ball and s'mores. The boys loved the fire. We still had part of our Christmas tree left over and David cut it up to use as fire wood.
We went to the Aquarium one more time on Wednesday and played a bit at the beach and heaeded home.
I am so excited that the Olympics are here. Christian and I stayed up and watched the Opening Ceremonies last night. We were both half asleep by the time the US team came in and both went to bed right after.
We have not been watching much TV this summer, but I will let the boys watch some of the enents. I need to check and see what is on today and give them a couple choices.
I have my own athletic event this weekend. Tommorow, I am doing the Providence Bridge Pedal with a group from work. It is a 14 mile ride on six bridges. We have two bridges (the Marquim and the Fremont) that are very high. This riding up hills to get up them and I am afraid of high places. The Fremont Bridge has a great design and it should be really cool riding over the top deck. I just want to be in the middle of the pack.
Here are pictures from our first day at the beach.

Credits:
Templates: Get 'em Scrapped by Chrissy W.
Kit: All Organic by Chris Wasielewski
Alpha: Color Play Alpha August - by Anja J.
Journal Paper: Journalers by Sweet Digi Scraps

4 comments:

Dana said...

Your vacation sounded like a lot of fun- lots of good learning for the boys too. I did the Bridge Pedal with Elee about 5 years ago- it was intense but so much fun. I am jealous you get to do it tomorrow- have FUN!!!

Sara E said...

looks like you captured your beach pics very well in that two-pager

gabs-art said...

seems you have had lots of fun. glad to hear!

have a great weekend,
gabs

Bird Stalker Photography said...

Sounds like you had a lot of fun!