Whew!

We were gone for 9 days!

We Drove over 2,000 miles!

We saw some AWESOME views! And took 899 pictures (Thank Heavens for Digital!)

The kids did not watch one single movie in the car (amazing for that amount of time in a vehicle) and they didn't kill each other and Mom & Dad didn't kill them, either! We saw parts of California we had never seen and All of Oregon was new to us, too!

We must say--we LOVE the coast! Denny has already decided that is where we will retire! Come on Retirement!! (only 15 more years to go!)

Almost there!

We spent a day in Newport, Or.

We toured the historical bayside area, ate The BEST clam chowder at The Fish Peddler's Market (even took some home for dinner the next night!), toured Ripley's Believe It or Not and the Wax Works Musuems, and the UnderWater Sea Gardens. After spending an hour and a half in an urgent care clinic for Denny and Sophie (Denny is STILL not better)!

Then the LONG drive towards home. At least it was mountainous views along the way, sure beats the Nevada Desert (that we have driven over and over and over!)

Yeah!! Uncle Matt and Aunt Kelsey's house! The kids LOVE playing with their cousins! They love the whole 'ranch' life, at least for a weekend!

Even Ben, he gets one trip to the corrals, rides the horse, then heads back in all slouced over, sweaty, and WHEEZY, asking for his inhaler. At this point, Ben is pretty much, self-imposed, house-bound and he doesn't go too far without his inhaler. Poor kid!

Yachats

We rented a house in Yachats (pronounced YAW-hots) for a few days. It was Lovely! The ocean was just outside of our back door, the neighbors were quiet and friendly (brought cookies out to the kids one afternoon-made the kids' day!)









More kite flying before High Tide hits! We all flew the kites, Ben and Sophie had a harder time just trying NOT to fly themselves with the Kites! Sophie entertained herself by drawing a 'family' caterpiller (had all of our names in it!)

A view of town from the beach access parking lot! The Marine Layer (FOG to us land locked people) moved in and out hourly, constantly changing the view!

Moving North

The Heceta Lighthouse (at the point of land to the left!)

As we pulled into the parking area for the lighthouse the sun was just starting to go down and we got this shot of the sun's rays through the bridge we had just driven over!

Devil's Churn, a Beautiful lookout point and nice trails down to the water's edge!

Devil's Churn Sunset
Also where Ben's photo had been taken in the August Preview post!

Finally made it to Oregon!

We FINALLY arrive in Bandon, after years of talking about visiting! My Aunt Carleen and Uncle Scotty live here! (Uncle Scotty helped build our home addition!) They live a few blocks from the Ocean! We rode our bikes to the ocean, then down to 'old town' and back to their house.

It was 'wonderfully' windy so we were able to do a LOT of flying at the Beach and at a Park!!

A nice break from the wind and from the kites...

If you lay on the rocks, you are low enough to get out of the wind and the rocks are Warm!

Monday we went down to the pier to try our luck!

We threw in the pots/traps and waited, checking every hour or two. It tooks us ALL day, literally from 10am to 5pm to catch and Keep these 4! (We caught lots more than 4, see the rules below on Crabbing as to why!)

There are lots of rules to crabbing, Asa can tell you ALL of them, but here are just a few!
The crab has to be so big, there is a special 'scale' (ruler) that you use to check from spine to spine along the back of the crab. NO females-you MUST throw the girls back! Only certain species can be taken home, other species, depending on which ones, you might have to turn in to the 'game warden' as they are not native!

Then there is the dilemma-kill them at the pier or at home. You can't kill them and then wait an hour or so to cook them, they release something that is not good! So, we took them home, steamed them, then Denny got to learn how to clean the 'butter' out of them! Some mighty delicious Crab!!

Our Road Trip!

Our first Detour on Highway 101:

The Avenue of Giants!

We were told we would 'probably' fit through the Chandelier Tree in the suburban...

We didn't think we'd try it!! At Myers Flat, we were guaranteed to fit...

These trees are AMAZING!

It took us 5 hours to travel 67 miles!

We stopped and spent the night in Eureka, CA. We ate at the Samoa Cookhouse--VERY good food, served 'family style'. There were 2 entrees-Pork Roast and Fried Chicken, sides of Broiled Red Potatoes, and fresh Corn, Soup and Salad, and Dessert-Almond Custard and Apple Crumble! And served in the original cookhouse on the original tables that the loggers used 'back in the day'! It was all Delicious!

We left Eureka and barely made it 20 miles before we HAD to stop, again!

We passed these signs VERY frequently on our drive. It was starting to Make us Nervous!!!