Home from Rockaway

We arrived home early this afternoon.  This being just a weekend trip, unpacking was fairly easy.  I've already unpacked the stuff I put into the trailer, and we had leftovers for dinner.  Mike still needs to move the trailer back to its usual spot, but we're pretty much back to normal, all things considered.

We had a lovely weekend.  The RV park where we stayed was new to us, but we were quite excited to find it.  Usually when we camp on the Oregon coast, we stay in the state parks.  The state parks are very nice, but the reservation system is cumbersome, and they are nearly always full, especially during the summer.  I found this new place, and we were able to get a spot right on the beach.  Here is a view through our "living room" window.

Here's a Smitty-eye view from the Catio.

Even in the state parks, it's unusual to be able to park so close to the ocean and to have an ocean view like this.  Of course, we paid more than we would in the state parks, but it was well worth it.

We had beach access just about 25 feet from our door, and Saturday morning, I went for an early morning walk.  The first night camping with the kitties is always the hardest, and I was up around 4:30 when the natives became restless.  That was no problem because I enjoyed my walk.  I posted this picture (unedited) earlier, but it bears repeating.  These are the iconic rocks of Rockaway.

When you see them from the opposite side, you can see the natural bridge formation.  This is the view from where our friends live.

The beach was pretty much deserted that early in the morning, but obviously, I was not the first person out.

The sun was rising over the ridge behind me.

We had a wonderful time with our neighbors the Joneses and our former neighbors, the Westbys (who have the beach house).  There was also another family with five children there.  I didn't take a lot of pictures of the group, mainly because I was uncomfortable photographing other people's children.  Certainly, I wouldn't post pictures of other people's children on my blog.  In any case, it was a lovely weekend.  The mother of those many children decided to make dinner her project on Saturday night, and we had a fabulous dinner of fresh seafood, including oysters, shrimp, and clams.  She prepared the oysters in a way I've not had them before, and now I'm itching to try it myself.

This morning when we drove out of town, we stopped at this beautiful area with more of the iconic Rockaway rocks.  This is a tide pool area, and folks were exploring, looking at starfish, anemones, and sea urchins.  We had previously been unaware of this area for tide pooling, and now we both want to go back and spend some time here.

Here's a closer-in image of the same place.  You can see the folks exploring the sea life.

When you look in the other direction, this is what you see.  This is technically the harbor in Garibaldi, Oregon.  Beyond that rock in the middle of the image is the way to the open ocean.  Boats travel from the harbor out to sea here, and the Coast Guard can also be seen patrolling the area.

I heard a lot of splashing around as I stood here, and then realized there was a group of seagulls bathing in the water.

Between our house and Rockaway, one must pass through Tillamook, Oregon.  Tillamook has gone to quite a bit of effort to put itself on the quilting map.  It is the home of the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center, which is the same museum that I donated my grandmother's best quilts to.  I have seen this quilt barn before.  (We were driving by, and so this is the best image I could get of it.)

Tillamook has developed a county quilt trail, designated (appropriately) as the Tillamook County Quilt Trail. It is the first of its kind in the Western United States.  It has been at least a couple of years since we've been in Tillamook, and the quilt trail has taken off much more now than when we saw it last.  They now have a website that explains its history and origins and also provides a map of the "trail".  We didn't follow the trail because we didn't have time this weekend, but now we are both talking about going back to take the trail, and also to spend more time at the RV park that where we enjoyed the beach so much.

Nevertheless, quilt blocks are abundant in the little town of Tillamook, and we saw them on many of the structures around town.  This next one was on the bank.

And there were others just about everywhere we looked.

Even the most mundane structures, with no relationship to quilting, were displaying quilt blocks.

Even the local Taco Time was in on the act.

So, you can see there is a lot of draw for a quilter in Tillamook.  Look for another visit there before the summer is out.  They also have a nice quilt shop that I've visited before.  I was just about to tell you where I'd posted my review when I realized that I wasn't blogging yet when I visited this quilt shop.  Obviously, I'll have to rectify that in a future post.  What a great excuse to go back!

So that's pretty much all I have to say about our weekend away.  Smitty is hard at it chasing gophers, mice, and squirrels.  Mike is dozing in the chair, but he still needs to put the trailer back in its regular spot.  I'm just spending some time putting things away and considering what next week holds.  Tomorrow I need to buy some more bird seed since the birds have eaten every morsel.  Also, there is no more food in the house, so I guess a trip to the grocery store is on tomorrow's agenda.  Other than that, not much else going on.  Hopefully, I'm going to sandwich the Love Me, Love My Cat quilt tomorrow and get started quilting that.

I hope you had a lovely weekend and a great Father's Day.