Beachy Weekend

We're back home again after our weekend get-together with the kids. We rented a house in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. This home was formerly owned by a neighbor, and so we'd stayed there a few times before, although this was the kids' first time. It sleeps six, but two of the beds are bunk beds, and so Mike and I volunteered to sleep in the bed in the camper. You can see the house and camper in the image below. 

When I took that picture, I was standing at the edge of the trail that leads out to the beach. The Oregon Coast tends to be rocky in most places, but in Rockaway, the rocks are offshore, and the beach looks more like the Atlantic coastline with its abundance of beach grass.

From the trail's edge, it's about 100 yards and over a bluff to get to the ocean, so the house has excellent beach access. Mike and I arrived around 4:00 p.m. on Friday. It was raining most of the way there, but the sun came out just about the time we arrived. We wasted no time getting a walk at the ocean's edge.

What can I say? Of course, these two were tagging along.

About the time these two shadowy figures showed up, I received a message on my phone that it was about to start raining. (What an amazing world we live in.) And sure enough, we looked toward the north, and the sky was pretty threatening.

We headed back to the house to do some unpacking. Matthew and Valerie were not expected for several hours. Although we'd planned to cook for ourselves, we decided to go out for dinner and made the short walk into the little town of Rockaway Beach. The sun was shining again, but we took umbrellas just in case. Along the way, we passed this artsy fartsy place. I loved this metallic dandelion out front. 

We ended up at a Mexican place and ordered margaritas. It seemed like the weekend was getting off to a good start.

Their special for the evening was halibut fish tacos...delicious...

and it came with a flan for dessert...one of my favorites.

Then we rolled on back to the house. We hated ourselves for eating so much delicious food, but you know...I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was so good.

This is one of my favorite little churches. Like my favorite barn, I take pictures of it every time I see it. This night shot was sort of interesting.

This is what it looks like in the light of day.

Erik and Mae arrived early Saturday morning, just in time to partake of the Lemon Dutch Baby breakfast.

He's looking pretty self-satisfied there with his cup of coffee, isn't he?

Behind him, you can see the Twin Rocks that give Rockaway Beach its name.

These two...married 7 years in September. They are so refreshing.

Here's a man of many hats: Resident Engineer, Tractor Man, Mow Man, Construction Man, and many more, depending on who you need at any given time.

The first order of business on Saturday was to head into the harbor at Garibaldi and pick up some fresh oysters and steamer clams for our dinner Saturday night.

When we got back from Garibaldi, we took several walks into town to snoop the stores. A fixture is the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad. 

These railroad tracks are abandoned, except for this vintage steam locamotive.

There are only about four cars, and fortunately, it only runs during the day. 

The whistle is deafening when you stand right beside it. It runs from Tillamook to Rockaway. 

This shop selling birdhouses caught our eye.

I'm a great fan of birdhouses. One of these days I'm going to get back to work on the "For the Birds" quilt I started many moons ago.

I loved this chess set at the arts store I mentioned earlier. 

There was lots of fun stuff inside.

There was a shelf full of these miniature bonsai trees. You can get the scale there from my finger.

Fun little sewing kits.

Lots of buttons...these were hard to resist.

As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed the blacksmith at work.

Sorry for the reflections. I was taking these next two pictures through glass. Here, he's firing his steel

and then hammering it into shape on an anvil. Cool.

Matthew and Valerie spent some time looking at those old 3D postcards. Do you remember the ones where you hold it and then move it around and a different image appears? Kind of like a hologram, only these are just a series of many photographs that give it movement. Matthew ended up purchasing a couple of them.

If I were a dog owner, I'd have to stitch this.

This being Oregon and a legal state, there was a local "dispensary". What a world.

Of course, I took pictures of every cat I saw.

This next one is for measuring pasta.

This is a "mid century" cat.

These are Norwegian cats.

Passionate gardener cat.

Birdwatching cat.

Bird bath cat.

3D postcard cat.

We made Oysters Rockaway, and Linguine alle Vongole (linguine with clams). Valerie made a killer carrot, cabbage, and cilantro cole slaw that went perfectly with the rest of the dinner. We were so hungry and so excited to eat our shellfish that I didn't even take a picture...until there was nothing left but the bones.

And then we went out for a walk. I forgot to mention that the weather was perfect on Saturday. It was warm enough to be out in shorts and short sleeves...quite a change from the many showers we encountered on Friday. The brothers played frisbee until they decided it was really too windy for that.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since this picture was taken.

We all got into a game of beach bocce. This is bloodsport, let me tell you.

Everybody won at least once, but Mae was the Bocce Babe. She won more than anybody.

Valerie makes her play.

This was great fun.

We all have shadow selves...must be something in our DNA. 

I saw this. It made me smile.

Also, I got started on my embroidery project. Did you think I'd start somewhere other than the bakery?

On Sunday we all went our separate ways. Matthew and Valerie, Mike and I headed for home. Erik and Mae decided to make a day of it along the coast. The weather was lovely, and so why not?

There is a very active quilt barn trail in this area. I wondered if my favorite little church didn't have a quilt block on it.

I've written about the Tillamook County Quilt Barn Trail before. You can see more about it at this old blog post. The trail isn't limited to barns. Anybody with a wall large enough joins in, and everywhere you look in Tillamook, you see quilt blocks. I snapped a few pictures as we drove out of town.

It was a relaxing weekend, and well worth the time, effort, and expense to spend this time together each year.

We're pretty much back to normal. The camper is unpacked and clothes are put away. I'm even caught up on household chores, so I have a day to myself. There are a couple of things on my agenda. For one thing, SJSM is a total enabler and sent me the link to this new quilt-along starting up on the Moda Bakeshop. It's called "Bee-autiful Quilt-A-Long" and it is just too cute to resist. Here's how the finished quilt will look:

And here's the first block: 

Now, how the heck am I going to resist that? It isn't possible. So, I'll be making up the first block today and starting to stitch. There's a new block each week, and I'd like to keep up. Fortunately, they're small, and so this one won't take too long. Too cute. That's all there is to say about it.

Also, I'm seriously on the hunt for a new kitty today, and I've been checking websites. There was one little sweety up for adoption from the Cat Adoption Team that is supposedly at a pet store nearby. I'm going to go check her out today if I can, and I have my eye on a couple of other kitties if the first one doesn't work out. More later. I don't want to jinx myself by posting pictures. The catio is still under construction, but any new kitty won't be going outside until that's finished.

So there's plenty to do today. Wish me luck on the cat hunt.