Back from the Beach

We couldn't have planned our beach trip any better if we'd been clairvoyant. While there was a heat wave raging back home, we were enjoying relatively chilly weather at the beach in Winchester Bay, Oregon. I hope y'all have been behaving yourselves...not getting sick, etc. I have a lot of pictures to show today, so just get yourself a cuppa cuppa and let's have a chat. 

We left around 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning. We were towing our ATV's and so this was truck camper adventure. 

I didn't take as many pictures of the area as usual since we've been ATVing at Winchester Bay several times before. We like this particular campground because we can ride the ATVs directly from the campground without needing to drive to a staging area. If you want to see more about the area, including the Umpqua River Lighthouse, 

you can find more pictures from previous visits here and here. In the second link, we're in our old truck and our first truck camper, which turned out to be too small for comfort.

As for this trip, it's about a 4-1/2 hour drive to the campground, and so it was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived. We didn't do much that first afternoon aside from sitting around pulsating as we settled into our enforced relaxation. Just before dinner, we took a little stroll around the harbor.

We made some new friends.

I noticed these two seals sunning themselves on one of the docks. It was terrible light for taking pictures since I was shooting straight into the sun for these guys. I thought I could walk slowly and quietly out to where they were for a better shot, but the dock was closed off. (No wonder there are no boats there.)

I was able to walk out one dock over and get a better shot of them from here. In the water was another, bobbing up and down, as if to ask, "Hey...what are you guys doing? Wanna go for a swim? Wanna go catch some fish?"

There were a lot of these black cormorants swimming around and diving for fish. They reminded me of the Anhingas we saw in George and Florida.

We were tired and slept well that first night. The next day we were up and at 'em early. My biggest stitching goal for the trip was to finish sewing the binding on the Dream Big quilt. I made my way around the first two corners.

Matthew has spoken up for this quilt. He wants to hang it on his wall. I remembered these little tags I purchased a long time ago, but rarely use. This seemed like a good time.

Out on the dunes, the sand was looser than we remembered it. The wind had blown the day before and the dunes were sculpted into deep ravines with sharp drop-offs. We can see all the way to the Pacific Ocean when we're up high. 

The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area extends south from Florence, Oregon, to Coos Bay, Oregon.

We were in the mid-section below Reedsport. Here, there is no beach access. We have also been north to Florence, where we can ride right on the beach. We went out twice the first day. It's very hard to capture the vastness of the area in photography, and I was trying to show you the undulation of the landscape. It didn't work very well. 

Toward dinner time, we visited the Fisherman's Memorial Rose Garden, located across from where we were camped.

The roses were lovely. Each one had a placard in memory of someone for whom it was planted.

The name of this rose is "Double Delight." It was my brother's favorite rose.

On Thursday, we were up early again. Mike tried to get his drone to follow us the day before, but wasn't able to get it figured out. The next morning he got it going and took some footage of us weaving through a trail near the water. You can see the drone lifting off from the seat of his ATV in the image below. He'll have to download the video onto his computer, and then I'm hoping I'll have some drone footage to show you.

After that, we just rode over hill and dale. We had great fun.

I rode everywhere Mike did. It isn't scary, and I have no trouble going up the tallest of hills. Going down steep hills is where I draw the line. Here, my mechanical horse said "neigh." That black speck you see off in the distance is Mike, having no idea my horse reared up here. No problem. I just rode to my right a little ways where the terrain was less steep. Also, my shoulder and thumb handled this well. It's a good thing since we're planning a trip in September to ride in Colorado and Arizona, and this was a good test of my shoulder/thumb stamina.

We only rode in the morning that day. I spent the afternoon finishing off the quilt binding.

Also, I baked some Deep Dish Brownies for Two in Ramekins. These were yummy.

Later, we took the quilt to the rose garden for a glamour shot.

And then we took another walk around the harbor. Of course, I took pictures of every blooming thing.

We passed by a bench where the support structure at the end had this little "village." I could see a quilt from this little scene.

We had a seat here and looked off into the distance where the Umpqua River dumps into the ocean. A marine layer was moving in as it did each night, and it kept us cool during the day.

When we arrived home, I found this little surprise from my friend, Connie, who was sympathetic to our problems with squirrels. She did a little editing of the title of the book.

It's a cute story too. Thank you, Connie. We laughed out loud.

Also, I received a backing fabric for the Dream Big Leaf December panel I purchased recently.

And that reminds me...today is the last day to enter the giveaway to win one of these for your very own. You can enter the giveaway right here. So here's the backing fabric I chose for this panel.

In other sewing, I've taken the latest Heartland Barn block to the extreme right edge. I should have it finished in a day or two.

And I finished the quilt top for my latest challenge piece. You get just a peek.

So that brings me to this morning. I've harvested enough tomatoes now to make some tomato salsa. This was one day's harvest just before we left.

I'd harvested at least that many the day before, and I've harvested more since we've been back. Also, I've arranged to pick up 60 lbs. of tomatoes from our farmers, but that won't be until next Saturday. It looks like there's tomato canning in my future. I'll start with the salsa this morning. Also, I want to pick up some peaches from a local grower and try some peach-tomato salsa. I'll tell you more about that after I make it.

Okay so everyone at home is fine. We've snuggled up and given lots of treats, and all is well in Catdom.

We're home for about three weeks until we take off on a longer trip in September. In the interim, we're hoping to get a new roof. Our roofing project has been delayed several times, and so we're really hoping it gets done this time around. If not, we'll be demanding a refund of our deposit. Enough is enough. Also, we're required to mask up indoors again in Oregon. Bummer. Please get vaccinated if you haven't done so already. This new variant is nothing to mess around with.

All right...that's all I have. Tomatoes await their opportunity to fulfill their life's ambition of becoming salsa.