a few days at the beach

I spent some time at the coast last week. I took my parents and we had a few days of sun, sand, great food and some gambling. It was great. It was beautiful most days and it made me wonder why I don't go more.

I grew up in a beach town. It was 10 minutes to the beach and you parked and just walked out to it. After that I lived in the Bay Area, which was surrounded by water and you could be at the ocean in less than an hour, usually. Driving 2-3 hours to get to the beach seems like a long time to me now, but I really need to do it more often.

This was taken from my room

My parent's dog, Abby. This was her first time seeing the ocean and she loved it.

up to the mountain

I have a few blog posts piling up in my head. I've been pretty busy working on The Cedar Chest blog and updates. I've added a lot of new postcards and photos in the shop recently (including some Christmas postcards) and started a Facebook page. I hope you will want to check them out.

I have also been working more on the website for my dad's film and have created a Facebook page for Gifts of an Eagle, as well. 

I would love it if you "like" one or both of my new pages.

So, because of these things (and others) this blog has been a little ignored. But, I have posts and I need to get them out of my head and onto the computer. Here is a belated one.

At the beginning of November the mister and I went on a trip up near Mt Hood. There is a cabin we like there and we've gone to it a few times (if you're looking to go I highly recommend Mt Hood Rentals).

Here are some pics from a day that we went out for a drive. It was pretty clear weather when we were there, which was a different experience for us. It was neat to see it like that, but I kind of missed the snow.

First let's start with a nice breakfast at The Zig Zag Inn

Sometimes the Mountain would suddenly just show up as you turned in the road and it just took my breath away. So close and big. It was neat to see it so bare. We hadn't had much snow yet.

We came across this meadow as we were on our way to find a lake we never found. It was just so pretty. All golden and secret the way it just showed up. The whole time we were there no one even drove by.

There was this little cabin that just made the whole picture perfect. Just like a Bob Ross painting.

And more views of old Mt Hood on the way home.  Nice.

This whole mountain is covered in snow now. There's been about 40 inches since we were there.

surprises

Today has been somewhat rainy and windy. Fall is now here and as usual I am happy to see it. However, I was not happy to have such early fall-like weather last weekend when the mister and I went to the coast. I was hoping for a little blast of last minute summer. I had visions of laying on the warm sand during the day and staring at the stars at night. Instead I got a grey sky that almost exactly matched the grey ocean and rain all weekend long.  You couldn't even sit on the porch without getting wet.

It was still a nice weekend, though. There was lots of relaxing and one day we went into town, walked around in the rain and had some ice cream.

We also stopped by the smoked fish shop. I've driven by a few times and never could stop. We got the most amazingly good and still warm smoked tuna, salmon and black cod. I will stop there now everytime.

Karla's Smokehouse

We stayed in a kooky old run down house that hadn't been redone since the early 80's and is still filled with the owners things. The owners still come and stay there part of the year.

Down in their dark garage there's a little hallway to get to the washer and dryer area (everything else is behind plywood walls and covered in tarps). In this hallway I found a wall covered with clippings and old calendars and posters. I love finding walls like this. This one was especially exciting because the owner had a pin-up calendar from 1981 on Duane Bryers' chubby pin-up creation, Hilda. I have only ever seen these images on the internet. It was cool to see some in real life. 

Everyone seems to be pretty excited about fall being here. I am already looking forward to some things. But, I'm gonna try and keep my preconceived ideas to a minimum about my plans. You never know what you'll really get.

summer, it'll be nice to see you

This weekend is usually considered the beginning of summer. Here in Portland, we've had a sunny day and then a grey rainy day - or two. That suites me. I will enjoy the summer when it comes - for a while. I personally think summer is about one month too long.

I hope you all get to have a nice long weekend. Maybe you're going to the beach. I had my beach vacation last week. The mister and I went to Newport, Oregon and stayed in a nice hotel, did some sight seeing, but mostly stared at the ocean a lot from our room. I love the ocean air.

We did get out of the room a bit. Including two visits to my favorite restaurant, Local Ocean Seafood. Their tuna kabobs are my favorite thing to eat.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, folks!

post thanksgiving

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. I never participate in going to stores on Black Friday, but I do have my own little post-Thanksgiving rituals I observe. Right now I am watching Home for the Holidays, a movie I often watch after Thanksgiving. A great film. I recommend it.

I also break out the Christmas Journal and start my lists for Christmas. I love having a Christmas Journal. Follow that link to find out more about that.

Last week I got back from a sweet little trip to a nice river view cabin near Mt Hood. The first night we were there we got snow. It was perfect.

I was totally entertained taking flash pictures in the snow. The other worldly mist could be actual fog, my own breath or a snowflake right in front. Any ideas?

All night long I kept getting woken up to loud thuds of snow hitting the roof. In the morning this is what I got to see:

It was a wonderful vacation. I hope you enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend. Next up, Christmas! I can't believe how fast it's come.

the perfect fall outing

Yesterday the mister and I went out for a fall drive for my birthday outing. I've been on this drive a number of times, but it never gets old. The fall is the best time to go.

We took the Old Columbia Highway from Troutdale to Multnomah Falls. The drive is winding and beautiful.

The Lodge at Multnomah Falls is always such a pretty sight.

Inside it's so cozy with a high windows with a view of the trees and the falls. The food is great, too. I had tomato bisque soup with the trout dinner. Delish.

The falls are of course beautiful and the colors all over were so beautiful and saturated. In the shallow waters of the stream near the parking lot we got to see salmon spawning. Right there in front of us, they were jumping around and making quite a spectacle in the shallow waters. It was really neat to see.

By the time we left it was almost dark and it was raining, but the falls still looked so beautiful I couldn't stop taking pictures.

It was a lovely day and capped off three days of birthday fun. If you want to see some vintage postcards of Multnomah Falls take a visit to my other blog The Cedar Chest.

sand, sea, september

I took such a huge amount of photos on the trip I took last month to the Oregon Coast. I think the volume of them is what made me put off editing them, choosing them, uploading them and making this entry. But, I definitely wanted to because I had a wonderful time and they're so pretty.

I love this one of my friend Chelsea walking out to the beach.

You can see the whole folder full on my flickr page, but here are my faves.

I hadn't spent much time in Rockaway Beach before. It was nice to be on a new beach and in a new town. Rockaway Beach is very typical old style tourist beach town. It's not posh at all. There is a strip with the usual beach shops - fudge, kites, souvenirs, salt water taffy.

I realized on this trip that the reason all beach towns have the same kind of shops is because that is the only time you buy fudge, salt water taffy or fly a kite and so doing things kind of reinforces that you are indeed on vacation. It's a ritual.

And I did it too. I ate fudge, I wrote a couple postcards (even if one was to myself), I got smashed pennies, I went to the souvenir shop and I bought a kite and a cedar box.

There must be other people besides me who love cedar boxes, especially the souvenir kind. It can't all be 12 year old girls buying them at the tourist shops. I actually haven't bought myself one since I was a kid, but I always think about them and desire them. Why haven't I let myself just get one before this, I have no idea. I do have a few people have given me. The smell sooo good.

The house my friend and I were staying at had not been changed since the 70s'. It was filled with magazines from the early 80's. The decor was both kooky and cool. This climbing plant was growing through the ceiling and was even coming through in the other room. It was a little creepy. Despite this, we both felt really comfortable there. The super close proximity to the beach was perfect.

One day we went into town and heard a steam engine come though. We went to investigate and found out that it was a scenic train that went from Wheeler to Garibaldi and we could get on if we wanted to.

So, we got our ticket and hopped on. There was a old train car from the 40's, a partially open air train and an all open air train. We rode outdoors and took lots of pictures.

We got one good day of sun and I had a lovely day in the dunes, feet in sand, staring at the clouds, singing songs to myself, playing with grass reeds and flying a kite. It was perfect.

There was good food (we made it all, Rockaway Beach is not the best for good food - groceries or restaurants), sunsets, walks, sits, exploring relaxing and pretty much all you would want plus a old timey train ride. Pretty nice.