Pacific City, OR

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A few days after the boys flew home we moved up the coast 100 miles or so. Long travel day :} Pacific City was a new town for us to explore and the camp area we choose, while slightly challenging for Bob due to the small windy roads, and the size of our bus, was super spacious and private. We lucked out and got a spot right next to the trail down to the beach. In the afternoon when I would sit outside to read I could hear the ocean as the waves broke onto shore. I closed my eyes and was transported back to our days of living on the coastline of South Carolina and Hawaii. Can’t think of a more peaceful way to read, fall asleep and wake.

Pacific City also offered us the chance to unplug for a couple weeks. There was no cell service to speak of, and even with the booster that we have, we couldn’t pick up any internet. I actually was loving it, as it gave me a chance to get caught up on some reading and explore the coastline. When needed, they had a lovely little library in town with super fast download/upload speeds. It was the perfect spot to catch up on some work and emails.

Located on the Three Capes Scenic Drive, Pacific City is at the southern most point, right where we also found Pelican Brewery overlooking Cape Kiwanda. Over the next couple weeks we ventured north to see what kind of trouble we could get into. We had done some research on the Ipad at the library and screenshot some locations where agates could be found. Yep, we were on the hunt again.

And….as luck would have it, right off the bat I found a couple bricks to mail to Michelle. Mossy and vivid green they will find their way to her garden soon. Little side story for those of you that don’t know about how we keep the USPS guessing some days how one medium FLAT RATE box can weigh so much. Flashback to ten years or so ago when my dear friend Michelle and I were traveling to Chicago for a work/play trip. We had rented bikes at the Navy Pier to get around downtown for the week. We found a brick on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. It had floated up just for us - all the way from the other side and was stamped with Ohio??? if memory serves me correctly. We carted the brick back on our bikes to the hotel, and it joined another we later found in the downtown area. These two heavy pieces of clay and sand started a tradition for my travels. Michelle had decided that she would use them to help form a brick pathway she wanted to wind through her garden. I started to search for a brick from different places along our travles. I wish I had kept track of all the locations that now make up part of her path in the garden, but Duxbury, MA, Grand Tetons, Death Valley, McConnells SC, Jacksonville FL, Jerome AZ, Suwanee River, FL, Sedona & Williams AZ, and now Pacific City OR are just some of the finds. She says her path is almost finished, but our travels aren’t. May need to convince her to keep adding onto her garden.

Three Capes Loop (not technically a loop as part of the road washed out)
Pacific City Info

Always a sad day...

With the kids move to Belle Chasse (New Orleans area), we lost the ability to fly the boys as unaccompanied minors. Southwest Air doesn’t allow it unless the flight is either a non-stop or there are no plane changes to contend with.. Luckily Travis had some time off, and we had some extra points, so he flew in to Portland and met us there. Quick turn-around for him and they flew home the next day. At least we got to see him - we will take any time with him we can get.

It’s always a sad day when we send the grands home, but the memories we made will stay in my heart forever.

Strawberry Hill

Agate hunting, swimming in tidal pools and picnicking on the beach - what could be better?

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Oregon Dunes

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The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is a short mile from where we are camped here in South Jetty. I had wanted to take the boys on a sand rail tour of the dunes, but after Bob’s research, and the $300.00 price tag, he decided that we could do our own thing in our Jeep. Packed a picnic, purchased an OHV permit, mounted a flag on the back as required - and we were off.

I am not a big “thrill-seeker”, and I only had to close my eyes a couple times, ok - maybe a few - and we made it over the multiple 200ft+. dunes to safely arrive down at the beach.

The boys climbed and rolled on the dunes, had a picnic and I walked the beach in search of shells. Slight feeling of “we’re lost” getting back out -but trust Bob, we made it.

Cape Perpetua

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The drive north, up the coast from Florence where we are camped, to Cape Perpetua takes you past the mountainous Oregon Dunes, Sea Lion Caves and Heceta Lighthouse. There are many turn offs that take you down to the beach, and on the return from the Cape we take a couple of them in search of tidal pools, sea lions, starfish and agates. We found them all.

First stop is the Visitor Center at Cape Perpetua. Bob and I had hiked our way around the area last year and we wanted the boys to see the view from this highest point on the Oregon coast. We watched for whales and Carson spent quite a bit of time at their agate display, noting that we weren’t finding any as large as theirs. As we took a moderate couple mile hike up through the old growth forest I tried to wrap my thoughts around the fact that Native Americans lived here 6-8000 years ago. Stopping to climb on trees and study strange fungal growths, we made our way along the brilliantly green path. Cash is usually the leader on the trail, and this day was no different.

Next stop was the tidal pools at Cooks Chasm and a visit to Thor’s Well. It was low tide so we didn’t get the full experience of this spouting hole but the boys enjoyed hunting for crabs.

Stonefield Beach on the way back south was a big highlight of the day. Tidal pools, starfish, huge rock formations to climb on and easy agate hunting. A relaxing and beautiful way to end the day.