Foggy and Soggy

Another rainy day here at Pacific City, OR. I now understand why people buy that stuff that is supposed to control moisture in your RV. With all this rain everything just feels damp inside the trailer. Windows fog up, towels never get dry, if you don’t seal the chips or crackers tightly they get soggy. When we were in Long Beach we were chatting with our neighbors Ted & Diane about the weather on the coast. I said I wondered why more people don’t spend the winter on the Oregon coast with it’s mild temperatures. Ted said they tried it once and had a real battle with moisture to the point that clothing they had in garment bags got mildew and had to be thrown away! Hopefully things will dry up in a few days.

This morning, and into the afternoon I have been working on a project I planned to do before we hit the road, scanning recipes on to my hard drive. My plan is to get rid of all of my cookbooks and slips of paper I have recipes written on. Not the most exciting project but it will feel good to get it done, and as a bonus I found a couple new recipes!

top: another pic from our beach walk last night...it really shows the way the Flip Video turned the sun black!
bottom: a banner in front of a RV
video: a short clip of Chipmunks...Cheye was frozen staring out the window when we noticed these 2 on a stump beside the trailer

Leaving Long Beach, WA Tomorrow

Our stay at Long Beach was short but nice. As I said earlier, the park isn’t the prettiest RV park but it is fine. Today we saw a deer in the park, so beautiful! I imagine we will come back here some day, it’s really in a great location with a terrific beach close by.

Today started out sunny and nice, but by noon the clouds had rolled in and later the wind came up. We didn’t do much out of he ordinary, read, surfed the net, etc. I took Cheye down to the beach since we won’t be by the ocean for a few weeks. I can’t believe how unafraid she is of the ocean now.

I have been looking at getting a signal amplifier and antenna for our Verizon aircard. Most of the time we can get a signal, but it would be nice to get a stronger one so our internet would be faster. I’ve been looking at a Wilson booster and today there was a guy staying at the park that sells them so we bought one! Here in Long Beach you can’t get Verizon’s fastest coverage (Broadband Rev-A) and it is even difficult to get any coverage. We were able to get 1 or 2 bars if you put the computer in a particular spot in the trailer and didn’t move it. With the antenna we can get 2 bars anywhere in the trailer, so that helps. It will be interesting to see how it works on our travels. It will even work with our cellphone so maybe I can make calls from the trailer rather than driving into town!

Didn’t take any pictures or video today, so these are all from sometime during our stay here at Long Beach, WA.

photos:
left: North Head Lighthouse
right: view from North Head Lighthouse
video: the beach at Long Beach, WA

Cape Disappointment

This morning we took a trip to Cape Disappointment State Park. There are 2 lighthouses in the park along with the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. Long Beach, WA is very close to the mouth of the Columbia River and I am sure most of you are aware that the Lewis & Clark expedition ended where the Columbia and the Pacific meet. The Interpretive was interesting with excerpts from journals written by various people on the expedition. There was also a short film about their amazing trip. Outside the views were amazing.

We also walked over to the North Head Lighthouse, unfortunately the trail to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was closed. The North Head Lighthouse was interesting, here is a link that has some of the history of both lighthouses: Click here

After our excursion we came home, had lunch and did a little more study on the locations of the different 1000 Trails parks. Later we took Cheye down to the beach for a romp in the water. Today’s weather is totally opposite of yesterday, so it was a sunny warm walk on the beach. Tonight we’re going to barbeque for dinner and them maybe a movie...maybe some popcorn too.

top left: Cape Disappointment Lighthouse
middle right: a view from North Head Lighthouse
bottom left: the sign on North Head Lighthouse
video: North Head Lighthouse

Some Coastal Weather

Today's weather is what I think of as real coast weather. We went to Oregon beaches a lot while I was growing up and the Washington beaches have the same kind of weather... frequently cloudy, drizzle and wind, all things I associate with the beach. It doesn’t bother me as it gives me the perfect excuse to read, nap, surf the net, etc. So today is one of those louse around the house days.

This morning we went up to the Lodge and did a little internet surfing. Our Verizon Wireless aircard is struggling with any kind of connection so the 1000 Trails wireless came in handy. From there we came back to the house, I did a little reading and Dave did a little napping. I’m reading a book “Letters of a Woman Homesteader”. I bought it in Keystone, SD and it is a collection of letters written by a woman that homesteaded a parcel of land in the Wyoming area. She was not only a clever independent lady she writes fabulous letters! It is interesting to see a little into the lives of people in the early 1900’s. My what a difference 100 years makes.

This afternoon Dave went over to the office and got a booklet of all the 1000 Trails preserves. We haven’t received our membership stuff yet so we didn’t have one. So after dinner we got out the maps and opened the book and did some brain storming. Still no firm plans but we’ll get there yet. :)

My pictures are of a neighbor... a little bird with a nest in the grass just outside our door. I can’t figure out what possessed the bird to build a nest in such a dangerous place, but she did. Someone put some chunks of wood on either side of the nest otherwise I doubt you would even see it. Hope the eggs make it!
top left: bird on the nest
center right: bird beside the nest
bottom left: eggs in the nest

A Trip to Town

We went into Seaview/Long Beach this morning. The two towns run together and other than the numbering of the streets It is pretty difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. It is a really nice downtown area, they have it fixed up with flowers and well kept store fronts. Lots of tourist type shops, t-shirts, knick knacks, goodies, etc. We found ourselves in a lovely bakery where we picked up some baked yummies.

After a little shopping around we had halibut & chips for lunch at one of the local restaurants and then back home. This afternoon was spent doing laundry and cleaning followed by a walk on the beach. Another beautiful day on the beach!

We met our neighbors, Ted and Diane, yesterday. They have been fulltiming for 13 years now. Really nice people. They were out getting things ready to leave tomorrow and we got into a conversation about 1000 Trails parks they have been to. Sounds like we will have a number of pretty parks to visit!
top left: the trail to the beach
bottom right: a beautiful day on the beach
below: a video of downtown Long Beach

Long Beach Washington

We made it to Long Beach, we are again at a 1000 Trails campground. This one is totally different than Pacific City, it is much more like a plain ol’ ordinary RV park. Everyone is parked side by side and back to back. There is room between the RV’s but not a lot. Still it is fine, probably will not be one of my favorites as far as beauty but the beach access is fabulous, it is close to a larger town and there are bears! At least there are signs warning that they have bears and raccoons in the park. I’d like to see a bear, from inside the trailer of course.

We didn’t get in until about 2:00, set up and finally had lunch around 3:00. We stopped on the way in Tillamook at a Fred Meyer’s for groceries and a few supplies. The entire trip was on Hwy 101, so it was a slow but very pretty trip. After lunch we walked down to the beach which is lovely. It’s long (probably why they call it Long Beach) and good for walking. Cheye loved it of course, went a bit crazy when she first got off her leash... see for yourself: