Video Day

We went down to the beach earlier than usual today. The wind was blowing and there was a bank of clouds on the horizon but there was sunshine overhead. Even with the wind we had a nice walk and Cheye loved her run. Every time we start out on a walk she tries to go directly to the trail that leads to the beach. If we don’t stop there then she walks to the trail that goes to the dog run area. It amazes me she has learned where those trails are so quickly.

I took both the Flip Video and the regular video camera to the beach today so this afternoon I hooked the regular vid-cam up to my computer, copied the video from this morning and started looking at what else was on the tape. It went back to early June and had video of Yaquina Lighthouse, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood South Dakota, eastern Washington, and back to the Oregon coast. I decided to copy it all on my computer and make a DVD of it, so now I have another project. They are starting to stack up!

The rest of our day was quiet, our usual afternoon walk, spaghetti for dinner and a little TV. Yep, I really love this lifestyle!

photos:
Top: Cheye in a tide pool at the beach
Bottom: Cheye and Lori
video: taken today at the beach...Cheye (of course) running, some sort of boat, and my own miscalculation... :o)

A Trip to Salem, Oregon

Well, I have my Sony Vaio back! Yeah! They had to replace the CPU so I still have all the stuff on my hard drive which is great. There was even a little letter from Sony apologizing that my Vaio had to go in to repair. I know, it was just a form letter, but still it was a nice touch. I’m also impressed that Best Buy not only sent my laptop to the Salem store for me but they actually called me when it got to Salem. If I had a nickel for every business that said they would call me and didn’t…. well… we’d be driving a big Class A :)

Salem is about an hour and a half from here, we got there about 11:30, picked up my Sony and wandered around the store. Saw the new Flip Video Mino and some lovely Macs, I think I may have drooled a bit. Dave bought a mapping program and I got a new little bag for my Flip Video (I lost the one it came with). After that we had lunch and drove back. It made the day go really fast. Once we got back I spent some time catching up Quicken stuff… a months worth. I also took Cheye out for a short walk. She came with us to Salem, she really is a great traveling dog.

It rained most of the day again today. It’s almost 8:00 p.m. and has finally quit raining for the day. Tomorrow I plan to clean and organize since we will be leaving Pacific City Friday morning. I’m hoping the rain doesn’t follow us!

Left: Best Buy in Salem
Right: A Christmas Tree Farm we passed on the way
Video: from a couple days ago, notice the sand blowing at the beginning

Ever Changing Weather

This morning we went down to the Lodge and had breakfast. I had french toast and scrambled eggs, Dave had biscuits and gravy with bacon. Not bad, and it was fun to do something different. Cheye and I went for a walk a little later and shortly after we returned the changing weather started. It started with fog which turned to rain, thunder and lightening and finally broken clouds with a little blue sky and sunshine! And that was all by 1:30. It continued in cycles all afternoon. Cheye and I did get out for another walk in the afternoon between rain showers. Besides that it was an inside day of internet, solitaire and the Olympics.

After dinner the three of us took a walk and seeing the sun peeking through the clouds we decided to go to the beach. Good decision! Amazingly dramatic clouds and beautiful surf. The wind was severe so we didn’t stay long, but Cheye got in a good run and we soaked in the beautiful scene.

I finally figured out how to add a google map of our travels thus far. I may try to add a picture to each “pin” . I’m not sure if I’ll try to add lines showing the route we drove. Since we have gone over the same roads a few times I’m not sure how that would look, or even how I’d differentiate them. We’ll see.


photos:
top left: the lodge at breakfast
middle: dramatic clouds at the beach
bottom: foggy morning
video:the beach this evening...when the sun hits the lens the little Flip Video couldn't quite handle it and turned the sun black, almost looks like there was an eclipse! :)

Dog In the Ocean...again

Went into town, Pacific City, ( <-- Jim that is for you) again this morning in search of mail and to make a couple calls. Once we got the mail I found I needed to make 2 more phone calls so we sat in the local grocer’s parking lot taking care of business. I haven’t had to take care of this much business since we sold the house! Business done, a few more groceries purchased and back to the campground. We decided to go down to the beach before lunch today, so we headed out taking my trusty Flip Video with us. I actually take that thing everywhere, I really love how handy it is. Anyway, the tide was way out and we decided to head north up the beach. Cheye was in a Seagull chasing mood and really went after one following it out quite a ways into the surf! The surf wasn’t deep, she was running not swimming, but on her way back in she managed to find a couple, well, holes. In she went, over her head! Well, watch the video below. She was a fair distance away and the Flip Video doesn’t have any zoom to speak of, but you can still see her.

After lunch I went up to the Lodge to see what kind of internet speed I could get. I am happy to say I can get faster speeds on my Verizon Aircard with 1-2 bars than I could at the Lodge. The Lodge connection is a good enough to email and do a little searching around but not any serious business. While there some people were talking about other 1000 Trails campgrounds so I joined in. Dave came in shortly after that and we quizzed the others about where they have stayed and which places they liked. It was interesting, they both had memberships totally different from ours. I didn’t know there were so many different ones!

Tonight we had dinner and watched a movie. After that it was off to the showers and then work on the blog. So now that you are caught up with my day as far as it has gone I guess I’ll sign off!
top right: Cheye shaking
bottom left: on the way back from town
video: Cheye chasing a Seagull

We are at Yakima Sportsman State Park in (you guessed it) Yakima Washington. I have seen the road sign pointing to the park many times but have never been here. It is really a lovely park.

We had a nice visit with Dave’s Sister and Brother-in-law this afternoon. We are trying to see friends and relatives before we head out across the country. We hope to catch Dave's Brother next.

On the way to Yakima today we stopped at Walmart in West Richland for a few things and I found they had a Flip Video. It is a small video camera that is basically a 2 GB hard drive with a USB plug to hook up to your computer. Very handy. No tapes, easy to use, very simple. You can play it back on a TV, the video quality isn’t the best when made TV size but watchable. It is perfectly fine for blog video though. Well needless to say I now have a Flip Video and will attach a short video of the park.

Tomorrow we are off over to the West side of the State. Not sure where we are going to stop along the way, not even sure we will find any park openings on the Pass. We will see!