The Smith's and Stoke's join us. The big Tillamook day!

Saturday was a really fun day

Lyndy's research lead us to start our day

 at the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

There are several interesting things about this area.
Not that far from Rockaway, a good adventure!

We made a short walk to the The Octopus Tree 

it is a Sitka Spruce shaped like an upside down Octopus.

It is a mystery how it became shaped like this. 

nature or native populations?

The birds on the cliffs are amazing, even some puffins nest here

bring your binoculars

You can tour the light house and on your way in or out 

there is an amazing hike to a very large tree!

Everyone out of the cars and into off to the light house

Once again a really beautiful 

mysterious coast line

We met in Tillamook

and found our way to the park via Internet

directions as you had to go a way to avoid a slide over the road. 

 

papa seems to be explaining something to Max

Mirishana and I waited with Ryker while the family toured the light house

I'm avoiding that many upward steps right now.

A lady walked by and said how glad she was to see

a well dress little kid!  

 Everyone waves as they tour the light house.
They only let a small group go through at a time.

Natalie has a new purse from Auntie Lauri  
It goes everywhere she goes.
  Cute purse Natalie

I'm always in the back I used to always be in the front taking photos
Still it's an interesting view of the hike

Sometimes the view from behind is sweet 

We are in awe of the octopus tree!

We weren't finished with finding the unusual trees 
so we got in our cars (tiny parking lot) and went
in search of..................

This was a fun little hike
it had possibilities!
It was an oddly marked trail you
could figure it into several directions
So the mystery was 
"Would we get there?"

The group seemed to love this spirit of the unknown
it shows up again in our other mystery hike on Tues.
Everyone smiles and there is wonderment in every one's eyes.
My kids once loved hiking I think the grand kids are catching the spirit of Hiking

 

This is the tree it is in a full forest

 Now that is a BIG TREE!

Some great fungus growing way up high

Forest peek a boo

This was a very large tree the photos don't do it justice!
Right here is where the road closure is so off we go back the way we came and onto Tillamook for lunch, a tour and ice-cream!

The first look at the beach, morning run for the dogs

Morning time is potty time for the dogs

So out we went

We couldn't wait to see the beach.

At home trips to the beach meant eating sand

I was hopeful they are less puppies now and 

will leave sand eating out of this trip!

Oh I see the beach only a few steps away....ooooa

 now to look back at where we just came from

only steps away... I love this.

That's where we stayed on the 3rd floor

oh my this is a pretty beach.

Ok dogs you promised no sand eating, maybe that is sniffing they are doing.

Birds maybe

I am really lovin this beach

breath taking!

Look at this no fog.... it all rolled in after our walk

Well looks like the household is still sleeping mostly.

tip toe

Once everyone was up and fed breakfast it was time to give Clint 

his birthday present

I worked so hard on this from early Dec on and Costco lost the

book before printing it 

SO

I licked my wounds, tried to restore my creative process

and did it ALL AGAIN!

Now that I've seen Clint's reaction to a book with 40 years of his life

I question that maybe that is hard to take.  

Fun to make but hard to take.  

100 pages

nearly 500 carefully collected photos

and only one duplicate not removed 

& one miss labeled child!

Papa gives Flynn a photo of a Cheetah he saw on his 2nd trip to Africa

Now it's off to a our first day on the beach

Friday!

Rockaway Beach August 2014 The Philip Reagan family

Rockaway Beach

 

I started out tired. 

We had a calendar full of travel, guests and things

 to do for over a year. 

We rented three condos right across the road from the 

beach, that was the highlight of the week.

 Tearful good-byes!

Getting there was tricky

 Rika our Japanese exchange student

was catching her bus to the airport thurs morning and

we were to be at the condo in Rockaway any time after 4:00.

We made it at 10:30pm  

 We stopped in Battle Ground to drop off some 

stuff for Lyndy, It helped loosen up

 our tightly packed car.  It's a great car

But it's not the Van.

After a good nights sleep (Yikes the sheets were in bad shape!)

Friday we hit the beach

Foggy so we have these lovely 

mysterious photos.

If you wanted time without the fog you had to go out

first thing in the morning like the dogs and I.

or 

wait until later in the day when it burned off

It was warm so we didn't care.

Beach Time!

Cindy Lou is being blown by 

the breeze. 

Hazel watches over the kids

I have a set of Trilby kites

 I got for my birthday long ago.

  I never fly them, too much to handle,

 everyone else sure loves them!

I enjoy watching them.

Clint is telling Flynn how to manage them think only 2 were on at the time.

 The dogs discovered

 that if they didn't run really fast the waves would get them.

They had so much fun on the beach. They seem to be able to defy gravity.

 Sand happens!
We did a lot of eye washes

Cool Kid!

Still waiting for the fog to lift!

The sand castle group worked all day long!

Each new builder added or subtracted something.

So the look of the sand building changed a lot as 

time passed

wet sand, what fun!

One dog or two?  Count the legs.

These kites will lift you off the ground if you aren't careful!

Friday finds only The two Reagan family's and the Dunham's on the beach.

Tomorrow the Smiths and Stokes arrive! 

Time for Sunset on the beach 

and yes the fog lifted for sunset!

I love what warm light does!

Hazel says good-night beach

Cindy Lou Who says "Can't we stay longer?"