Nehalem Falls Park

Today we took a little trip up to Nehalem Falls Park. It's about 22 miles from where we are camping. There is a beautiful forested campground, more for tenters than RV's but beautiful. We took a hike along the river about a mile. Somehow, Flight and I lost Dave and Zoe along the way and Dave had to come find me.

We had a picnic along the river and then Dave climbed down the rocks and took these pictures of the falls. It looked pretty precarious and he scared me spitless. I was so afraid he was going to fall in, hit his head on a rock and drown, my knees were weak. I was considering whether I would jump in and try to save him, or run up to the road and scream for help from all the twenty something campers there. I always have a plan... I am a product of my mother's vivid imagination, and I am always having to fight expecting the worst, but all was well in the end and I guess it was worth my worry.

We speculated there there must have been a dam there are one time, as you can still see the fish ladder to the right. All that concrete sort of mars the beauty of the falls, but it's still pretty.

Tomorrow we head home, I'm ready, I'm missing the kids. I'll post the new print tomorrow when we get home.

Astoria and Gearhart, Oregon

Shrimp Louie ala Pacific Way Cafe

It's so cute inside, but I was chicken to walk around and take more pictures of all the rooms.

I think this says that Astoria was founded in 1811. That Lewis and Clark, they got around...

The Blue Scorcher

Yesterday, we went to Astoria and had coffee at the Blue Scorcher. I love that place, but it

seems to be some sort of stomach jinx for me, because I always get sick. I think it's because I can't resist their organic baked goodies.
Anyway, while my tummy recovered we drove up to the Columbia River Estuary, saw a bald eagle, and some poor guy in an ancient motorhome that had somehow torn a hole in his gas tank. There was some action from the fire department over that, let me tell you.
Then for lunch we went to Pacific Way Cafe in Gearhart, one of my favorite places to eat in the world. I had the shrimp louie and it was as good as last time.
Tooday we went to Newhalem Falls, more pics later, Dave took them, so I have to wait for him to wake up from his nap so he can correct them.
When you get pics from me, it's WYSIWYG, but his must be PErFECT. Ahem.

Manzanita Redux, But With Pictures

A cool chair I saw in a gallery there, artist Debbie Harmon



Where we should have eaten lunch. Obviously, the dogs knew something we didn't. This cute place with an octopus waiter is called Bread and Ocean.

The beach at Manzanita

More beach.

Another place we should have eaten lunch, despite the terrifying giant crab on the roof.

A place called Salt and Paper.

Hunger struck later in Rockaway Beach and we ate at a dicey place I am trying to forget. I fully expected to get food poisoning, but the clam chowder and shrimp cocktail was good, it was just really a gross place to eat. I did not take a picture. I. Don't. Want. To. Think. About. It. ugh. Later we had giant waffle cones, mine with blackberry ice cream that I have been craving all summer. All I talk about on this blog, if I'm not talking about paintings, is food. Sheesh.

In Manzanita, Oregon

A cool place we found today: http://www.coastcabins.com/
They have private hot tubs in each cabin area, but it looks pretty expensive. I really like the intro to the website, it really shows how pretty it is here.
It's in Manzanita, a cute little town about 13 miles from us that we had never been to before.
We also bought crabs from Brighton Marina in Wheeler. http://neahkahnie.net/wheelermarina/They pick fresh ones from a cage in the dock and cook them for you. We had cracked crab, rib eye steaks and baked potatoes for dinner. Sorry no pictures, I have been terribly lazy.
I did make my blueberry muffins this morning, but we burnt them to a crisp. Dave made a valiant effort to eat them, but we had to throw them away. I am used to making them with frozen blueberries and then the oven in the trailer was much hotter than I am used to at home. Be glad I don't have pictures, the smoke alarm in here went off.
Flight and Zoe ran on the beach in Manzanita and terrorized a poor family trying to build a castle. Actually, they think everyone loves them, so they go up to everybody. Sadly, the flopping around they did hoping for a pet ended in the walls of the castle being damaged.
Tomorrow Dave has promised a foxglove photo session, I've been wanting to take foxglove pictures for weeks, and I was so happy to discover that they are a couple weeks behind us in flower blooms, so there are still pretty foxgloves everywhere here.