Adventures
The first week of August was the 6 week post-op check for David. The physician’s assistant was very pleased and answered the many questions we had been adding to a list. With that milestone out of the way my cabin fever had reached a pretty high temperature. Time to get out of Eugene – even for a day.
The following Monday we took off for the coast. The Oregon coast is dotted with state parks. Some are day use only others are day use and overnight camping. And it’s all one to 4 hours away from our house.
We ended up at Carl G. Washburn State Park, 14 miles north of Florence OR. We had never stopped here before. This was a very unusual beach and quite frankly not my favorite. The tide was out revealing that the beach was made up of sandbars. There was an area that was covered with crab parts. It was molting season, but this was not just shells. It was almost as though something happened out at sea and the crabs were washed up on the beach and it stunk. We did get our walk done and considering how deep the sand was in places it was a workout.
The beach is my retreat.
This is where I clear my head and refresh my soul.
On our way home we stopped in Florence for an early dinner at Homegrown Public House & Brewery. Homegrown is located in Florence’s Historic Old Town. The restaurant looks impossibly small with indoor and outside eating areas. I was surprised when we were shown our table. There is a room down a short flight of stairs with several tables, including a table for 6. We had been here before and I didn’t even know this room existed. Needless to say, the food was yummy. I don’t eat hamburgers often but I am so glad I ordered this one. Nothing fancy but so good. Although we didn’t have any of the House brews, they did offer a couple of our favorites. I settled on a Monkless Belgian White from Bend Or. Yumm!
Here is where we jump to the end of the month. With my 70th birthday approaching and David healing so well it was time for a trial run with the van. It had been sitting in the RV lot for two months and we needed to see how things were working before taking it out of state. This meant embarking on one of my favorite birthday activities: camping with my sister-in-law, J, and her husband, K.
We made reservations at Sunset Bay State Park and started getting the van ready. I washed linens and rugs and just did some basic cleaning. One of our checks is restarting the ICECO refrigerator freezer that had been off since June. And this is where we hit the snag. The ICECO would not cool below 65F. We were about 10 days away from our leaving date. David could not lift more than 30lbs and we needed to move this 80lb steel box from the van to the AC in the house. Fortunately, one of our neighbors was able to lift the heavier end and with me on the other end we moved it into the house and sat it on top of one of the air vents. The idea behind this is to cool it down. After 24hrs David restarted the fridge and waited. It cooled down to 63F for both the fridge and freezer. Time to contact the company. ICECO’s customer service is wonderful. After a couple of phone calls and emails it was obvious this ICECO was not coming back to life. We would just have to use our old tent camping ice chest for this camping trip. We were set.
J came down to our house on Saturday and we left when I got home from church on Sunday. On our way down I5 we stopped in Creswell to visit the famous Creswell Bakery. You cannot miss the billboards on I5. We’ve been hearing about this place from our friends Dan and Rebecca for years but have never had the opportunity to go there. Oh what we had been missing.
We each got a meat pie and coffee – or in J’s case, tea. These were huge pies. If you’re thinking British pasties you’re thinking too small. They’re more like the pasties in the UP of Michigan substituting a filo crust for the bread bowl with the dough handle.
The weather gets a bit weird on the coast when the rest of the state is experiencing a heat wave. What happens is while the rest of the state is hot – too hot – the coast becomes very cool and foggy. It’s as though the interior is so dry it tries to suck all the moisture from the ocean. We were just fine with this. After all, this is the Pacific Northwest and if you let a little fog and cooler temperatures dampen your spirits you are living in the wrong section of the universe. To be honest, I was very grateful. I was escaping the 90’s and triple digits of Eugene.
Once we arrived at Sunset Bay State Park (yes we were here in June) we found our neighboring sites. J and I walked around the campground checking out other sites and taking notes for future camping trips.
We spent the rest of the evening playing a game while eating snacks. Our lunch at Creswell was large enough that there was no room for a proper dinner.
Monday morning was a slow start. After a late breakfast we walked down to the bay, which was pretty fogged in. We returned to the campsite as K arrived. He had been in Central Washington for his mom’s birthday and some scouting for a bow hunting trip a few weeks later.
Now that all four of us were in the same place the fun could start.
So we climbed into K’s car and went to Bandon via the scenic route. Once in Bandon we did a little shopping. J & I directed this portion of the trip and we directed everyone to a gallery.
One of my biggest disappointments in traveling is going into a gallery like this and not being able to afford anything. Or finding nothing created by local artists and craftsmen. The Second Street Galley is not the case. J and I each left with 11 x 14 prints by Spencer Reynolds, a painter and illustrator from Brookings on Oregon’s southwest coast. Spencer has his own gallery in Brookings OR: Semiaquatic Gallery. This took a long time, it was very difficult to choose. By the time we had made our purchases we were all ready for beverages and food.
Fortunately for us Foley’s Irish Pub was right next door on Baltimore street. I know I mentioned Foley’s in my June blog, however, at that time David and I only stopped for a pint. This time we were having food. Three of us decided on the meatloaf. Holy Cow!! That was divine
Before we all had too much fun – K and David were getting a head start – we headed back to the campsite. Here we could have more fun safely.
Tuesday was the best day for weather. It was still foggy but not nearly what it had been. K and I were set for the hike from the beach up to Shore Acre Gardens. When we were here in June David and I passed on this. His health and the weather were not going to allow that activity. David, J, and I had all done this hike in the past, but K had not been with us. He’d heard about it and wanted to do the hike and I wanted more photos. David was still in post-op mode and J’s health has not been great so they drove up and met us near the top of the hike.
Even in the fog this hike is great. Yes, David and I had been here in June; but this was August and different plants were in bloom. The rose garden alone made the trip worth the effort.
Wednesday was time to pack up all the fun and head home to Eugene where Shenanigans would ensue.
Shenanigans
We did come home to find our brand new ICECO waiting on the carport. YEA!!!!!
Since we had been home for so long and no trips planned until October, I felt we needed a little something else in our lives. A little more fun. A little more socializing. A celebration of David’s recovery. And summer wasn’t over yet. What to do?
Bar-B-Que! Always a good idea, especially if you aren’t the one cooking. Seriously though, David has always loved bar-b-quing and when we lived in Washington we did a lot of bar-b-quing with neighbors and friends.
About a week before we went camping I sent out a text to some of the neighbors and a couple of outside friends that we were having a backyard bar-b-que. Before I knew it people were texting back to tell me what they were bringing. This threw David into a bit of a planning panic. He was worried he wouldn’t know what people were bringing and how many people were coming even though I had included him in the text.
I’m sure at some point in our life together I told David that from age 16 on my birthdays sucked – big time. Until I was 23 and David threw me a birthday party – I’m sure my onsite landlords were horrified – and proposed. Ever since then he’s been determined that my birthday was going to be a special time. This meant the backyard bar-b-que became my birthday party.
And that is how we closed August. Considering how the summer started, this was a fantastic finish.
August was a busy month. I hope you enjoyed my August blog. There will be more months like August, now that everyone is feeling so well.
A little note in closing. It’s been 3 months since David’s surgery. He and I have been doing 30 minute bike rides (4.7 miles) almost daily. So life is back to normal.
