Long Beach, Day 2...

Oh boy, this was a most excellent day and I think I took about 240 pictures! As to not bore you with all of those, I've created a few collages. The collages don't the photos much justice, but this way you can see the prettiest ones in small groupings...

We first drove down south to Iwalco, a small harbour town at the mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. There Mr. G. booked a full day of salmon fishing out on the ocean for day 4...

After that we drove past Chinook where they had the most beautiful mud flats. I just love all that tidal action and then all the sticks in the water, and the sun and the waves: just plain gorgeous!!!

We also came across these two huge birds of prey, and believe me, they were big!

We stopped at Fort Columbia where we had beautiful views of the Columbia River basin and in the far distance you can see the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. (more of that on day 3)

Onward we went to Astoria which actually lies in Oregon. We had to cross the river on a veeeery long, and in the end very steep, bridge to get there. We found the highest point (the Column) and again had beautiful views from there. What a lovely town Astoria was! We didn't spent any real time there but just driving through it I saw the most vintage looking houses ever...   {smile}

And then there was The Beach! 
    
                   "Sunshine, on my shoulders, makes me happy!"    (John Denver)

Master C. and Miss M. sat patiently for a short photo session...

And then there was the sunset...

PS I was not very happy with the quality of some of these collages, so I'm adding those pictures of the mudflats again, but now by themselves...

Long Beach, Day 1...

North Head Lighthouse in the far, far distance...

Ah yes, this was the feeling I was looking for! I just simply love anything to do with salty ocean water. The Pacific Coast definitely gives you all this and more: tons of wind!!! Man, was it windy or what...  <wink>

Anyway, I shall begin with the beginning.  We had rented a very cheap and oh so cute cottage in Ocean Park, about 20 minutes north of Long Beach. (Washington State) I took us four hours to get there and so our doggy was anxious for a walk. Off she went (with Mr. G.) down the street. 

Within several minutes a lot of yelping reached our ears: she was attacked by another dog!!! (without any provocation from her side may I add) Four puncture wounds in her throat! Olive herself seemed rather stoic under the whole ordeal, but we were pretty upset and worried. We had to find a vet in a totally unknown area for us, plus, no internet!

The good thing with such a small community is that everybody is willing to help and there was only one vet in town so off we went, another 30 minutes in the car. The vet was extremely helpful and saw to her immediately. They cleaned everything, gave her antibiotics and a special cream for us to squirt into those puncture wounds twice a day. (yuk!)  On the way back home we stopped by the people whose dog had attacked ours (Olive was on a leash, the other dog wasn't and so definitely at fault) and they immediately gave us the money for the vet's bill. ($90!) 

It all ended well thank goodness, but that was not a good start to our little vacation. We will have her checked out by our own vet tomorrow...

--  **  --  **  --

So, let me introduce you to our little cottage. It came equipped with a full kitchen (so pots and pans, a coffee maker, a fridge etc) and with bedding. All we needed to bring were our clothes and our food!
The TV and the CD player didn't work and there was no internet so we were completely cut off from the outside world. Just fine... for four days only! I was very happy to be reunited with our computer again... <wink>

Cute right?

Only four rooms in the house (mudroom and bathroom not pictured),
but plenty of space for all of us and the dog was more than welcome as well.

And after all that I will show you some beautiful pics of the beach which was only a ten minute walk from our
 house. Or a less than 5 minute drive from our house. Yes, in Washington State you can drive your car out on the beach! It is the weirdest thing but so handy at the same time. No more schlepping of all your gear through the sand etc.  {smile}

Here we go:

Exhale!

And exhaling some more...

Master C. looking after Olive who was still recovering from the attack... 
(and so was Master C.)

Miss M. getting the kite ready... 

Wind!!!  (and our car on the beach...)

Father handing over the kite controls to daughter...

End of Day 1...

Gorgeous or what?! Our first two days we had beautiful blue skies and it was reasonably warm, the next two days were completely grey and boring (weather wise) so a good thing I took as many pictures as I did during the first half of our stay.

Tomorrow pictures of the Columbia River, Fort Columbia and a short visit to Astoria, Oregon. And of course more beach pictures!  {smile}

Raspberry Reds...

Freshly picked from the fields this morning, all 19 pounds of them!  (Yum!)

Long Beach...

We were in Long Beach, Washington for the past four days...

Apparently it has the longest beach in the world: 27 miles of this gorgeousness!!!

I made 500 pictures (!) so it will take me a bit of time to go through them all. Plus tomorrow is Miss M's turn to have her wisdom teeth removed so first things first...

I'll be back though! {smile}

Macro...

Having some fun with the macro lenses...

Not perfect but fun nevertheless...  {smile}

The Parade!

Beautiful blue skies, bright bright sunlight and lots and lots of people: what a great day for a Parade!

(click on the photos to enlarge)

The Mexican horses were my favorite and so lots of pictures of them. In total I made 103 photos and I had a hard time just showing you the highlights. 

Later in the afternoon we had a grand old barbecue with our neighbors and a lot of other neighbors and their friends across the road with Margaritas and garlic chicken and lots of different kinds of salads etc. And while all that was going on there was The Sun shining down on us: 'Perfic!'  (from The Darling Buds of May)

Happy!

Historical Museum...

In the five years that we've lived in this area (five years already?) we've always wanted to visit the Snoqualmie Historical Museum in North Bend. Today was the day since it is still very cloudy and windy despite early morning promises...

The museum was tiny and we were done in about ten- fifteen minutes but it was still fun to have experienced it. My favorite parts were the kitchen and living room area as you can see in the collage above. Vintage colors, wallpaper and simply everything vintage of course.

This area east of Seattle was only first discovered in the mid 1800's I believe and the first settlers didn't move in until the late 1800s so everything is still very 'young'. I prefer things older but you can't have everything.

Anyway, it looks like the sun is finally trying to peek through the clouds so outside I go. Tomorrow I will be making tons of fun Americana photo's of the parade etc.!  {smile}

Tomato...

First (cherry) tomato of the season!

Say Hello!

(Lyrics by Marc Almond/ Soft Cell)

We had quite the storm last night and early this morning with wind gusts and rain lashing against the windows. But when I got up this morning (early as usual) I saw the storm to my right and beautiful blue skies on my left!  {smile}

Red Necks And Bird Talk...

Last Saturday we were invited to that Red neck Party that I mentioned in my last post: it was hilarious! Our friends did a most amazing job decorating and I was glad I had brought my camera with me! 

We were greeted by that man (the host's brother) with the shotgun at the front door. He had empty beer cans strewn around him and there even was a beer can wind chime!

Our hostess wore some funky looking teeth and other paraphernalia as did a lot of the other guests. (we felt rather under dressed...)  

In the yard we saw a true toilet with lovely flowers in it, lots of laundry on several lines with 'tidy whities' (men's underwear), big bra's, panty hose etc.  In the bathroom (indoors luckily!) I found the Bass fish. It was singing "Don't worry, be happy!" which I thought was rather funny.

After we ate all the delicious barbecue meat (pulled pork),  beans, potato salads, Twinkies etc. we all headed to the back yard where they held the annual duck race in the stream behind their yard. I won second price and won an awfully loud and obnoxious NASCAR (Dale Earnhardt) clock. (of which I have removed the batteries already) <wink>

The judges for the duck race, ready with their nets...

All in all it was a great evening out and that for a party where we really only knew the hosts and two other people... {smile}

--  **  --  **  --

Yesterday I felt it was time to separate the males from the females in our bird cage. The babies are now 5 weeks old and the markings were becoming clearer to see. Also Penny & Howard were trying to start a new nest again so it was time for the big move. Easier said then done and this was the point I had been most nervous about since the eggs first arrived in the nest 7 weeks ago! 

New table from Ikea where we went yesterday...

We are now using a second birdcage that one of our neighbors so generously donated to us. We opened up the doors on either cage and pushed the cages together. After quite a bit of patience we managed to catch Penny, but the one other female baby bird did not go in. I tried hand catching and cup-catching etc. but the birdies were getting very stressed out which of course is not worth it. 

Penny spent a sad and lonely night in her new cage but this afternoon we used a third cage (the vintage looking one from my previous post) and managed to catch Baby Belle (as we call her) and transferred her in with her Momma. Boy, am I relieved or what?!!! Now the busy bird time will hopefully be over and we can just enjoy them without all the extra worries...

So, enough chatting for now. Master C. will have his stitches removed tomorrow. He has been relatively pain free, but one area is still a bit funky so we will have that checked out tomorrow as well. The day after tomorrow is the Fourth of July (Party again!) and after that the weather forecast is saying that significant changes (for the better!) are on their way so 'Yahoo!' to that!  {smile}