Oh what fun it was to be on the warm sand.

Oregon is not known for Sunny beaches so I was not sure what to expect except possibly wind and wet. John picked me up at the Portland airport Thursday night and drove out to Camp Rilea, a National Guard Training Camp, where he had rented the officer's cabin for the evening. (Next part beware)..He turned on the fireplace and threw fun big pillows all over the living room floor and I, yep, I fell asleep on them. My poor husband was trying to be romantic and he gets points for that.

The next day he decided I needed to see Astoria, and so I followed him around from random store to museum to smoke house to museum to random store to gallery. Anyway, at some point I really just wanted to go to the beach. It was 74 outside and calm. I just knew this was not the typical Oregon coast weather I expected and wanted to take advantage before it started to rain (which it did on Saturday). Funny thing, first we needed to find a Bank of America, but the bank had burned down six months before and now was just a big RED armored motor home in the middle of a parking lot. The novelty was great, but the manager we talked to said the novelty had definitely worn off for her and her staff. John took a picture with his camera phone. So if I ever teach him about where our blog is and someone else teaches him how to upload pics from his phone, we might get a posting.

Anyhow. John decided I was going to see the Jetty at Fort Stephens (which we never got to) See what really happened was that as we passed the sign that said shipwreck beach, I just had to see it. John was impressed that it was low tide so after we played around in the skeletal remains of an 1902 shipwreck, he let me know that Oregon beach was a state highway and you can drive your cars on it. And I could see bunches of people were doing just that. So we got back into our little Chevy 4 door low profile front wheel drive RENTAL and decided to gun it through some extremenly soft sand at the closest beach access. Have I set up the story enough to figure out what really happened? JOHN MISSES HIS 4 WHEEL DRIVE TRUCK. He confessed that he'd never tried getting onto the beach before with anything else other than his truck-which always worked. What would we do? My stick and I became best friends. It scooped sand right out from under that high centered aluminun can and the whole ordeal is a memory.

What! You don't believe me--you want to know the rest of the story? You don't think I could dig our way out, have John jack the car, and drive out on drift wood? You don't think we actually abandoned our car or called for off road towing?

Michelle and family were waiting for us to get to Seaside, we contemplated calling her and having her pick us up.

Okay, so we weren't the first car to ever get stuck in sand and the good people of Oregon carry tow ropes in their 4 wheel drives (except for Michelle--and she knows now what she's getting from us for her birthday, like it or not). Sadly one big wheeled truck Samaritan managed to get himself stuck trying to help us, before a jeep came along. The two of them tied their TOW ropes together and the jeep pulled us both out (individually of course). I felt vindicated to some degree, but every local knew that was a bad access road. We were advised to use the Sunset Beach access next time. We did and the next day Scott took us all driving on the beach in his 4 wheel drive Toyota Sequoia. Scott was swerving all over and the kids were panic screaming-- I could see it in Michelle's eyes too. "You'd think those guys didn't know what 4 wheel drives can do" John later remarked. "I should have gotten behind the wheel" (Scott the gauntlet has been laid--you and John, beach, 4 wheel drives...next time).

The beach was gorgeous. The warm sand squished between my toesies and the condo was right on the beach. I'm still smiling. The condo was a two bedroom special needs which I, well, was going to feel guilty about, but when I saw how the room catered to pack and plays and extra space for children, I determined we were that special needs family--8 of us in the Condo--and it worked! We had so much fun with the DeVries and the kids were a hoot to play with when they weren't watching tv. (I think tv watching is the true health pandemic that calls for a bailout plan).

Saturday, as I said, was rainy, but John and I managed to take the kids to the Salt Water Taffy shop. John had a brilliant idea that he was sure would take up some time. "Go fill up your bags with 10 candies each" he explained... The kids didn't appreciate the variety. They just grabbed their 10 candies and kept asking for ice cream. It was, by the way, Eden's 4th Birthday and she already had been given a free ice cream from the shop. Fair was fair. Right? John's idea continued to backfire. He figured it took 70 pieces to make a pound and he would have the kids just eat their candy while he filled bags for friends and special requests from friends, etc. When we checked out he let the lady know that the kids had been eating their candy and he would pay for eaten pieces. She informed him that they only charged by weight and darn it all if we didn't just get a bunch of free candy in those kids' bellies. *Actually, John, what a brilliant idea and great way to save money* ha ha.

So the place is called Candy Man. If you want free candy....

Well, tons more activities and no pics at the moment. Carousel, Fort Stevens bunkers, the shipwreck again, soaked kids, an hour in Ross for new clothes, Papa Murphy birthday pizza, homemade box cake (the secret is the butter instead of oil and the Reeses Pieces Puffs on top of the frosting--great crunch!) More tv and more swimming/hot tubbing, and then we actually got to fly some kites once the sun went down. I will not at all mislead you to think that the beach was fun then. It had its moments and the kites were cool, but so was the air by then...brrrr. Eden had about 20 minutes of it and we called it a very long day.

Check out before 10am the next day. The DeVries family made a magic trick. With only 20 minutes to leave by 9:30, and with everyone still eating breakfast, gears changed rapidly: the kids got dressed, Michelle and Scott packed up the bedroom and the kitchen. 9:30 the boys were taking suitcases out to the car, Michelle took a shower and got ready for church. John checked us out of the room and the final sweep performed by Scott around 10am located the forgotten grahm crackers that later would provide us with much sweetened nourishment for lunch. Thanks Scott for the save. But really...50 minutes! I was impressed. The opening song and sacrament song were missed, but the family was there for sacrament. In fact, they were there before the "always on-time John". But, you see, here's our excuse. John and I did not know where the church was and you could say we got lost, but how can you get lost when you never knew where you were going in the first place? The family got out of there so quickly that--well, we thought we were going to follow them. But, oh well. We did ask directions at a Microtel Inn. The front desk did not know what LDS was, but one girl called her mom for directions. Evidentally her mother's job is to drive residents to church so she knows the location of all the churches in town. We made it there by the first testimonies.

We went to church, ate a picnic on the church lawn, said our goodbyes under a smiling sun --no body wanted to leave. Drove into pouring Portland, caught an almost uneventful flight (except its me so I'll always have some drama--like losing a boarding pass between the security gate, the bathroom, and the boarding area--and or, watching all the luggage come out onto the carousel and right when you see your bag pop out, the carousel stops, nobody moves, the bags seemed jammed; no workers come to see what's going on and we all stand around for 5-8 minutes wondering who's going to help. I finally went over to see where my bag ended up in the process--NAUGHTY bag. IT had caused the baggage pile up and the decomissioned freeway. I pushed and pulled at it until something snapped. So note to all travelers: Make sure that your buckles are secure, because you never know when the strap might decide to lodge itself into the conveyor belt and stop the whole show. Some guy came up to me and handed me the buckle-"here's what's left"--nice, thanks.)

So here I am tired, cranky, waiting for John to call which he was supposed to do 1.5 ago and I'm feeling like a big long nap. Getting to work this morning at 6:30 seemed so very early...YAWN. But I had it good. John drove the 2 hours to Portland and another 3-4 back to Bend. He then had to set up his 5th wheel, catch a 1/2 nap before getting on the sweeper truck and going another 40 minutes to Redmond. He said he kept falling asleep while driving and finally stopped and took another nap. Needless to say, the sun came up before he did. Overall, I hope no one really noticed the big Red Loud Dusty Truck going in circles around the Wal*Mart parking lot. So a final thought to help you and remind me to have empathy...

When you think its bad for you...you can always guarantee something worse for John. (I love you John, but you sure have some funny luck).

So now, yes now. I'm done. I will write about my hitchhiker experience later. And also I have yet to do the refinishing of the porcelain tub and sink--I think I'm intimidated.

Good night.

Love Kimberly