Bill and I had a wonderful break on our annivesary. We stopped at Basket Slough where we saw this female and male shoveler. On our way to the coast we took the Otis junction and saw this red tail hawk on a telephone line.
We traveled up the coast and enjoyed the view at Wynema.
A gull was warming itself in the sun.
We stopped at my mom's to give her the Raggedy Anne and Andy that I made for her. I made a set for her many years ago, but they were in need of replacement! It was a fun project to make these dolls again after so many years.
The snowdrops in Mom's flower garden were absolutely beautiful!
We enjoyed our drive up the coast and over Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain.
The view from there is always spectacular, no matter what the weather is.
We came upon a herd of elk.
Yes, there was at least one bull!
We went to Astoria to stay at the Cannery Pier Hotel for a couple of days. It is located near the Astoria Bridge.
Our room was lovely...
and so was the view!
It was fun to feed gulls from the little deck.
We enjoyed driving up the Long Beach Peninsula.
I loved this shop. It was full of treasures :-)
We ate at one of the oldest inns in the Pacific Northwest.
The stained glass windows were taken from an old church in England.
Traveling back to Astoria, I loved these old piers.
This bridge was the first of its kind to be built in the United States.
We viewed great ships near the docks in Astoria.
The sea lions were quite noisy!
Well, some of them were, and others were quite lazy.
We toured this beautiful old home built in 1883. It was the home of Charles Flavel and his family. He was a bar pilot for many years and saved many lives by safely taking boats through the mouth of the Columbia.
We toured the Maritime museum where we learned the location of many ship wrecks, especially those crossing the Columbia River Bar, one of the most dangerous in the world.
An artist's depiction of one of the wrecks.
We learned about the great salmon runs in the Columbia where a gill netter could bring in over 4000 pounds of salmon in just two drifts. We also learned about "horse seining" where horses helped to pull in the heavy catch.
I loved this picture of a fisherman mending his net.
The pictures of salmon catches from years ago were amazing!
We went to a wonderful local bakery called the Blue Scorcher. The homemade bread was excellent. I highly recommend the rye with dill!
While traveling back down the coast, we stopped at one of our favorite beaches...Cannon Beach. We used to take our kids there when they were young.
Before heading home we had a wonderful dinner at my mom's. I enjoyed time with Mom, my sister, brothers, and sister-in-law.
We watched Terry work on his stone job at the Idaville Golf Course the next morning before leaving the area.
Our last stop was Roads End in Lincoln City.
It's pretty funny to watch a gull take a bath in sea water!
As anyone knows, I love the waves!
The beaches are full of treasures...even very tiny ones. These gulls were VERY hungry!
I was invited to an evening out with other "Missionary Moms" and we all gathered at Kathi's home (third from the left). She and her husband accidentally locked themselves out of their home, so we gathered in Debi's car (below) and shared stories from our missionaries in France, the Ukraine, Bolivia, Maine, Massachusetts, and Texas. Two moms couldn't make it. They had missionaries in Washington DC and West Virginia.
We had a great time sharing stories and enjoying one another's company. When Kathi finally got her door unlocked, she served a great homemade cheesecake! We all miss our missionary sons and daughters, but we are proud of them and the service they give!
