cape lookout

We're back from the beach, rested & relaxed. We were blessed with mostly sunny (howbeit, mostly cold) weather the entire time. AND. . .there was no rain!!! Phil's burnt like a lobster on his legs, and I lost my beloved tube of Blistex SPF 15 somewhere on the beach, but we returned in one piece otherwise.

Our first night there was our anniversary. We were on the beach for quite a while, waiting for the sunset. We weren't disappointed.

I'm a people-watcher by nature. And it's always sort of amusing to see who our "neighbors" are going to be at the campsite. To one side, there was a single dad with 3 boys. Kuddos to him for being so into the whole camping/spending time with the boys thing. He even had to take his youngest to a kite shop to replace the badly smashed in the sand first kite. To the other side was a big family gathering with the sweetest little boy. He kept wanting to come over to the big deposit of sand behind our picnic table and play, and his dad kept coming over to get him and take him back and saying things like, "We don't want to disturb our neighbors' privacy." Obviously the fathers of the 4 people behind us didn't teach them that important lesson. They just saw our site as a short cut to get everywhere else they needed to be. And so did all of their friends down the road. In the picture below you can sort of make out the little path that they used. Dr. Phil finally told them to stay out of our site. They were an interesting bunch to say the least.

I could kick myself for not getting a picture of this, but the real excitement of our stay was the big SUV that caught fire and exploded. Well, I heard several explosions over the course of about 30 minutes or so. The fire department came, the restrooms were evacuated, people from loops B, C, and D gathered around to watch. It was quite the drama. Dr. Phil heard two rumors of how the fire got started. First - they decided to cook in the back of it. Second - the kids were messing around (probably with a flick your Bic sort of device). All's I know is that when the tow truck pulled it out of the park, you couldn't tell what color the thing had been, there was no evidence of it ever having any glass, and the door handles had all been completely melted.

One day when we were taking a walk on the beach we saw these folks. Since I didn't actually talk to them and introduce myself, I'm just going to call them Ethel and George. And I'll call their little yippy dog, Lucky (because he's so lucky to be with Ethel and George). Ethel and George were the epitome of a happy geriatric couple. They were playing golf together all the way down the beach. Ethel would wack at the ball, then they'd walk a bit and George would have a go at it. Little Lucky was along for the fun. It was so sweet! I told Dr. Phil we had to get a picture because I want us to be like Ethel and George when we're almost 90. OK, actually Dr. Phil would be closer to 90 and I'd be a lot younger :)

Before we left the coast, we stopped at Cape Meares. We'd been there before, on my first trip out here, but the lighthouse was under renovation at the time, and was all covered in tarps. This time, we got to go inside and climb the winding staircase to see the fragile lens. This was our 3rd lighthouse experience. We've also been up the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and the one in Jupiter, Florida, on our honeymoon.

Notice the water & rocks are upside down looking through the lens, but Phil is rightside up.

Finally, I had to leave our mark in the sand.