The Real Oregon Coast
Remember a few weeks ago when I posted the images from that lovely Oregon coast afternoon? This weekend we were reminded why Oregonians practically dance with glee when we have a sunny, calm day at the coast. It is because they are absolutely not guaranteed, no matter what the weatherman may say.
On Sunday, as the temperatures in the valley headed toward the 90's we thought we were being so clever heading to the coast. We even checked the weather online, 65 degrees and 7 mph winds, perfect! Then six hours later we headed over....
The whitecaps were visible even as we drove into the parking lot. Uh oh. The doors nearly were ripped backwards as we got out of the car. Oops. I grabbed all the spare clothes I'd packed, and we bundled up with every bit of clothing we had. Yikes. And we heading to the beach, picnic basket and blanket in hand.
We hunkered down behind some fallen logs and tried to pretend that it wasn't utterly miserable. I held the hummus, and when anyone wanted to dip a cracker I opened the lid, they quickly dipped, and I slammed the lid back down lest any of the driving sand invade our snacks.
While we snacked, the sand literally formed in piles around our legs and covered our blanket. Peter headed to the car to read, while I stood by Soren while he played at the shore. I lasted about 30 minutes, he was of course oblivious to any problems with the experience and just had a blast.
Oh, and then on the way home from our exciting 45-minutes playing at the beach we hit a traffic jam that was so bad that it took us 2.5 hours to get home!
I'd describe the trip as a total bust except Soren loved his time in the sand, and when Soren fell asleep in the car on the way home, Peter and I had a nice talk about the millions of details we never get around to discussing in our day to day busy life. So, a good day in the end.
On Sunday, as the temperatures in the valley headed toward the 90's we thought we were being so clever heading to the coast. We even checked the weather online, 65 degrees and 7 mph winds, perfect! Then six hours later we headed over....
The whitecaps were visible even as we drove into the parking lot. Uh oh. The doors nearly were ripped backwards as we got out of the car. Oops. I grabbed all the spare clothes I'd packed, and we bundled up with every bit of clothing we had. Yikes. And we heading to the beach, picnic basket and blanket in hand.
We hunkered down behind some fallen logs and tried to pretend that it wasn't utterly miserable. I held the hummus, and when anyone wanted to dip a cracker I opened the lid, they quickly dipped, and I slammed the lid back down lest any of the driving sand invade our snacks.
While we snacked, the sand literally formed in piles around our legs and covered our blanket. Peter headed to the car to read, while I stood by Soren while he played at the shore. I lasted about 30 minutes, he was of course oblivious to any problems with the experience and just had a blast.
Oh, and then on the way home from our exciting 45-minutes playing at the beach we hit a traffic jam that was so bad that it took us 2.5 hours to get home!
I'd describe the trip as a total bust except Soren loved his time in the sand, and when Soren fell asleep in the car on the way home, Peter and I had a nice talk about the millions of details we never get around to discussing in our day to day busy life. So, a good day in the end.
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