Back from camping! yay!

I wrote in my little book over the weekend so I'll just post what I wrote. And I have some pics to add. Well, and Sunday's entry because I haven't written that yet.

Friday: Nehalem Bay, OR
We didn't manage to leave Seattle until 4:00. This meant we hit horrible traffic. It took us 2 hours to drive from Seattle to Tacoma. There was some horrible issue in Fife which tied up the freeway forever. We amused ourselves by trying to get coworker to flash men in blue cars. Didn't really work though. We stopped for dinner in Centralia at around 7ish. The place was called Burgerville. Pretty good. We laughed and talked the whole way down, which was a lot more fun than I thiought it would be. I've been a little anxious about much of this trip. I sometimes feel so much older than they are (which I am- 6 years) but it was so good to have girl talk again. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed it. The kind of talk you can't have with a gay man even because really, they don't understand. We got into Nehalem at 10:30. It's so dark way out here. I'm fascinated by all the stars. It's been awhile since I've seen that many. I set up my tent with coworker while roommate & friend set up the other, fancier tent. A bonus I hadn't anticipated... yard sale tent is really easy to put up. :) The sounds way out here are amazing and different. I can hear the ocean as if it were just a few feet away. In the morning I'll find out how near it really is. I can also hear the hushed talking of the other campers. Fires crackling. When we first pulled into the campground, the smell hit me. God I love that smell - wood smoke & green. I miss this. The waves sound like a rain storm and I can smell the salt water mixed in with the woodsmoke. It's about as chilly as I expected, so I'll have to pull on my sweatshirt and quite possibly some socks. I've got a blanket because I'm hoping to not have to sleep inside the sleeping bag. I always feel so constricted inside them. At camp I would put sheets on my bed for the month and use the sleeping bag and moose blanket for warmth, only I should've brought the green 'camping' sweatshirt. I can put the hood up and tie it and it holds the heat in. God I used to get teased at camp for that but damn was I warm! I'm glad I have my tent to myself. I like having my own space. They'll be far warmer, though, lucky ducks. :) Tomorrow we head to Tillamook factory. We're all fairly excited about that. mmm... behold the power of cheese. :) Crap I think I'm almost out of cash.

Saturday:

It is early afternoon and I'm sitting at the picnic table at our campsite by myself. The girls are on the beach lying in the sun. Apropos of nothing, I love how children are able to form these almost instant friendships with each other often based on little more than a similar bicycle or a love of apples. There are a lot of kids in the park. Next to our tent is a couple of dirty hippies with their twin daughters. Mostly the daughters are allright, but they sometimes cry in the night. (Babies) They are freakin' cute though...

Sat Evening:

Today was a long yet fun day. Woke up at 5:30 and wandered around until I found the beach access. The dunes to get to the beach were really difficult to hike up. I got tired and had to stop a couple of times. My feet kept sinking into the sand up to my ankles. My sandals and socks were full of sand when I was done. I took some early morning shots of the beach and walked back to the cabin. I laid in my tent and read for awhile until the girls got up. After a great breakfast of donuts & bacon (for me) and bacon, eggs & rice (for them) we headed to Tillamook OR to see the cheese factory. Yum. Free samples too! We also got ice cream (at like 10:30 in the morning). We came back and had some lunch and headed to the beach. It was still really difficult - worse than slogging through the snow. I dozed off on the beach and now the backs of my knees are sunburned. Is it slightly wrong that I keep thinking that this will help me keep a little bit warm tonight. :) It was seriously cold last night. I had to sleep inside my sleeping bag and zipped up. I hate that! I came back earlier than the girls because my stomach was a wee bit upset and I didn't want to have to make a mad dash across the sand or anything crazy. So I sat at the picnic table and people watched and read my book. We had bought stuff for dinner at the store. I had 2 kabobs and they had oysters and crab. Coworker just put the oysters on the grill without opening them or shucking them or anything. Apparently you can just do that and they open themselves when they're cooked. I never knew that and it was kind of cool. (I might love Mr. Park Ranger right now. He just told the noisy people in the yurt across the way to STFU). Anyway, ate some dinner and toasted marshmallows. All the stuff you do while camping. I'll have y'all know that the Girl Scout leader was able to actually light a damn fire without lighter fluid. Some had been purchased and I was hoping to not have to use it. I lit one but it went out before the logs could really really catch so I had to try again. Third time was a charm - coworker and I got a great fire going. Pine needles make great tinder. I had heard from one of my kids to stuff the chocolate piece into the marshmallow then toast it. She was totally right. It was yummy that way! I sat and watched the fire for awhile, put it mostly out. There were a few embers still going but pretty limited amount. Then turned in. The noisy people across the way were noisy again but quited down eventually.

Sunday:
Best day ever! :) We were up at around 7ish. We had breakfast. Donut and bacon for me and bacon and egg and rice for the girls. (Camping with Asians. Every meal we had with rice.) We packed up everything and headed out. We stopped in Cannon Beach and took pictures of the Goonie Rocks! YAY! (Haystack rock I believe is the real name.) The tide was way out so we walked almost out to the rocks. The water was very cold. There really big crabs in the water and there were kids just catching them. That was kind of cool. We then went to Astoria found Mikey's and Data's house. And as an added bonus we found the elementary school from Kindergarten Cop. Yay! After poking around, we continued on toward home. Ate lunch at Burgerville again. Eventually made it home at about 4:00. I have no clean clothing (and unfortunately the machines were full) so goodness knows what I'm going to wear to work tomorrow. :) But damn it was a good trip and I'm glad I went!