Camping & Beach

Fort Stevens State Park

We're not big campers. We want to be. We think we'd make pretty good campers, but we just haven't had the experience under our belts. When Challene said she wanted to go camping before we left Oregon I though she'd back out due to lack of toiletting facilities. I was wrong. She found a lovely campsite near the beach with toilets and showers. So, we got some friends involved and went. Only problem was the near 200 other campers there. We were packed like sardines.

Forecast for Friday said cloudy with a 20% chance of rain, high of 68. For a moment when we planned and booked the campsite we forgot that when living in Oregon 20% chance means 100% chance of rain. While driving to Seaside, OR we got a text from Becki Brallier saying it was starting to rain. Slightly discouraged, but more into our 2-way radio trivia game between us and the Marshall's, we continued to the sight. By-the-way, for those of you unaware, the only other mammel known to contract leprosy is: the Armadillo. That one stumped the Marshall's for quite some time.

Usually people camp to get away from it all, but everyone and their dog was there! I was really surprised at how small each site was. We set up camp quickly in anticipation for the rain (it had stopped momentarily). The Brallier's had built a fire and cooked some dutch oven chicken which was FABULOUS!!! We ate some dinner then roasted marshmallow.

My Joshy getting the marshmallow off of his jacket!

Ethan loved the marshmallows. You can see Chloe and Sam in the background.

The boys were fairly good with the fire. Joshy wanted to help a lot.

So as the evening wore on, the rain increased. In fact, I'd say they were related linearly. 8:30 rolls around and we figure we could put the kids down and then enjoy some adult time with games and smores (we deliberately saved the smores ingredients for adult time. Partly due to the mess, partly due to self indulgence.). So we began our routine.

10:30 rolls around and the kids are crying, screaming, stomping, flailing, etc. The rain was coming down pretty hard. Despite the fact that the Bralliers and Marshall's kids went down rather well, ours wouldn't relent. Given the kids, the rain, and mud everywhere we decided to call it a night. Once the kids went to sleep, we slept very soundly.

That is, until Mr. Squirrel decided to wake up at 6:00 a.m. I've heard some loud squirrels in my day, but this one takes the cake. He even drove Challene to say that if she had a BB gun she would have gotten up and shot the thing! This is surprising for two reasons: 1- Challene is not a huge gun fan, of any size or flavor. 2- Challene doesn't rise before 7:00 for ANYTHING!!!

We enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast and decided to break camp. The Brallier's were quite frustrated with how things had turned and decided they wanted to leave. Despite our pleadings they went home to their warm, sand-free house.

The morning actually cleared up some and so we decided to go to the beach! I love the beach!

So does Josh.
This beach was famous for a shipwreck that is actually still on the beach. It was pretty dang cool.

You should probably note the blue skies. I don't know any of the history of the wreck, but I'm sure a google search of Fort Steven's and shipwreck will tell you all you need to know.

For me, the real excitement of the beach was the stunt kites. John had brought two of his kites and broke them out. There was some wind at Fort Steven's so he gave me a quick tutorial. This is John being dragged down the beach by his quadline stunt kite. (Note the darkening clouds) You can see his trail as he gets pulled along by the kite. Now, I mentioned that there was some wind here. Nothing to big, just some wind off the ocean, still it dragged him 300 yards or so. He was doing flips, and twists and such with his kite. So next it was my turn. It was much more complicated than I expected. Quadline means four lines - front/back and left/right. You have to be conscious of each direction and counter or manipulate the wind as you can to do all the cool tricks. Needless to say, I was hooked. My performance at Fort Steven's, however, was less than stellar.

The clouds rolled in and it started pouring! We ran for the cars (after we got everything packed up) and hunkered down. We all decided to get some brunch and then meet the Woolsey's at Gearhart beach.

Gearhart Beach

I love Gearhart. You can drive right onto the beach! The wind here was intense! So, John busted out his dual line delta stunt kite. This one I handled rather well. I was doing figure-8s, flips, and twists until I took a nose dive and shattered a graphite rod! Doh! A well, $5 and a drunken hippie later it was good as new.

Jared Woolsey with Winston (the dog), Liza Woolsey, Me, and Ethan

Lindsey. Note the precariously parked car in the background.
John broke out the Quadline again. We had a need to conquire this inteminable wind. This is me trying to get the kite off the ground. I did much better this go around. I got dragged for about 50 yards and even did a face plant when a particularly large gust of wind came to try to humble me. Well worth it. It was a 2 meter kite, so no cool jumps or anything, but still fun.

Remember that precarious car? Well, it was the Marshall's. They got stuck in the sand. I was centimeters away from pushing them with my car when this quirky guy in a Toyota FJ came up and offered to pull them out. The sheriff came too.

10 minutes and some minor body damage later, they were out!

This is a direct result of the intense wind at Gearhart. That smile on my face is from remembering how much fun it was to kite... plus Challene poking fun at my hair.
So, on the way home we had to gas up. Look how big this truck is! The gas tank access is as high as this guy's head! Crazy tall.

All in all we had a fun weekend. Yes, the rain and mud were a little annoying, but we made do and had fun anyway. Thanks to the Marshalls, Bralliers and Woolseys for joining us! Mostly, thanks to Challene who kept a cool, good attitude throughout everything. If it wasn't for her the weekend would have been miserable for me. As it is, though, we've got good memories (and blog) to last a lifetime!