We decided to take a pre-4th of July trip to the beach this year and boy, were we busy! Interspersed throughout our days were long walks on the beach, five deer sightings and lots of early firework sounds (even one right outside our bedroom window at 3:30 a.m. one morning!). The weather was pretty nice all five days we were there, but was a little cool due to the gusty wind. Here's a rundown of our vacation:
Day 1: When we arrived at the beach and got unpacked, we decided to go for a bike ride on the dunes trail. This so-called "quick" bike ride turned into a very looong walk for me when my bike tire blew out at the half-way point! Several nice people offered help, but really all I could do was push my bike all the way back to the house. One lady who thought I was just pushing my bike because I got tired said, "It's not as easy as it looks, is it?" Um, I might not be in the best of shape, but the nicely paved, rolling hills of the dunes trail is about as easy as they come. Whatever. Anyhow, we finally made it back to the house and had some yummy BBQ'd turkey burgers for dinner.
Day 2: First stop, Astoria and the bike shop. Erick found two new tires and tubes for my bike so we were back in business. We walked through the Astoria Sunday Market (bought some yummy cookies) and sat at the waterfront to eat our lunch. While we were sitting there a fishing boat pulled up, dropped anchor and in about 10 minutes pulled up a sturgeon! It must have been under the required length because they threw it back in the river. But it was pretty cool to see! After lunch, we drove to Seaside. We took a nice walk on the beach and around the town. Kaitlin and Jack each enjoyed cotton candy flavored ice cream cones. Apparently they were pretty yummy! After we drove back to Long Beach we had dinner at Chico's pizza per Jack's request.
Day 3: Monday was hiking day. After lunch we drove to Ledbetter State Park. This trail takes you through the woods and out to a beautiful wide expanse of beach. Also, there are a ton of sand dollars! Kaitlin wanted to take all that she saw home with us, but we convinced her that we needed to leave some for other people to find. During this hike, we kept telling the kids that there probably are bears (gulp!) in the area but we most likely wouldn't see any. [Later, we were told by Aunt Marilyn that Uncle Tom has seen bears on that trail many times -- yikes!] Thankfully, we didn't see any, but we were sure watchful and made lost of noise (which isn't too hard with our kids). The only things that were in abundance were mosquitoes and we all brought home a few bites. That night for dinner we were treated to Hot Tamale Pie with Tom and Marilyn. De-lish!
Day 4: We decided to stay in town Tuesday since we hadn't been to the most important place in town: Funland, in case you didn't know! But first, a long bike ride (on new tires, no less) along the dunes trail all the way to Ilwaco. The ride was significantly harder after we got off the trail. BIG hills. When we finally reached Ilwaco we rode by the waterfront to see the fishing boats go in and out of the harbor. Once we got back home, we went into town and, finally went to Funland. After Jack and Kaitlin spent their allotted money, Erick and Jack played some "challenging" putt-putt golf. Then we drove up to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Jack told us he could almost see Japan. After the hike to and from the lighthouse, it was back into town for more ice cream. For dinner Erick and I enjoyed fresh-off-the-boat salmon and the kids had mac-n-cheese.
Day 5: Time to pack up and head back to Portland and the record 90 degree heat! A busy, but very nice family vacation.
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