August 1st we drove the 183 miles from Poulsbo, WA to Seaside, OR. On the way we went through Raymond, WA, famous for the metal sculptures all over town. Here are some views taken through the windshield of some of the sculptures:
Someday we need to visit Raymond in a car.
This is the Astoria bridge taken from the highway coming west:
Our site at LTR Seaside in Seaside, OR. The campground is many blocks east of US101, so it is over a mile from the beach.
Seaside is close to Astoria, OR and to Long Beach, WA. This means we saw a lot of Diane's parents, who were showing off the North Head Lighthouse at Cape Disappointment State Park, and the cousins at the store in Chinook.
Evita encountering another cat in the campground August 2nd. Evita does not play nice. Notice she is on a leash:
The cats trying to act like they don't see each other:
August 2nd we drove down to Cannon Beach to see our friends and found out they are very busy in August, so we will have to visit them off season to have much visiting time. We did find this funky building in town, and that is someone else's blue Honda CRV in the photo.
Flight up the Columbia River August 4th Part 1, Part 2
Walk around Seaside on August 7th
August 9th Flight up the Long Beach Peninsula Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
After the flight Gregg and Rosalie took us to see the North Head Lighthouse, where they are working this August. These first three views are from inside the lighthouse:
It is a very interesting place to be and it was interesting to hear a volunteer other than Gregg telling about the lighthouse.
Outside of the lighthouse this crocosmia was blooming:
Lunch Trip to Camp 18 on August 10th
Trip to Longview on August 11th
Columbia River Maritime Museum, August 12th
In the evening of the 12th we met up with Barbara and Dave (http://web.mac.com/barbaraok/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html ) at their motorhome in Long Beach. Great people to know. Barbara is highly addicted to geocaching, which is finding "caches" using a GPS. Read about it at Geocaching.com. Our friends Larry and Connie are also avid geocachers.
August 13th Flight to Camp 18 and Cannon Beach, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
August 14th Flight south to the Three Capes, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
We did a lot of visiting and eating out in our two weeks. Other new restaurants not already mentioned are Astoria Thai, which was 4-star, and Plaza Jalisco, 3 to 4 star. There are other Plaza Jaliscos in Tumwater and Chehalis, WA.
August 15th we drove to Outback RV Resort in Rochester, WA for a week. It was 124 miles. We ended up in a different campsite than normal but it worked out. Our last stay here was in May. Here is our campsite:
We visited with Bill's mother, Elena, and friends while in the area:
The goldfinches were bringing their babies to Elena's feeders:
And not just goldfinches were using the feeders:
WMV format movie of the birds (1.08MB)
We celebrated Bill's birthday at Budd Bay Cafe with Elena. We also ended up eating at the new Black Bear Diner twice, once with Elena and once with Rex.
We got more than one visit in with Carl, Laureen, and Fuchsia during our stay in the area, which was wonderful.