Vacation - Day 2

Day 2 of our vacation was GREAT! After a continental breakfast at the hotel, we packed up the truck and headed out towards beautiful Florence. We had a blast in Florence where we had the opportunity to meet my good friend, Cele. Prior to meeting Cele for yummy ice cream, we hit the beach. We had so much at the beach in Florence. We saw a ton of starfish and collected a bunch of sea shells.

After lunch, we met up with Cele for ice cream. We had so much fun!! After Florence, we went to the sea lion caves. The kids loved the caves. (but, boy were they stinky!) We even got to see two male sea lions fighting in the water. The elevator at the sea lion caves is the only elevator that I have ever been in that measured the distance one has gone in FEET and not stories. Thank GOD there was an elevator. Can you imagine that people used to actually walk all the way down to the caves prior to the elevator being installed??? (no thank you!) Next along the way was a lighthouse. We spent the night in Newport. We got to the hotel early enough to have time to play in the ocean before dinner. We had fun even though the water was a little chilly. The kids and B. were having a ball catching shrimp. As each wave would come in and go back out, hundreds of little shrimp would go out to sea. Some of the shrimp were pretty big compared to the others.

We ate seafood, of course, every night! We had a blast in both Florence and Newport. Thank you to Cele for the fun in Florence!!! We will definitely have to plan another get together some time!!!!

To be continued...

Vacation - Day 1

Day 1 of our vacation was jam packed!! We wanted to see and do as much as we could and still make it to our hotel by a decent hour. We left our home and drove to Crescent City, California through the magnificent Redwoods! We did not leave quite as early as I would have liked, but we did get to see a small part of the amazing Redwood forest. The redwoods were absolutely incredible. We grabbed a quick bite to eat after visiting a the lighthouse and taking some photos and then it was off to beautiful Brookings, Oregon. We stopped at a wonderful beach near Brookings. (take a look!)

We stopped at several beaches before stopping for the night. We stopped at a beach called Whale's Head because there is a rock sticking up from the ocean that looks like a whale's head. It was pretty windy at this beach, and the sand whipped against our faces, legs, and necks. (boy did it sting) Here is a view of Whale's Head beach.



We also stopped and walked through a little strip mall on the pier in Brookings. We of course saw a lot of boats along the way, so I had to take a picture of some of them. These boats were in Brookings.

We spent the first night of our whirlwind vacation in Coos Bay. Coos Bay is a nice place. Of course, by the time we got to our hotel, checked in, and unloaded our stuff into the room, we had just enough time to clean up and go to dinner. We ate seafood for dinner the whole trip!! YUMMY!! We did not get done with dinner until after 9:00 pm. The poor kids did not even get to play in the pool because we did not get back to the hotel until almost 9:30! It was a long day, but it was well worth it!! We saw some amazing things in just one day! Every day of our trip was a different adventure with different sites to see. We obviously did not have enough time, but we did pretty much get to do everything that we intended to do.

To be continued...

Ever Wonder...?

ONLY IN AMERICA:

Only in America.....do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America......do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke. !

Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

Only in America.....do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

EVER WONDER ...

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin ?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed? !

Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dish washing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread the stupidity and send this to someone you want to bring a smile to (maybe even a chuckle)...in other words, send it to everyone. We all need to smile every once in a while.

An Awesome Sight!

We spent this last week exploring the beautiful Oregon coast. If any of you ever have the chance, I highly recommend it. On Tuesday night, we spent the night in a beach side hotel room.

It was glorious! This is a picture from our hotel

room at sunset! (jealous yet?)

That night we were witness to a truly amazing

sight! At around 10:30 pm, we witnessed the

Space Station and Space Shuttle as they were

orbiting the Earth. They looked liked two stars in

the sky, but they moved across it very quickly.

They seemed to appear out of nowhere and

were gone almost as fast as they had appeared. They appeared about 25 degrees above the horizon, which in our case was the Pacific Ocean.

They soared across the sky in just minutes and

were gone out of sight.

Our son was too tired to stay up to see it, but our

daughter was too excited to sleep. This will be an experience that she will hold will hold in her memory for the rest of her life. It was amazing to know that there were people on those two things and that those two things were actually in space orbiting the planet.

What an incredible sight to see!

On the Road Again!

Tomorrow we are headed to the beautiful Oregon coast for a long overdue family vacation. The last "vacation" that we took was a weekend trip to a town about 2 hours from our hometown. (that was 9 years ago!) We have a full itinerary planned. It is jammed packed with tons of sites to see and fun things to do. This trip is going to be a super fun time. I just can't wait to get going.

GOOD LUCK!!

I just wanted to take a minute and wish my very talented (and handsome) nephew, son of Dartman and SML, good luck in his soccer tournament. His team won state again this year (but come on now, was there really ever any doubt?? ... NO). The tournament is in Las Vegas in a few days. I wish that I could be there to root you on! I have no doubt that they will do well!

Good Luck J! We are all rooting for you!!

Love you!

I've Been Tagged...

I've been tagged by Cele to "quickly write 8 random facts/habits about myself, and then tag 8 people. If I tag you, I hope you play."

1) I play the saxophone. I have been playing the saxophone since I was a sophomore in high school. My specialty saxophones are the alto sax and baritone sax, although I have and can play the soprano and tenor saxophones too.

2) I have a Bachelors Degree in Paralegal studies. Most recently, I obtained a Masters in Business Administration.

3) Fears! I am deathly afraid on spiders. I HATE mice! I am also a little squeamish of snakes. I am claustrophobic, thanks in part to my brother! He used to hold pillows over my face. I think he thought it was funny. (He also blew pepper in my eyes, but that is a story for another time!) I am also afraid of heights. Boy, with all these fears/phobias, I should be in therapy! All in good time, I guess!! :)

4) I am in the habit of filing our household bills yearly by company and month paid! (No exceptions) Some may call this anal, but I call it overly organized! Everything has its place, and if those things are in their proper places, I can find them readily if needed.

5) I collect Precious Moments. I don't have many figures, but the figures I do have are precious to me and come with a story.

6) I am really pretty shy. I have a really hard time meeting new people. I am actually really quiet when I am around people that I either don't know and am meeting for the first time or around people that I don't know very well. I know, hard to believe, but it is true!

7) I don't like talking about myself. I don't want to come off like I am bragging, so I just shy away from talking about myself at all. Perhaps this is the reason that I have such a hard time and get so nervous in interviews.

8) I have only worked for 2 companies in my life. OK, I have actually worked for 3 companies if you count the 9 months that I worked at Hatch's Cards and Gifts in the mall just after high school.

Now I have to tag 8 people. Unfortunately, I don't know 8 people in "blogland." If you are tagged and can't participate not a problem. If you do blog about your eight random facts leave the link in the comments.

I tag - Dartman and Sister Mary Lisa. (Sorry, you are being tagged by default. I can't tag Cele because she tagged me.)