This would be Aubrey's first flight. We left our home Friday morning early and flew from Cincinnati to Atlanta with a lay-over in Atlanta. We had lunch while we waited between planes. Then we flew from Atlanta to Portland, Oregon.
Here are the flight pictures: First, Aubrey on the shuttle from the long-term parking to Cincinnati Airport, Second, Aubrey took a selfie of us before the plane took off, Third (and my personal favorite), Aubrey looking out the window as we fly away from Cincinnati Airport.
We arrived in Portland, Oregon on time and were grateful all our luggage also arrived on time. We found the shuttle to take us to Budget car rental. We got our car and after a few U-turns we made our way onto I-5. We then spent as much time getting out of Portland, Oregon and we thought our drive to Depoe Bay from Portland would take. Goodness. I had Google Maps on my phone and tried to find a way to get on other roads that might be less crowded. As we looked ahead at the overpasses for these roads, they were just a clogged with traffic as the road we were on. So we just rode it out. We did pass this interesting Portland, Oregon feature. The Pill to the Pill on the Hill. There is a big medical facility at the bottom of the hill on one side of I-5. Up the hill on the other side of I-5 is the other part of the medical facility. To facilitate easy trips between the two places a tram has been built with a car hanging from it that looks just like a pill. Hence the name by the locals of The Pill to the Pill on the Hill. Clever and cute.
We finally made it to Salem, Oregon south of Portland where we turned west and headed to the Oregon Coast. Travel would take us through a beautiful forest. I tried to take pictures as we drove. These are two of my favorites of that drive.
We hoped to get to Depoe Bay before sunset to get some pictures of our first sunset on the Pacific Ocean. We didn't get great sunset pictures but I did capture a few of the WorldMark Resort view from the balcony of our apartment of the Pacific Ocean. These are in order left to right of our Pacific Ocean view
Saturday we just stayed in and tried to adjust to Oregon time (3 hours earlier than Kentucky) by getting up Oregon time and going to bed Oregon time. We were treated to a day of whale watching from our balcony. The first picture is Claude enjoying the ocean. I went down to ground level to get some pictures with the flowers at the edge of the grass before the cliff. The second picture I took from there of Chris and John on our deck.
Here are a few of the pictures of our whale sightings. These are all gray whales. The first picture is the gray whale on the left with a whale footprint in the water behind him. The boat we believed were people studying whales. This day we were pretty sure of 5 different whales feeding right off the ledge from our apartment. The second picture is the whales fin like he is waving at us. The third picture is of the whale's tail fin as it dives back deeper under the water.
These pictures are just the ocean view. The hill was constantly covered with sea gulls. If the sound of sea gulls bothers you, you should not go to the Oregon coast. They were thick and very noisy. I enjoyed it and the sounds of the ocean tides and rolling waves. It was such a sound of all kinds of life, especially when you added the whale sightings. The 2nd picture was when the tide was out and the tidal pools would fill with birds taking a bath. These are a neat time to see what actually lives under the ocean. I would stand for long periods of time trying to figure when the big wave would come and break on the rocks. The third picture is one of those attempts.
Finally we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. These two pictures take you left to right of our Pacific Ocean view at sunset.
Sunday we got out a bit. No pictures to speak of for this day.
Monday was our ocean fishing trip. We would do bottom fishing and crabbing. There were six of us in the family that would go fishing, Claude, me, Aubrey, Thomas, CJ and Chris. With that many, Chris was able to schedule a private boat for our trip. This would be fortuitous as all of us would succumb to sea sickness with the exception of CJ and Captain Chet. This is CJ ready to go fishing.
We went to Depoe Bay to get our fishing licenses and pay for our charter boat. Here is everyone standing in line at 6am except me.
I realized there were not many tourists at that hour and not a lot of traffic, perfect for picture taking of this scenic little harbor. This is the World's Smallest Harbor. It was naturally carved out with the motion of the ocean and man has helped form it a little more. It is a cute little harbor.
Our boat was the Sea Son and it was piloted by Captain Chet. I had a hard time with that name. Chet sounds more like western cowboy type of a name. But, Captain Chet he was.
Before he turned the boat around in the harbor, he gave us instructions on the crab traps. There are four in the picture. We would go out in the Pacific Ocean a bit and drop the traps. They each had a tuna head in them for bait. This would work very well for catching lots of crabs. After the instruction, Captain Chet turned the boat around in the World's Smallest Harbor and pointed us into the Pacific Ocean. Lynette and Kayla were there to wave us off on our voyage.
As we left the harbor and entered the ocean, this was our view with the wake of the boat in front. Depoe Bay has a nice concrete building you see on your left that is the Whale Watch Center. People go there and watch for the whales and find all kinds of exhibits and hands-on learning for children. During the day it is manned with people who know all things whalish. On the right of the picture is the stone bridge over the entrance to Depoe Bay's harbor.
It didn't take long to reach the spot where the crab traps would be dropped. Each trap had a buoy attached to a long rope attached to the trap. The buoy was dropped on signal from Captain Chet, the rope was let out and then the trap was dropped flat over the side. Chris helped each of us drop these traps. Claude first, then CJ and lastly Aubrey. At this point Thomas was already sea sick. He would remain so until the very end of our fishing trip.
I just need to add that the day was foggy and stayed that way all day. The sea was very, very, very rough. It took lots of skill to keep one's balance at all. You needed to hold on to something at all times. As we got further from shore, we passed a huge buoy with a light on the top. This marks the path to turn north or south in the ocean. Land was no longer in sight, but I truly feel that was because of the fog. I think we would have seen a thin bit of shoreline on a clear day. Chris pointed out to us that there were seals resting on the base of this big buoy. I took my camera from my case that hangs around my neck and tried my best to get a shot. This is the 'Where's Waldo?" of looking for seal on a buoy picture. Don't tax yourself trying to find something, I never got the buoy in the picture but wanted to remember this moment and Chris laughing at me for even giving it a try in that kind of rough ocean.
Captain Chet found a location he thought we might catch fish. Quick instructions were given on how to release the line and let it fall until it stopped on the bottom of the ocean. Hence the name 'bottom fishing'. We would be catching the fish that swim close to the bottom of the ocean. After the line stopped, we would secure the line and started to slowly reel in the line hoping all the while a fish would take our lure and we would have a catch. Guess what? I was the first to catch a fish. Claude was second. We caught a total of 5 of these Rockfish or Sea Bass.
By this time Aubrey was hurling over the side. I made a mistake by telling her to go try sitting in the little cabin of the boat and rest a bit from the wind and waves. Thomas was in there. This was the worst place to send her. I honestly did not know that. The rest of us were holding our own in that rough sea. Claude and I have never been sea sick before and we have been on fishing boats and tour boats and cruise ships. We didn't anticipate getting ill at all.
The highlight of the fishing was Chris catching a Chinook Salmon. By law Chris could only keep this fish if he had the right kind of tag. Chris was wise and had already purchased that tag. He could keep his salmon. Captain Chet was so happy. This was the biggest fish caught on his boat this year. CJ was fairly bursting at his father's catch. He kept saying, "We caught the big one!" Chris was so happy he made sure CJ was in all the pictures with him. Such a good moment.
Not long after this, I was fishing and suddenly didn't feel so great. I had been at the back of the boat and it was diesel powered. The fumes were strong. I looked at Claude and told him to take my pole. I joined Aubrey on the other side of the boat and for the first time I hurled. Not a fun experience. We fished a little longer and I tried inhaling fresh air to get control but every now and then I was sick again. Poor Aubrey and Thomas were just constant. Then Thomas calmed down and went to the other side of the boat and got a pole and started to try his hand at fishing. About that time Claude joined Aubrey and me on the hurling side of the boat. He to experienced the diesel fumes. Eventually Chris also joined us on the hurling side. He had been fishing from the upper deck of the boat and the motion up there was more exaggerated even than we were experiencing on the lower deck. Chris, Claude and I talked about it and decided we should probably head back to harbor. We had 5 fish and 1 salmon and whatever yield we would eventually get from the crab traps. We were heading in about 2 hours early but we had a good catch and we were all happy with that, and felt good about having this experience and knew we had plenty for a feast with the family.
Once back in the harbor, Captain Chet wanted a picture with Chris of this big catch.
Typically there are people there to clean and filet your fish. You pay a dollar a fish and they quickly prepare them for you to take home to freeze or cook. They even clean and steam your crabs for a small fee. However, we were 2 hours early so there was no cleaning crew. Captain Chet also brought us in without picking up the crab traps. Captain Chet would filet the fish we caught. Then he would take Claude, Chris and CJ back out with him to pick up the crab traps. There would be 27 crabs in the traps large enough for us to keep. With a little more hurling, our trusty guys went out to sea and brought back those crabs.
I enjoyed the wildlife on shore while the fish were cleaned. These are pictures of one sea gull I made friends with and the seal that lives in the harbor.
After showers and some rest, we made a quick trip to the store to get things to eat wwith our crabs. We decided we would have crabs for dinner the first night and the sea bass the next night. Here is a picture of us enjoying crabs for dinner.
From top to bottom on the left side: Shannon, Lynette, Bonnie and CJ
From top to bottom on the right side: Dan, Chris, Claude, Sandi, Thomas and Aubrey
We enjoyed the crabs. It wasn't pretty watching us try to figure out how to crack them and get that meat out. But we did it and had fun. Dan found that he could touch one point inside the pincher of the crab claw and it would move still.
It was truly a memorable day.
Tuesday we took Aubrey and Bonnie and did a drive to the north to Tillamook with a stop on the way there at D River and stops on the way the back at Siletz Bay and Alder House.
First stop, D River, also known as the World's Shortest River. I was beginning to see a trend on the Oregon Coast. I grew up in Louisiana. Our next door neighbor, Texas, was always boasting about being the biggest or having the biggest of just about everything. I was finding it very amusing that, in the short space of a few miles, Oregon was boasting of the World's Smallest Harbor and River. D River was just a beautiful spot and it is really no more than a spot of earth.
Then Claude would drive our trusty rental car, which we will never purchase a car like that, ever, to Tillamook in search of the Tillamook Cheese Factory. This is a scene along the drive to Tillamook.
The Tillamook Cheese Factory is a self-guided tour. You enter the building and walk up a flight of stairs to a level that overlooks the actual factory and people working in it. There were large windows to view them working and lots of signage to describe what they were doing. My favorite work station was where the 40 pound blocks of cheese come out of a machine where a worker has placed a plastic bag just the right size for the block. The block just slowly slides out and into the bag. Then it goes down a conveyor belt where a lady crisply pulls the open end of the plastic and folds it to precisely fit that end and lay over a heated spot that will seal it as it goes on down the conveyor belt.
I was also impressed with a large oblong looking washtub fixture sitting on the ground. It is used to make single-batch cheese by hand the old fashioned way. All workers are trained in doing this type of cheese making. It is a little more costly but a neat way to make cheese. I think it caught my attention as we live in bourbon country. They also make single-batch bourbon which is a lot more costly.
After our tour, we went through the tasting line. Aubrey is trying cheese curds. This is an early stage of cheese making and was a treat for the kids when Claude was growing up. I loved it when they bought cheese curds for us to snack on when we visited Utah. I think it was Aubrey's first try from the expression on her face.
We passed quickly through the gift shop in search of the restaurant. We timed our visit to eat at the Cheese Factory. I had grilled cheese. Seemed appropriate for a Cheese Factory menu. It was yummy and had lots of layers of different cheeses. After lunch we visited the gift shop and then took a turn through the Tillamook Ice Cream area for dessert. We enjoyed this outside. Here is Bonnie and Aubrey enjoying their ice cream.
Aubrey then joined me in a stroll to take pictures by Tillmook signs.
Claude drove us south next in search of a sign he took note of on the way up. These are pictures of the drive to the sign he wanted a picture of. We were fascinated with the need to irrigate the land with as much humid air, fog and rain as they would get on the coast. But irrigate they did.
And this is the sign Claude found and we took picture in front of it. Can you see why he wanted to get pictures here?
Claude would then drive us to Siletz Bay for some pictures of this area. Siletz is the name of the native American tribe that lived here. I loved the rock formation, the size of the bay, and the drift wood found there.
Our final stop would be at Alder House where you can watch them make beautiful blown glass objects. We watched him make a round paper weight and a conch shell. Aubrey really enjoyed watching this.
Wednesday would be a family day. Claude wanted to do an Uncle Claude thing for everyone. He doesn't live close to any of his siblings or their children. This trip was an opportunity for him to be Uncle Claude for a bit. We looked at options and decided a trip to Newport to see the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum would be a fun outing for the kids. It took us 3 cars but we all got to Newport, found parking and each other. We gathered along a dock near the museum. There was a nice view of the Newport bridge and seals on the rocks and playing in the water.
Once we had everyone, we walked across the street to the museum.
Left to right: Dan, Thomas, Claude, CJ, Shannon, Aubrey, Brian & Bonnie. Kayla, Lynette and I were taking pictures.
We entered the museum, Claude purchased tickets, and we all had our picture taken with Big Foot. CJ loves Big Foot. When we arrived Friday night, only Kayla, John and Joann were there with Claude, me and Aubrey. Big Foot came up in the conversation and Kayla cautioned us all not to mention Big Foot in front of CJ or we would be off looking for anything Big Foot. Kind of interesting the outing Uncle Claude took us on began with Big Foot. Here are the pictures of Aubrey, me and Claude with Big Foot.
So many things to see in the museum but it was dark and I mostly took pictures of interesting puzzles or sayings that I thought I might take back to the Mini's. However, there was one place set up to look like you were walking on hot coals. I asked Bonnie to come and stand there for a picture. Here is my cute mum-in-law walking on hot coals.
I was fascinated with a harp that had laser lights for strings. You couldn't see them until you plucked at where you thought they were in the air. Then you would quickly see a little red and hear the note that was played. It appealed to the music lover in me.
Another feature that caught our attention was shown to me by Thomas. He came back to where I was in the museum and said, "Hold my hand!" I did. It was freezing cold. He showed me where his hand became cold and I understood. There was a place devoted to the Titanic. The museum had a container of water that stayed the temperature of the ocean the Titanic victims would have fallen into. It was believed the no one would have lasted more than 10 to 15 minutes tops. Thomas kept his hand in for 5 minutes. Hence, the freezing cold hand. I only lasted a few seconds.
The one thing that caught us all was a man taking a photo of a scene in a display. In front of the display was an old lady. They looked very real. The first ones in our group to figure out they were not real stayed to watch how long it would take the others in our group to figure it out. Every now and then the man's camera would flash which only added to the illusion. I stood there for a bit and realized the lady was not real but that flashing camera had me thinking the man was trying to get a picture. Finally someone told me they were both not real. Even with that new knowledge I still waited to walk in front of the camera till after his camera flashed. Go figure!
Claude liked the room that used mirrors and a few little lights to make you feel like you were walking through a starry sky. Stars all around you and over and under you. Very cool.
Claude and I did get to this room that did an interesting image of you movements. Claude and proceeded to dance and someone was kind enough to take my camera and get a picture of us.
After Ripley's, Claude treated everyone to lunch at the Arctic Circle. This was a blast from his past. There was an Arctic Circle in Tremonton when he grew up that the kids like to hang out at. After we were married at trip to Utah was not complete without at least one stop there for a burger and some ice cream. So, finding one in Newport was fun and we all dined at Arctic Circle. It was cute when Kayla came to the table with Arctic sauce for our fries. Floods of memories flowed for my big guy. He was a happy camper. Arctic sauce is really just a mixture of catsup and mayonnaise. But, it still triggers fun teenage memories.
Lynette and her crew made a drive the day before to The Devil's Punch Bowl while our car went north. I wanted to see it. Lynette said they found a great ride to get there and she would lead the way. Our two cars headed to Devil's Punch Bowl and Kayla took Bonnie for a ride in search of whirly-gigs for her yard.
This picture is one of the pull-offs on the ride to Devil's Punch Bowl. The trees were all blown and growing in one direction. Let's one understand a little about the wind coming in from the ocean.
There is a park around Devil's Punch Bowl. We walked out to Devil's Punch Bowl and then through the park. Gorgeous scenery. Devil's Punch Bowl is the first picture. The next 3 pictures are scenes from the park looking over the ocean. One has a very fat squirrel in it. Claude found the picnic area with some interesting trees in it. They are the last two pictures. Claude was actually posed for the picture when I finally walked to where he was. He knows me well. The family picture has left to right: Brian, Shannon, Aubrey, Lynette, Claude and CJ.
We all went back to our apartments for a bit and got ready for a run to the beach. We would all go to Beverly Beach. It was a lovely sand beach with lots of room to play in the sand and water. We would make use of all these features. CJ took his kite and he and Brian would fly the kite.
The first thing we noticed was this guy surfing while his big kite pulled him along. It looked like great fun.
Claude tried to use his super powers to stop the ocean. I posted this on Facebook and Cordell, his brother, cut out of a very similar mold as Claude, said, "I use my staff for best results."
The feel of the water over your feet and the sand moving as the water leaves is just fascinating. It was to me and also the Brian. Brian is autistic. He was cautious at first and then I think it just gave him a giggle.
These are just some of the kids playing in the water.
CJ, Shannon, Dan, Aubrey (The waves caught them and they were wet!)
Shannon and Aubrey
Shannon, Aubrey, Brian
I saw something red and funny looking down the beach. I asked Claude to join me in finding out what it was. It was a dead jelly fish. If used my foot and turned over one of the edges and you could see the tentacles underneath. We called the kids over to check it out.
Bonnie did walk out to the ocean with all of us. Then she found a log closer inland from which to watched all her family.
Thomas was the first one to actually let the water and sand bury his feet. Then we had all the teens trying it out. They tried to all jump out of the sand at once. Jumping out didn't work out too well.
Claude got a little chat time with each of his sisters. The first picture is Claude and Kayla. The second is Claude and Lynette. When Claude and I married Lynette and Kayla were the 'little girls'. Claude was 20 and Kayla and Lynette were like 8 and 9 years old. Now look at us all grown with kids or our own and Claude and me with grandmonsters.
CJ wanted to be buried in the sand. Kayla started and then Aubrey and Shannon helped. I have fun video of CJ's toes sticking out and wiggling. Then Kayla did the thing every loving, caring, nurturing mother would do for their sun when he is buried in sand. Pour water on his face.
Writing in the sand was the next project. Aubrey even wrote something for Claude and me.
As a finale harking back to the start of our day, the kids did a Big Foot drawing. They are left to right: Dan, Brian, Aubrey, CJ, Thomas and Shannon.
The last game was a crab race. I took a quick picture as they started. Brian, Shannon Aubrey and Thomas participated. The video I took of the race tells the story. Thomas finished very quickly. Then Shannon. Aubrey had a good start and then turned over and crawled to the finish. That left Brian. He kept on going and we all cheered him on. He didn't quit until he was over the finish line. It was just epic to watch.
Then we all sort of mingled until it was determined it was time to head back to the apartment. Clockwise from the left: Brian, Aubrey, Dan, Claude, Bonnie, Thomas, Lynette and Shannon is seated in front.
We realized all these kids were old enough to stay alone. This was a first for our family gathering. We left the kids with instructions to clean out the fridge. This included all snacks. Claude, Bonnie, Lynette, Kayla and me went to Gracie's Sea Hag in Depoe Bay for a nice dinner. Then we walked along the ocean front where I got this great picture of Claude by an anchor.
As well as a sunset picture.
When we returned to our apartment, this is what we found. The children did just fine without us.
Thursday would be our last day in Depoe Bay. Time to finish off little things we wanted to accomplish. We scooped up Aubrey and the others loaded in their cars and we all went for a family visit to the Yaquina Lighthouse.
This is a state park. There is a fee for each car but you are allowed to enter and leave as much as you want for a few days. We paid our fee and met everyone at the Visitor's Center. After a quick tour through it we had time before the actual light house tour. So our car left to go Newport and look for a Big Foot t-shirt for Todd. We thought we might find one at Ripley's. No such luck but we made a valiant effort. When we got back to the Yaquina State Park, we found the family parked out by the lighthouse and walking on the shoreline. We all spent some time enjoying the views from the point of land and swatting flies. These were not your normal house flies. They were longer but every bit as annoying. They were everywhere and if you sat still for a few seconds they covered you.
These are pictures of the views from the point of land the light house is built on.
There were 8 slots to take the light house tour. We had 11 in our group. Claude, Kayla and I did not take the tour. Kayla did it before. Claude and I climbed the lighthouse by Tybee Island a few years ago and one on Cape Cod about 10 years ago. This is our group before the lighthouse tour. Left to right: Bonnie, Brian, Dan, Claude, Thomas, Lynette, CJ, Shannon & Aubrey (covered to keep those flies off her).
Our group parted ways to do and see the things they wanted to before we headed home the next day. Claude, Aubrey and I went to have lunch at Mo's in Lincoln City. Then Claude and I would walk out on the dock overlooking Siletz Bay.
My heart's desire before we left was to get into the forest. We saw lovely views of the Pacific Ocean and Oregon Coast. But just across Highway 101 were some beautiful forest areas. We drove through some between Salem and Depoe Bay. I really wanted to be inside a forest and feel the trees around me. I had experienced sunny Oregon Coast and foggy Oregon Coast. I just needed to feel what it was like to be in the forest. I search my notes and found Fogarty Creek Park. It said there were paths and bridges over streams in the forest. That sounded perfect to me. After lunch Claude took me to the north side of Fogarty Creek Park. We walked over the bridge and found this great picnic table that has sat long enough for a beautiful fern to grow around the base of the bench.
The evening was spent packing and doing a bit of laundry. I told Aubrey to pack for a full week. I knew there would be a washer and dryer but I wasn't coming on vacation to do laundry. That was before we went fishing. Hadn't thought that one through. Our jackets and jeans were a mite fishy smelling and we would need them for the trip home. I gathered all our jackets and clothes from fishing and ran a few loads through the washer and dryer so we wouldn't be so offensive on the airplane.
Friday morning, we all pitched in an picked up the apartment, put the food together and got it to the cars that would take it home with them, emptied the trash. Then hugs and good-byes were said all around. We all headed our various directions to get home.
Our journey was the drive back to Portland (much quicker than the drive to Depoe Bay from Portland). We found the car rental place easily. The shuttle took us to the airport. Security presented a problem. Aubrey's ticket and mine were stamped to just let us get through security quickly. Claude's was not. Our carry-on's were going through the screen thing and then it stopped. The guy reading the monitor called someone over. She took Aubrey's carry-on and asked who it belonged to. I was concerned. The lady was very nice. She took Aubrey and her bag to a separate X-ray machine. Then she reached into the bag and pulled from the bottom a can of soda. Now Aubrey had been carefully coached about packing liquids in her carry on and how small any item with liquid contents had to be to go in a carry-on. We made it out to Portland fine but going home, not so much. The lady continued to scan and then pull out cans of soda. There were 4 or 5 cans of soda in her bag as well as a big bottle of some spray. Goodness. I just looked at Aubrey and said, "You just lost all that." The lady assured Aubrey she could not take these items on the plane and they would dispose of them for her. Quite an adventure. Now, I must admit we purchased several large bricks of cheese at Tillamook Cheese Factory. We froze them in the apartment. The day we left, we put the frozen bricks of cheese in plastic bags and packed them in our checked bags. This is perfectly fine. But it must have looked suspicious when they scanned our bags because one of them had a card it it stating they had randomly opened and checked that bag. I'm pretty sure those blocks of cheese showed up as an interesting item on their scanner.
The flights went well and we were home and headed to bed by about 12:30am Saturday morning.
This was a great trip. Good to share time with family we don't get to see often. Good for Aubrey to experience some things that were very new to her. Claude and I would definitely go back to Oregon's lovely coast again.
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