Birthday Beach Bash for Rose

Rose just turned 30!! My-oh-my! Her big day was June 21st and on June 22nd friends from near (Portland) and far (Seattle) started descending on her mother-in-laws beach house in Waldport for a weekend beach bash celebration. There were nine of us total. 4 married couples + me. I say that for fun. Around this group of folks (all of us girls know each other from college) and all the husbands fit right in to our craziness, I never feel like a 3rd, 5th or heck, 9th wheel. Thank goodness that is how it is with all of my married/coupled friends right now. I know that isn't how it is for everyone, and I am thankful.

Friday night we had tacos/burritos and chatted. Then came the games. I was the "official time keeper" as they all know I LOVE (hear the sarcasm) playing games.

from L to R: Rachel, Rose, Jen, Daren, Zach, Lee (missing: Me-taking to picture and Jamie and Alex-still in Portland)

 After a late night (2am-ish) of going to bed, Jamie and Alex aroused us all at 8:30am. They had left Portland at 5:30am-crazies. But, we were all up for the day and Zach and Rachel set to making breakfast for the lot of us. Belgian Waffles-Rachel's expertise and pancakes- Zach's expertise. There was fruit...

 ...and whipped topping...and laughs in our still asleep stupor.

 After getting sustenance in us and waking up a bit more we (minus Jen and Daren) ventured down to the beach.

The beach is a place I love and where I feel at peace. It had been in the forecast to rain all weekend (clearing and getting sunny on Sunday afternoon-when we'd all be leaving) and mother nature pleasantly surprised us and it was sunny for us all weekend (if you don't count Friday night as weekend-it poured then).

 Jamie showing off a pretty design on a washed up crab shell.

 There was a teepee-ish formation that we checked out.

 And, Rachel got "pinched" by a crab...sneaky thing.

 Zach and Rachel playing in the water.

 The "girls" from my Girls Group...united again (for a few short months).

 And a picture of the picture taker, taking a picture.

 Beach, one of my heaven on earth places.

 And the girls, again...

 Once we got back to the house (where puzzle-putting-together had been going on) Rose decided she could put a puzzle together quickly...someone challenged her to an hour. So, she set off. Spoiler, since I didn't take another picture...she did get the puzzle done, but not in the allotted hour.

 After her hour and some of us having showers, we loaded cars and headed to Newport to tour the Rogue Brewery. I've toured breweries before, big ones...Coors and Budweiser, but not smaller micro-breweries. This was a fun adventure and not all behind glass panels in previous experiences. Though I didn't smell the reminiscent smell of beer, hops and fermentation that I fondly remember from the other tours.

 The brewery is in the industrial dock area of Newport, so there were perfect views of the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

 And there was a distillery that we killed some time at since we had almost 2 hours before the next tour started.

 They wouldn't let Jen in since she'd forgotten her ID...sad day, but we took this picture before we found that out.

 After people did the tastings they wanted to do at the distillery, we headed back to the main brewery, where they did let Jen in! :) And folks tried tasters of beer (I had their root beer as they don't have any gluten free beer and it was phenomenal in my tasting opinion). 

 Lots of cups, glasses, and passing around. There was something about drinking ash, a beer that tasted like smoke...glad I missed out on that one!

 Then to the tour...

 Barrels,

flats ready to go out...

Me with my hot safety glasses that kept sliding down my nose since they were so big, oh, and among all the beer.

 The brewery was fun, and educational...always a nice combo. 

After that we headed back to the house to relax a bit more and then we got dressed for dinner. I'd seen that Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City was having a 17th Anniversary Fireworks show and we decide to go up for it. They restaurants were full so we diverted to the McMenamin's just up the hill a bit. We sat in the cold on the balcony (bundled up) to eat so that we could see the fireworks. 

This picture is sunset...it was beautiful AND then fireworks were right above the Safeway building.

 Fireworks are hard to photograph...especially with an amateur, hardly any major bells and whistles camera, but you get the idea. And the best part was that we could see them from where we sat for dinner, could finish our wine/beer, eat dessert and just hang out. We also missed out on the traffic. Woohoo!

 Sorry for the poor coloring of the firework watchers...I turned the flash off to avoid distraction.

 Then back to the house we went. And we were all tuckered out, so the hidden in the cooler cheesecakes would have to wait until breakfast.

And they did...

 Happy 30th, Rose!

 Jamie added gummy bears and a mini chocolate bar to her cheesecake...sugar overload.

 I stopped to take a picture from the top of the hill that the house was on. Such a pretty day!

 More beach views on the way north up Hwy 101.

 And another couple shots of the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport.

This was such a fun weekend filled with friends, rest and relaxation, though not enough sleep. It will be the weekend of the search for a donut, of puzzle addictions and sun instead of the rain predicted. It was great.

And, as I was on the beach on the 23rd (a day after my half birthday) I was gleeful when thinking the the 23rd (the day after my regular birthday) I will be on another beach...a much more tropical one. Can't wait!

Lost Lake Adventures and Alpacas, too!

My friend Tera has always wanted to join me on a hike. It's never worked before, but this weekend she is in town to run a 5K with her Dad for Father's Day and so we decided to escape to Lost Lake, outside Hood River, OR. The last time I was here there was a fire and I couldn't see Mt Hood, one of the major bonuses for doing this hike. You can see it here. I loved the hike last year, but was disappointed to not see Mt Hood. This year, the weather worked out well for our hike.

There are many majestic views of Hood on the drive there (which was longer than I had remembered, but oh-so-worth-it.) Here is one view.

When we arrived we didn't waste any time getting on the trail. You can see Tera looking at the mountain here.

 It was a little cloudy, but was set to shape up to be a sunny, blue skied day.

Tera contemplating the beauty...

Us getting ready. Hindsight says I should have gotten another picture like this at the end of our 3.2 mile hike. With the blue sky.

 Smile!

Why did allow a side shot like this...I shall never know.

 On the trail...of wood. There is enough runoff with snow melt that they've got these "bridges" to help get through the muddy parts.

 We decided to sit on a bench and enjoy the sun for a few moments when I spotted something under the root system of a fallen tree. Tera dug it out.

 It was a little treasure, similar to a geocache, though not "official" as the note inside said.

 It was full of random goodies...

 ...and so we played...

 ...and played....

 ...and Tera wrote a message after reading past entries. 

 Some more fun things...the area above smelled terribly...we joked that it was the enormous, jungle like plants growing up out of the swampy-ness. 

Fallen tree root systems. In last years pictures you can see me standing in front of this same root system...the lake was high enough this visit that we would have been up to at least our ankles in water had we wanted a similar picture....

There was still snow in the hills around the lake. I would love to see this lake when there is a lot of snow...I can only imagine how gorgeous it would be.

Once we finished the loop around the lake we settled to have lunch, which we'd packed along with us. Best way to eat...a beautiful setting, after a good hike and with a good friend.

Even the animals thought it was worthwhile to join us...

 Tera had brought her swim suit so she could swim in the lake. She is braver than I.

Here she is contemplating it. If it was warmer I'd rather like swimming in this amazing setting. 

 Still contemplating...and then she had an attack plan. Go in a bit at a time and acclimate, rather than just jumping...I don't know if she was smarter to do it this way, or if it would have been better to just jump.

In this picture you can see a little newt (black backed and orange bellied we later discovered) right in the center. The lake was full of them.

This is as far in as my cold-blooded body could make it. And it took me a long time to recover my warmth after this...

Wave to the camera in the frigid cold temperature lake, Tera! 

I also enjoyed playing with different features on my camera while Tera indulged in the cold water.  

She brought a little newt out with her...

 ...then he swam away.

I was really excited to see the beginnings of this Lenticular Cloud forming to the left and just at the peak of the summit. I've seen amazing pictures of this phenomenon and hoped to see this one grow, which it did. I can't say that it was fully a Lenticular cloud, seeing as how it wasn't obscuring the peak, but close enough for my joy.

 You can still see the cloud to the left in the picture below...along with me, enjoying the sun.

After Tera warmed up by sunning herself on some rocks and I continued to warm up doing the same, we packed up and headed for an Alpaca Farm, the same one I'd been to a month or so earlier with Linda, Larry and Connie. In that time, the alpacas had been sheered. They went from fluffy things to scrawny things, but still cute. 

Check out the face that greeted us. 

 There were a few playing down a hill...

 And they were all game for some treats that we got out of a dispenser...

 ...I bought heavenly soft yarn there too...I'd been dreaming about it since my previous trip.

We enjoyed the farm dog and one of the farm cats as well. I can't remember the dogs name, but this cat was Purl, of the pair of cats named Knit and Purl....clever, eh?! 

After the lake and alpaca adventure, we stopped for ice cream at my most favorite ice cream joint in Cascade Locks. Then home to change and to my favorite little restaurant on the Columbia River. Tera had arrived at my home just after 9am and she left just after 9:30pm. A full and glorious day. And, I'm tired. And, she runs 5K tomorrow morning. Go her!