Burning Fire

My friend, Mary sent me a text message on Friday to see if I wanted to join her for a building burn. She works for a school district and if they have a vacant building they donate it to the fire department to do practice drills on...they really start it on fire and get real life experience, without the trauma that a fire causes to those affected. I said I'd gladly go and we settled on doing brunch first. We went to the Old Town Battle Grounds coffee shop as they have vegetarian (for Mary) and gluten free (for me) meal options. It is housed in this old church and it is really adorable. I resisted taking photos. It was hard. We ordered and sat outside in the semi-muggy for this area weather. It had been months (really, like 6 months) since we'd caught up on life. There was a lot to fill each other in on.

After eating, we headed up to Amboy, WA, where the building was. The scheduled burn was supposed to start at noon and we arrived at 15 til, and it had already been going. We headed over after parking and watched from one side, then made our way to the other side. It was fascinating. 

Mary at the burn. You wouldn't normally take pictures of yourself for fun in front of a burning building, but something like this isn't normal, so we did.

 Check out all that black smoke.

 The intensity of the heat made me acutely aware of the fire related struggles many in the country, especially the Colorado fires, are experiencing.

 We kept waiting for this wall closest to us fall...it did...after we started walking back to the other side and couldn't see the area.

Thanks for the unusual adventure, Mary! 

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!