Day 1 - Saturday -

After 5am departure and a scenic, but hour long delay parked on the freeway outside of Dunsmuir CA, we arrived at our vacation home around dinner time.  We immediately checked out the house and beach. The sun was shining, and there was a breeze. The house was gorgeous, tidy, new and clean and the sand was soft and plentiful. Very cool.  Grandma Cris stopped by and dropped off a truckload of thing for Amelie, one item being a Vespa scooter.  The older girls of course showed her how it worked, including the horn.  Thanks girls.

Day 2- Sunday, and happens to the the 4th of July

Aaaaah... rest.   Some time on the beach, in the waves, in the sand, checked out tide pools, made a camp fire, flew a kite, ate some food and did little else.  Then come night time, the fireworks started before sundown and went for hours!  The big aerials, safe and sane, poppers and everything you can imagine for miles up and down the beach.  Note  none of the fireworks were ours as they were illegal to have on the beach.   Obviously however for the Oregon natives, it must have been an optional law.   Our neighbor managed to knock himself on his butt and impale himself in the forehead with some sort of rocket type firework.  After a bit, and some of Marks persuasion his friends took him to the hospital. 

Day 3- Monday

The girls were up late at night and up early in the morning.  We were good parents, we left food out on the table for them to have breakfast.  heh.   The coffee was flowing, and although the mornings were early for vacation, the days went by with little to do other than play on the beach and in the spa.   On the sand, off the sand, in the hot water, out of the hot water, get a drink, have some food, up the stairs, down the stairs, take a nap,  UNWIND.   Oh and Candice was a good auntie and taught Amelie that peanut butter and chocolate sandwiches are much better then PB&J.  Monday was also our first trip into town for Captain Dan's Pirate Pastry.

Day 4 - Tuesday

Today was another kick back day.  Mark made a horrible attempt to slice off his thumb and only ended up taking a good chunk out of the pad.  We all hung out, had lunch and played.  Then for dinner Cindy and Candice headed off to the local Italian lounge, yes lounge.  The place had good pasta, but the most memorable was the actual lounge singer on the piano and the flirty lounge singer winks.   The boys and kids stayed at the house playing rock band while the gals were serenaded with songs from the 50s.   After dinner, it was out to the movies with the gals to see Eclipse.  WOO WOO.

Day 5 - Sand Castle Day!!

Life is good on the beach when all that is on the to do list is make a sand castle.   There was much beach combing, bucket dumping, sand loving fun today.   Also, we kept apprised of Kaylee's Moms day as Kaylee's newest little half sister was born today.  Welcome Cameryn Murray Morrill. 7/7/10. 

Day 6 - Tillamook and Blue Heron Cheese Factories

Today was on the road to Tillamook.  About an hour drive and we were at the cheese factory.  The place is huge, and though we got to sample many cheeses, the self guided tour itself was hard to access due to the huge amount of people there.   The one saving grace of the Tillamook factory was the 38 scoop monstrosity that was the "Tour of Tillamook" via ice-cream.    We ate a quick lunch at the cafe, then ordered the ice cream tour.  After bell ringing, and song singing by the ice cream staff, the trough of goodness was set on the table.    With seven spoons, we all dug in.    The only thing left on the bottom was a muddy slush of the uneaten licorice and some coffee flavors.   YUM.   After that, we headed over to Blue Heron (After a quick stop at a local store for some lactaid) and sampled cheese and spreads.  Also very yummy.  The older girls played a bit in their petting zoo, while Amelie took a snooze in the car.  Later Mark in attempting to take a rest, gets buried in pillows by the young ones and then retreats to the spa with his wife.

Dinner that night was a variety dinner, fresh tomato and asparagus, cheese, bread, fresh berries, sausage.  Now if we could only live like this day to day things would be right with the world.

Day 7 - Fogarty Creek

So time to get out and about in the area, we headed down to the local park with just our family, leaving family Hanna to rest up a bit in peace.  The park started with a beautiful lush forest, and a good size creek.  The creek wound through the park and out onto the sandy beach and into the ocean.  The girls got to see first hand how water returned from the mountains to the ocean, as well as climb rocks, play in the water, and adventure through the forest.   Michele did not want to climb with Michael and Kaylee, and was left crossing the rather swift running creek (with some prodding) with Candice.

Day 8 - The trip home

Today we had to say good bye to family Hanna, and packed up the car.   First stop, the Devils Punchbowl, which was neat but you couldn't get close to investigate.  After that, we had a little adventure on some fire roads before eventually finding the highest point in the Oregon Coastal Mountains called Mary's Peak.   The 1/2 mile climb up was worth it for the views, and the exercise of people stuck in the car. There were flowers blooming everywhere and several waterfalls found on the way in and out.  We stopped for dinner at Kaleidoscope pizza in Medford Oregon for some wicked good pizza. Check it out if you are ever up that way.

Although the extra stops put an extra few hours on the trip home, it was worth it.