Our trip to the beach

Summer 2010

We took a jaunt over to the coast for 11 days in August.  Our first stop was Copalis Beach which is sort of in the center of the Washington Coast and from there we went south first to Ilwalko, WA o the Columbia River and then to Newport, Oregon.

We got lucky, weather wise, at Coplais Beach and had several clear, warm days.  The dogs really enjoyed playing at the beach.

  Running for the fun of it

     and chasing birds

The clear weather also provided us with a very interesting sunset.  In the first picture you can see the sun about to set and a reflection of the sun above it.  In the second picture what looks like the sun is actually just a reflection of the sun.

Here is our rig in the park and the park as seen from the beach.

While staying at Copalis Beach we had a good time exploring up and down the coast.  We discovered a Navy recreation base at Pacific Beach, had some good seafood at a casino, and ate and shopped in Ocean Shores.  A good visit and one worth repeating.

On to Ilwalko and Eagles Nest Resort-the place our last truck gave up it's clutch.  We didn't have any good luck with the weather here, cloudy all the time and a little bit of drizzle.  Clouds, however, do not stop the annual International Kite Festival in Long Beach, WA, just a couple of miles up the road from our campsite.  The Kite Festival runs for a week and has also sorts of kite related stuff going on including demonstrations and competitions.  We stopped by one day to watch a variation on a ancient Japanese kite fighting competition.  The goal is to use your kite to knock another kite out of the sky-without getting your kite tangled with someone elses.  In this version, at least, they started with about 20 kites up and it ran until there was only one kite left flying, or as in one heat we watched when the last group got tangled and came down together.

Here are a bunch of kites up before the fight starts.

Here a light colored kite is taking down the jolly roger

     Around the contest field

Fun kites 

Multiple kites on one rope

  Launching what will be 101 kites on the same line

   This guy has 105 kites on his line.

Our camp site at Eagles Nest

and the view through our back window

Our last stop was just south of Newport, Oregon at Whalers Rest RV Park.

  Sunset from our camp site.

From here we drove north to Lincoln City one day to shop for books.  Found a very large used book store and several smaller ones.  Being on the cost we naturally stopped for lunch at one of the thousands of place advertising  clam chowder.  It was good but the calamari strips were better, and a first.  Along the way we took a few pictures of the Oregon coast. Boiler Bay

and a panorama of the same

a shot looking along the coast from Cape Foulweather-named by the guy that named half of the Pacific I think, Captain Cook.

  Schooner Rock

Across the highway from our caookingmpground is Lost Creek State Park

Looking south as the fog starts to roll in

Looking North with no fog, I'm standing in the same place as the previous picture.  Although there isn't any fog on this part of the beach, you can clearly see the famous, or infamous, marine layer.

Lastly, a shot that shows how the ocean is slowly enlarging.  The black layer at the top of the cliff and under the fence posts is asphalt.  Used to be a wide walkway here.

It was a good trip.  Lots of great seafood to eat, some fun things to see and do and some new places to explore.  And we never left home.  What more could one want?