"By the sea, by the sea...

...by the beautiful sea. You and I, you and I, oh how happy we'll be!"
Heh heh! That is from an old song from my Mom and Dad's era!



More pictures were taken of Ron and I together on this trip than I can remember happening for a long time.

I'm not sure why that is?!? I think we need to have more taken, don't you?

Not too bad for 46 years together!

A trip like this is something we have always wanted to do together. We got to do something like this for our 40th anniversary, too, when we went to Tennessee and North Carolina. But this is the first time we have been to the Pacific coast together. Ron's brother lived in Northern California when Ron was growing up. One of my sisters lived in West central California {and still lives there] when I was growing up. We both have childhood memories of traveling to California with our folks to see our brother/sister, and I have been to California twice in the past 12 years to see my sister with other family members. So we consider it a GREAT privilege to have been able to do this trip together! Love you Sweetheart!!!!

I LOVE to go to the ocean!!

Every time a wave comes in, it is SO different from the last wave! And the sound of the surf.[if the sea is calm/not 'angry'] is so soothing, and yet invigorating, too.
See that spray billowing up in the middle? There must be a rock there that the surf is hitting.

In this area, there are these giant rocks and boulders drifting out toward the sea.

The Grandkids climbed up on this rock for a picture. It was just a step or two up from the sand. They thought they were far enough from where the waves came in to not get wet. But sometimes a wave will come farther in...and they almost got caught!

When you look past the rocks...There is nothing to see on the horizon but the sky and the sea...and you think the sea must go on forever!

Here Chris is getting some shots of the kids at play. Karen is enjoying their antics,too. There were quite a few families at the beach. but not so many as to feel crowded.

Views from the top

Here are some of the sights from the parking area of the first beach we stopped at on the Oregon Coast.

Here are Karen and the rest of the kids feeding bread to the gulls. It was very windy here at the top of the hill. See the picnic table? I don't think anything would have stayed on top of it! That orange fence was around some construction they were doing to improve the steps etc. that headed down to the beach. We had to go down a different way.

This view was just to the right of the last one.

Did you realize that there is a tsunami danger off the pacific coast? I didn't! If you click on the pic, it will enlarge it and you can read this sign.

More gulls flying! Chubs barked at them, and I don't think they appreciated him either!

The view we could see as we descended to the beach. Fine sand, lots of driftwood,kelp? and other sea plants that were left at high tide , but veryfew shells!

Stopping in the Redwoods

To get to the coast from where the kids live, you have to drive down into Northern California. I have been to the Redwoods several times in my life [my sister lives in California], but not in this particular area. It was great to see them again, this time with my husband and part [at least]of my kids!
There was a stream near to where we parked, and Karen and the kids walked down to see it and chunk rocks into it.

There is a one way drive through parts of this park. It makes several 'loops' through different areas. There were camping spots along the way,too. OH, I think that would be so awesome!

For some reason, this pic didn't 'turn' upright like it was supposed to. This is the top of a tree-maybe the same tree in previous picture.

Here is Ron standing at the base of one tree. It is so hard to really explain their size. You just have to be there and see for yourself!

You can just barely see Ron here. The smell in a Redwood forest is different than any other forest,too. And I love how the sunshine filters down through the trees... God has made some wonderfully beautiful things for us to enjoy!!!

Here's a twofer!

Phooey! Papaw won't let me in his lap either. I thought we were 'buds'. I just wanted to take a nap in his lap like I usually do.

Two quick pics on each subject.

First, Karen is always telling us how well Chubs travels. How he stays in his little bed and doesn't get out... OOps! I believe he is trying to escape, now. Or is he just rying to get in Nanny's lap??

Karen had some pics of this on her blog.

Here is what happens when you go shopping with Mommy and Nanny! I really tried to tell them that I'm not tired! Wonder how this happened...

Wii have fun with Papaw

Look at this concentration...

A smile here. Did we score?

Waiting for just the right moment...

Yep!! Jacob has Papaw playing games on the Wii!!

More flowers and such in the backyard.

Here are pics of some of the flowering bushes and trees toward the back of the yard.

Some of them look like things we have in this area, but a lot of them were not familiar to me.

These pomegranates are growing just to the right of the back door

There were a lot of plants still blooming.

Enjoying the Back Yard!

Sunday afternoon I sat out on the patio with my book and just enjoyed the back yard. Chubsy was about the only one out there with me and the birds. Isn't this a beautiful tree?Maybe a crab apple?

This is the view straight back from the house.

This is just slightly to the left of the previous one.

And this is to the left of that.

Here is the trampoline to the left of the back door. I think that is Jacob's window.

On the Fly

So Chris says to me," There is a really pretty lake coming up. If you'll get your camera ready, I'll let you know when we are about to pass over it."

So here are 2 pics I was able to shoot through the open window as we drove across the bridge. It was getting pretty late in the day, so the colors are not showing up very well. But it was a VERY pretty lake., and there really isn't a spot to stop and take a picture, unless,maybe, we had driven down one of the roads/highways leading off our road. But then...there were no guarantees of that...and I'm happy with these pics!!

Just a few more!

My sweet Hubby posed for me one more time! See the fence and the rails? He likes sight seeing when it is made 'safe' like this!

Here the water is rushing away from us.

Looks like it is boiling, doesn't it?

Rushing along to the falls. We were so glad that Chris took the turn off to see what this place was all about. Seeing this kind of took the edge off of our disappointment at NOT seeing Crater Lake that day!

More pics at the Gorge

Madison got some really good shots here. This was the first day for using her new camera.

What a cutie!

We took some pics of another group and they took some of all of us!

Thundering and roaring down this falls!

More placid here, just a little further up stream.

GRRRRR! these pics were in the right order when I pushed publish!! This is the second try, too. Go to the 3rd pic in the line.

3.Click on this pic to make it bigger and you can readthis information. Now, see that area in the top right of the drawing that looks like a little cave? That is a collapsed lava tube. [Now , scroll down to the bottom picture .]
2. Ron and I really loved seeing this! Isn't this a good picture of us? [Now, scroll back up to the top picture .]

1. This is the wonderful surprise that awaited us when Chris pulled into an 'overlook' just to see what it was about. He said he had passed by it several times on his buiness trips and decided he wanted to know what was here. This is the Rogue River Gorge. This water was Thundering over the rocks and boulders. Awesome! [scroll up 1 pic]

4. If you click on this pic, it will make it brighter and you can see that the drawing was made to look like this pic. If you look in the upper right of the picture, you can see that 'cave' that is a collapsed lava tube. I thought it was so cool how they put that all together! Now you know why I was so frustrated that the pics did not line up like I had placed them to post!

(Well, when I tried that out on my computer, it didn't work so well. :0( But when I had my pics printed at Walgreens, you could see it plainly. I hope it works better for you! )