Crossing Bridges

In my last post I described (in detail), the excitement and difficulties in leaving my last and youngest child at a University 992 miles away from me. Yes, hmm, this is a big question I am about to ponder, now that my children are all on their own, who am I? what do I do? Well, I have 992 (more now) miles to think about this on our drive back home. Oh dear can I just go back a few years until I am more prepared for this?

For now, I cried.

My poor sister Lindy.
She lent me her shoulder and then she came up with a great idea. We would go buy cheese! Yes, on the Oregon Coast you will find one of the finest dairy's in the country. Tillamook Cheese is made right here in Tillamook, Oregon.

Apparently we weren't the only ones who wanted some cheese, this place was popular. We took a self guided tour, and giggled a lot at how funny it seemed to be waiting in long lines to buy cheese and other dairy products.

It did the trick, I forgot to be sad. Look at this cheese making assembly line. Does anyone else think this is funny? or was it only Lindy and I? I'm sure I saw the cheese makers smile :)

Our next stop was to visit our Aunt and Uncle and then another Uncle who all lived on the coast. Where was it though? according to our map we were right next to it (there wasn't another road), instead we passed lovely little lakes and rivers,


crossed over many little bridges (nibbling our cheese), until finally...


The Coast!

Someday I'll come back when there is time to explore that magic light, but this photo would have to do, we were on our way to our Uncle Paul's and he was waiting...



Uncle Paul is a cool and interesting Uncle. Look at his all his finds from beach combing. I really liked all his stuff, when I looked around his place I knew I belong on this family tree.


Let's go have a look inside, but first i'd like to admire his gardens a bit more. See the mushroom? that is only a weathered beach stone he's set on a post. He is one clever man.

And look at these gorgeous rocks?! these are his agates. He's collected zillions and tumbled them all in his little rock tumblers until their smooth and polished. They were on every surface, I'm not kidding, they were piled across the kitchen counter, the dining room table, every where (he is a bachelor) who doesn't cook I assumed. Lindy and I just stared. They are so pretty. He told us to take some. Choose a few he said. But if your like me you can't, there were so many and each unique in it's own way, I couldn't choose. Eventually I think he got tired of us staring and he just grabbed a handful and said here!

We went down to the ocean, I still wasn't convinced it was really there. I mean one minute you are in a forest, and the next there is the sea. Here is the beautiful Pacific Ocean that my Uncle lives near.

My Uncle and I

We went to dinner at this place right on the beach. I had scallops and clam chowder. The food was delicious and I was still forgetting to be sad.

We watched the sun set, then took our Uncle back to his cool home, hugged him and thanked him for our rocks and glass floats and dinner.

We'll see you before too long!

Next, we were on to our Aunt and another Uncle's house. They live on the coast too. We stayed the night with them, my sister Lindy and I sharing a room with twin beds and unicorns on the walls and stars on the ceiling. Which we found funnier than the cheese and giggled till we fell asleep. There is no noise at night on the Oregon Coast.

The surf is the only sound I heard.

I liked the quiet.

In the morning we went to breakfast. Can you see the view from our table? My Aunt worried that we'd not get a good table. They all looked good to me. While we ate we were being watched...

Hello Mr. gull, I would give you some of my yummy pancakes, but you already ate most of my sisters.

We said goodbye, we'll see you soon. I have a feeling we'll be seeing alot more of this coast.

It's simply beautiful.

(and my baby is up here.)

With directions in hand we set out on the road. Lindy said she needed to get home, she had work to think of, we shouldn't dally. Oh, right, I agreed.

That lasted about five minutes. We saw a sign for Cape Foulweather, a lookout it said. We couldn't pass this up!

We see it out on the cliff, let's get closer...

we followed a path through more trees

(right on the ocean, I can't get over that) it's really spectacular...

Here it is! Cape Foulweather. It is a lovely old house which I think was once an observatory. Now it's a gift shop and a sort of visitors center. I bought a book, but mostly I just admired the little house and looked out the windows.

Come inside and see.

Oh my, could you imagine living here and being a lookout?

Standing right here at this window several people saw a whale spout. We missed it. We couldn't see it. Even though we were standing there too :(

But isn't this a fantastic place to say Thar she blows!

Once again, heading for home. Shortly, we saw a sign for a glass blower. By now our car was reading our minds and was turning of its own accord, while we laughed and said, who are we to argue?

Who would have guessed that that modest little house in the photo above held all this amazing hand crafted beauty?

Here is where all the work is done. It was already over 80 degrees outside, can you imagine how hot that area near the furnace is ?

So this is where my Uncle got all his glass balls. These were all over his house. He had given us one of these also. I told you he was cool.

Which would you choose?

We are not in the glass blower shop anymore. No, now we are at the wood carver. It really is the last of our (unplanned) stops, we told the car,

so it knows.

I forgot to take a photo of the little bears. If I didn't have a child (or four) in college I might of bought one. Maybe.

This is one of our planned stops. :)

Our Uncle told us about this place where we could view sea lions.

There they are, hundreds of them. It made me dizzy to watch since you have to lean over a steep cliff to see them. Right before we waved goodbye to the many sea lions, we saw a spout out at sea. Whales!! We saw them after all. A family heading south for warmer waters.

It's always a thrill to see.

Heading east now towards the interstate that will speed us home. And to the very last of our planned stops. We are looking for elk.

At the official elk viewing area, we knew we were probably going to be out of luck. It was the middle of the afternoon and hotter than well, hell. Those elk are smart and would be bedded down in the shade

somewhere out of our sight.

Here is what we'd hoped to see.

oh well.

We'd keep our eyes open for the next several miles and maybe...

Elk!

you'll have to trust me here, they really can't be seen unless you have a pair of binoculars. But I did, and they are there. Several females were lying in the tall grass in the shade. Yipee!

Now we can go home. :)

We Passed a forest fire in Southern Oregon, good luck firefighters...

I knit a pair of slippers for my sister. We found a cute yarn shop in Portland where I found this yarn, a blend of alpaca and wool, soft, warm and pretty heh? These really do only take one day, two if your looking at whales and elk.

And another wild fire, this one in California, only about twenty miles from home. It was very unnerving driving straight towards something like this.

The fire was to our left, not in the road like it looked! Luckily no (people) homes were harmed (this time) but I can't say that about the wildlife.

This is the last photo, and we are at the end of a journey I had looked forward to and dreaded for so long. I figured out one part of the question I asked myself at the beginning of this post, what would I do?

Well, I won't be sad. I'll look at this as an opportunity,

for Hannah and for me.

Exciting choices are ahead, yes indeed.

If your reading this darling, don't worry about me my girl,

I(we) can do this.

I Love you,

Mama

Love to you too, thank you so much for all the wonderful

comments of support and love,

Lori ♥