Day at the Beach, Lincoln City

Mom and Dad offered us a trip to the beach to celebrate Annie's birthday. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. Annie, Haley, Mom, Dad and I left from Forest Grove at about 10am. We made a stop at an estate sale in Yamhill and then headed to the casino in Lincoln City. While on our way we once again saw the stately mansion that served as a backdrop for a picture of Mom and her sisters some forty years ago. She said her sisters agreed to have another picture taken and that the owners are still relatives and will let them do it. Will be nice if they can make time to do it again.

We arrived in Lincoln City just in time for lunch. We had the buffet which was delicious. Salmon seemed to be the favorite. I enjoyed the rice and crab stuffed cod. They had lemon merangue pie, so Haley was extra happy. I think the best was the carrot cake.

After lunch Haley and I went exploring while the rest of our group settled in for some gambling. We took the van and did some exploring. We went to the state park at Devil's Lake. We went to a cute little candy shop and got Grandpa some salt water taffy. We went to Bimart and got Haley some orthopedic inserts for her shoes (Haley had a doctor's appointment earlier and learned that a "bump" on her right instep and the pain in her knees was from growing so fast and to help with the pain she needed the inserts).

We drove around, looked at the beautiful homes in Lincoln City and found a thrift store in the basement of the Elks Lodge. Kind of a creepy place. One of the pictures above is from on top of one of the hills looking out over the ocean.

We also had a chance to go to the beach. The stairs down were very steep and zig-zagged all the way down. It was a bit hazy on the beach but there was almost no wind and it was nice and warm. Really enjoyed sitting there, taking pictures of Haley. But had to come back a little early because Haley took on a big wave and lost. Got back to the van and Haley got under a blanket and changed into a pair of shorts.

On our trip back home we stopped at Walgreen's in McMinnnville and also at a super used clothes store called "New To You". Haley and Annie found some clothes they liked and then we headed home. When we were dropped off Dad asked me to consider ways to tape hawk sounds to be played from remote control airplanes. Figure a small mp3 player attached to a sound system would work. Will have to give it some more research.