Friday, September 6:
The first order of business was to get to the beach at low tide to explore. Ephraim was amazed to actually touch sticky green sea-anemones, and identify many of the things we had read about in books before the trip.
The exciting find was a purple shore crab, about 3 inches across, in one of the tide pools. Ephraim, of course, picked it right up. Just like he did the scorpion the week before in Idaho! He got the same result - a very pinched finger. I don't know if he will ever learn.
We put the crab back in his tide pool, and after Ephraim watched it a bit, we went on to other areas.
Beth was great helping Ephraim climb on sharp rocks, and find new treasures. McKenzie (the dog) supervising it all.
Oceanside beach has a tunnel that you can walk through at low tide, to get to another beach which was supposed to have a huge starfish colony visible at low tide.
The tunnel, and the ensuing scramble down loose rocks at the end, had some treacherous footing. I did not realize exactly how tricky a walk it would be for us older folks!
Ephraim found lots of treasures.. his favorite being a crab claw. We carried it around for a while, until it's rotting meat smell made my backpack and the van stink. After that we made a rule.. only clean shells and rocks as souvenirs.
It was great having Brad and Liz along for the adventure.
Ephraim loved sharing his finds with them.
We had lunch on the beach, and discussed the fact that the tide wasn't low enough to see the starfish colony on the distant rocks. Asher, Sylvia and Beth decided to try going out to the rocks still partially submerged in the ocean and do a close up starfish inspection.
Sylvia fell off the rock, and everyone ended up getting totally soaked.. with only a glimpse of one possible starfish from a distance.
Brad and I had fun shooting photos. It was chilly, and the tide was coming back in, so we quickly headed for the tunnel and headed back to the house.
One of the best parts about this house was the hot tub!
We came back everyday from the beach, soaked and cold, with blue lips and shivering teeth. The kids would hop into the hot tub to warm up and life was suddenly all better.
The fresh air and long beach hike wore out both people and dog.
It was a relief to have some down time.
Mackenzie kept Liz company while she read or worked on her French lessons.
The kitchen was set up really well for a large group of people to make food and eat together.
Pasta, cake, omelettes, clam chowder, stew and sandwiches were all created here to keep the troops happy and full.
Beth was a great help with Ephraim. She often kept him busy while I was cooking. This is one of their epic ping-pong matches.
After warm food, and with everyone changed into dry clothes, we went back to the beach with firewood and the fixin's for s'mores. We had to substitute M&M's for the chocolate bars because this town was so small, there wasn't a gas station to get a Hershey bar (first world problem, I know!)
The sunset was amazing. The s'mores were sticky and tasty.
I really loved singing as a group around our campfire. I wish I'd brought songbooks for everyone! It was tough to remember all the verses and parts to songs we had in common. I miss having Brad and Liz sing Christmas songs with us. They have great voices. (Maybe they should come visit us at Christmas! hint... hint).
Saturday, September 7
The main adventure this day was crabbing. I had never gone crabbing before, and knew nothing about it. I had read online about this place called "Kelly's Marina" at Nehalem Bay that was a great place to go try it. It was only 20 minutes north of us, so off we went.
This place is definitely set up for goofy tourist selfies.
The real looking octopus was a great decorative touch.
After filling out the paperwork, and getting an out-of-state shellfish license, we took our receipt down to the dock workers. The first thing to meet our eyes (and nose) was this.....
Yes, a basket of dead, filleted, fish bodies. It was a bit shocking.
The workers tied two dead fish to the bottoms of each of our rings (we paid for two rings), explaining that the crabs would then crawl along the bottom of the bay towards our ring to eat the dead fish. We should let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then pull it up fast, trapping the crabs on the bottom of the netting with the water pressure.
It was good weather, and a busy dock full of locals. I wasn't sure where we should go. A grizzled old white-bearded fisherman pointed to an empty spot on the dock next to him and his grown boys, and invited us to tie our rings there.
Ephraim was hopping all over the deck like an excited rabbit as we tied our ropes down. He looked into the old fisherman's bucket, and saw a mountain of crabs. "This is SOOO AMAZING!" "HOLY COW!" "He has SO MANY CRABS!" "THEY ARE SO HUGE!" "THIS IS JUST CRAZY!"
The old fisherman sat in his chair, watching Ephraim hop around and exclaiming over his crab bucket. He turned to me, smiled, and said with a chuckle "I like this kid!"
We were finally read to crab. Asher and I both tossed our rings in and started a watch timer for 10 min.
Pulling them out was exciting! I could understand why Ephraim was hopping around so much.
It was amazing to see a half dozen crabs skittering all over the netting, trying to escape.
We were only allowed to keep males above a certain number of inches. We had to measure each of these crabs before we tossed them back into the ocean or kept them. The old fisherman came to our rescue and showed us how to pick them up from the backside, thus avoiding the pincers.
Often a crab would scuttle out of the net, and make a break for the dock edge. Here is one trying to fight Ephraim's boot laces.
We threw back SO many crabs in the couple hours we stayed here. I'd say over 50. Apparently, we had arrived at the wrong time for the tides to bring in a new load of crabs to catch. So, we were probably catching the same small ones our neighbors all along the dock had just tossed back in.
I thought it was a lovely area to hang out at. I loved the wind, the smells, the view, and the ongoing excitement of never knowing what we would pull up in the next ring. That may be how a gambler feels when playing cards. I could have stayed there ALL DAY LONG, sitting on a dock, crabbing, and watching the seagulls.
If there is a retirement for homeschool moms, that's my plan. You'll know where to find me.
Sean on the other hand, did NOT like anything about it. The fishy smells, the water, the slimy ropes, the unpredictable crabs and waves. He went to sit farther away in the cafe to sketch.
McKenzie made an appearance on the docks with Brad and Liz, before she was told that she should've read the "no dogs allowed on docks" signs, and was evicted. They left for the sandy beach 20 min farther up the coast, in Tillamook. We told them we'd join them there eventually.
Sylvia and Ephraim passed the time while we waited feeding the seagulls. They shared the crusts of their peanut butter sandwiches with them, giving them a nice change from stolen crab-ring meat.
Eventually, all our dead fish bodies were depleted of meat, and we decided to go. We had only caught one crab large enough to keep, but it was a female.. so we flung it back in as well.
I had really been hoping to eat a fresh crab! Luckily, there was a a counter where you could pick out fresh crabs in a tub and have dock workers cook them for you. Ephraim picked out a good one.
We watched them cook it, and then learned how to eat it, dipped in butter inside the shell.
YUM!
Sylvia was the only one who ate the crab with me. I like the process of eating crab. It is kind of a social event. You don't just shovel it in with a fork, you have to work for it, alongside your neighbors. This leaves lots of time for talking and thinking. I had never though that eating crab would be about more than just tasting the meat, but it was!
Ephraim tasted the meat, but then decided he would rather play with the claws!
This was my favorite activity we did on the coast! I loved everything about it, from the slimy heavy ropes to the warm salty butter in the crab shell.
Whenever I make it to the coast again, I'm going to rent a little motorboat and zip all over the bay, at just the right tide level, and haul up buckets of tasty loot from the bottom of the sea. Good to have something to look forward to still in life!
Meanwhile...
Asher and Beth did not stick around for the full crabbing experience. They went a little further down the road to a place that rents kayaks, and did a 2 hour kayak trip.
Once we got them into the van, we continued up to Manzanita to meet Brad and Liz.
Manzanita is a cute town with lots of shops and a very long beach. Asher and Beth set off to warm up in a bakery with some hot chocolate. They ended up meeting us after finding cute matching socks.
Meanwhile, Sylvia and I held onto Ephraim, as he kept trying to go farther and farther out into the ocean. We all got soaked. It was a relief when he stopped challenging the Pacific Ocean for Alpha-dog status, and just sat down on the beach and built a sand castle like a normal kid.
Sylvia helped him build a wall to try to keep out the waves, but in the end... we all know who won. The Pacific Ocean. Again.
Then back to the rental house, hot tubbing, and showers before bed. We survived another long, wet, and rewarding day!
Sunday, September 9
The forecast for the next several days was rain, rain and more rain. We tried to make the best of it, and got outside when there was a break in the clouds. We started Sunday with going to church in Tillamook. It was a good service. A local missionary was leaving to New Zealand. She spoke, along with the missionaries currently serving in the area.
After church, we had lunch and lounged around inside, waiting for the rain to break.
BYU TV was rebroadcasting a program about President Nelson, in honor of it being his birthday that week. We all gathered in the living room and watched together.
When it finished, we all grabbed raincoats and umbrellas, and set off to explore one of lighthouses in the area "Cape Meares", the shortest lighthouse on the coast.
It was the perfect walk to get energy off, and get some fresh air.
Sword fighting with umbrellas may have occurred.
Ephraim found the coolest little creatures alongside the path on the way back to the cars.
Giant Banana Slugs!
They were everywhere. We saw dozens on the ground and sitting on leaves in the bushes.
Before heading back home, we stopped by the beach to watch the sun set. It was really epic. Bright orange settling over the sea rocks, dark intense clouds on the horizon, moving towards the beach.
By the time Sean got his painting canvas set up, he only had a few minutes to paint before the rain started spattering.
The spattering soon turned into a drenching downpour. We gathered up Sean's equipment, and dashed back to the van. Returning yet again to the house, soaking wet and cold.
The next day, we looked at Sean's painting. The rain splattering created some interesting effects. I like it!
Monday, September 10
Monday started out rainy, so we opted to drive 90 min on a twisty coastal highway down to Newport. The University of Oregon runs a marine science center there, that is free. I wanted Ephraim to see the animals we were unable to find in tide pools, due to the bad weather and awkward low tide times (3 AM was the best time to go out that weekend and check tide pools. Obviously not ideal.)
We met a wonderful student who staffed the tide pool station. She told us tons about all the interesting creatures in the pool. We finally got to touch sea-stars!
She also let us feed these little sea urchins with ripped-up pieces of kelp. They slowly pass the chunk along the spines to their edge, and then tuck it under them where their mouth is. The guide told us that if they didn't keep the urchins well fed, they would chew threw the concrete tank with their teeth! It had happened before.
We saw an octopus that actually changed colors from bone white to glaring red right in front of our eyes when it woke up and wanted food. It was one of the most odd things I've ever seen. My favorite tank was the one with three baby skates the students had raised from a skate-egg pouch that somebody had found on the beach and brought into them. They floated along the glass, looking like they were SMILING at us!
Around noon, the sun came out. We had a quick lunch in the car, and drove to a place that offered whale watching tours, on Depoe Bay. Sean was not interested in being on the ocean (nor were Brad and Liz). Asher and Beth decided to walk around the cute town and explore shops and visit with the poeple at the whale watching center. So it was just me and the young ones, out on the blue sea.
I was really surprised at how many whales we saw. DOZENS! Ephraim got used to scanning the flat sea for any sign of a whale water spout. He'd shout and point to it. Right after seeing the waterspout, we'd see the whale's back roll up and along the surface.
We were close enough we could see the different color of barnacles along the spine. When it was ready to dive, it would flip the tail up out of the water, and we wouldn't see it for another 10 min. while it swam below us.
We saw a courting couple, swimming and diving back and forth with each other, older adult whales, and a young calf. The young whale was blowing bubbles in a sea kelp forest, to knock off the creatures tucked in the leaves. It was fun to watch. We'd see a big round circle of bubbles appear, suddenly, like a smoke ring, followed by the calf diving upwards.
We saw harbor seals, sea lions, and lots of seabirds while we were out. This would be my second favorite part of the ocean trip. I love the rollicking feel of the ocean. I should've been a Viking.
Back to the house for dinner, then a last trip to the beach. Asher, Sylvia and Beth were determined to try body surfing out in the deep waves, no matter the temp.
They took a long run, and dove right in.
They lived to tell the tale. Ephraim and Sylvia also built more epic castles on the beach.
Ephraim found a small dead shrimp, and built an enclosure for it, because, why not?
The sunset was perfect. We watched it go, and felt very satisfied with all we'd managed to do and learn about this magnificent ocean in our time on the coast.
I especially value the time we spent with Brad and Liz in a place that they love.
I could not have imagined a more perfect way to spend time with them. I thank them for splurging and getting the rental house for us all. Eating family breakfast and dinners together was really satisfying. It was a worthwhile investment in how the grand kids will remember them.
Tuesday, September 11
By this time, the best low tide had shifted to around 5 AM. Asher got up then and went down to the beach in the pitch black. He couldn't see the waterline and used his cell phone to make it through the pitch dark tunnel of Oceanside beach, over to the area where the sea star colonies were reported to be. He sat on a rock until it was light enough to see the water line, and went exploring. This low tide was dozens of yards lower than the one during which we had gone daytime tide-pooling. He was able to see lots of newly exposed rock, and snapped a picture of the elusive wild sea star. He calls it "Grendel".
He hiked back through the tunnel, and drove back to the house, the victorious explorer!
We all ate breakfast, loaded up the van, and drove off to the Portland airport. We dropped off Asher and Beth. Sean decided to skip his flight in order to help me drive the 2,000 miles back home to Wisconsin. I LOVE that man!
Brad and Liz stayed an extra day, enjoying their peace and quiet. And hopefully, missing us just a little bit.
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