Beach Bums

Last weekend, Nathan and I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and take a day trip to the beach.

 

Now, for some people a day trip to the beach involves a lot of activity –swimming, kite flying, sand castle building, perhaps a walk around the tourist part of town or a trip to the aquarium.  A day trip with us is exactly the opposite.

 

Our day trips to the beach involve hauling a bunch of junk food, People magazines, and beach towels down South Beach until we are far away from all other people (noisy children and dogs, in particular).  Then we lay out our towels, eat lunch, and take naps – all while wearing several layers of jackets.  Somewhere in there, I usually find time to dip a toe (and sometimes my whole foot!) in the ice bath known as the Pacific.  We really know how to day trip it!

 

 

Last weekend was so nice, that the beach actually felt WARM.  Don’t let all our layers fool you.  At one point I actually thought, “I am too hot with all of these jackets on.”  The thought quickly faded, but that’s not the point.  It was warm enough that I even went in to the water up to my knees!  The wind wasn’t too bad either, at least not at first.

 

 

Someone who shall remain nameless was a bit of a Crabby Patty after they woke up from their nap to find their entire towel covered in sand.  So, we packed up our stuff and headed north for a little bit of whale watching!

 

Our first stop was Boiler Bay.  We have seen whales here twice before, so we always make sure to stop by.  We didn’t see any whales last weekend, but it was a beautiful day and the tide was coming in, so we stayed and enjoyed the scenery for a while.

 

 

We returned to the car to find a group of seagulls watching it intently.  Perhaps these were the same seagulls who attacked Nathan’s unopened bag of barbecue chips last summer when we went to the beach (a very devastating loss for him), and they could smell his second attempt at barbecue chips in the car?

 

 

After we left Boiler Bay, we stopped at one other lookout on our way home.  I am sure it has a name, but we missed the sign, so we decided to name it ourselves – behold our pictures of “Suicide Lookout”.  A lot of the lookouts on the Oregon coast completely fence off any access to rocks and water, but apparently they don’t feel the need to do so at Suicide Lookout.  They’ll let anyone jump, fall, or be blown off the cliffs by the wind.  At least the jumpers can enjoy a good view on the way down!

 

   

Yeah, because everyone listens to these signs.

 

 

Sadly, there were no whales there either.  But we did enjoy a lovely day!