Camping at the Beach

Abby loves adventure! Needless to say, she was pumped for our camping trip at the beach. Once we arrived and she saw all the "beautiful trees" to climb in, she was overjoyed. While Daddy and I set up camp, she and Ryan (and some boys from a nearby campsite) climbed trees and ran around having a fantastic time. After the camp was set up and a fire going, we walked to the beach for a quick look at the ocean and then back to the site for some hot chocolate...oh, wait, Abby didn't get any. Before we left home, she got into the food box, took my bag of hot chocolate, hid under her bed, opened several packets and ate them (of course, making a huge mess in the process).


Abby had been wearing sandals when we arrived, and in just a little over two hours her feet looked like she had been walking through the ashes of the campfire! It wasn't long after cleaning up her feet and donning shoes and socks that we made the final trip to the bathroom, which wasn't exactly close to our site. It was after 10:00pm when we finally crawled into our sleeping bags for the night. It took quite a while and a story from Daddy before the kids calmed down and went to sleep.


It was just a little after 5:00am when the kids woke up, and I knew there was no getting them back to sleep. In order to let Daddy sleep longer, I got up with them, took them to the bathroom and then we tried unsuccessfully to light a fire. It was pretty chilly, so I made some hot chocolate for the kids...after her great disappointment the night before of not getting any, I allowed her to have some this time. After about two hours, we started cooking breakfast and woke up Daddy to see if he wanted a hot breakfast of French Toast with us (he did).


Then next thing we did was go to the beach. Like I said, it was chilly, but the walk warmed us up somewhat. We checked out the interesting forts people had built out of driftwood, did some geocaching, admired the scenery, and just generally enjoyed walking along the beach. Even a wind-hating sand-hating noise-hating girl like me loves a walk on the beach!

Inside the pirate fort that was built right near our campground.


There was no need to buy firewood at this campground! All you had to do was gather up an armload of driftwood and carry it back to camp. Abby is always finding great sticks when we go for hikes, and she was in her glory with thousands to choose from.


One of dozens of sand angels Abby made during our trip.


Each time we were at the beach, Abigail would fill her pocket with "pretty things" she'd find: shells, rocks, sticks, etc. We took to calling her Jingle Shells because when she walked the shells would all clang together and make a jingling noise. Daddy and I were cracking up every time she'd run because she would leave a trail of her treasures behind her as they would fall out of her pockets. We tried several times to get it on video because it was so funny (to us, anyway) but weren't able to really get a good clip. In the picture above, she's re-gathering all her "pretty things" she lost during a sprint, much to Ryan's impatience.


After walking a mile up the coast and then back, we went back to our campsite and had some lunch. Then we drove Daddy to the jetty so he could do some fishing. For some reason (probably because we told them it wasn't safe for them to stay and fish) Abby was terrified of the jetty. She's normally so bold and throws caution to the wind, but she gripped my hand tightly as we walked a short distance out on the jetty and said goodbye to Daddy for a few hours.


The kids and I then went back to the beach, armed with buckets, shovels, bulldozers, etc. They spent the next few hours digging and rolling and playing in the sand. The wind was blowing something fierce, and my legs were freezing making me wish I had worn long pants. But the Abby and Ryan seemed oblivious to the blowing sand and cold air and had a blast playing together and separately until we saw Daddy walking down the shore to us.


He had caught a fish and needed to go clean it, so I stayed a bit longer on the beach with the kids before going back to camp for some dinner...which would now include Vermillion Rock Fish! After dinner we enjoyed the campfire and even made some S'mores. Abby is the only one who actually likes them in our house. Mommy just ate the chocolate, Daddy toasted marshmallows and then had some chocolate, and Ryan had a chocolate graham cracker sandwich.


The next day we celebrated "Ryan's Day." We all slept much later the next day, but Daddy woke with a bad migraine and had to give himself a shot. So after a quick breakfast, Abby, Ryan and I, got on our bikes and rode to a large sand dune near the campground so Daddy could have some quiet and hopefully sleep off the meds and the migraine. I helped Abby climb three-quarters of the way up this big sand dune when she turned and ran back down. Then she sat at the bottom and cried because I wouldn't come back down and help her up again! Eventually, she decided it wasn't nearly so difficult as she was making it and scrambled up to the top to join me. We marveled at the view we could see from up there: Tillamook Bay, the ocean, rocky outcroppings from the sea, the jetties, and gorgeous blue skies. Too bad I didn't bring my camera, huh?


Daddy surprised us by finding us as we were riding back to camp. He said his head still hurt so I suggested we drive into Tillamook and do a geocache and have some ice cream while we were there. He was up for that, and so was everyone else. We stopped first at the Blue Heron, yet another place in Tillamook where they make cheese.


The fun part for Abby was feeding the alpacas and farm animals. She has always loved animals, and getting to feed and pet them is one of her favorite things to do.


Everyone was hungry so we let Ryan choose where we would eat since it was his special day. We ended up at McDonald's (big surprise), and the kids played there for a while before we took them to the "real" cheese factory and (more importantly) creamery! We ate the delicious ice cream (it is SO much better there than the store), looked at the boat they have out front and then drove back to our campground.


When we arrived we immediately packed up buckets, spades and toys and walked to the beach for an afternoon of sun (and freezing wind and blowing sand) and fun. Both kids were dying to get into the water! I admonished them that they were going to be very cold if they did, but they were not to be detered by a little bit of cold wind.


Abby had a fabulous time for all of about 10 minutes. She slipped and fell at one point which got her wetter than she had wanted, and after that she was so cold she just wanted to go back to our campsite. I got her dressed in dry clothes and wrapped her up in a blanket hoping she'd change her mind, but once I saw her lying curled up on the sand with her back to the wind, I took pity on her and took her back and built a warm fire! Truthfully, I wasn't sad to leave. I wore pants so I wouldn't be too cold, but the wind and blowing sand was really irritating me.


The next morning we took Daddy to the sand dune since he had missed our first venture there. He brought the camera this time also, but, sadly, there was a cloud bank covering the coast so we didn't get the view we had the previous time. Once we left the sand dune, we rode our bikes to the jetty and found a geocache before riding home to pack up.


Our camping trip was over, but we had had a good time. On our way back through Tillamook, we decided to have one last ice cream cone. Abby chose strawberry and enjoyed every bite! We did a couple more geocaches before making the final leg of our trip home, of which Abby slept about 80 percent of the way.