Monday, October 14: Brilliant autumn day spent doing mundane things. Mr. Karen and I headed to town to get our flu shots and COVID boosters, then went our separate ways for the afternoon. I spent mine in the studio, going through a few boxes. I’m happy to report I was able to actually put most of the things in either a different box for donation or into the trash.

 

Tuesday, October 15: While getting the mail, I happened to look up and noticed this sideways stack of rocks just above the door to the employee locker room that’s right next to where our mailbox is. Would love to know the story, but not likely I ever will.

 
Wednesday, October 16: Mr. Karen and I left our mountain on a misty morning for our anniversary celebration trip. First stop was in one of the small cities to the south for an eye doctor appointment for him followed by lunch at a favorite restaurant there. Then it was just more driving, all the way to the The Dalles, Oregon, along the Columbia River.

 
Thursday, October 17: Visited a couple of farm shops in The Dalles area before heading west. Stopped at Multnomah Falls, which Mr. K had seen but I had not, despite driving by the parking area for it many times. Drove through Portland in the rain and found at a conveyor belt sushi place to have dinner in a city nearby. Then it was one last push to the Oregon coast, where we checked into our motel in Lincoln City just as the sun was setting, so we took a quick walk to the beach to see the last of the color in the sky.

 
Friday, October 18: Skipped breakfast at the hotel to have brunch a few miles down the road at a place from the best pies list; the food was good and the pies were, too. Then we stopped in at the “hippie store”, which is run by the same folks who had a similar shop in our town before they shut it down when they lost their lease (all too common a thing in our area). Think incense and a lot of tie dye. After that, it was time to drive a bit north for the main event: the cheese and ice cream factory in Tillamook. We did the self-guided tour overlooking the cheese making, but sprung for the paid ice cream experience, which saw us sampling several creamy treats as well as doing some tests of our taste buds. We drove back the long way to catch a view of the ocean before it got dark, then had dinner back at the hotel.

 
Saturday, October 19: Checked out of our hotel in Lincoln City and drove up the coast. We’d planned to hike a trail with ocean views, but found that the access road to the trailhead was closed due to a landslide. Instead, we looked at the ocean both from a wayside and up close from a beach in Pacific City, where I took my eyes off the waves at an inopportune time and ended up soaking my shoes, socks, and jeans to the knees. No problem, I could just change into my hiking boots back at the car … except I could not, as when I pulled them out of the bag I had them in, I found the sole of one was coming off in a way that didn’t look repairable (the layer between the boot and the sole was literally crumbling). So I did the rest of the day in the the flip flops I brought to wear around hotel rooms, and they were not the ideal footwear for walking around the Cape Meares lighthouse area at our next stop. We found a seafood restaurant on a wharf for dinner then made our way through more rain to our hotel in Ocean Shores, Washington, of course stopping at another wayside viewpoint before it got dark.

 
Sunday, October 20: We’d meant to spend more time in Ocean Shores before we drove north to spend the rest of our trip at Kathy’s house up in Bellingham, but the weather was cold and windy and rainy, so we just did a quick walk along one of the beaches, a quick peek at another (got out of the car, stood in the wind getting pelted with sand and decided not to walk out on the point there), and popped into one gift shop before heading out. We found a nice Mexican restaurant in a nearby town for a late lunch. Had the idea we might check out Olympia a bit, but the rain was relentless at that point and we bailed after popping into a Target to use their restroom (after first trying a Safeway that had theirs locked). Made it to Kathy’s at a fairly reasonable hour, which is sort of unusual in this family.

 

*****
On this date in 2022 & 2023: No journal entries
2021: Where I Went
2020: No entry
2019: 33 Years So Far
2002 to 2018: No entries