Can’t believe we got to visit the Oregon coast three summers in a row. It doesn’t get old. And each year we made a visit to Sea Lion Caves to try to get a glimpse of the sea lions in the cave. The first year was too late in the summer and they had all moved out, the second year the cave was closed due to covid, but the third visit was the charm! We got to see them inside the “world’s largest sea cave.”

We visited more tide pools and were able to see a lot of sea stars this year. They had eluded us in previous years. We also visited Secret Beach at Oceanside, where you walk through a tunnel at low tide to get to a beach that is often full of agate (sea glass). You must return before high tide, for obvious reasons. It’s fun to explore new places, but just as fun to return to places we’ve been and feel that sense of recognition and memories made, like hilarious days spent on sandbars that we’ll surely never forget, lol.

TILLAMOOK

We love Tillamook. There are so many things to do: air museum in a hangar with delicious BBQ, wine & cheese with a petting zoo at Blue Heron French Cheese Co., the creamery, the smoked meats shop. This year we also got to enjoy the parade and rodeo. It was so great to get out in a crowd again! It was the first time since covid lockdown that we truly got to return to an event (over a year). Everything had been canceled for so long, as we all know. Things were feeling a bit isolated, and this was a remedy for sure.

FLOWERS

It was early June, and the flowers of the Pacific Northwest were in full glorious bloom.