Wrapping up Oregon

Note: Photo credit for many of the Oregon pics goes to the shared family Google Drive.  I can't remember who shared which, so thanks to everyone!

Another Oregon day, another trip to the tide pools!  This time we drove to the Barview Jetty so that Annika and Ruby could experience the wildlife without having to walk five miles.  I think they liked it!

So purple!

Every day I discovered something new, like this bright red patch.

I count sixteen sea stars in this photo.  How about you?

Ruby slept in, so she arrived at the pools a little later.  The tide may have been coming in, but she was well-prepared in her cute wellies.

Marooned!  But not for long.

Back to the Crown for breakfast and Violet snuggles.  As you can imagine, we ate extremely well during our Wheeler reunion.

After breakfast, it was time for adventure!  We met up with Kevin Wong and three of his kids to go crabbing at a Kelly's Brighton Marina.  We rented a boat and took turns casting crab traps in the nearby bay.

The traps are these large rings baited with fish that you drop overboard along with a buoy.  You let the trap sit for about ten minutes, then pull it in quickly to see if you have any keepers. To keep a crab, it has to be both male and above a certain size.  Do you know how to tell a male from a female crab?  Carefully flip it over, then examine the abdomen.  If it's a pointy shape, it's male.  The beehive shaped bellies are female. 

While one group fished from the boat, the others crabbed off the dock.  This crabbing is a bit different because you cast your bait ring off the dock by throwing it like a frisbee.

Crabbing licenses are a bit pricey for the older folks, so I made Annika and Eli do all of the crab handling.  It's a good thing they're fearless!  One of the women from the group next to us got pinched, so she was quite glad to let Annika handle her crabs too.

Meanwhile, Violet did what she does best--exude cute.

Eli comes face to face with Mr. Barnacles, the dungeness crab.

Our first "keeper", Mr. Barnacles was really tasty.  The marina would boil, clean, and serve your crabs right on site.  In the end, we caught a keeper off the dock, snagged a second off the boat, and got gifted a third by a kind family that didn't want theirs.

The first morsel served is the crab's heart.  Reasor was brave enough to try the delicacy.  Pure bliss.

From there we did our best to divide the spoils.  

From the oldest to the youngest, everyone loved the crab.

Best catch of the day.

The crab was delicious.  Without exaggeration, if today were my final day on earth, I would choose crab off the dock as my last supper.  Still, there wasn't quite enough to fill tummies.  So when we got back to Rockaway, it was time for a hot dog roast right on the beach.

Some people roast mallows; Ben, he roasts peppers.  Yet another reason to love Spackmans.

On our last day, I traded my beach run for a misty mountain run that Ben mapped out.  While the overlooks were opaque, it was pretty amazing to run through the clouds.  If you  look closely, you can see the doe and fawn sharing the trail ahead of me.

When the fog lifted, I was amazed by the abundance and diversity of wildflowers.  These were my favorite.

True confessions.  By the last day, I was definitely annoyed by the Rockaway mist.  I really wanted a sunny beach day, but it just wasn't in the forecast.  Even so, I enjoyed watching the kids design and construct their summer homes.

Hoping to find sun elsewhere, we went for a long drive to a beach that supposedly had sea glass.  Truth to be told, we didn't find much of either.  On the positive side, we didn't run out of gas, even when forced to take a lengthy and unexpected detour.  I'm always grateful for these small miracles.

Other fun Rockaway memories: Pronto Pup!  I kid you not, this was the view out my bedroom window.  Home to the world's largest corndog and most hilarious kiddie ride.  Drats.

When the bucking corn dog breaks down.

Never fear, I hear the littles were plenty amused by this mouse that slipped in through the open garage front doors.  Fortunately they were able to shepherd it back outside.

More fun memories: the historic train!  It ran directly behind our AirBnB!  We didn't hop on since we'd just ridden the rails in Colorado, but it was still so fun to see.

Christy cooks.   Nyam nyam.

Deviceless, Eli entertains himself old-school style.

Morning solitude.

And to top it all off, some Violet vibes.

What could be better?  Thanks to all for yet another fabulous Wheeler reunion.