Rockaway Beach, Oregon

Our much anticipated vacation to the coast started out with a bout of chickenpox for Carter. It wasn't a really bad case, but he still had them so we down played it the first few days.

 We rented a really nice, comfortable beach house on Easy St. in Rockaway. There was plenty for the kids to do while we were playing it easy, Shawn and Mason watched some movies and we watched the Olympics at different intervals. 

 We got to the beach Tuesday night and mid week, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. We took a little trip a few blocks west and got to spend some almost secluded time on the sand and running in the waves.  Mason was the only one brave enough to play in the Oregon Coast water. It was cold.

 Carter enjoyed his first experience with fists full of sand and  watching everyone run around him.

 Paige worked really hard at building her sand castle. She filled her bucket, packed the sand, added more, packed some more, and finally got something that looked like a sand castle from a bucket. 

 Emma was everywhere. She didn't stay put very long anywhere. She dug in the sand, ran through the tide pools and played along the stream that drained into the ocean. She was busy trying to make a friend at one point.

 On Thursday we went for a drive south to Lincoln City and hit up the outlets there where Shawn and the kids did some shopping for my birthday and I did some shopping for needed kids clothing.  After we were done at the outlets we went to Mo's Restaurant for some dinner. It was yummy, and oh so busy.

 After dinner we walked down the pier and took some of our only all family pictures. It was breezy and because of the wind it was cold. All I wanted to do was find a good warm coat. Welcome to the Oregon Coast.

 Friday Shawn and I left the group of crazies with Grandpa and Grandma and took Emma crabbing. We went to a Marina right off of Hwy 101 at the Nehalem Bay. We started out on the docks, but there were so many people there and no one was catching anything that after a while we decided to rent a boat and take it out to the bay. BEST CHOICE EVER!

 When we got out of the bay the other side of the shore there was a group of sea lions. Emma was thrilled to see them. They were just resting and enjoying the sun. 

 Crabbing from the boat is harder work than crabbing from the dock. You get a lot more crab, but a lot of what you catch isn't big enough to keep so you have to sort through your catch and throw back the little ones, which most the time means the whole basket. We had 4 baskets and would just go one to the next checking our basket for anything we could keep. You drop it off the side of the boat, and move to the next basket, with has a buoy on the end of the rope. You grab the buoy and pull till the rope is tight and then with all your strength, you pull up as fast as you can. You have to be sure to be pulling straight up as you don't want the crabs falling out as you are pulling either. 

At the end of lunch Emma started throwing crumbs of her bread to the seagulls and it was so funny how so many were following our boat. She was sad when we ran out of bread.

 We caught 8 crabs. We froze 4 so we could have them later. The marina did an awesome job. They cook clean and if wanted shell them for you. They also taught us how to re-cook them so they are nice a firm and not soggy. If you ever get to head this way, we would highly recommend going to Kelly's marina and crabbing from the boat.

 On Friday night we all got out on the beach again and all of us enjoyed watching Shawn chase Mason as he ran through the waves and into the ocean. I'm sure Mason didn't even notice that he kept moving deeper and deeper. Luckie had fun running and playing on the beach with them also. Every time he got down the water he would drink too much sea water and end up throwing it up on the way home. We were so glad we stayed close enough to walk.

 Mason, Paige and Emma few their kites and had fun getting them as high as they could go. We found it interesting that there would be no breeze at the house, and 5 blocks west the wind had a steady flow around 15 mph. 

 Saturday was our last full day in the little beach town. There is a railroad that runs along Hwy 101 and a train that goes from Rockaway to Garibaldi, Oregon and back. We decided to take a little train ride. The kids were so excited. It was a steam engine, and we enjoyed to views of the ocean from the train. 

 We sat in the open, but covered car. The car in front of us was enclosed with windows opened and more comfortable padded seats. The car behind up was just open with no cover. This was the warmest day of our trip and with the kids, we were not going to sit in the sun for the hour we were on the train.

 Mason loved the ticket master. He kept hugging him and I'm pretty sure that he was getting a little annoyed. As soon as I took their picture together, he left him alone. I love the look on Mason's face. Wonder what he was thinking.

 And while Carter decided having the chickenpox wasn't enough, he improved his crawling ability and became pretty good before we left. By the time we left he was feeling much better and wasn't contagious anymore. Good thing too or we wouldn't have gotten to go out and do anything.