Labor Day Weekend at Cape Disappointment

For several years now we have been joining dear friends for a Labor Day camping trip at various spots on the Coast. This year we all camped at Cape Disappointment State Park, which happens to be one our family's favorite campgrounds. It was a lovely, relaxing weekend. I don't do a good job of documenting all we did--most of these pictures are just artsy beach pictures, but I hope you enjoy them!

I did one "site-seeing" stop with my friend Caitlin. We went to Dismal Nitch, which is a Lewis and Clark site. It's really not much more than a glorified rest area, but with a name like Dismal Nitch it's impossible not to be intrigued!

Essentially, Dismal Nitch was a spot where the expedition got stuck during some nasty weather. Strong waves on the Columbia kept them from leaving, while they "experienced 11 days of torrential rain, high winds, extreme high tides, and little food." William Clark referred to the place as a "dismal nitch" in his diary entry. Well, it was anything but dismal the day we were there. It was warm and sunny, and we enjoyed beautiful views of the Columbia and even could see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams up the river!

That's the Astoria Bridge, which crosses the Columbia River.

The tiny "Dismal Nitch Trail" leads to a nice historical marker that tells the story L & C's experience.

So much for educational sites, now on to beach pictures!

Caitlin enjoying the beach.

The moon was rising as the sun was setting.

Christina watches the sunset.

I love the way you can see the sunlight glowing through the waves in this next picture.

I also found it fascinating to watch the wind blow mist off the tops of the waves.

Okay, if that wasn't enough beach pictures, I have more from a walk I took on our last morning.

What do you see in these little tracks made by the tide?

Here's something other than the beach! This is our beloved camping spot.  We've used it repeatedly over the years. We love the fact that it stretches back into the woods and has access to the beach. It was nice to stay there again.

One last beach picture. ;-) Goodbye Cape Disappointment, until next time! 

Girls' Retreat at Fort Columbia

Hello! After not posting anything in forever, I'm going to try to catch up by posting pictures from my adventures so far this year. The first one is actually from back in March! That's when we went on our second annual girls' retreat with some of our friends. This year we stayed at a vacation house on Fort Columbia, a historical military post at the mouth of the Columbia River.

We stayed at Scarborough House, which was the old fort hospital. The place was enormous!!

The living room. Look at those ceilings!

One of the two  giant bathrooms. This picture doesn't do justice to how big it was! 

The hallway especially felt like a hospital. Those are bathrooms to the right, bedrooms to the left, dining room at the end.

It was fun having a dining room that could fit all of us!

Fort Columbia is close to Cape Disappointment State Park, so we went down there to walk the winter beach.

All the girls!

Mini rivers in the sand.

This is the battery at Cape Disappointment (I don't remember its name!). There are several in the area, with another of them at Fort Columbia.

Looking out the window of our house, down the hill to the mouth of the Columbia River.

The morning we left we took a walk around the bunkers/battery right there at Fort Columbia. They would be fun to explore more!

Old fort buildings.

The front of Scarborough House (where we stayed).

So there's the first adventure. Next up is a mini adventure to a nearby waterfall!

Labor Day on the Coast

Here is a smattering of pictures from our Labor Day camping trip to the Coast. We stayed at Beverly Beach State Park--a new spot for me. We were blessed with really wonderful weather (not at all a guaranteed thing in September!).  These pictures don't cover the whole trip, but they do show some of the things I ended up capturing with my "big camera" at different spots. As usual, I was pretty terrible about taking people shots, but we enjoyed spending the weekend with very dear friends. Most of these pictures were taken while exploring the area with Christina and Caitlin.

The lovely view from the Otter Crest lookout. The long stretch of beach in the background is the Beverly Beach area. And the little spit of land just a bit nearer to the camera is Devil's Punch Bowl.

And here's Devil's Punch Bowl itself. The ocean was calm the day we were there, but I think if we had been there when the ocean was rougher, we would have seen water spraying up out of this hole.

Christina enjoying the sunset at Beverly Beach.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse (as seen from Cobble Beach).

This is the view looking out from Cobble Beach. Do you see the little spots in the water on the left and the lumps on the rocks? Those are seals! (Well, there's some birds on the rocks, too.)

Tiny treasures in the tide pools at Cobble Beach! 

(That's Christina on the left checking out a tide pool.)

Looking down at Cobble Beach. 

We also checked out Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, which is a bit south in Newport. The lighthouse there is on top of the keeper's house. This is the view out the front door of the keeper's house.

Anyway, there's a few shots from our time at the Coast. Next up is pictures from our time on Orcas Island!