The Beach ~ Summer Vacation - Day 3

We took our time waking up and re-packing Monday morning, and it was nearly 11:30 by the time we finally left Phi's house. Of course, I never did get a picture of Phi's family, or his house or even the general area - definitely something I need to work on!

Anyway, once we got on our way, we stopped for lunch at a Sizzler restaurant. They have an awesome salad bar and the salad bar isn't just greens either! I think the best part about lunch that day was it cost us $2.00 to feed three kids. Someday restaurants will realize that a two or three year old can sometimes eat more than an average adult... but I'm not about to point that out anytime in the near future! After lunch we hit the road again, stopping only to fill up with gas when we saw a good price.

We got to Lincoln City, Oregon around 3pm, and the kids were beside themselves with excitement. As soon as we got our room keys, and found our room all three of the kids gazed in awe at the ocean. We had our very own balcony overlooking the beach and it was wonderful to be able to leave the sliding door open a little at night just to hear the crashing waves and enjoy the freshest sea breezes. But I'm getting lost on tangents here and that will only end up in a terribly long-winded post, so back to the beach...

While Sir and I took turns unloading the car, the kids stayed on the balcony and stared at everything in sight. They tried hanging various limbs off the balcony and at one point PC lost his soother. At least it only fell the three stories down to the grassy area instead of even further to the beach below. After quite a fuss from the kids, we figured out what the problem was and Sir made the extra trip to retrieve the fallen pacifier.

When we finally got the car unloaded, Sir ran out to get some milk and other basic grocery items and while he was gone the kids and I checked out the beach. It was really windy that day and PC wasn't too sure about walking out in the sand and wind while monstrous waves crashed only yards away. Dolly, on the other hand wanted to try everything out. Were the waves wet? Hmm.. let's see.. Can you run on the sand? Ok, let's try... What happens if I chase the seagulls?... and so on. Between the two of them going in opposite directions (Dolly heading out to sea and PC trying to figure out the fastest way back to where we came from) and me juggling Emma and the camera as I tried to walk on the sand without getting sand in my runners, I didn't get any pictures taken on that excursion.

I did get some pictures of the beach from our balcony once we got back to the hotel, and that evening I even managed to get a few shots of the sunset. You don't realize how difficult it can be to take pictures until you have three kids needing your attention at the exact moment the most stunning sunset is unfolding. Oh well, I may not have captured the most stunning moments of the sunsets while we were there, but at least I got something!

After dinner, and once the kids were finally settled in bed, Sir and I set up the folding chairs on the balcony and relaxed until it got too cold to stay outside.

Well, I was going to lump all three days at the beach into this post, but that was before I realized how long it would end up being, so I'll stop here at the end of our first day at the beach and leave you to imaging the sounds of crashing waves and the scent of sea breezes lazily wafting through the white gauzy curtains.

And hopefully I'll continue my narrative of our vacation in the next day or two instead of letting another week or two slip by un-posted. Summertime is such a busy time, but how I love the summer!