Day One of Sandsations, Long Beach WA

One of the reasons that we like the Long Beach Peninsula is the many festivals that are held all year long.  Today was the first day of a festival that we hadn’t ever attended—the Sandsations Sand Castle Festival, also known as Sand in the City.

A few professional sand castle builders began setting up their forms on Wednesday, and continue building the sand creations on Thursday and Friday.  This afternoon we checked out the activity, which took place on 3rd Street, next to the new Veterans Memorial Building.  They closed off one block of the street and sand from the beach was hauled into the street.

Spraying water on the face:

Some of the other builders were not as far along with their creations.   Yes, this is a woman sand castle builder.

And an older man just getting started.

Since I had my camera with me, I took a few additional pictures.  The one below is of the gazebo on 3rd Street where musical entertainers perform on weekends during the summer.

Also on 3rd Street is a memorial to Lewis and Clark.  The plaques in the background each mention one of the towns where Lewis and Clark stopped or passed through on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

I’m a sucker for anything relating to Lewis and Clark, so here a few pictures of my favorite places where they visited.

If you like sand castle festivals as much as I do, stay tuned for more pictures.  On Saturday and Sunday the competition moves to the beach where amateur individuals and teams of all ages compete in different categories with their sand creations. 

4th of July Weekend and New Addition Pictures

The 4th of July is a big holiday in Long Beach, Washington, and even bigger when the 4th of July is on Friday, as it was this year.  Friday was a good day to stay away from town, although we did make a quick stop at the Farmer’s Market where I bought some radishes.   I wanted to get raspberries but they were sold out even though I got there thirty minutes after the Farmer’s Market opened.

Painted shed and finished utility room addition and deck.

Thursday night, July 3, Dave and I drove onto the beach to watch people setting off their own fireworks.  Between the bonfires and the fireworks, it was quite a show.  Then on Friday, July 4, we decided at 9pm to attempt to drive out on the beach again and see the professional fireworks, as well as more bonfires and amateur fireworks.  By leaving a minute or two before the professional fireworks ended, we were able to make our way back up the crowded Cranberry Road beach access road and back across to Sandridge Road and back home to Safari Park.

Side view of the new addition. 

On July 4, we participated in the Safari Park hot dog BBQ potluck that was held in the lodge and Dave won a door prize—a cute little red, white, and blue flag purse.  I talked him into giving it to me and I happily used it the rest of the weekend. 

Inside view of the new utility room with shelves installed and washer and dryer installed.

After the 1 pm potluck, Dave and I drove over to Warrenton to get one more gallon of paint at Home Depot.  Painting the shed was this week’s goal.  Dave sprayed two coats of yellow and brushed on a third and final coat.  Then on Sunday he painted two coats of white trim.  Now the shed is all done, except for placing shelves inside.

Safari Saturday picnic food buffet:

Saturday was also a special day at Safari.  The second annual picnic was held in the green space common area.  This time the BBQ included hamburgers, hotdogs, and all the trimmings, as well as potluck chips, salads, fruit, and desserts.  I had brought a “star spangled dessert” to Friday’s potluck, so on Saturday I fixed a fruit bowl with watermelon (red), jicama (white), and blueberries (blue).  I got the idea for both of my potluck contributions from the internet.  The picnic was loads of fun with food, games, horseshoes, a raffle, and more food.  

A few of the boats at the Port of Ilwaco while we were waiting for the fireworks to start.

Ilwaco holds its own fireworks show on the first Saturday in July, so we attended that show, too.  The Ilwaco merchants sponsor the fireworks and they are put on by the same group that do the Long Beach fireworks.  Both shows are excellent, but it’s easier to park in Ilwaco, and the crowd is a bit more family-oriented.  I got a kick out of the comments by a girl, perhaps ten years old, who was sitting near us.  She absolutely LOVED the fireworks and said that she had never sat that close to the fireworks and that they looked “animated” and that she wished all of her friends had been there to see those fireworks.  She was right, we were sitting very close and had a great view.

After three nights of fireworks displays, we were happy to sleep in a bit on Sunday morning but then it was off to the paint cans for Dave!

Friday night moon picture:

We are home for a week now and then we’ll be back at Safari for the second of three membership meetings, Long Beach’s sandcastle festival, the rodeo, and looking forward to seeing the Peninsula Players perform “Fiddler on the Roof”!

Cabin Addition Progress

The addition of a utility room to our park model at Safari Park in Ilwaco is coming along.  We are very pleased with the work of our builder, Bob Losinger.

The following three photos were taken when we were down there for the afternoon on Sunday, June 8:

The 5 foot by 20 foot addition from the front.

Inside the addition.  Former park model door opening is temporarily boarded up on the right of the picture.

View from the back.  Notice how the addition roof is attached to the old roofline.  It took some extra work on Builder Bob’s part, but it made the addition taller in height.

Dave took the following two pictures when he went down there to supervise the electrical work on Friday, June 13:

The deck and steps have been added.

The 8 foot by 12 foot shed has been built.

When we were there on Sunday, June 15, the front door to the addition had been installed and the dry wall was up.  We forgot to take pictures!  While we were there, Dave installed a ceiling fan/light which replaced the overhead light in the bedroom.

A load of roofing and siding is expected to be delivered today, delayed from the original delivery date of June 3. 

In about ten days, Dave should be able to start painting the interior of the addition. 

We can’t wait to be able to visit for more than a day trip, and I’m looking forward to scheduling the delivery of our new washer and dryer which will take their place at the back of the addition. 

Fun times!

May Activities

Dave and I are down at our cabin at Safari Park in Ilwaco, WA for a few days.  On Sunday we will be attending our first membership meeting for the park.  Afterwards they are having a pie social.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you might recall that I wrote that our neighbor down here wants to move his fence 14 inches on “our” side.  We have met him in person and decided that we believe his story that he originally built his fence in the wrong spot.  Are we happy to lose some of our lot size?  Of course not.  But it seems to be the best solution.

Neighbor’s park model and fence-to-be-moved on the left, the 14-inches staked on the right and our car parked next to our park model. 

In the meantime, our plans to have a 20 foot by 5 five utility room addition onto our park model have been approved by the board, as well as the plans to build shed.  Builder Bob will begin both projects in early June and he said that he should be finished in about three weeks.  Then Dave will paint the inside of the laundry room and the outside of the shed.  We’ll see about that timeline!

See the picture of our cabin below.  The new addition will be from the back of the park model up to the window.  The new covered porch will be from the window to the sliding glass door with new steps in front.  The two current sets of steps will be removed.  The shed will be built at the back left of this picture.

Adding another hundred square feet to our cabin will make a big difference to us.  We’ll have a washer and dryer with its own water heater, more pantry storage, and a broom/vacuum closet.  We will also have a small covered porch leading to the new addition. 

Last weekend we went on our annual trip to Mallard Creek Golf and RV Resort in Lebanon, Oregon.  Dave and two of his friends played golf on Friday, but we ended up having to go home after they finished their game.  Our motorhome’s residential refrigerator was not keeping things cold or frozen.  We drove home during Portland’s rush hour and unloaded everything when we got home.  An appliance repairman arrived on Monday morning and discovered that there were a couple of small freon leaks.  He came back later in the day with the equipment to fix them.  All is well now and we (hopefully) won’t have that problem again.

Mallard Creek RV Park rhodies

Since Dave and I were home on Saturday, we decided to attend a performance of “Phantom of the Opera” at a local high school.  We had never seen the play or the movie version.  The school rights to the play became available last fall and Washougal High School ambitiously applied and received permission for the performances.  They did an excellent job!  One more part of pop culture experienced by us, check!

On a cold and rainy May 4, Dave and I attended the Loyalty Days parade in Long Beach. We were surprised to see the mighty Camas High School Band marching in the parade.  I enjoyed all the bands.  We were surprised that the parade lasted almost 1.5 hours.  Lots of patriotism showed through despite the bad weather!

Ilwaco High School Band

Birthday Celebration

Yesterday, April 30, was my birthday. I am now old enough to receive social security at the earliest possible date, in other words, 62. 

I celebrated the day before my birthday by going out for lunch with my friends, Jackie and Diane, at The Heathman Lodge in Vancouver.  Then on Wednesday, Dave and I headed to our cabin (park model) at the beach.

There are always projects to do here—this time it was finishing up some satellite work and installing a router for our computers.  These projects were done by Dave and I am happy to be the recipient of his expertise and hard work.

Then today we are having the electricians install an exhaust fan in the cabin bathroom.  Maybe now the bathroom mirror won’t get fogged up every time we take a shower.  And that’s it for this week’s projects!

Cape Disappointment State Park

After arriving at the cabin yesterday morning, Dave took care of a little client computer work and then we headed for Subway to get our lunch and took it to one of our favorite spots at Cape Disappointment State Park, the parking lot with the view of Cape D Lighthouse.  The lighthouse is in desperate need of a paint job, but it’s still a fine sight.  This time we saw an incoming ship while we were having lunch.

Then last night, we ate dinner at The Depot Restaurant in Seaview, located between Ilwaco and Long Beach, WA.  This used to be the actual depot when people traveled by train from the Portland area to vacation at the beach in Seaview in the late 1800s.  The depot has now been turned into a casual fine-dining restaurant.  On Wednesday nights during the school year, they cater to the local population and serve hamburgers.  And they were excellent hamburgers, although I had a portobello mushroom burger instead of a hamburger and it was delicious, too.  We each had the clam chowder, too, which was different than our favorite Splash Café chowder in Pismo Beach, but nevertheless delicious. 

1870s era picture of The Depot from the internet:

Guess what?  The rain has stopped for a few days and now it’s HOT.  Yesterday was a record-breaking day for high temperatures in many parts of Oregon and Washington, and California, too, I hear.  Mid-80s temperatures might not sound too bad, but believe me, it was hot in our little cabin with no air-conditioning.  Today it’s a little bit cooler and for tomorrow and the following days more rain is predicted along with much lower temperatures.

The not-so-famous Cape Disappointment version of Waikiki Beach, littered with driftwood:

April Means Tulips

Today’s pictures were taken at the Holland America Tulip Farm in Woodland, WA.  This is a field trip that I always enjoy each April.  We avoided the crowds on the weekend by visiting the tulips on a Monday morning. 

Dave and I have both been sick with colds that lasted about ten days, but we are feeling better now.

After arriving home from California, we have made a few trips to the Long Beach Peninsula to visit our “cabin”.  Our neighbors are disputing the boundary between our lots, saying that their fence was not erected on the boundary line as we had previously been told.  If they are correct, and we’re not sure that they are, our lot will shrink by 14 inches from front to back.  This means that our motorhome will barely fit.  But since we can stay in the park model, that is not a huge deal.  We had planned, though, and measured (we thought) for the motorhome, with both slides extended, to fit beside the park model.

Dave installed a satellite dish at the cabin and soon we will be all set with high definition TV.  It only took three or four trips down there to get it all working.  Maybe he will write a blog about the process.  The park’s internet administrator kindly installed a wifi antenna on our park model, so we are enjoying speedy internet. 

There are plenty of other things that still need to be fixed, like replacing the kitchen faucet and tweaking the bathtub/shower plumbing.  We are planning on having a shed built on the lot,  and we are looking into having a small addition built onto the park model which we will use as a utility room and laundry room.  And oh yes, the microwave stopped working, so we have added replacing that to our list of projects. 

My Blog’s 5 Year Anniversary

When I started my blog in April, 2009, the purpose was to inform family and friends about my upcoming open-heart surgery.  I had to be convinced by my daughter-in-law, Kiersten, that anyone would be interested in reading what I wrote. 

During my time in the hospital, Dave updated the blog for me.  It’s interesting for me to re-read all those entries made during that trying time.

But here I am five years later, feeling much stronger and better because of having that surgery to replace my aortic valve with an artificial valve.  Going through a crisis of health was eye-opening for me in many ways. 

My original blog didn’t contain any pictures until the end of December, 2009, when I included a few pictures taken at an RV park that we stayed in at Yachats, Oregon.  After I discovered how much fun it was to add pictures to my blog, I began to include pictures whenever possible.

I used to blog much more often and included many various topics in my blog, including the two big no-nos, politics and religion.  The blog gradually turned into more of an RV blog after RVers started reading and commenting on my blog. 

My first blog post was written on April 17, 2009, and on that date in 2011, our first granddaughter, Sophie, was born.  So Sophie will celebrate her 3rd birthday on my blog’s 5th birthday!

Sophie, March 17, 2014

Anya, Tim, and Kiersten—March 17, 2014

Dave and Carol at Pismo Beach, CA--February, 2014