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

Back Home to the Rain

Sunny skies are temporarily a thing of the past.  After reluctantly leaving Pismo Coast Village RV Park on Wednesday morning, we stopped for the night at Kit Fox RV Park, a Passport America park in Patterson, CA.  On Thursday we had a short drive to Sacramento, where we stayed at our usual place, Cal Expo RV Park.  We enjoyed a dinner at Outback in Roseville with our sister-in-law, Pam, and two of her four daughters.  Both Patterson and Sacramento treated us to sunshine.

We passed through downtown Sacramento on our way back to I-5 North.

Friday morning we left Sacramento and headed to our destination of Yreka, way up near the northern border of California.  Yreka had sunshine waiting for us, but the overnight temperature was a cold 30 degrees.

Heading north.

Mount Shasta

We had only planned to go part of the way home on Saturday, but the weather was nice, and after stopping for gas at Seven Feathers in Canyonville, OR and eating an early lunch at the rest area there, we reached our intended destination of Rice Hill RV Park by 1 pm.  We decided to drive further, and as the good weather continued to hold throughout the afternoon, we pushed on to home, arriving in Vancouver, WA at 4:15.

Today, Sunday, was spent regrouping and unloading some things from our motorhome, doing laundry, getting groceries, etc.  Tomorrow Dave is having lunch with a couple of his football friends, and on Tuesday I am meeting up with a couple of my friends.  Also tomorrow we will have a chance to see our two granddaughters!

We had a marvelous winter trip down south and were gone for a total of 98 days.  Now it’s back to rainy weather, but no problem, the rain usually disappears by the 4th of July! 

Guess Who Came to Visit?

Merikay and Craig, that’s who!  They are anxiously awaiting the close of the house sale and then they will be hitting the road as full-time RVers.  They escaped Camp Driveway for a few days and visited us in Pismo Beach.  We hadn’t met them, but now we’re in-person friends as well as blog friends.  You can read about their present and future adventures by clicking here.

Their rig was parked near ours, so going back and forth was very convenient.

This couple are quite the hikers.  They put in a total of around twelve miles during the first two days they were here.  Dave and I didn’t join them for those hikes because a three mile hike is more than enough for us! 

Today was a more relaxing day.  This morning, Merikay and Craig joined me on Dave’s and my usual walk to town (Pismo Beach) and and the beach.  After a brief stop on the pier to watch the surfers, we were home again after 1.5 hours. 

Yup, this is the obligatory picture from the pier.

This afternoon, Merikay and I went for a short drive to Shell Beach, Avila Beach, and Port San Luis.  On the way home, we stopped at the Apple Farm Produce Stand.  It’s a fun place, but we both thought that the prices were high.  We also visited the Oceano produce stand, a not-so-fancy, but more reasonably priced produce.

After the drive, Merikay and I went for a swim.  The sun was still out and the (outdoor) pool was heated to a comfortable 84 degrees.   Since we kept our heads out of the water and did water aerobics instead of swimming laps, we didn’t have to stop talking while we were at the pool!

Merikay and Craig return to Camp Driveway tomorrow for a couple more weeks, then they will (hopefully!) be off on their new adventure.

The news from back home is that our daughter-in-law, Kiersten, was suddenly admitted to the hospital on Sunday, and on Monday (her birthday!), she had an unexpected operation to remove her gallbladder.  She’s home from the hospital now and doing well, but with two small girls (1 and almost 3), the no-lifting restriction has been stressful for her.  With the help of church friends and other friends, she and Tim are managing.  That unexpected incident was a scare for all of us, but especially Tim and Kiersten.

 

Anya’s 1st Birthday

We were able to celebrate our younger granddaughter, Anya’s, birthday vicariously through pictures. 

Her cake was decorated with chocolate sunflower seeds.  I think she enjoyed it!

Kiersten and Anya

We miss Anya and Sophie but we will see them in a few short weeks!