MAY 2007

Gosh, I can't believe how time flies! May was full of all sorts of ups and downs. Power outages at work that created a surge so bad, it blew out our computer. It was down for nearly a week and I was sweatin' bullets that all our data was lost. They finally got it going and all was well.

The arrival of our 4th grandson was the highlight of the month! What a sweetie. 7lbs 19.5" long.

Decided to close out the month with a trip with my friend, Michelle, up the coast of California to Oregon where I'm from and my family still resides. We cut over Hwy 20 to Clearlake and began our journey up the coast stopping whenever we felt the urge to stop. We took lots of pictures, of course and there plenty of photo opportunities.

One of the "favorites" was a redwood park in the town of Eureka, California. I could hardly believe that such beauty could reside smack dab in the middle of a town. You step into the park and forget immediately that you have houses and city life all around you.

I took A LOT of flower pictures with my new camera.

I took Michelle to all my favorite places in Oregon and all around my old 'stomping grounds'. We were able to see four light houses on our trip. My favorite being the Coquille River Light House. I was excited to see that they are going to begin rennovations of the lighthouse soon. The light house was open when we were there and it was neat to have a chance to go into it after all these years.

My grandparents use to take us to Bullards Beach Park (where you can get access to the light house) for the 4th of July. I always wanted to be able to go up the tower but they had removed the stairs years prior. I'm going to look forward to going back after they have completed their upgrades.

We stopped in Charleston, OR and went to this little "hippie" shop that has been there forever. They have some great tie-dyed stuff and I always like to stop and see what new things they have. Next stop was a little pottery shack - I pick up a piece or two each time I go up there. Can't resist - she does great work!

Next we headed up to the Coast Guard look out to watch the boats cross the bar and what a great view from there - you can see both sides of the jetty and the coastline up and down each side of the bay.

From there the next stop was Bastendorf Beach Park. I spent many summers there camping while my dad commercial fished. We'd spend all week there and then go home on the weekends for church and to do laundry. Many fun memories. From there it was up the road to Sunset Beach and my favorite place in the whole world (almost) Shore Acres Botanical Gardens. I was a little disappointed that more flowers weren't in bloom but it was still great to see. Rhododendrons in bloom everywhere!

We ventured down the road to Simpson's Reef and you could hear all the seals and sea lions immediately as you stepped out of the car. We drove down to Cape Blanco to see the lighthouse there, but there is no access to it.

That evening we took in some melodrama at the Sawdust Theatre in Coquille, OR. It's a lot of fun and people come from all over to see the plays.
We hung out most of the next day and did some relaxing and visiting with family. I had to get some pictures of my mom's rose garden, of course.


Our last night there we drove up the coast further to Winchester Bay where we got to see the sun set and took more light house pictures.



The trip home was straight down I-5 with a couple of stops for food. We had a GREAT time!