Second part of September!

We are lucky enough to have a second home, a fractional ownership, in Pacific City, Oregon, on the Oregon Coast.  The coast has always been my very favorite place and when we were able to secure our own little piece of paradise six years ago, it became a dream come true to get to spend time here every year, sometimes alone and sometimes with a gaggle of visitors...and we love it either way!

Haystack Rock, the lesser known haystack, a.k.a. Chief Kiawanda.

Lucky for us, the developers of the area of Cape Kiwanda recently updated the RV park adjacent to our condo and allowed us to park Gracie there...and the RV park includes Airstream rentals, so Gracie had some sweet company!  It's such a great idea and the trailers they have there range from vintage to brand spanking new, all of them completely furnished and ready for a great beach glamping experience.

Check them out at Hart's Camp in Cape Kiwanda!

Once we got Gracie situated and we got our stuff moved into our condo, we welcomed our guests, our wonderful friends from Idaho, and enjoyed the heck out of the sunshine, the views, the dunes, the beach and life itself!

I am in love with this guy... (shhh...don't tell Mike!)

And his sweet big brother!

We love sharing this place with people we love!

I'm always happiest here...

Took a trip down to Oswald West, Short Sands beach...it's been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager camping down here with my family!

After this beautiful crew left we had some time to ourselves to do some hiking around the point, whale watch, do some photography, enjoy the fog and the rain, my girlfriend from Portland came over for a quick respite and Mike's sister and brother-in-law came too for several days of fun!

A whale!!!

I got really, really brave with the drone and flew over the Cape!!!  It's my favorite drone shot, to date!

We also spent a little bit of time doing a full clean and maintenance check of Gracie...we washed every linen, swept, mopped, dusted, tightened up a few loose screws, etc...and, of course, did some rearranging of our storage (we seem to do that all the time!!!).

We said goodbye to our little heaven after a wonderful two week stay and headed back to our moochdocking spot in Battleground (thanks, Shawn!) for a quick surprise - while Mike headed to Eastern Washington to see his parents, I got on a plane to Boise, grabbed a rental car and drove to Pocatello to show up on our daughter's doorstep the next morning - SURPRISE!!!

Harper learned to ride her bike while I was there!!!

I got to pick Harper up from school and get a tour of her class!

We had a fun park date with our buddies!

After a prolonged, sad goodbye I made my way back to Boise then back to Portland and we hitched up Gracie once again, this time, heading to Waterloo County Park, east of Lebanon Oregon for a week long stay in one of our favorite cities in Oregon, Corvallis.

Our site at Waterloo County Park...a couple of days turned into almost a week, we had so much fun!

We got tickets at the last minute to the Oregon State v. Washington game and invited Mike's sister, Kelly, who was down in Eugene, to come along!  We also included Kelly in on a day of exploring many of the covered bridges in that area!

We went to five or six bridges...it was a fun day, followed up with yummy teriyaki food!

This was just pure silliness and fun!  Did you know that you could do this with the pano feature on your phone?!!!  :-)

One of our favorite college campuses is Oregon State and this is the inside of the Women's Building, where Allison and Stephen first met!  

The Memorial Union at OSU.

New Morning Bakery!!!  A must for their baked treats!  And their quiches, and soups and sandwiches, etc...

Hitched up again!

We left our fun little spot at Waterloo and headed south in early October...first stop, a beautiful little Harvest Host spot in Jacksonville!