Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: beach

(+5 insets) (very nice at full size!) (Please scroll down to "Today's Image" for photo info) Moving on From Harris Beach Steve and I spent a full two weeks here at Harris Beach State Park and while we were here, I got an endless variety of pictures, most of which I simply don't have time to post. I hope that at some point I can dip into this well of beautiful images to share some more but for now, it's time for me to step forward to our next stop! If you can believe it, these past 13 posts (since 11/01), brimming with insets and stories, are from exactly ONE of our campground stops. We were out for an astonishing six MONTHS and visited 20 campgrounds in that time! Every spot was like this in the number of adventures and never-ending photo opportunities. It really is completely staggering to think about. Grateful? OH MY YES. I count my lucky stars every time I think about our good fortune! And in the middle of a pandemic, no less. We are incredibly blessed and I am so glad that I can show you all some of the things I saw and experienced. Today is my last post from Harris Beach for now, but don't worry! This jaw-dropping place was also the very last stop for us before we came home in the middle of October…and once again, I filled folders with a totally different variety of incredible sights on that short, yet bountiful, five days. Today's Picture Another stunning look at a natural masterpiece, when I saw this I had to stop and just stare. It was captured at the upper edge of the tide pool area and shows the sculpted rocks with colorful algae adhered here and there. The contrast of light and shadow, shine and darkness, straight and round lines, dry and wet…really took my breath away. I tried many angles and different depths of field to capture the view and this was my favorite. Truly, a single picture cannot convey what I saw, but you will get the main idea: AWESOME! :) Today's Insets One of the fun things that happens on Harris Beach is the non-stop building of driftwood forts! There is a huge collection of logs and branches that wash up on the shore, and they collect at the tops of the beaches. People--especially kids, but adults play too!--will create a variety of lean-tos and elaborate log houses, some complete with driftwood roofs. Most will wash away during high-tide, but some stay to be admired or worked on. One picture shows a driftwood fort, another picture shows a pretty group of colorful logs. I also have another picture which shows part of the tidepool area and gives an idea of the huge place I got to explore. If you consider the investigation through a macro lens, what you see is the equivalent of countless miles to discover! Finally, a pair of images to show some more tide pool life: a still-life of black turban shells with sucked-in anemones, and a rocky crevice where a group of anemones waits for the waves to return so they might extend their tentacles again for a passing feast. Thank You So Much Wow, I am so glad that my last post was such fun for everyone. I sometimes wonder if I bore you all to death with my reports. I try to make it easy for people just passing by to look at the pictures and understand what's going on with my shorter photo descriptions. I get it! We don't all have time to read War & Peace! :D However, it's extremely gratifying and joyful to see that some of you do have the time and better still, you really like what I have to say! It's the very best feeling to me, bringing happiness when I can! So THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. You folks--all of you--make my life so much happier and fulfilled! Hope your week is going well--let's all be extra careful these days…it's getting really scary again!! Explored on 11/30/21; highest placement #2.

(+7 insets) (seeing larger shows some fun fence detail!) (Please scroll down to "Today's Image" for photo info) Notes Written on the Road: You Never Know What You'll Find when Hiking! One day I was riding my bike around the campground loops when I saw what appeared to be a pet cat walking across the road. Couldn't be, I thought. I'd seen cats taken along on camping trips but they always had a harness and leash attached to a carefully attentive owner. And, anyone who's put a harness on a cat knows that such contraptions are mostly there for show…if a cat wants to escape, it can almost always contort its way easily out of a harness faster than Houdini! The reality of a missing cat on a road trip would be a total nightmare…just thinking about it makes me shudder. And yet, as I rode by, I confirmed what I saw: a lovely grey tabby strolling along with its tail held high over its back. I was amazed! Could there be a long-term host who had their cat with them? Something to ponder about. Later, Steve and I were walking around the loops with Pumpkin when we saw the cat again. Steve had seen it previously as well, and we both talked to it as we went by. The kitty was friendly enough that it didn't run away but couldn't be bothered to come over and visit. Fine by us, we had Pumpkin with us and didn't want it to approach anyway. The next morning I was on my walk, heading down the trail leading to North Harris Beach when I saw a couple of ladies with their dogs enjoying the view. Suddenly I saw a flash of movement--the cat! What was this?!! Was this their cat? A CAT going on a WALK?!! NO WAY!! I exclaimed in excitement, "I can't believe my eyes! Never in my life have I seen a CAT going on a WALK!" The two of them turned and laughed, nodding their heads. One said, "This is Whiskey! She really is amazing! Seriously--the first time we opened the door to let her out we thought, 'That's the last time we'll see the cat, she'll take off and never come back.' But she was fine!" I whooped my surprise as she continued, "She goes out and comes right back when we call! And when we go on walks, she comes with us! People are so surprised that they've been taking pictures of her and post them online--she's actually got her own Instagram account!" With another amazed, "WOW!!", I shook my head and stared in wonder as Whisky came running over when I knelt down to say hi. Running my hands over her soft, luxurious coat, I rubbed her ears and skritched under her chin as she rubbed up against me. I was in love--what a sweetheart! I learned that the ladies were sisters, traveling in their RV to Washington-one lived there, the other had joined her for this adventure from her home in California. "I always wanted to go on one of my sister's RV trips, and it's such fun that I'm going to figure out how to do it myself, full-time!" I told them about our adventures and plans, agreeing wholeheartedly that RV life is wonderful. Finally it was time to continue my walk, but before I did I asked them if I could take a picture of Whiskey and they couldn't be happier to say yes! :) What a wonderful encounter. :) Today's Picture We've been lucky enough to stay at a bunch of coastal campgrounds but Harris Beach is one of the best for dramatic, huge rocks. This battalion of boulders leading out to the sea also features unique and interesting shapes along with lovely coloring. And…what's that? There is a fence there, meant to keep curious kids off this sensitive and dangerous area. (The fence is at the beach-side of the park's day use parking area and includes a sign that asks people not to climb there.) Do you see the OTHER fence? This aerie's nest location marks the top of Harris Beach's little butte. It includes a jaw-dropping view of the coastline for all who make their way up the energizing trail to the top! (see inset!) Today's Insets The first inset shows the amazing view from the top of Harris Butte, featuring Goat Island, the largest island off the Oregon Coast and an important bird sanctuary. Other insets from my adventures here include: • A picture of Whisky for you to see--such a beautiful, dear cat! • An inviting beach driftwood fire on its way out (though the people left and should have doused it completely!) • South Harris Beach at low tide (that triangular rock is surrounded by waves at high tide!) • A picture of Steve enjoying photography on North Harris Beach • Extreme wind one day blew the tops of waves into a mist, shown here against a boulder off the coast • I saw a number of beautiful Yellow Spotted Millipedes on the beach and couldn't help getting this view, with my phone, no less! Thank You For Stopping By! It's sure been wonderful to get your blush-worthy comments and happy remarks--this never fails to make me feel very honored and lucky to be part of such a warm community of friends. When Steve and I are away in our RV, our internet is so inconsistent that trying to visit everyone is a trial in frustration, so I gave up. That being said, it's hard to be away and so now that we're home I've really enjoyed catching up with everyone! Here's hoping you guys have a lovely weekend! Explored on 11/20/21; highest placement #8.

(+7 inset!) (please view large!) Injuries on the Road I mentioned that just before our trip, Steve hurt his knee and ankle and was forced to rest his leg. It took a lot longer for his injuries to heal because he needed to be up and around to tend to various trailer/truck jobs, but once he finally became a "potato", his body responded rapidly and within a week he was much better, and by the end of the trip he was able to resume most of his mobility. Wisely, we took it very slowly and it paid off. He still has a bit of soreness and stiffness from time to time but for the most part he's completely healed. As for me…about a week from the end of our trip I noticed that my right foot was a little sore on the top and also a bit on the bottom. It felt like one of those times your foot hurts oddly and then it goes away inexplicably. Only, this time it didn't go away. Since I thought it was just that routine soreness that happens once in a while, I ignored it. After a few days I couldn't deny that a) it wasn't going away and b) it was getting worse, to the point of actual pain. I couldn't imagine what I'd done to hurt my foot--no hard impacts, trips, falls, or obvious accidents. Nothing landed on it and I didn't twist it. That's why I'd initially ignored the slowly-increased ache. But it became obvious when I couldn't walk without a limp that I'd certainly done something to my foot and I'd better start focusing on healing. A Very Slow Recovery Unlike Steve's injuries, however, my foot didn't respond as well. I admit that I did use it more than I should have *shame-face*…I limped my way on a slow 3-mile macro photo walk the day before we came home and it was very annoyed with me by the time I got back to the trailer. Thus, I barely felt any improvement by the time we'd gotten home. Then I spent umpteen hours back and forth from the trailer to the house unpacking, etc., and that certainly didn't help whatsoever. It was only when I'd finished my necessary trailer-house activities that I finally began to feel some improvement. I've been a proper (couch) potato whenever possible, keeping my foot elevated and being very careful to stay off my foot unless necessary. Now, in the week before we leave, the soreness has mostly abated and I'd say I'm at about 80-85% healed. So what the heck happened? I did some reading and it turns out I most likely have an "overuse injury," along with a minor fracture somewhere in my foot and with some pulled ligaments caused by compensation. This injury is not all that uncommon in high-impact sports or dancing such as ballet. The strange thing is that I haven't been all that active during our trip. I purposely haven't gone overboard but apparently my foot felt otherwise. Anyway, I'll continue to take it easy and hopefully by the time we're off on our next trip I'll be back to normal, though I will certainly be very careful to baby my foot for a while. Just because it doesn't hurt does not mean it's 100%. So cross your fingers that I am successful at achieving completely healed foot! Today's Pictures: Another Set From Humbug Mountain State Park Beach! What a lovely, serene experience it was to visit this wonderful beach. Who doesn't love a secluded beach experience without hordes of people?! The wind was pretty fierce later in the day but when I visited earlier in the day it was just blissful! :) The main picture is a view of the jagged rocks tumbling into the sea from the left side of the beach. I shared a similar picture in my last set of pictures but this one is a panorama and shows a flock of seagulls who were relaxing there. I stood and watched them for a bit as they cleaned their feathers, pecked at the seaweed and walked around. It was nice to share this scene with them on such a lovely morning. Insets include… 1) With focused determination, a little girl marches with intent to the edge of the water… 2) A super-wide panorama shows the lovely coast from the other direction shows a darling little girl running to join her sister who is digging in the wet sand… 3) The pair of girls crouch together as a nestled pair with the magnificent coastline in the background. They would soon stand up and return to the sand castles and moat they were working on and I got to watch surreptitiously through my Sony's wonderful zoom lens. 4) A still life starring a lovely bull kelp with its characteristic gas-filled bulb (this is called a pneumatocyst) and large, flat blades; this is an edible seaweed which can grow as large as 120 feet long!! On the right is a different kind of seaweed in lustrous green. 5) Another natural still-life with a strongly-textured rock and an open mussel shell that looks like angel wings 6) Monkey Flowers grow lushly alongside the magnificent driftwood in Brush Creek, which empties into the ocean near the left side of Humbug Mountain State Park beach. 7) The driftwood and Monkey Flowers were so beautiful, adorning Brush Creek as it flowed out to the sea. Thanks to all of you for your visits, comments and stars! I hope that you all have a safe and wonderful week! Explored on 8/4/20; highest placement #6.

(+8 insets!) (Please view large! It's a wonderful zen view! :D) (Please scroll down to Today's Pictures for image details!) Fewer Locations with Longer Stays = Happy Campers! Part one of our wonderful Covid Trip lasted 26 days and yet we only stayed in four locations: Humbug Mountain State Park (7 nights), Bullard's Beach State Park (7 nights), William Tugman State Park (two 4-night stays), and Hecata (pronounced Huh-see-tuh) Beach RV Park (4 nights). We learned our lesson last season that short stays = cranky campers! Truthfully, this trip DID have 3 shorter stays of four days each but they were close to each other and that made them reasonable enough. The juggling of short stays allowed us to meet up with Steve's sister and two sons for our first RV trip with them and it was wonderful! Humbug Mountain State Park Nestled at its base, this park is a lovely gem with several picturesque trails and a gorgeous beach just five minutes from the lower campground. The mountain was originally named Me-tus by the indigenous Tututni people, though first known by Sugarloaf Mountain by American settlers. It was renamed Tichenor's Humbug --eventually shortened to Humbug Mountain --by the founder of nearby Port Orford, Captain William V. Tichenor. The name served as a permanent reminder of the exploring blunder when the party sent by Techinor got lost and headed north of the port instead of south. (The mountain has also been called Mount Franklin .) Our stay was a relaxing one in which we settled into the happy reality of our new fabulous trailer and discovered what it was like to stay put for more than a few days. What a joy! The only bummer was the fact that Steve had badly hurt his knee and sprained his ankle just before we left for our trip. This forced him to stay in the trailer and off his feet as much as possible, something that he really didn't want to do, of course. We both felt very depressed and worried about his leg and the future, and all of this weighed on our mood. However, once he got serious about resting his leg, it began to heal and we felt better in turn as the days passed. I got out for walks every day and had many photo adventures. The trails, the beach, the trek around the lower and upper campground loops--even though melancholy often colored my creative energy, the time we got to spend at this park was enough that I was able to photograph my experience there really well! Ultimately, we hope to come back and stay for another week so that Steve and I can hike all of the trails together, go beach-combing, and allow him to experience the park's grandeur too! A Lovely Morning on Humbug Mountain State Park Beach I went out to the beach many times and got to wander around, soaking up the beauty of the place. The wind was pretty fierce and maybe that's why there weren't many people on the beach most of the time, though families could be seen here and there each day. The scenery was magnificent and I enjoyed taking pictures of the craggy coast as well as macros of the things I found washed up on the shore. Today's Pictures You have to count your lucky stars when you see such a perfect scene for a picture. Arriving at the beach one day, I immediately noticed the pair in my main picture, seated on a log and enjoying the incredible view. I got lots of shots from many angles but I liked this one the best, creating a panorama from the image to give a sense of what they were experiencing. A slice of heaven. :) Insets include… A pile of prayer stones with a soft-focus boulder off in the distance… A magnificent craggy coast line where rocks of all sizes met the crashing waves next to the beach… Layers of sand with a granite rock jutting up for a focal point… A seagull flying overhead, just one of the many that often wheeled about overhead or gathered on the shore… A colorful crab carapace on the sand, glistening from the water that washed over it… A close-up of the shell to see the gorgeous texture… Kelp that lay in a Rastafarian jumble with a shallow dof so the end faded to artistic softness… And finally, a natural still life with a feather stuck to a bit of seaweed. That feather was very stubborn and though the wind tore at it, the feather merely waved around and would not be swept away! :) Here's hoping all of you are safe and healthy and having a wonderful day! :) Thanks so much for your visits, comments, stars, and for your never-ending encouragement and interest in my photography and our adventures! :) You're the best. <3 Explored on 8/1/20; highest placement #2.

(+10 insets!) (view large for more fun details!) ACK! Where Have I Been?! My apologies for the absence and my lack of visits. I'm guilty of diving into an online game that I love, and it's swept me away with its extreme engagement. The game of RIFT allows me to do things I cannot do in real life and every once in a while I just gotta go be a magical being. I'm not "full" yet so I won't be around here very much until I'm satisfied. I'm going to do my best to post and visit but please forgive my lag in participation! Today's Pictures Today I'm posting the last set from our incredible hike at Eastern Sooke Regional Park. Places like this are why we love to travel. Our eyes were opened to the extreme beauty of Vancouver Island's southern coastline and we learned the difference between normal hiking trails in Canada vs. the US. Although this particular trail turned out to be the most extreme of the entire trip on the island, it made us aware that trails tend to be a bit tougher and wild, with assumptions that the hiker is naturally careful and fit enough to take on challenges along the way. Game on! We loved it so much! My main picture shows another lovely coastal view, accented by Secretary Island in the distance. If you look on the beach in the lower left you'll see the enormous driftwood tree stump that I shared in my last set (I'll add the picture again as an inset). Insets of our hike include: a neat panorama of the beach at the beginning of the hike which will give you a sense of the beauty of the area, a group of mushrooms I found, some atmospheric forest images, dried peapods with peas inside, and an oil tanker in the misty distance. I'm also posting pictures of an old bus that was parked at the RV campground we were staying at. It was so old and decrepit that I couldn't resist immortalizing it! Of course I needed to find out more. First off, there are many people who have taken old busses and turned them into travel coaches. The front of this bus has a backwards sign reading "Re-Tyred" and I expect that it has seen a lot of country in its day. Digging further, I learned that this was one of the busses used in Canada's Greyhound fleet, made by Motor Coach Industries in 1950. I am so happy I took pictures because they turned out really well! :) Finally, I'm including a picture of our Grey Wolf trailer and our truck, parked at our Malamat Mountain RV campsite. This location turned out to be perfect for us. Only about 30 minutes from Victoria, just minutes from Goldstream Provincial Park and about 45 minutes-hour from East Sooke Regional Park, it was a very nice hub to base our southern Vancouver Island adventures. The RV "resort" was a bit run-down but nice enough. Many people actually lived there full-time, something we noticed a lot of on our travels. There was a very homey quality to the place and our experience there was very nice. Pam, what's the weather like for you right now? It's been raining cats and dogs on and off for the past few days. I'm glad because it's been an extremely dry fall and early winter and we really need to get the water table rebuilt. Is it dry where you live too? I sure do hope that you are feeling well and shoring up your energies for your upcoming procedure. I'm very happy to read that things are moving along…now you just need to set the appointment! *GREAT BIG HUGS from southern Oregon* Explored on 12/13/19; highest placement #5.

(+9 insets!) (Please scroll down to Today's Pictures for inset information) Continuing with Our Vancouver Island Trip! The drive out to East Sooke Regional Park on Vancouver Island was really beautiful and took us on twisting roads with lovely views of forest and coast. I'd seen pictures and read reviews--the Coast Trail was raved as a MUST NOT MISS hike, and so we went! They were right, and this walk turned out to be one of the most scenic coastal hikes we'd ever been on in our lives! This lovely park features more than 50km amongst its dozens of trails that showcase Sooke's breathtaking forest and coastal scenery. The area was historically prized for its natural resources--logging, mining and fishing--but today you'd never know how important it was in this regard. Instead, this park is now a jewel for all who love the outdoors, with facilities for picnics and group outings as well as challenging remote trails which require a pickup if an entire hike is attempted. We would very much love to go back to this area and spend a couple of weeks traversing its trails. The jaw-dropping beauty was astonishing and though we didn't get to see as much as we wanted to, our choice of the most popular Coastal Trail was perfect. One of the things we weren't prepared for was how much climbing and scrambling we would be doing to follow the trail. In fact, there were many places where the only way we knew where to go was to search out the little yellow trail markers which pointed the way. It was a lot of fun though, and both of us are in fine shape for arduous treks and so we loved the adventure of occasionally needing to find our way! Now, had the trail been straight and easy to negotiate, we might have been able to walk the extent of this amazing out-and-back hike, but it was not to be. It didn't help that we started later than we wanted to and took longer to get to the trail head than we expected. As we set out on the wide, straight walkway that made a beeline from the parking lot out to the trail head at the coast, we wished we'd had our bikes with us. The park, however, didn't allow them. Once we got to the start of the Coast Trail, it soon became obvious why bikes were denied—at least on this trail. Almost immediately there were rocks and roots on the path and some very steep bits on an extremely narrow path. Then we found ourselves imitating billy goats as we crawled up and over huge, mountainous chunks of lichen and moss-covered rocks. I couldn't help myself from stopping to appreciate the colorful succulent, sedum, which clung in great clumps to crevices in the stone. How odd, I thought, to find this plant here, of all places! In any event, we were soon laughing hysterically at our desire to ride our bikes on this trail. Hah! Even the most masterful of mountain bike riders would not be able to negotiate some of the areas we traversed. Bike riding indeed! And so in the end, we had to turn around much earlier on the trail than we'd hoped. However, as we usually do, we found a fine place for our lunch and sat with a beautiful view of the coast to look out on. We munched happily on our sausage, cheese, and fauxtato salad (incredible potato salad made with cauliflower) and talked blissfully about this amazing place we were so lucky to have the chance to visit. Today's Pictures My main picture is one of the amazing coastal views that we got to see along the trail. The cove that's dotted with floating bull kelp had us both picturing how wonderful it would be if we were scuba diving there, though it would certainly be very cold! The insets I'm sharing show some of the cool finds we discovered along the way. It was such a treat to find a number of mushrooms and I was very happy that my Sony was able to take nice pictures that I could share! Other images include the wide, sun-dappled path out to the coast, lots of coastal views and forest highlights as well. ENJOY! Pam, I know you love places like this and Steve and I mentioned you in our conversation as we sat eating our lunch. I don't think you would have appreciated the extremely strenuous nature of the hike though! It was sometimes such a treacherous climb that the little yellow trail signs—literally pounded into the rock face—showed a picture directing people to take turns one by one, so as to keep rocks from falling onto the person below! YIKES! Still, it was great fun and heck, we'd just pick you up and piggy-back you along for the ride! HAH! Ok, well, Steve would do that part but I'd take pictures! :D :D Hope this cold, rainy and misty day is treating you well in your neck of the woods! *BIG HUGS* from southern Oregon! Explored on 12/09/19; highest placement #20.

(+10 insets!) (Please scroll down to "Today's Pictures" for image information) Trip Talk: A Much Heavier Trailer Means More Upgrades to the Truck When you buy an RV that's built better, it weighs a LOT more. The RV industry has many tiers of build qualities because they want to have models available for every vehicle out there, whether it's wise or not. They are so focused on making money that they sacrifice safety, quality, and common sense to get customers. A large number of the trailers out there are marketed as being very light so that lower-end, less powerful vehicles can pull them. We learned the hard way what that really means: flimsy construction using materials that cannot handle the stresses of being on the road and the countless issues that come up along the way. Our Forest River Cherokee Grey Wolf 26DBH only weighed about 6200 pounds when empty and had a maximum capacity of about 7800 pounds. That lightweight, shoddy construction translated into a trailer that crumpled with the stress of travel (isn't that what it's supposed to do--TRAVEL?). In comparison, our new Keystone Avalanche 365MB is about 13000 pounds empty--more than TWICE the weight of the Grey Wolf!!--and a cargo capacity of 2500 pounds, which would be 15500 pounds if fully-loaded! Everything about this trailer is much more substantial and better made (Not saying we haven't found tons of janky workmanship as we've gotten to know it. However, unlike the Grey Wolf, there haven't been any missing screws, bolts, framing or lowest-tier options). This being said, our new trailer is HEAVY! The good news is that our truck is easily powerful enough to pull it and got the trailer home just fine, and up our hill too. However, there are a couple of issues we weren't comfortable with. First of all, when the RV is hooked up to the hitch, the truck suspension is pushed down more than it should be--it's a weight-based stress that's called "squatting." Eventually this would ruin the suspension and makes for a rougher ride. The solution for this was a suspension addition called truck air bags, which Steve installed one afternoon. They can be inflated to the desired pressure so when we're not hauling the RV Steve will deflate the pressure, and when we are towing the RV he can pump them up. You should have seen the beaming expression on Steve's face when he tested them out and saw that the truck no longer "squats" when the RV is hooked up! We were so happy. Steve also took the time to show me the affect the RV had on the truck when the airbags weren't installed. I could clearly see the place where the suspension was bottoming out. Not a good thing at all. So now our truck will have the proper suspension to handle our big trailer! The other problem was much more serious: our brakes. Yes, the RV has its own brakes and they engage when the brakes in the truck are used. However, it's still not enough. We can't tell you how many stories we've read about people burning out their brakes on long hills, having accidents or near misses because their brakes couldn't handle the weight of the RV in an emergency. A normal combination of RV and truck brakes would be fine if you didn't factor in all of the hills and mountain passes. It's the long, continuous need for braking that causes the problems, but here too, there are solutions: compression release engine brakes or exhaust breaks. If you've ever noticed the loud "machine gun/jackhammer-like" sound of a semi when it's going down a hill, you're hearing what's called "engine breaking." Instead of the normal method of slowing down a vehicle with friction or magnetic brakes, the compression and release of pressure of a running engine is used to slow the vehicle down. Another version of this system is exhaust brakes. This type of engine braking is better for an engine and more effective. It works by closing off the exhaust path from the engine, creating backwards pressure which then slows the engine and thus, the speed of the vehicle. I don't know about you but I never understood the whole deal about big-rig trucks and the methods used to slow them down. I knew that with a manual-shift car, you can downshift to slow your car down instead of/in conjunction with normal breaking. However, I didn't realize how important and effective engine breaking was for extremely heavy vehicles. Steve's known that non-commercial trucks can have an engine brake installed but didn't need to consider it for our first trailer. However, the story changed once we got our new trailer. Thinking about the countless mountain passes we've gone over gave us the heebie-jeebies and it was obvious that if we hoped to travel around the country, we needed to make sure our truck was able to handle those hills without wearing out the brakes. So, a couple of days ago we brought the truck to a shop that installs these brake systems and now we have the security of Pacbrakes ready for our next adventure. As pricey as such a system may be, we will actually save a lot of money over the long run because the normal brakes on both truck and trailer will last much longer, and the wear and tear of our truck will be better as well. Today's Pictures On the third day at our first "hub" of our Vancouver Island, located at the southern end, we went to a place called East Sooke Regional Park. Wild and rugged, there are 31 miles (50km) of trails to enjoy there. We decided to go on part of their Coastal Trail and it turned out to be one of the most incredible hikes we'd ever been on. This main picture shows a beach at the start of the coastal trail and gave us a clue on the level of beauty we'd be seeing. One aspect of that particular spot was a huge surprise. My phone, which was supposed to have zero Canadian cell coverage, had extremely fast internet there because the beach pointed directly at the northern edge of Washington in the United States! Once we left the area though, I lost the connection. It was really fun to have awesome coverage for that brief moment though! :) Inset 1: The coastal views were spectacular and this panorama looked out on a breathtaking waterscape. Pay attention to that little islet. You'll see Secretary Island on display in seven pictures among my 3-part presentation of this remarkable place. Inset 2: This little bridge crossed a tiny creek that emptied out at one of the many little beaches along the Coastal Trail. The thick, healthy forest you see was typical of all the trails along the ocean's edge and we were so happy to be surrounded by so much lush foliage. Inset 3: The Coastal Trail couldn't follow the edge of the land at all times because of the rough and rocky terrain. Instead, it was more of a beautiful forest trail which popped out along the edge whenever possible. Here's another pretty scenic shot with Secretary Island accenting the view. Inset 4: You can just make out the trail in the lower left in this forest image. Densely packed with a huge variety of plants, this was the usual terrain and it never got old! Inset 5: There weren't a lot of boats in this area but this sporty fishing boat got my attention as it sped by. Inset 6: At the half-way point in our hike we had lunch at this rock-strewn hillside spot which looked out over the ocean. I remember a tasty highlight which Steve came up with…you take a barbecue pork rind, spread liverwurst on it and top with a slice of hard sausage. DELICIOUS!! (Stop wrinkling your nose, pork rinds are AWESOME and 100% keto!) The yellow-jacket wasps in the area were very keen on our offerings too but after we smacked a few into oblivion the others gave up and left us in peace. Inset 7: I was delighted to find fungus of various types along the trail. I think this is a type of bracket fungus and I just love the texture of the pores. Inset 8: This group of mushrooms looks like they have decorative edging! Inset 9: Imagine my excitement when I looked down and saw an ORCHID! I instantly thought of my good friend, Ron Hanko, who's dedicated a large chunk of his life to these beautiful flowers. This is the Elegant Piperia Orchid (Piperia elegans), a flower which can be found in Canada's British Columbia and south to central California and as far east as Montana. Inset 10: Elegant Piperia is also known as Coast Piperia, Hillside Rein Orchid, and Hillside Bogorchid. The tall spikes are composed of many dozen tiny, tightly-packed blossoms which deserve a close-up to really show lovely they are. Pam, were there pretty coastal hikes you used to frequent when you lived in England? I have certainly learned that England has a gamut of terrain types so I wouldn't be surprised if you used to walk on trails similar to this one. This hike was exactly what we'd been hoping to experience--and then some. The incredible beauty of this trail could not be properly captured In pictures but I did my best! Here's hoping all is well with you my dear! I have played around with the Circle demo you told me about and once I get one that really floats my boat, I'll post it for you! :) Explored on 11/09/19; highest placement #1.

(+1 inset!) (please view large for the best impression!) :D What a day! Finally I have a moment to sit down and it's after 8pm! Sheesh! So much to write though, so let me get this new novel written! :D The excitement of today began last night, actually. Every evening we watch an hour of a movie or an episode brought to us via Netflix. Night before last we'd finished watching the first season of what turned out to be a fantastic sci-fi show called "The Expanse." We'd need to start something new except...I had a plan. We're leaving on our next RV adventure in a few days and I'd been dropping hints about fishing but Steve apparently wasn't tuning in. Fact is, for all but the past couple of months of our relationship, Steve has been totally uninterested in fishing. He had an issue with it, but primarily with folks who catch and release because he thinks it's horribly cruel (I agree). Those who fish and actually eat the fish or catch to sell the fish are fine but because he loves fish (as divers and self-appointed ambassadors to the sea, we both love and respect marine life), the idea of catching, killing, cleaning and eating a fish was totally out of the question. I respected his feelings on the subject and didn't try to change his mind. We both feel that it's a person's right to choose not to do something they don't like. However, that being said...I love fishing! What fun it is! Throughout my teen years until I was about 16 or so, I went fishing almost every weekend up at our summer cabin. The resort community where our family's cabin resided put on a couple of fishing contests every year, and every single year I'd invariably with first or second place in several categories—Biggest Bluegill, Most Bluegill Caught, Biggest Catfish, Most Catfish Caught, and sometimes I'd get lucky and catch a winning Carp too. My brothers also fished (except my oldest brother, he couldn't care less about fishing!) and both Brian and Scott vied for the top place in the Bass and Trout categories. Once we stopped going up to the cabin, I stopped fishing and life went on. I never thought about it. When I met Steve, it was fun telling him about my fishing history and it was ok to me that he didn't like the idea. I'd had my day in the sun with angling and was content without it. But a funny thing happened. We got an RV. We began going on camping trips. And everywhere we went, we saw folks fishing and going out in boats. I didn't say anything about it...but one day out of the blue, Steve said to me, "You know, I think I might want to change my mind about fishing." We talked about our feelings regarding fish and he thought that maybe he could handle killing a fish and ultimately eating it. I was amazed because it's a big step to get to that point. In fact, even though we love eating poultry, beef and pork, we absolutely could not raise these animals, have them killed and then eat them. We are very cognizant of the origin of every bite we eat but we love these animals too much to kill and eat livestock that we actually know. It's too close. Fish are different. They are different enough that even though they do have a variable amount of intelligence, it's not a hard task to distance yourself from feeling destroyed over the thought. I have killed plenty of fish in my young days of fishing and even though it's not fun, it can be done quickly and humanely and then you have a meal to eat! Which brings me to an admission: when I fished as a teen, I never ever ate my catches! (My parents did!) At that age, the only fish I'd eat was tuna from a can, mixed with plenty of mayonnaise and made into a sandwich or casserole. We all know that canned tuna really isn't like a normal "fishy" fish, and that's the only reason I'd eat it. Other than a bit of catfish sometimes in my 30's, I wouldn't eat fish for years until I met Steve. My ex tried to get me to eat raw fish in sushi but his attempts to shame me into it weren't exactly a technique that would have a chance of working. Then I met Steve. Soon after we met he took me to his favorite sushi restaurant and had me try hamachi. To my utter disbelief, I *LOVED* it. Sushi soon became my favorite food and at the same time, Steve took me to seafood restaurants and introduced me to different kinds of fish that I almost always loved. These days we have sushi on special occasions and we will pick up a lovely steelhead trout about once a month. We adore fish and are hopeless trout junkies. Bass is lovely too but too pricey usually, as are most of our favorites. Which brings us back to camping in our RV and our next adventure. We'll be staying at several lakes for up to 5 days each and I couldn't stop thinking about fishing and what Steve had said. However, I wasn't making a big enough noise apparently. So last night, instead of watching Netflix, I suggested we watch a series of videos made by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. They explained everything you'd need to know about how to catch trout, including what to buy, how to get set up and even exact techniques. Steve loved the idea so much that we not only watched the entire series last night, we got up early this morning and went all over the place to look at fishing gear! We are now the proud owners of two new poles, really nice reels and everything we need to go trout fishing on our trip!! HOORAY!!! We are so excited! The idea of catching our yummy trout dinners has us bouncing up and down! I am so happy that Steve is excited too. We can't wait to try out this new fun activity together! :) Ok, today's photo is another view of the amazing sunset that Steve and I photographed when we were in Coo's Bay. It was the first picture I took as we arrived on the beach and I loved the way the sun was shining through the trees. I am also including an inset, which is an archive picture I posted years ago when I had my older camera. Steve and I went to Ashland, about 40 miles south of us, to photograph the splendor of autumn at Lithia Park. I found this amazing mosaic artwork as we entered the park and just loved the detail. It's a trout! How perfect to share for today! :) Pam, do you like to go fishing? It really is such fun and so exciting. I can't wait to catch and cook our own fish...what about you? Is that something you've ever tried? Anyway, my thoughts are on you right now...and I'm hoping you'd doing well today! *BIG HUGS*!!! Explored on 6/8/19; highest placement, #1.

We are still busy settling into our home after our last RV trip. I've been refilling supplies that were used, stripping the beds and washing all of the linens and so forth. Not too much left to do but I like to get it done and out of the way. This morning we also got a delivery...a replacement for the rinky-dink, cheapo plastic toilet that came with the RV! The new one is ceramic and normally-sized instead of feeling like something you might find at kindergarten. Steve was so excited that he had the old one replaced within an hour! It's a really nice upgrade, especially for 6'2" Steve because the original was so short and small. It made us wonder—we are both slender and yet that toilet made us feel like elephants...what are these standard RV toilets like for people who are even the least bit heavy? We realized soon after we bought this trailer is that the original owners did almost nothing to upgrade the RV except to put in a new dinette table...we figure it probably broke so they had no choice but to replace it. Having spent about a month living in our trailer now, it's amazing that they put up with all of the annoying little problems we needed to fix right away. RVs are CHEAP. The workmanship is truly abysmal. Anything that isn't visible is shoddy...there are missing screws, nails, boards, you name it. Rough-cut wood, uneven, lopsided, poorly done everything. "Care" is not a word used in the behind-the-scenes building of an RV. At least, that's been our experience. It didn't take long to learn that unless you pay top dollar—and I mean a LOT of money—an RV is just barely held together and must be upgraded, altered, tuned up and fixed if you hope to use it for a lot of traveling. Basically, getting an RV means that one or both of you must be handy and clever about the myriad fixes that are required to turn an RV into a comfortable home away from home. You won't believe everything Steve's done to the trailer! He's changed out the light bulbs, added a dozen light fixtures, put up at least a dozen hooks all over the place, replaced both the kitchen and bathroom faucets and the shower head too. There's a paper towel holder now, and every cabinet is full of removable baskets to keep everything organized. He added proper towel racks and a toilet paper holder in the bathroom and put in a super fluffy bathroom rug! Both the smoke and CO alarms have been replaced. All four of the tires are brand new and he had the brakes professionally worked on so they are factory fresh. We now have a runner carpet that goes the length of the coach so our 3-legged dog is comfortable and has traction. He's added a bunch of space under the counters just by making the hoses and wiring neat and tidy. He'll be creating a cubby hole cabinet by the door because the space is available and we have to wonder, why didn't they do this to begin with? Space is such a premium in an RV! Likewise, he'll be building two large pull-out drawers under the dinette seats instead of the stupid situation it is now: pull off the cushions, lift up the cheapo piece of plywood and get into the huge space on either side. A sliding drawer will be perfect and should have been there to begin with! Because of Steve's skills, we've got an RV that's really becoming an awesome place. We'll probably need to upgrade our refrigerator/freezer to a larger one but for now it's fine. Oh, and my bed required another topper to make it useable...and now it's perfect! We also have other things to fix and change but the changes we've made have made such a big difference. How could the original owners have put up with it as it was?! Oh yes, my main image! Today is my day to put up my Happy Fence Friday picture and I'm choosing one that I took on our Coos Bay hike. While we were at our turn-around point and eating our late lunch snacks, we noticed a fellow photographer off in the distance at another point. He was there for some time, enjoying the view and we wanted to see too, so after our break we found the trail that took us out to that point and...WOW! WHAT A VIEW! While I was walking over to get a better look, I was surprised to see a chain-link fence that didn't seem to be doing anything but stick out like a sore thumb. But then I thought, "What a perfect picture for HFF!" So here you go! (very busy tonight so no insets!) Pam, we have thought so many times how nice it would be for you to live out here on this coast. We don't know where we'll end up settling down after we've finished having our adventures but Steve feels the same way you do. I don't want to be in cold, foggy, windy conditions that the coast is so known for, but inland a bit would be ok for me. Access to the beach would be lovely. We'll have to see how things shake out way down the road! Wish we could wave a magic wand for you though! *BIG HUGS MY DEAR* :) Explored on 5/31/19; highest placement, #6.

(+3 insets!) (please view large for all the nice details!) Oh my it's been such a busy day! More than one of you mentioned in your comment that coming home from a long trip means a bit of work to get things back in order. You weren't kidding! We have had three RV trips now: two were 3-night/4 days and this last one was 13 nights/14 days. Getting settled after several days away didn't take much effort but two weeks had me working for hours yesterday and most of today! I'm nearly done now, whew!! Thankfully I've enjoyed myself. There's something so satisfying about getting laundry washed, dried and put away, food put away/replenished, computer files backed up and so forth. And meanwhile, the weather is just wonderful. Sunny, warm but not too hot, flowers everywhere, birds singing in all of the trees. So pleasant. I am delighted too that there are lots of California and corn poppies in bloom here and there where I've planted seeds. The splashes of orange, red and pink are so beautiful. It hasn't hurt that we've gotten much more rain than usual this May and the reward of so many flowers is so nice to see. While I've been busy inside the house doing a million things, Steve fired up our powerful DR mower and our heavy-duty wheeled string mower and he spent several hours cutting down the grass and weeds around the house. Still much more to go but he's made great progress. Once he's done with that he'll be putting the flail mower on our tractor and attacking the areas further from our house. After having a wildfire roar through part of our property a few years back, we aren't interested in adding any fuel to a possible situation. Today's featured shot is a view of Crescent City's Battery Point Lighthouse and the beach and rocks beyond it. It's not a great picture of the lighthouse but I think the overall image is nice enough that I wanted to share it as a main picture. More importantly, this photo has a story and message behind it that are very meaningful to us. We hadn't planned to visit Crescent City. But we'd spent the first night of our trip at our campsite near Jedediah Smith State Park with rain pelting our rig and the next morning the rain was forecast to come down heavily all day. Hiking and biking would be out of the question. However, instead of moping around in the RV we decided to drive out to nearby Crescent City, if only to have lunch there. Our fare turned out to be an amazing pair of fish tacos (which we couldn't finish but gobbled up later!) and as we ate, we couldn't help but notice there might be a chance to sneak a walk on the beach. Grabbing our umbrellas, we took the opportunity. Oddly enough, the rain stopped soon after we set foot on the beach and we proceeded to have a wonderful time taking lots and lots of pictures—which included my feature of that day just for Pam! (Inset included, also shows another view of the lighthouse!) :) What we didn't know was that Crescent City had its own lighthouse! I was so excited when I saw it at the end of the beach and I clicked away as we walked ever-nearer. We didn't really want to walk all the way up to the lighthouse for better pictures and angles because our lucky gap in the rain looked close to being over and we wanted to walk past the lighthouse instead. (We were wise to trust our instincts because just as we set foot on the main road back to the truck the skies opened up and dumped a wind-whipped deluge on our heads! Thank goodness for our umbrellas but they couldn't keep our legs from becoming totally soaked by the time we got back into the truck!) I'm so glad we made the decision to continue past the lighthouse. A lovely little cove revealed itself to us along with huge rocks strewn that direction and driftwood everywhere to complete the scene. Steve and I spent a few moments just enjoying the view and thinking about the day. It had started off feeling rather gloomy and both of us were unhappy about the weather. In the end, coming out to Crescent City turned out to be an completely unexpected and rewarding surprise. So, this picture also serves as a reminder: even if a day may not seem to be working out the way we hoped, it's possible to end up having a great time after all! Oh, I've also included a couple of insets: walking on the beach we got so many lovely images, so here's a couple of them: one is a lovely iceplant blossom in pastel pink; the other is a feather I found lying on the sand. (And I included my past picture to show this day, which was all about Pam...it's got a great view of the lighthouse too!) Pam, I remember reading about your England adventure and having some days full of rain. You certainly made the best of the situations too. Bad weather doesn't have to spoil everything...it merely changes ones' opportunities! Thank you too, for your comments and reflections on couples and working on issues. I find that there is a whole lof of "eating crow" for me but it helps to understand why issues arise so they can be dealt with! *BIG HUGS TO YOU MY DEAR!* :D Explored on 5/30/19; highest placement, #5.

(+3 insets!) (oops...I accidentally wrote an entire book! Heh...sorry...I needed to tell you about yesterday too! Hmmm...might I suggest an entire pot of coffee?! :D) Here in the United States, the observance of Memorial Day happens on the last Monday of May. The weekend preceding Monday is also the official beginning of summer vacation season and in some places, the end of the school year. This translates to being one of the busiest travel periods of the year. When Steve and I organized this trip we're on, it didn't even occur to us that we'd be sharing some days with the crazy Memorial weekend throngs. We only realized when we couldn't find anywhere to stay on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. It finally dawned on us that there had to be something going on and then it hit us. "OH NO!!! What are we going to do?" We spent hours looking for an affordable place to stay without any luck. Steve kept looking and then, to our total amazement, we found one night available at Bullard's Beach, which just happens to be one of the most popular campgrounds in the area. We were so happy. We were going to just drive home from there because we weren't finding anywhere to stay but with some more persistence, Steve found us two more nights on Saturday and Sunday night at a place that wasn't too expensive and was also just a short walk to the beach. SCORE! Even though it was too bad that we couldn't stay longer at Bullard's Beach, it turned out to be just fine because we got a fabulous adventure while we were there. What a great surprise that was! We are most definitely going to come back and spend at least four days there next time around, what a nice place it was. :) Another bonus to our Bullard's Beach site was that we were able to leave our truck hitched to the trailer and since there was no sewer hookup, we didn't have that time-sink either. That meant that leaving would be really fast the next morning, woot! :) To top things off, check-out time to leave our campsite today was 1pm which was great. Some places are 11am and it can be a bit stressful to get out the door and driving at that time unless we have done some of the work the night before. We loved being able to sleep in along with the luxury of a nice and relaxed morning. It also gave me the chance to fix a situation that happened yesterday. When we pulled into our campsite, I couldn't help seeing the beautiful yellow flowers all over the bushes everywhere. Naturally I wanted to take pictures and once we got set up, I popped out the door with my Canon and macro lens and spent about 15 minutes taking pictures of the flowers which were literally 10 feet from our rig! :) There was also rattlesnake grass which I adore. Last night when I went to copy my pictures over I was horrified to see that I managed to NOT have an SD card in the camera. Apparently we didn't change the settings to alert us when there's no card in the camera. ARGH!!! I was so annoyed. Steve quickly diffused the situation by saying that we'd have tons of time in the morning and I could spend all the time I wanted to retake my pictures. He also reminded me of how wonderful it was that my subjects were literally right outside the rig. I relaxed and looked forward to the morning with a happy smile on my face! So, this morning I popped outside as soon as I was able…mind you, it began pouring when we got up but then…it stopped! There was a constant drizzle when I went out but it was manageable, as were the breezy conditions. Sometimes I wonder if someone/something is making sure that all goes well for us because workable conditions keeps happening for us just when it's really important to us. I went out and there were droplets and dew all over everything…it was so much prettier than when I took pictures last night! :D I retook pictures of the pretty yellow flowers and the red-tinged ones I'd never seen before…and the pea pods…and the rattlesnake grass too. JOY!!! It only took about 15 minutes and while I was outside, Steve was making breakfast for us! I climbed back into the RV just as breakfast was ready, how's that for timing?! :D He was so happy I had a successful shoot and loved the few pictures I showed him on the camera. :) Yay for fabulous husbands! :) I haven't looked at my pictures on the computer yet but I saw a few on the camera and there are certainly some winners so I'm totally overjoyed!! (NOTE: I've peeked at a few...lots of keepers!!) Once breakfast was done, we merely did about 20 minutes of final prep and we left our site! What a wonderful experience. :) We had a very nice time heading back south as the rain came down periodically. I pointed out the Facerock Creamery in Bandon which we'd hoped to visit on the way back--Steve was delighted that I spotted it! This company makes fabulous cheese and curds which we adore and we hoped that we might find some specialty items only sold there. YES! They DID! Steve and I were the happiest of chubby-cheeked mouses (intentionally misspelled!) as we sampled all of their many offerings and left with way too much cheese and curds for the normal and sane person, but heh…we are all about keto and cheese is one of our yummiest staples! YAY CHEESE! How much cheese do we want? ALL OF IT! :D MORE CHEESE IS MORE! :D Along the two-hour drive we enjoyed the lovely views of the rugged coastline. There was a grocery store stop to get some more dog food for Molly and later we pulled off to take pictures at a place called Meyer's Beach because the views were just too lovely to resist! Stepping out of the truck was almost shocking--the raging wind and freezing temperatures were truly something else! I grabbed my Sony and got a bunch of pictures while the wind literally knocked me off-balance many times. I had to be careful, it was THAT windy! We were happy to get back into the truck, yikes! Worth it to stop though! :) Finally we pulled into our last two-nights stay of our trip, what they call an "RV Park" but what we call an "RV Parking Lot"…lol…we knew it would be like this and honestly it's better than most that we put in this classification but truly it's just a bunch of parking spots that you jam your rig into. Not special or pretty at all. In the case here, the property edges are nice with pretty flower-covered bushes but that's about it. Not what we'd accept normally but it's Memorial Day weekend so we were happy that these were available. :) Plus, the beach is very close! The weather is, let's just say, NOT macro weather. Heh. The wind is enough to rock the trailer and the rain is peppering the trailer sideways, lol. It's not raining constantly but enough. It's very cold out there too. However, Steve and I are very happy to be in our comfy little home and the internet connection here is super. Folks next to us are so nice and actually moved into their spot a month ago as a full-time living arrangement. We had a lovely dinner and I'm all snuggled into my nest, content as can be. :) How nice it's been to have some time to just write and work on my pictures! :) Today's pictures are all from Meyer's Beach, the incredible place we stopped at on the way down here. You just have to see this place, it's amazing! The main image is pointed south. The first inset is directly out to sea. The third is pointed north. And then a fun picture of our rig with the view south. Wow. The whole Oregon coastline is covered with views like this. How fortunate we are to be able to visit this place. And to think, it's actually just a three-hour drive from our house. We will be back and if we can, we'll be able to camp nearby so we can go on a long and wonderful day's walk and photo adventure here. For now, just to see it is a fabulous gift. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures! :D I braved ridiculous wind for all of you and I survived without turning into a Janet Kite! :D Thinking of you, PAM!!! *BIG HUGS*!!! :) Explored on 5/26/19; highest placement, #4.

(+2 insets!) Today was another travel day! After we had a delicious breakfast, we each did our parts to pack up the trailer. Both of us have lots of little things to do but it adds up to a lot of stuff if only one person was doing them. As a team, we are getting faster and more efficient at the break-down of the RV and the hookup of the trailer to the truck. It's fun to see how we're improving as time passes. The weather was perfectly dreadful with rain coming down in a constant torrent and wind gusting against our rig. Big deal! We didn't care...no amount of bad weather could ruin the gorgeous scenery that we enjoyed as we drove along. The rugged coast was accented by incredible waves crashing against the rocks. The rain made the green of the pastures and forest positively glow with vibrance and lushness. The droplets pattered on the road, making beautiful reflections and interesting textures to appreciate. Water peppered the truck, the windshield wipers were such fun to watch as they wiped away the constant splatters of water... We had no worries as we drove along. Pumpkin was in her travel cage on my lap and she was as happy as could be, munching on her fruits and veggies and twittering at us. What a doll! Molly was content to sack out in the back seat. Our family loved this travelling thing...bring on the rain, it didn't bother us at all! :) We headed up the coast from Coos Bay with an eventual destination of Devil's Lake State Park. On the way we stopped at the charming town of Florence where we shared a jalapeno and bacon burger (without the bun!) and a little salad at a popular local restaurant. We had time to stroll down their main shopping street and enjoyed our visits to a fantastic gallery and a specialty bead shop. What a delight. We pulled into our campsite at about 5:30 and got everything set up in about an hour. Soon we had our yummy espressos-with-cream and then steaks with veggies along with an unbelievably delicious "fauxtato salad" made with cauliflower instead of potatoes. Better than any "real" potato salad we'd ever had. NOM!! After dinner, Steve had to do some other stuff but afterwards we had just enough time to walk to the lake...what an incredible campsite and what a stunning lake! My goodness, it's going to be an amazing place here!! Today's main picture is from our hike a couple of days ago, along with insets that show the forest and the view out to the water from the beginning of our hike, which was over the top of our campsite at Coos Bay...totally amazing views!! The ocean view in my main picture was just one of the dozens upon dozens of jaw-dropping sights we had the good fortune to see on our hike. Best Hike of the Trip! Pam, I hope that you enjoy the pictures...you're certainly in our thoughts on our adventures! Hope it was an ok day for you...maybe a bit of improvement? Wouldn't that be grand? *BIG HUGS from DEVIL'S LAKE*! Explored on 5/22/19; highest placement #2.

Oh my, it's so late!! Not my fault! The sun made me stay out until it set!! :D What a day, what an incredible, amazing day!! Steve and I woke to a SUNNY MORNING here in Coos Bay! HOORAY! Our plans for a hike was set, we just needed to decide which way to go...along the beach or up along the cliffs and into the forest? I thought the cliff-forest hike might give us prettier views and Steve agreed. We grabbed our stuff and headed out on a hike that turned out to be absolutely amazing! Views of boulder-strewn shorelines, verdant forest filled with glowing greenery and lots of flowers. It was exactly what we hoped for. We couldn't be happier, it was such a perfect day! At about 4pm we sat down at a gorgeous spot overlooking the ocean and enjoyed watching the waves crashing over the rocks. Mesmerizing. I knew we'd be hungry so I packed a late afternoon snacky-lunch of lots of yummy things like cheese and sausage, nuts and potato salad, carrots and chips! It was perfect! We got back at about 6:30pm with about 8 miles of hiking behind us for the day, totally satisfied and happy. After making early evening creamy espressos, we soon had ribs cooking on our barbecue for dinner along with veggies. YUM!! Steve and I talked about doing a sunset shoot but I figured we'd wait until tomorrow evening because we were BEAT from our day's adventures. However, Steve suggested we go out to the beach just to see where the sun had set. Before we left, he also found out that it was supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon and into the evening. Noooo!!! We headed out to the beach and to our surprise, the sun hadn't set yet. Even better, we had at least 20 minutes before it went down--plenty of time to get back to the RV and return with our cameras! As you can see, we got our sunset pictures!! It was such fun. Steve had the 5D Mark III on a tripod and took lots of different types of pictures. As for me, I had my Sony and had a great time with silhouette images and pictures of Steve taking pictures too. :) Unfortunately I don't have time for extra pictures tonight, heh...it's 9:30, eek! :D Pam, Steve and I were sure thinking about you a lot on our hike today. The views were something out of this world. We wished you could have been here. We have a video of the waves crashing on the rocks that I hope to post when I can, I think you'll enjoy it! I sure do hope your day was an ok one, you are very much cared about by us and in our warmest thoughts! :) *BIG HUGS* Explored on 5/19/19; highest placement #4.

(+3 insets) I began my Pictures for Pam project allllllll the way back on November 8, 2018. It seems like a million years ago. At the time I was in a very low place. Unhappy, confused about my life and my direction. I'd stopped taking pictures a long time before and had absolutely no creative energy whatsoever. One day I was stumbling around on the web and thought I'd glance at ipernity. Even that place depressed me deeply because it was failing badly and plans seemed eminent that it would be shut down, leaving me with no place at all for my photos online. Not that it mattered. I really didn't care about much of anything at that point. Noticing I had mail, I found a message from Peggy C, letting me know that my dear friend, Pam Johnson, had an stroke in September and was on a very slow mend. I just about fell over...WHAT?!!! NOOO!!! PAM???!!! It couldn't be! But alas, as I read and visited different pages, these terrible fears were confirmed. I was in total shock. Last time I was on ipernity, all was well with Pam's world. How instantly things can change. That day was a mess of emotions and sadness as I tried to make sense of it all. What could I do to share my compassion and express my sorrow for what had happened to my friend? The next morning I was doing my usual hourly trek up and down my driveway and all I could do was think about Pam and how to express my feelings adequately. I thought, "What if I send her a picture and a note?" That sounded good but the problem was that I didn't WANT to take pictures. I didn't want to do ANYTHING. My creative pool wasn't even ZERO. It was NEGATIVE. I walked up and down, grumbling. The fact of the matter was that it would do me good to pick up my camera. The best thing to do in a deep depression is ANYTHING POSITIVE to get the gears grinding forward, if even just a bit. What better reason could there be than to take a picture for a friend who was ailing? It would be good for both of us. If only I could kick my *** into gear. Just thinking about photography got my hibernating creative eye slowly opening. I couldn't help but notice the light shining through the grass and empty seed pods here and there. By the end of my walk, I'd managed to convince myself to try. I went into the house, dusted off my camera, put in a fresh battery, checked for a memory card and stepped outside. I went over to the dead plants I'd seen earlier and stared at the way the light shone through the remains of the seed cases...gee that was pretty, wasn't it? I took pictures. It was so weird to be doing this again. For the first time in a while, something felt right. Maybe this WAS a good idea after all. Posting my picture that day, I added a message to say that I would be working on a new project, "Pictures for Pam", where I would post a picture every day to give Pam some love and support. It was so nice to learn that Pam was touched by my gesture and at the same time, the ipernity community welcomed me back with open arms. I had forgotten how much I loved ipernity and all of the wonderful people who I knew there. It was wonderful to feel so cared-about, even though my intent was to express my affection and support for my friend Pam. Soon it was suggested that I create a public group so that everyone could contribute their support for Pam through pictures. Within a week of beginning my project, the ipernity group, "Pictures for Pam" was born. As I type today, there are 77 members and just under 3700 pictures there now, all aimed at making our dear friend know that she is loved, cared about, and in our thoughts. It's amazing. I really didn't think about this project seriously at the time, but the fact is that I'd begun another 365 Project, and it's been a really cool experience. Sometimes I post pictures taken that day, sometimes they are from my archives. It's all good. And every one has something just for Pam to read and enjoy. Additionally, it's so wonderful to visit contacts and find that they've dedicated that day's picture to Pam. How awesome to be part of a group of people who are so warm and caring. Over the days, weeks and months of working on this project, I have totally changed, thanks to Pam. From an extremely depressed person, I quickly turned around and woke up again. Everything in my life got better and better. Today I am an improved version of myself when I was at my best. Full of excitement and creativity bubbling over from every pore. Life is good...no...GREAT! As I sit typing, Steve and I are realizing a dream we've had for many years...travelling in a RV trailer! It's been amazing and we've only just begun our adventures. The bummer is that Pam is still ailing. However, our support means the world to her. Our daily contributions to the group that's dedicated to her means so much to her. And of course she and I exchange notes every day, mostly in our photo comments, but sometimes in letters too. After returning from our last trip, Pam asked where we would be headed next and when I told her we'd be at the Oregon coast, she asked me to do something for her. She asked me to write in the sand with a stick, "PAM WILL BE BACK". I told her we would make that happen for her the moment we found ourselves on a beach. Yesterday we walked out onto the beach in Crescent City and the first thing I thought of was the promise I made to Pam. Steve grabbed a stick and carefully scrawled out her message in the sand and we took pictures with the Battery Point Lighthouse in the background. Perfect. Pam, I hope that you get to visit the ocean again sometime soon...we sure do hope this message gets to the right entities out there and it helps speed things along because we know how much you love the sea. For now, we're sending our virtual hugs too and you are in our thoughts of course! (I am also including two flowers picture I captured in the meadow next to our RV yesterday morning and also a picture of our truck and trailer at our campsite!) :) Explored on 5/18/19; highest placement #4.

Here's another picture I took when Steve and I went to Brookings, Oregon, for my birthday back in September. It was odd to me to be so excited to see these birds, since I used to see them all the time when I lived in San Francisco. Living inland in southern Oregon, I hadn't seen them for years, so I was overjoyed to see them again!

This picture is worth a thousand words. Steve and Molly are in love and it's a joy to see their relationship. Molly is our Border Collie rescue, and as you can see, she only has three legs. That doesn't stop her though and she gets around just fine. She loves the water, so Steve made a wish come true by taking her for a walk on the beach when we went to Brookings, Oregon. It was such a wonderful thing to see them so happy together! :) (If you would like to read about Molly's story, here's a link to another picture and more information. ) By the way, I've uploaded 2 other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) Explored on October 9, 2012, highest position #247.

A few miles north of Brookings, Oregon is a beautiful coastal park called Samuel H. Boardman State Park. We spent most of our day enjoying the sights here, walking on the beach and taking pictures of everything! By the way, I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)

It's hard for me to believe that I lived in Oregon for SEVEN YEARS before Steve and I finally got out to the coast, but we sure did soak up the sights for the 5 hours we got to spend here. About five miles north of Brookings is where we found this beautiful beach, with only a handful of happy families and sun worshippers. What a blissful, perfect day! By the way, I've uploaded 2 other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)