On The Road Again 2021 Style (Bullards State Park, OR)

We are traveling again now that we have finished with our medical appointments.  Since we are self-contained and do not need to interact with a lot of people while traveling, we decided it was safe enough to get back on the road to see something different. 

So happy to be back on the Oregon coast. We are starting at the southernmost end of the Oregon coast and will work our way north to Seaside before going back south again.  

First stop:  Harris Beach State Park

The park was busy, but the beaches were not too bad.  Social distancing was easy to do between the beach areas and trails offered to visitors.

We needed our walking sticks for part of the Rock trail.  A little more rugged towards the end of the trail, but the views from the trail were spectacular!

The last of the rain blew away and left us with cloudy blue skies.  

I had no luck getting a good sunset photo.  The clouds on the horizon were too much for the sun to shine through leaving us with a fizzle of light with no show.  Maybe as it warms up and we have less rain I will have better luck.

No complaints though, I love this area whether it is rain or shine.  Below is a photo of one arched rock that used to be a nesting ground for many birds.  According to the sign, they are no longer there because people kept climbing the rock.  

We can only hope they will return now that this rock is off-limits to humans.  I saw Puffins was one of the birds that used to nest here.  I would really like to see them in their own environment.  I have only seen them in a captive environment.  They are so much fun to watch!

Along with walking the beaches and looking at the rock formations, I found a lot of unique trees...well to me they were unique looking, and of course, I had to take their picture as well.

North of Harris Beach SP is the Samuel H Boardman State Scenic Corridor.  We stopped at one of the locations called the Arch Rock Picnic Area.

It was a short easy trail from the parking lot to view the blue-green coastal waters with many rock islands.

Fabulous view of the arched rock from the pathway.  We ran out of time trying to see everything nearby so next time, we will try to explore more of the corridor area.  We also went to California to view the Redwoods.  I'll try to post again soon with more photos from that trip.

The cats are happy to be back on the road.  Dusty started to beg to go outside while we were traveling down the road.  He usually waits...actually he seems to know when we are parked for the night and just before we start to unpack.  As soon as we are stopped, he starts begging at the door, but not this time.  He was so excited to see something new that he just could not wait for us to stop!

We have trees!  Moss! Birds...lots of biiiirds!

Hitch on the other hand was rather blasé at first.  By the second day, he was trying to climb trees.

And his ol' muscles were feeling it the next day, but he hasn't given up on climbing trees.  Yesterday, we had only Dusty out since the other two did not seem in a hurry to leave the coach.  We left the door open hoping to entice them out for some exercise and exploring.  Hitch took the opportunity to run out the door and up a tree when we were not looking.  He came down the tree, trotted back to the door, looked at us, and ran right back to the tree for a second climb.  He never climbs very high so no worries.  The next time he came down, he strutted proudly past both of us twitching his tail, and went back into the coach.  Boy, did he show us!

Max in the meantime is just being his old self by hanging around the door making sure all is safe for kitties.  

Once it is safe with no stranger-danger or big dogs barking, he will do a little exploring before he decides that it is time for a nap.  The weather is still too cold for him.  He prefers the 80+ degrees while lying in the sun.

It's muddy outside!  
Why would I want to mess up this perfect fur?

We are on the move tomorrow..  On to Florence, OR!

On The Cutting Board

I have been working on my bags of scraps.  I found more than enough large pieces to make my first Disappearing 4-patch quilt.  I saw this layout online and liked this one better.  If I find enough for a second quilt, I'll use the original layout.

The quilt below was half done.  I had 20 more blocks to make. This pattern is great for using up the smaller scrappy strips.

This quilt is an old Project Linus paper-piecing pattern from the Quiltmaker magazine called Charmed Log Cabin.  I call it Wonky Log Cabin since I'm not going to quilt charmed animals in the centers.

I still have a lot of bags of leftover scraps. I might have put a dent in it, but it barely shows. So, what to do next to use up some more scraps. I have a lot of bias strips so I thought of making string/strip quilts or crazy quilts just so I would not have to do a lot of cutting, but I really don't like making them half as much as I enjoy looking at other quilters' work.

So, I started cutting 2-inch squares with a couple of patterns in mind once I'm done cutting.  The only problem was finding big enough pieces that were cut on the grain.  That's when I decided to do something really crazy.  I started marking 1/2 inch hexagons.  I know I am going to regret starting this one so I decided to make this a lifelong project that I will probably end up leaving behind for someone else to finish, but I'll have fun prepping for it and watching the scraps disappear.

Oh, while pulling out the Wonky Log Cabin blocks, I came across the A to Zzz Snowman quilt, and yes, you guessed it!  I started working on it too.  I trimmed all the blocks and I will sew them together along with the other two quilts.  Once the snowmen blocks are together, I need to embroider the fern stitch along the seams. 

Well, I think I have given myself enough projects to last through to next year.  I better get back to those scraps before they multiply again!

Happy Quilting!