Motorhome Or A Boathouse? (Seaside, OR)

Seriously, it has been raining here....a lot!  The news said March had over 7 inches of rain.  The campground now has small ponds with ducks where sites use to be.  The campground is surrounded by wetlands so the water has no place to go, but the wild life is loving it.  

We saw a Great Blue Heron and some sort of a striped mammal swimming near the park, not to mention, there are a lot of geese and ducks.

humans!!  fly away!

This is a permanent site.  The owner had to park his car in the road and looks like he needs to wear galoshes to get out of his rig.  He even has a mallard duck floating around and munching nearby.

....or maybe this is the mallard's camp site....

The best part about the rain is the flowers.  They are blooming everywhere.

The sun came out today.  So nice!  The campground became very active with kids riding bikes, people walking along with their pets.  I was very distracted with all the sunshine coming through the windows.  I'm hoping it'll stay a little dryer for the rest of our stay.  When we took the cats outside today, they had a few visitors come up to talk to them.  Dusty and Squirrel were extra friendly to the visitors.  They acted like they never get attention from us!

Later, we got outside for a walk and took some photos of the area.  All of the following are inside the campground.  This is a very nice place and one of my favorite campgrounds.  Below is the area where we saw the heron.  Of course, he was unavailable for photos.  

The last three photos are taken across the road from the flooded campsites inside the park.

Dan has been busy lining up work for us.  He has the rest of this year all planned out.  We will visit family in Spokane in late April.  From there, we will head to South Dakota to renew our licenses.  In May, we will be working as camp hosts in Gearhart, WY.  Not too bad of a job working 20 hours each with another couple and the owners.  That will last through September.

In mid September, we have lined up a job with Amazon for seasonal work in their Kansas warehouse.  Yep, I might be the one packing up your order this year.  That will be a tough job with 4/10 hour days and later 5/10 hour days.  So, we won't be making it to Minnesota, Oklahoma, or Texas this year.  I'll be closing the Etsy shop from September to January because I am going to be one tired puppy.  I know the cats will not be happy campers during this time, but it is only for a short while.

Hmm, should have this canoe outside the rig
....just in case...

Well, it looks like we are going to have a very busy year.  I better get back to my projects and get them done.  As soon as we are in a dry enough area with sunshine, I will get photos taken of all my finished projects and get them all listed.

Happy Quilting!

Time To Move South (Seaside, OR)

Where did the time go?  Our two week stay in Seaside just flew by.  Between visiting family, taking care of some motorhome problems, shopping, and finishing two more custom orders...well, I can say we did not sit around twirling our thumbs.

Travel day - time to move back to Pacific City for the next two weeks.  Then we will come back here for another two weeks before heading farther south along Oregon's coast.  Which reminds me....I have updated our travel map page.  The last place I logged in was back in Idaho.  Yea, I was a little behind on keeping that up-to-date.

On The Cutting Board

I will be mailing six mug rugs to three different customers today.  This will be a first for me!  I finished the two "Travels with Emma" on Friday night and I was able to finish another custom order for a red/aqua Happy Camper over the weekend.  Having a pattern and a plan makes the work go a lot faster.

 I also sold the last maroon/tan Happy Camper with the two Sheepish Lamb mug rugs.

I was so excited over selling so many this month that I pulled out some half done mug rugs and I plan to finish them within the next two weeks.

I will be making more Happy Campers.  I have some more trailers all cut out, but I want to get these four mug rugs done first.  Once I start adding embellishments..well, let me just say I might working on one for a while.  I really enjoy creating and designing the trailers.

Frog design from PC Crafter - no name

Halloween will be here soon...and Thanksgiving....and Christmas....okay....breathe

Hood to Coast Relay

On Saturday, we walked downtown to watch the runners for the Hood to Coast Relay cross the finish line.  

In 1982, they started with 8 teams.  Today, there were 1,050 teams of 12 runners running a relay for 198 miles.   They started on Friday and finished on Saturday.  It was very inspiring to see so many people take on this challenge.

Each team was able to follow their finishing team member across the finishing line.  I thought that was a nice touch.

Each runner had to run 3 legs of the race.  The relay started on Mt. Hood and finished on Seaside's beach.

Lots of support

 They had live music, food, and fireworks that night.  Seaside was booming with life and energy.  I like the running shoes on top of this team support van.

Time to pack up and head on down the road...

Happy Trails!

Carousels Go Round and Round (Seaside, OR)

We had a great time visiting with Dan's aunt in Astoria.  We swapped lots of travel stories.  Dan's aunt and uncle have been to Thailand several times.  A place we would love to see someday, so we really enjoyed hearing about their experiences.

Dan's cousin also came for a visit so we could meet his family and get caught up.  We only had some 30+ years of catching up to do.  It was wonderful and talk about a "Traveler", his cousin's work as a camera man has taken him all over the world. 

We spent a second day with Dan's cousin and family in Seaside.  We met at the carousel while their son enjoyed a few rides on the carousel.  Afterwards, we enjoyed walking around Seaside's downtown and beach area.  Hopefully, we will get together again in the future especially if we decide to lease a lot in Sutherlin, OR.

Guess which one is my favorite...

Dan and I have been enjoying the blue skies and warmer weather with long walks around Seaside.  

We have been walking to the downtown area which is about 2 miles away from the campground.  I never tire of looking at the beach style homes with their gardens along the way and the boardwalk along the beach. 

 

 The downtown area also has a wide variety of flowers.  I don't recognize most of the flowers, but would love to have a garden filled with them.

I love these poppies with the black spots against the purple.

On The Cutting Board

The "Travels with Emma" order is almost done.  I have one quilted and I am working on the second one today.  I need to add my patch to the back and a button for a door handle.....

 and they will be ready to mail by Monday!  Yea!

So, back to work.  I really like saying that.  It is probably the only time that I have ever looked forward to working...but it doesn't feel like work..more like....

Happy Quilting!

The Cosmos and The Great Blue Heron (Seaside, OR)

The Thousands Trails campground in Seaside has a wonderful gardener.  Minda does a lovely job of giving us a wide selection of colorful flowers throughout the campground.  I took only a couple of photos while talking to her about the different flowers she had planted.  

Cosmos are everywhere!  They are one of my favorites with their big blossoms and fern-like leaves.  They look so delicate and yet they get so tall.  They are also an invasive plant. I use to grow them in Albuquerque and they spread out all over the yard.  Saved me from buying more each year.  I miss my gardens.  It is so nice to have Minda's gardens to view while we are here.

pink cosmos

While walking into town, we came across a Great Blue Heron doing some fishing near the road.  I'm so glad I had my camera!

He did not feel so happy about me taking his picture.  We certainly heard about it too as he flew away squawking the whole time!

On The Cutting Board

I'm slowly getting "Travels with Emma" to the finish line.  I did some more adjustments on the wording and on Emma.  This is the old photo before the changes.

I changed Emma's tongue to a darker pink.  I added her paw out the window and I thought it would be cute to add a "Welcome" sign in the shape of a dog's bone.  What dog doesn't like to greet new people and to have a dog's bone?

I did not like the way the 's' looked in Travels when it was embroidered.  So a little ripping out and redesigning....

   Yea, I like this 's' a lot better.

This photo was taken this morning.  I finished the embroidery on one and I am halfway through the second one.

Well, I still have lots to do and I really need to get back to work.  I'm hoping to have both done by Tuesday at the latest.  But, they will have to wait until tonight, we are getting ready to go to Astoria today to visit with Dan's aunt and her family.  We are off to have a great visit.  We have lots of catching up to do since I can't remember the last time we saw them.  

Happy Quilting!

Sand Between Our Toes (Seaside, OR)

Tomorrow is a travel day for us.  It is short in miles, but long in travel time.  Lots of winding roads, slow speeds, and heavy traffic, but the views will be grand along the way.  Next stop: Pacific City (74 miles south on Hwy 101).

We visited Fort Stevens State Park at the mouth of Columbia River.  I found the old shipwreck the most interesting part of the park.  I walked around it a couple of times.  The fort still has the old gun batteries.  Some are 90 years old.  We did not spend too much time looking at them since the area was very busy.

The Bones of  the Peter Iredale - early 1900s

We spent some time at a small lookout watching many birds and a ship go by.

Ship starting up the Columbia River

We visited Cape Disappointment a couple of years ago and decided we would not visit it this time.

Cape Disappointment, WA

There were quite a few Swallow's nests filled with babies.  Mommies and Daddies stayed busy feeding the hungry little ones.  The babies certainly knew which parent belonged to them.  I watched this nest for a while.  The babies stayed quiet with many adults flying by, but when Mama showed up....

Me First! Me First! Me First!

On another day, we drove south of Cannon Beach.  We stopped at some pullovers to see the view.  Can you blame us?  Just breath-taking...

Last Saturday, we took our evening walk on Seaside's Promenade.  Seaside was hosting a Volley Ball Competition and the beach was just alive with people!  It looked like they had setup 100 volley ball nets, but the main attraction was the competition.

  

Not everyone was interested in volley ball.  Many were just enjoying the warm summer evening on the beach.

There were thousands of birds everywhere...seagulls, skimmers, and pelicans.

A wonderful summer's eve filled with great memories....wish you were here!