HARRIS BEACH STATE PARK - AUGUST 2010

All righty, here's part two of our getaway. We headed west on Sunday and spent three nights in Brookings, my hometown.

Sunday - We arrived at Harris Beach about 4:30 and set up camp. After a nutritious dinner of barbecued hot dogs, we sat around the fire, walked through the campground, and hiked up Harris Butte to watch the sunset. The good part about that little hike was that we remembered to get a family picture at the start of our visit, rather than right before hopping in the van to come home. The bad part was that we headed up too early and the kids got bored. So, Tim took them back to camp and I stayed to watch the sunset. Next on the agenda was roasted marshmallows, then bedtime.

The 5 Ws on Harris Butte - Silas with a real smile, Devon with a crazy face, & Naomi thinking it's funny to put her hands in her brothers' pockets

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Monday - It was totally foggy in town, so we headed up river for some sunshine. First stop was the Redwood Nature Trail, which took about an hour with the little legs we had in our group. Then we crossed the street and ate lunch at Loeb. It was a weekday, so we had the warm & sunny place all to ourselves. Our swimsuits were down at the beach, so we just spent some time skipping & throwing (depending on the person) rocks in the river.

We opted to let the nappers stay awake and headed to the beach when we went back to town. It was still cloudy, but relatively warm out. We stayed down on the beach for about five hours and it was wonderful. I miss the beach a lot! A family we knew from our church here (Amy R. & her boys, for you Creekers), who moved to Medford about a year ago, happened to be at Harris Beach. Ironically, Silas had asked if he could see one of their kids when we were at my dad's, but we hadn't had time. Needless to say, the boys were excited to run into them and spent the entire time playing together.

Maryanne, whose family went to our church in Brookings, happened to be visiting from Texas and met us at the beach. It was fun to hang out with her, but even more fun when we realized random connections we had with Amy's mother-in-law, who was at the beach too. Small world stuff is always cool.

Tim & the kids in a redwood tree.
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A little perspective (though a lousy pic in terms of lighting) on the size of the tree compared to the people standing inside it. The tree is about triple what you can see in this picture.
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The parental units, as photographed by one of the offspring.
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Naomi, minus her legs.
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Silas having fun with his buddy.
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Devon being his crazy, wild self.
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Tuesday - My brother-in-law, Josh, happened to be in town while we were there. He'd flown in from the Philippines for his brother's wedding and offered to make breakfast for us one morning. We headed over to his mom's house Tuesday morning and spent a couple hours hanging out with him and chatting with everyone else who was there. It was a great way to spend a grey morning.

We headed back to our campsite for lunch, followed by naps & downtime for everyone. I snuck in quick trip to Freddy's, where I got to visit with Nancy, Maryanne's mom, for a bit. Tim and Silas headed to the beach for a little bit.

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After naps we headed to the cemetery so that I could show the kids where my mom is buried. They hunted for her grave marker, learned some lessons in cemetery etiquette, and asked a gazillion questions about burial. The sun broke out while we were there, so we headed to KidTown to get some wiggles out once we were done at the cemetery. Next on the agenda was Pizza Deli. I realize the name changed quite a while ago, but it's still Pizza Deli in my mind. Scarfed some good pizza & chips. Ran into the mom of a guy I'd known since kindergarten & graduated with (Sharon G. for you Brookings folks). Then it was back to KidTown, per the kids' request, for some more running around.

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Tuesday night was "fire night", which means the boys get to stay up late (I think they hit the sack at 11:00) hanging out at the fire, so we went back to our campsite after the second round of KidTown. Silas & I headed back up Harris Butte to catch another sunset while Tim and the other kids got a fire started. When we came back to our site there was another family there. Long story short, the wife of the family camping next to us was someone Tim recognized from high school. They hadn't really known each other back then, but the family ended up visiting with us for a couple hours around the fire that night. Nice couple with a cute little boy. Random, but fun.

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The 5 Ws with Josh - Beep & I were laughing at the lack of thought put into where we were all sitting in the picture and, as Beep said, it looks like Josh & I are the couple, Devon & Naomi are our kids, and Tim is our Nigerian friend visiting with his son.
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A pathetic sunset, but a post about Brookings wouldn't be complete without a sunset picture.
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Wednesday - We woke, loaded the van, and headed home. I hate leaving and really want to come back for a longer visit to see more people and do more stuff. Someday. The elk were out in Reedsport, so we stopped at the viewpoint for lunch and got home mid-afternoon.

Part of the herd
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The boss
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