I fell off the raft, and I can't get up!

We just got back from visiting my sister in Newport, Oregon, a nice little city on the coast, about the middle of the way of the state. It's about 3 hours southeast of Portland. On August 16, it took us a bit to get from here to Portland, and most of the day was spent in airports, though when we went to our connecting flight in Denver, CO, all we had to do was walk off of one plane and walk over a couple of desks and board the next plane.

What stunk is that we were seated separately on the plane. We asked to be seated together, since their website says they do what they can to keep families together, and especially children with parents. But I don't think they really tried to do that anyway. The first portion, we sat three across anyway, with my son seated at the window... When the window guy came, he was courteous enough to take Mike's middle seat that was a row up and over. The next flight, from Denver to Portland, we actually had different seats. I was going to ensure I sat next to my 10 year old. Then a young gal comes in, panicking that I'm in "her seat". She refused to take my middle seat, because she is claustrophobic. Rather than asking the guy in the next isle if he could go to the middle, the stewardess was going to put me back up, away from my 10 year old. I incredulously asked, "What, you want me to sit AWAY from my child"? The guy offered to move, I thanked him, and he ended up getting bumped up to a better seat, and the girl had an empty next to her. Mike ended up sitting between two local ladies from Portland, chatting away... We had a nice chat with a lady who is a retired special needs teacher. It was a nice ride.

After getting off the plane, we waited for a little over an hour, and my sister showed up with her dog to pick us up. She had to work that day, and couldn't get out early. We went for pizza nearby, and made the 3 hour trek to her home town. She was going to put us up at the Money Saver Motel, about 2 blocks away from her house, and made the reservation, but no one was there to receive us. There was another one that advertised only $39/night, but we ended up at this other one called Willer's. They had different types of rooms. A room w/ kitchenette and 1 double bed, or 2 double beds, a kitchenette with a full bed w/ attached room with queen bed, and a two bedroom apartment. We ended up in the apartment, because the one downstairs was a smoker's room. I fully recommend this place. This Willer's Motel was friendly, and there were cooking supplies, plates, glasses, coffee pot, coffee cups, eating utensils, etc... While we were quoted a price that was actually too low for how long we were staying, we got to keep the rate, and enjoyed our stay. While it wasn't directly on the ocean, we could see it out the window, and was only about a 3 minute walk going west, and then my sister about the same going the other way.

Thursday the 19th, we had breakfast in the lobby, and talked with the guy who checked us in. We went to the store to get some basics, like orange juice, milk, cereal, bottled water, and of course coca cola. We started to walk towards my sister's and then ended up meeting up with her. She got her dog, took us to a Thai restaurant in the historic section. We then took a walk with the dog, for about 2.5 hours along SW Bay Rd. It was fun to see the "historic downtown" and you could tell where the old Cannery Row was. It's now a bunch of different shops, with a few things for EVERYONE. We got to see the shipyard, the various stores, including one that makes their own salt water taffy, the pier where the sea lions deck out...

It was quite fun. We finished off the day eating leftovers at my sister's, which was fine with us. Although I started getting blisters on my right pinkie and the next toe, we walked to the motel apartment and had a good rest.

Friday the 20th, after breakfast, we got ready to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It was a treacherous walk, as my foot got swollen, and now not only did I have a huge blister on my little toe, but the one next to it had one along the side of it, bordering the little one. We ended up walking the whole aquarium, seeing everything possible along this line...

And of course at the end of the day, feet sore, and one of mine being in outright pain, we rested while we waited for my sister to pick us up for the ride back to her place...

Yes, we like to be silly... We got to meet my sister's boyfriend, Ted, and he's really nice! I cooked up some of my famous spaghetti and meatballs, and it got eaten up with a quickness.

Saturday the 21st, we started off to the farmers market, bought a bunch of fresh veggies, even organic doggie treats for my sister's dog Bell. Ted was on his 100 mile bike-a-thon, just for training purposes, and we cheered him into finish at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. We stayed and looked out into the bay, and walked on the cobbled Agate Beach. We went to a Mexican restaurant on the way back for lunch, and my son Chad, Mike & I picked blackberries with Bell.

While Meggy and Ted took Mike and Chad crabbing at the pier, I made preps to make chicken fajitas. They had to let go of the crabs, so fortunately, I had a good consolation meal that got gobbled up for them.

We decided to go check out Nye Beach Sunday the 22nd. It was a good day to be lazy, and so we were after breakfast, taking a leisure walk on the sand.

We packed pb & j sandwiches, then went to a man made quarry lake, where the beach was clay the rest of the afternoon. We had a relaxing day, and Meggy had a sushi party with us.

Monday the 23rd, we got to have bananas and banana bread for breakfast with our juice. We went to the historic district, and got to see the Believe It Or Not museum. We wanted to eat at Sada's Sushi for lunch, but they were closed... We bought handmade salt water taffy, ate at a place called the Yummy Bowl, which is brand new, then watched some TV, and went to my sister's to cook up teriyaki tuna and eat up some more left overs from last night.

Tuesday the 24th, which was our last day before coming home, we went rafting. We checked out, and even if the communication was off about the motel apartment, we were going to miss being there, even if we looked forward to coming home to sleep in our own beds.

We went with Meggy's friend Grace, and her two kids. It was fun, although I ended up getting tossed into the river, and took a nice dump. The $1.00 sunglasses I was wearing got lost, and well, I was beat up from the toss out. I remember sliding, bumping the 14 year old girl into the raft, while I got submerged. I heard another big splash, and thought all were tossed. With no life jacket, half under the raft, I kicked up while grappling with the raft to see where the kids possibly were... 1,2,3... okay. The raft knocked me back under, I quick inhaled a large gulp of air. Eyes open looking up at sunlight, I kicked harder while tossing my hands at the rope. I pull myself up, seeing Mike in the raft made me feel better, since he was a strong paddler. Instead, he worried...

My arm got stuck between the rope and the raft, I stubbed my toe, the one next to the big one, and well, life wasn't pretty... On my right foot, I had a huge blister on my little toe, my flip flopped the webbing between my big toe and the next one, then I practically broke it falling into the river, and got my right arm caught... ugh!

Of course I wasn't the only one with injuries. Mike got a blister that popped while rafting.

We had a long trip home, with a 4.5 hour layover in Denver. Me, hobbling, and my tower, Mike with a blistered up hand, and a 10 year old in perfect condition. We were tired... We saw a bird in the air port, and got some other good pics.

I hope everyone else has been holding up, and all is well. I have a ton of other pics, and will consider posting some more in a future blog. I missed my friends here.